Microsoft broke my computer.

[LouAvul]

They put a bug on my computer that has a 500GB appetite for free space. My computer is 469GB. By the time I was made aware of what's happening my free space was down to ~5GB.

MS released a patch, but it requires ~6GB to install and run. By the time I was made aware of the patch, my free space was down to ~2GB. I tried to download the patch several times but it aborted each time for lack of space.

I deleted programs and files but as soon as I did, the bug ate the free space.

Now, I can't even reformat and restore because that process also requires 6GB to run. It aborts and tells me to erase enough programs to let it run.

It's an old computer so it's not worth much, but it ran ok till now. There is a program I bought in digital form and have no cd backup.

W/win 11, can a bible study program be transferred from this computer to a new computer? AI says no. It can't even be transferred to an external drive.

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TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: fillupmyharddrive; microsoft; stupidvanity; windows; windows11; windowspinglist

[butlerweave]

Microsoft’s CEO an Indian is replacing Americans and Canadians with Indians and it shows

[Red Badger]

PING!.............

[AppyPappy]

You have to re-install the software, Clean up your hard drive. Search for Disk Cleanup and run it including the Clean up System Files

[butlerweave]

Don’t forget Windows is now spyware and collecting tons of info on you and it has be stored someplace before sending it to Microsoft

[Red Badger]

My suggestion:

Get a Terabyte thumb drive and mirror the HDD onto it.

Then using ANOTHER thumb drive that has a Bootable OS on it from another non-infected computer, reformat your HDD. Then re-install whatever programs and files you want to save from the mirrored thumb drive.

I have no idea if this will work........

[Red Badger]

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/factoryos/boot-from-a-usb-drive?view=windows-11

[Skwor]

Open Command Prompt (Administrator)
Enter “diskpart”
Use “list disk” to find drive.
Use “select disk X” (X is your drive put your drive in for X).
Use “clean” - removes all partitions.
Use “create partition primary” - this creates a new partition
Use “fs=ntfs quick”

This will destroy all your data but should get you a quick reformatted disk.

You can look all this up on your phone and get the same instructions. As for a Win key, you can buy a cheap key online (probably stolen to be honest, though no way to know, let your conscience be your guide), again you can look those up.

[johniegrad]

Lou, if you can afford it, toss it and buy a new Mac. I did this years ago and haven't looked back. The issue for me at the time was that an HP running Windows XP became infected by a virus that required reinstalling the operating system. I was in a rural area at the time and was using dial-up (it was a while ago). When I reinstalled XP, I had to download all the updates to it, again on dial-up. The amount of time this took was simply not worth it to me. I decided to switch and am happy I did.

People may have problems with Apple's politics or prices or whatever. But for me, my time was too valuable to waste correcting all of Microsoft's deficiencies. And XP was one of their better products.

[Lockbox]

Ve can see you are not being a loyal Micro Serf… who won’t buy a new computer? No MS for you!

[LouAvul]

Yeah, I’ve done that about a dozen times. Each time I create more space, the bug expands. What is it you don’t understand? It’s a 500GB bug. My hard drive space is 469GB. No matter how much I clean up, the bug immediately expands to eat the new space.

[mewzilla]

Just asked AI which us more evil (sic): MS or 🍎...

Answer I got: It’s pretty much a wash.

I can personally vouch for that.

[mewzilla]

Computers are tools of Satan.

Their manufacturers are servants of Moloch.

[budj]

Newer operating systems require newer PC’s and more memory.

I’d definitely suggest you totally abandon MS and install a LINUX OS. A local PC shop could do that for you.

[No.6]

Whatever machine you’re using now, make bootable Linux or a Win recovery drive.

Access your HD and remove the ever growing file (elsewhere has the bug details, but it can be purged).

Boot back normally and apply patch.

[bobbo666]

M$ patches are horrendous ‘cause M$ wants to force you to buy a new PC—that is the deal they struck with all PC hardware manufacturers so that THEY will install M$ crappola on new PCs.

I made a policy change that stops all updates. I no longer believe their updates are for security and reject them. I also dual-boot all my PCs with Linux so that if the PC crashes I can login to Linux to confirm that there is no hardware problem and migrate M$ stuff to make room for M$ re-install.

[takebackaustin]

Look on balance I prefer Apple. But they have corrupted Unix to invade your user space with swap and icloud file cacheing so every time you free up space on your files, they will eventually hog it. So in effect MacOS does the same thing, and it isn’t just one program, it is the OS. A cynic/realist would say it sells new computers and icloud space.

[OrioleFan]

Is Microsoft still using Visual Basic for everything. That was the biggest security hole ever created.

[Still a Patriot]

sorry for your troubles. Check to see if your bible study program is compatable with Linux. If so ubuntu studio is easy to instal. will run off a thumb drive and is remarkably like a windows user interface. If not got to the maker of the software and see if you can redownload it. If so wipe the drive and put a new operating system on it. Also there are windows emulators for linux that will run windows software. Best of all Linux is free.

[ConservativeMind]

Lou, you must have what this addresses:

From AI:

The primary Windows 11 storage bug causes the CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file, a permission log for apps like camera and microphone access, to grow unchecked. This file, which normally stays under 4MB, has been reported to balloon to 500GB on affected Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 systems, filling entire system drives. Microsoft addressed this in update KB5095093, which improved disk space usage for the file. Users can manually install this fix via Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates or wait for the automatic July 2026 Patch Tuesday rollout, which began deploying on July 14, 2026. To check for the issue, users should verify if their System & Reserved storage exceeds 100GB or use tools like WizTree or TreeSize to locate the oversized file.

Additionally, a separate vulnerability dubbed “RoguePlanet” in Microsoft Defender can be exploited to fill disk space. A patch released to fix this zero-day flaw can be tricked by attackers into caching files indefinitely, causing disk exhaustion. This issue affects systems running Windows 11 25H2 and Windows Server 2025, with the Defender engine updated to version 1.1.26060.3008 to mitigate the risk. Users should ensure their Defender definitions are up to date to prevent this disk-filling behavior.