Here's a problem that I haven't been able to resolve for the last two months. I've researched this problem on this forum and nothing been able to solve it yet. My work computer's c-drive keeps filling up to capacity. I have a 235 GB hard drive with very few programs loaded onto it and almost no picture or video files taking up space. The computer is hooked up to a network here where I work, but nobody else has this problem. Even if I'm able to free up several GB's of space, the c-drive will fill up in just a couple of days. I think I might have a virus. These are the measures I've tried to correct this issue: Ran Disk Cleanup which freed up about 2 GB's initially. After a couple of days, the c-drive filled back up again. Subsequently, running Disk Cleanup only free's up a few MB's now. Ran MalewareBytes, Eset online scanner, and Super-AntiSpyware programs to try to identify a virus, but neither of them can find anything other than cookies. I've also run these programs in Safe Mode. My Microsoft Security Essentials program had been removed, and I can't get it to re-install. I even tried several work-arounds listed on this forum to install it, but I still get error messages when installing. Tried the "Fix It" function Tried System Restore but apparently that's been disabled too since there are no restore points to be found Disabled the Hibernate function to free up several GB's, but the computer quickly filled-up within a couple of days. Disabled the Backup function. Deleted temp files from my user profile I also run into problems trying to install the security updates from the Windows Update function. I haven't been able to get the security updates to install for a couple of months now. Anything thing I do that free's up space will only work temporarily. The c-drive will continue to fill up in a matter of minutes or hours even if I'm away from my computer during that time. The strangest part is that if I right-click on the c-drive in My Computer, it will show that the 232 GB hard-drive is nearly or completely full (0 bytes). If I open the c-drive, select all the files and folders in it and right-click, it only shows about 51 GB's of storage space used. This does affect my computer greatly when trying to save or print even small files that only take up a few KB's. Is there any other fix that I haven't tried yet? I ran the WinDirStat utility but that doesn't show me anything other than the 51 GB's taking up storage space. Also, my hard-drive is not partitioned.

Type Disk Management in the Search box above the Start button and click Create and format hard disk partitions. Please post an image of what you see.

Please try running TreeSize as Administrator again. This time, wait for it to finish processing. It was was still counting the Windows folder when you took that screenshot. When it is done, none of the folders will have an hourglass icon next to them, and the last folder, Users , will not have a size of 0 Bytes . If your HDD has a lot of files on it, scanning could take several minutes. Sorry for the delayed reply. I ran it again as Administrator and it took about 48 hours for it to finish processing. This time it found 118 GB's filling up a folder in the Windows > Service Profile s > Network Service > AppData > Local > Microsoft > Windows > Temporary Internet Files > Content.IE5 (see attached screenshot). There are over 4 million files, and by what I can see when opening the folder, it's mostly made up of .js & .jpg files. I just tried to delete the contents of this folder and the computer has been stuck on the "Preparing to delete" phase for about the last hour. I will keep you posted on whether or not I was able to delete the contents using the conventional method.

Please try running TreeSize as Administrator again. This time, wait for it to finish processing. It was was still counting the Windows folder when you took that screenshot. When it is done, none of the folders will have an hourglass icon next to them, and the last folder, Users , will not have a size of 0 Bytes . If your HDD has a lot of files on it, scanning could take several minutes.

Wow. That's a lot of files! It is very suspicious that it is the NetworkService's user profile that is filling up with Temporary Internet Files, and not your user profile. This suggests that some service was accessing the Internet via Internet Explorer or an Internet Explorer ActiveX control. Incidentally, my computer's NetworkService Temporary Internet Files folder is completely empty. For now, I am going to assume that any infection has been removed, and we just need to clean out its payload. I wrote a program that is specifically designed to delete massive amounts of files, and files where the pathnames are too long, both which are scenarios that Explorer does not handle too well. If you have not already been successful clearing out that folder, please: Cancel any delete operations currently in progress. Download my program: DeleteFolderTree.exe (42 KB standalone portable application). Copy the path to the errant folder: C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 Paste it into my program and click [Delete]. Unlike Explorer, my program won't have a "Preparing to delete" period; it will start deleting files/folders immediately after confirmation from you. Unfortunately, there will also be no progress indication, only a count of deleted/failed items, and a readout of the increasing amount of free disk space. This is due to my program's skipping file enumeration, which is what took TreeSize so long, and is what Explorer is doing during the "Preparing to delete" phase. My program does the enumeration and deletion at the same time, which means it never knows how many files are left to delete. @ Frederik Long and HairyFool : I know you guys were trying to be helpful, but if a user changes the Temporary Internet Files cache size setting, if will only affect their user profile. In this case, since it is the NetworkService profiles' Temporary Internet Files cache that is getting out of hand, changing that setting won't help at all.

Here is a picture of the scan I did as Administrator. Now, it's only showing 21 GB's used, but note at the bottom where is shows only 440KB's of free space on the 232 GB drive.

C-drive keeps filling up

Anonymous

Here's a problem that I haven't been able to resolve for the last two months. I've researched this problem on this forum and nothing been able to solve it yet. My work computer's c-drive keeps filling up to capacity. I have a 235 GB hard drive with very few programs loaded onto it and almost no picture or video files taking up space. The computer is hooked up to a network here where I work, but nobody else has this problem. Even if I'm able to free up several GB's of space, the c-drive will fill up in just a couple of days. I think I might have a virus. These are the measures I've tried to correct this issue:

Ran Disk Cleanup which freed up about 2 GB's initially. After a couple of days, the c-drive filled back up again. Subsequently, running Disk Cleanup only free's up a few MB's now.
Ran MalewareBytes, Eset online scanner, and Super-AntiSpyware programs to try to identify a virus, but neither of them can find anything other than cookies. I've also run these programs in Safe Mode.
My Microsoft Security Essentials program had been removed, and I can't get it to re-install. I even tried several work-arounds listed on this forum to install it, but I still get error messages when installing.
Tried the "Fix It" function
Tried System Restore but apparently that's been disabled too since there are no restore points to be found
Disabled the Hibernate function to free up several GB's, but the computer quickly filled-up within a couple of days.
Disabled the Backup function.
Deleted temp files from my user profile
I also run into problems trying to install the security updates from the Windows Update function. I haven't been able to get the security updates to install for a couple of months now.

Anything thing I do that free's up space will only work temporarily. The c-drive will continue to fill up in a matter of minutes or hours even if I'm away from my computer during that time.

The strangest part is that if I right-click on the c-drive in My Computer, it will show that the 232 GB hard-drive is nearly or completely full (0 bytes). If I open the c-drive, select all the files and folders in it and right-click, it only shows about 51 GB's of storage space used. This does affect my computer greatly when trying to save or print even small files that only take up a few KB's. Is there any other fix that I haven't tried yet?

I ran the WinDirStat utility but that doesn't show me anything other than the 51 GB's taking up storage space. Also, my hard-drive is not partitioned.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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51 answers

Anonymous

2015-01-16T19:46:16+00:00

Type Disk Management in the Search box above the Start button and click Create and format hard disk partitions. Please post an image of what you see.
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Anonymous

2015-01-21T16:38:12+00:00

Please try running TreeSize as Administrator again. This time, wait for it to finish processing. It was was still counting the Windows folder when you took that screenshot. When it is done, none of the folders will have an hourglass icon next to them, and the last folder, Users, will not have a size of 0 Bytes. If your HDD has a lot of files on it, scanning could take several minutes.

Sorry for the delayed reply. I ran it again as Administrator and it took about 48 hours for it to finish processing. This time it found 118 GB's filling up a folder in the Windows > Service Profile s > Network Service > AppData > Local > Microsoft > Windows > Temporary Internet Files > Content.IE5 (see attached screenshot). There are over 4 million files, and by what I can see when opening the folder, it's mostly made up of .js & .jpg files.

I just tried to delete the contents of this folder and the computer has been stuck on the "Preparing to delete" phase for about the last hour. I will keep you posted on whether or not I was able to delete the contents using the conventional method.
Was this answer helpful?

9 people found this answer helpful.

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Anonymous

2015-01-16T20:32:30+00:00

Please try running TreeSize as Administrator again. This time, wait for it to finish processing. It was was still counting the Windows folder when you took that screenshot. When it is done, none of the folders will have an hourglass icon next to them, and the last folder, Users, will not have a size of 0 Bytes. If your HDD has a lot of files on it, scanning could take several minutes.
Was this answer helpful?

8 people found this answer helpful.

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Anonymous

2015-01-23T20:19:41+00:00
Wow. That's a lot of files! It is very suspicious that it is the NetworkService's user profile that is filling up with Temporary Internet Files, and not your user profile. This suggests that some service was accessing the Internet via Internet Explorer or an Internet Explorer ActiveX control. Incidentally, my computer's NetworkService Temporary Internet Files folder is completely empty.

For now, I am going to assume that any infection has been removed, and we just need to clean out its payload. I wrote a program that is specifically designed to delete massive amounts of files, and files where the pathnames are too long, both which are scenarios that Explorer does not handle too well. If you have not already been successful clearing out that folder, please:
1. Cancel any delete operations currently in progress.
2. Download my program: DeleteFolderTree.exe (42 KB standalone portable application).
3. Copy the path to the errant folder: C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5
4. Paste it into my program and click [Delete].
Unlike Explorer, my program won't have a "Preparing to delete" period; it will start deleting files/folders immediately after confirmation from you. Unfortunately, there will also be no progress indication, only a count of deleted/failed items, and a readout of the increasing amount of free disk space. This is due to my program's skipping file enumeration, which is what took TreeSize so long, and is what Explorer is doing during the "Preparing to delete" phase. My program does the enumeration and deletion at the same time, which means it never knows how many files are left to delete.

@Frederik Long and HairyFool: I know you guys were trying to be helpful, but if a user changes the Temporary Internet Files cache size setting, if will only affect their user profile. In this case, since it is the NetworkService profiles' Temporary Internet Files cache that is getting out of hand, changing that setting won't help at all.
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Anonymous

2015-01-16T18:03:56+00:00

Here is a picture of the scan I did as Administrator. Now, it's only showing 21 GB's used, but note at the bottom where is shows only 440KB's of free space on the 232 GB drive.
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2 people found this answer helpful.

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