Posted on 07/09/2026 3:18:40 PM PDT by LouAvul
I opened up duckduckgo which said my available space on my computer was low. My C drive is 459 GB. This A.M. it was 5.41 GB free of 459 GB.
Now it's 2.59 GB free of 459 GB. Something's going on. I have and use CCleaner 7 and Malwarebytes. Windows Defender also. This computer never even reaches half full of the 459. I've also used disc cleanup.
Ideas? thnx
Because everyone, to a first order approximation, owns a Windows PC. It has *nothing* to do with an inherent problem with PCs or PC users, just that there are 100 PC users for every Mac us3r. Get a clue.
Every 0kb files takes up one cluster on you hard-drive. Delete all 0kb files. If you have thousands of them that will free up a lot of space. Then try to figure out what program is creating them.
Those are update files that don’t get deleted after install.
In windows explorer find “This PC -> Windows C:” (go to the bottom of the left column )
Mine shows 12 folders including Users, Program Files, Program files x86. On each folder right click and select “properties”. this will show the disk space used by each folder. Then select the biggest folder, and check all its sub-folders. This is the “brute force” method. It takes time but you can zero in on the largest folders, see what is in there, how much space each sub folder is using, and figure out if you need it. If you have 200GB in My Pictures, you have to get rid of some of them maybe onto a thumb drive. If you have 100GB in My Programs, you downloaded a lot of programs that you probably don’t use.
I’m sorry I missed your post yesterday, but lol if you get bored it’s something you can work on. ;)
The computer I saved from the blue screen of death was an hp too but it was years ago and I can’t remember how I pulled it off.
I’m having similar problems.. (?)
I’m not going to read all of the replies, but this is what I usually do to free up space.
Note this is from memory for Windows 10 and earlier. Windows 11 will follow:
1) Open the file explorer
2) scroll down and right click on the c: drive
3) select Properties
4) Select the Tools Tab
5) Select Disk Cleanup
6) Clean up system Files
7 Select all the available files to clean up and select the more options tab
8) clean up programs and features (this one is all the downloads for updates and restore points, most bang for the buck)
9) follow prompts as desired
Windows 11:
1) Press the windows key
2) Type Disk Cleanup
3) Select Disk Cleanup
4) Follow instructions 6-9 above.
“I buy Dell refurbished desktop full-size towers off Amazon. Think the most I’ve paid was about $160. They run 24/7. Have four of them. One is over five years old. Had to replace one hard drive - no problem. I keep backups.”
I do, too. They’re workhorses, and more stable than the new out-of-the box systems I have. Windows 7, mostly.
Yes, I have “disc cleanup” on my taskbar and have used it regularly. thnx
thnx. I just did that and it gave me ~400 MB extra free space. Now I’ve got ~800 MB free space. The update needs ~2.7 GB space.
You COULD get an external drive of some kind [USB stick or regular drive] and offload some of your files on to that.
They sell 8Gb/16Gb/32Gb USB sticks all day.
Do you have a lot of image files or music files?
If you haven’t already run disk cleanup. Just type it search if you need to.
Re external hard drives/backups. I'm looking at Amazon, Seagate, 2 TB drive for $150. Something like that?
BTW, thank you so much for your help.
The trick is the more options tab. System Restore and Shadow Copies takes up a great deal of space. Most of the cleanup applications people are recommending just do the same thing as the built-in one but with a fancier UI.
Nice try, but that BS don’t fly.
This short YouTube video explains it well and provides the solution:
"Windows Has a Hidden 70GB Folder Microsoft Never Told You About (Fix It Now)"
If this doesn't address your problem one or more of the links other members have provided should. Just be careful to skip "Defrag" in the Tools tab when doing a disk clean-up if you have a Solid State hard drive - that's strictly for the older physical rotary ones.
I refused to "upgrade" to Win 11 after finding it had nothing new to offer other than spyware, so set up a dual-boot system where Linux Mint is the primary and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC is the secondary for the few things Linux can't do. That Windows version, designed primarily for stand-alone kiosks and such, is slotted to get security updates until 2032. Link to that is here.
But for those who want to use Windows 11 there's a way to do it without all the user tracking Microsoft built into it. Rather than installing it directly from Microsoft's website download the ISO version onto a USB stick that has Rufus 4.15 on it (downloaded here). That free little installation program has checkboxes that let you omit the 4 GB RAM, Security Module, SecureBoot and Microsoft Account requirements while bypassing setup pages for tracking and Bitlocker encryption. It cuts out the spy crap.
This site has the full description.
People saying to purchase refurbished computers from Amazon and eBay are spot on, as you often get a unit in better condition than it was new out of the box and usually with an extended warranty. What with the new A.I. "data farms" buying up chips and causing an artificial inflation that's the wise way to go. You paid good money for your computer(s) and no company should be allowed to tell you it needs replacement just because it stands in the way of that company's plan to wield ultimate control over your computer usage. That's totally un-American.
No Windows 11?
“No Windows 11?”
Hate Win 11. Hubby uses that, with Office 365, and I avoid using his system if at all possible.
There’s a man in our area who sells refurbished systems, and I bought two Win10 systems from him — a laptop and a desktop. They’re OK, but when I need to accomplish something quickly and easily, I’m off to Win7.
So you can get on the internet with Windows 7?
LOL!
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