How did I just lose 64gigs of space??

[gymjunkie]

Yesterday I noticed my PC was at 200mb of HDD space so I deleted a gig of content, figured I would delete more today.

I came back this morning and I was at 50mb of space even tho I did nothing else with my computer. I deleted 64 gigs worth of stuff, emptied those files from my Recycle Bin and confirmed it by looking at my C drive from My Computer (64 gigs of free space).

Just 45 minutes later, I got the notification my computer is running low on space, and my C drive is saying I again only have 400mb of free space. The folders are still empty, nothing has reappeared in the recycle bin.

What is going on??

Windows10

 

[beers]

Use something like windirstat to see what's sucking up the space.

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

 

[gymjunkie]

Use something like windirstat to see what's sucking up the space.

WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

Thank you

 

[johnb35]

You may also have malware on your system, scan with malwarebytes. If it's filling up that fast then there is a problem somewhere. Do you have system restore turned on and how much disk space is it using? What size is your hard drive?

 

[gymjunkie]

You may also have malware on your system, scan with malwarebytes. If it's filling up that fast then there is a problem somewhere. Do you have system restore turned on and how much disk space is it using? What size is your hard drive?

I did run Malwarebytes, as well as Super AntiSpyware and AVG just to be sure but they were negative.

I do not have system restore turned on, and my C drive is 1TB NVMe

 

[johnb35]

You still have a problem somewhere if you are losing space really quick. This is usually a sign of file replicating malware. Did you run windirstat to see what is using most of your space?

 

[gymjunkie]

You still have a problem somewhere if you are losing space really quick. This is usually a sign of file replicating malware. Did you run windirstat to see what is using most of your space?

I used it a few times and at the end it would keep freezing up, so I took some time to update everything and delete some additional files before restarting.

The drive isn't filling up like it was and WinDirStat started working so I know one of the culprits is my OneDrive folder, which is nothing but problems for me. I'll have to start a new thread about this software at some point.

 

[johnb35]

Post an image with the results and we can help pinpoint what is going on. It will give you folder structure with how much data is in there. If you actually use one drive you may have to buy an external drive for extra storage or add an internal drive. Just make sure you don't have the same items in one drive and in your default user folder like documents, pictures, music, etc. If you rather have online backup with one drive then ditch the duplicate files in your default user folder.

 

[gymjunkie]

Truth is, I don't even know how to get OneDrive properly going. I will definitely have to make a seperate post about it because of all the questions and help I will need with it. Kind of embaressing how difficult and confusing it is for me tbh.

 

[Couriant]

Gotta love MS changing how things look, but you should make OneDrive store eveything in the cloud and not offline. I am on Windows 11 now so the options/menu are different, but you should be looking at the Settings in the OneDrive icon on the bottom right, then use free up space:



This way it should only download the files that you use at the time.

 

[Couriant]

For Windows 10, it's under Settings > Files On-Demand / check Save Space...



If you still show space being used in OneDrive, then go to the folder and make sure you haven't marked them as Always Keep on This Device by right clicking on the file/folder. Here is an explanation of the icons in OneDrive folder:

 

[johnb35]

The issue you seem to have is most likely One Drive. I see something else that I'm concerned about. The folder labeled <files>, you have 6 files in there that are taking up 86.2 gb of space. What are those files?

In the end, you most likely need more storage space especially if you are using photoshop since you have 278gb of images in there.