Hey fellow tech enthusiasts! I've been having a frustrating issue with my C: drive for the past few months. No matter how much I try to clean it up—removing unnecessary apps, data, and using tools like WinDirStat—it's always creeping back to being nearly full. I've managed to free up some space, getting it down to about 10 GB available, but it seems like just the next day, my laptop (a Dell Inspiron 3593 running Windows 11 Home, version 23H2) struggles with around 200 MB of free space. The C: drive is the only physical disk after I had to remove an F: drive that malfunctioned. Any thoughts on what's going on? Thanks for any help!
4 Answers
Have you tried checking if your recycle bin is empty? Also, it might help to look into which specific folders are consuming the most space. Are you able to identify any files using the WinDirStat tool? That should give you a clearer idea of what's taking up all your disk space.
Running Disk Cleanup can actually help! It removes old Windows updates, and I cleared about 10GB just from that one time. Additionally, turning off Hibernate if it's on could save you around 13GB. It sounds like you might want to consider getting another drive for more space too.
I've tried Disk Cleanup and turned off Hibernate already. I'm definitely planning to get another drive when I get the chance. For now, I just want to figure out why my drive fills up so fast.
It sounds like you might have a smaller SSD, like 64 or 128GB. If that's the case, you could consider online storage to save space, but just ensure you have stable Wi-Fi.
That could be it; I'm sitting at 109GB now, which might be tight! Online storage could help in the meantime.
Just wondering, do you have Adobe Acrobat Reader or any other Adobe products installed? Those can sometimes take up a lot of space. By the way, how big is your C drive? If it's not too large, maybe consider upgrading to a bigger one when you can.
Good guess! I did have Photoshop briefly, but removed it quickly. I’m using Affinity now, which is lighter. My C drive is 109GB, and I plan to upgrade it when I can.
Yeah, I always empty my bin! According to WinDirStat, it seems like %AppData% and ProgramFiles are the culprits.