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.

I don't think any of you are getting it. The problem Microsoft has caused with Windows-7 only is that the temp folders at C:\Windows\temp, & C:\user"user folder"\app data\local\temp, at some point completely takes on the entire empty size of the space on C:\ The drive shows a red line then and is 99% full until those two folders are emptied. Ive seen this now for two years on maybe ten computers that I service.

Thank you very much!!!The system protection part helped!Got rid of 39 Gbs of crap!!

Just wanted to post a quick thank you for the people who replied and helped solve this issue! I had the same problem and Treesize was a brilliant recommendation that allowed me to clean up about 30 GB of the cab files in 5 minutes. Also, I was able to get rid of the virus using Norton Eraser, a free virus program. It appears to be good for the rootkit viruses that some of the others virus programs were missing.

Glad to hear that you've got free space again! Now, let's see if we can figure out what is writing those files in the first place. Download and run Sysinternals Process Monitor (it is a standalone application). Clink cancel on its Filters dialog. In the Filter menu, make sure that Enable Advanced Output and Drop Filtered Events are both ticked. On the toolbar, in the group of five buttons on the end to the right, make sure that only the second one, Show File System Activity is ticked. Click the Filter button on the toolbar (or press [Ctrl]+[L]) to bring up the Filters dialog. You will see a row of controls at the top of the Filters dialog where you can fashion a rule. Set them to "Path" "contains" "NetworkService\AppData" then "Include". Click [Add], click [OK], and then click the Clear button on the toolbar (or press [Ctrl]+[X]). When a program starts reading/writing files to the Network Service AppData folder, events should start appearing in the list, along with the name of the process that is responsible for the writes. If nothing appears, make sure that the Capture toolbar button (the third one, it looks like a magnifying glass) doesn't have an "x" over it. It if does, click on it to enable monitoring. Please note that due to the rather loose filter we set, some legitimate events will probably end up in that list as well. After running for a few minutes on my system, a couple of entries appeared pertaining to a "VirtualStore" from svchost.exe , a Windows component. The kind of suspicious activity that is filling up that folder on your computer should be hundreds or thousands of events, so it should be obvious. You can click on the fourth button on the toolbar (next to the Capture button) to toggle auto-scrolling on or off. You may be able to figure out the problem on your own by Googling the suspect's name (as long as it isn't svchost.exe ). If not, you can take a screenshot of the suspicious activity and post it here, or save the Process Monitor log by clicking Process Monitor's save button and upload it somewhere, posting a link here.

You may need to show hidden files. Type Folder Options in the search box above the Start button and select View, Advanced Settings and verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is checked and "Hide protected operating system files" is unchecked. You may need to scroll down to see the second item. You should also make certain that the box before "Hide extensions for known file types" is not checked. Let’s check a folder where something is obviously wrong. Your system32 folder (C;\windows\system32) should be nothing like 51.8gb. On this computer it is 4.2gb (or 4239.8mb). The larger sub-folders are: Driver store 1766.2mb 2789 Files 1405.8mb Config 381.9mb Winevt 119.3mb Drivers 65.4mb Spool 62.3mb No other folders over 50mb What are the corresponding figures on your computer?

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

2018-07-27T14:50:01+00:00

I don't think any of you are getting it. The problem Microsoft has caused with Windows-7 only is that the temp folders at C:\Windows\temp, & C:\user"user folder"\app data\local\temp, at some point completely takes on the entire empty size of the space on C:\ The drive shows a red line then and is 99% full until those two folders are emptied. Ive seen this now for two years on maybe ten computers that I service.
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Anonymous

2018-07-27T10:10:43+00:00

Thank you very much!!!The system protection part helped!Got rid of 39 Gbs of crap!!
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Anonymous

2017-01-31T18:12:16+00:00

Just wanted to post a quick thank you for the people who replied and helped solve this issue!

I had the same problem and Treesize was a brilliant recommendation that allowed me to clean up about 30 GB of the cab files in 5 minutes.

Also, I was able to get rid of the virus using Norton Eraser, a free virus program. It appears to be good for the rootkit viruses that some of the others virus programs were missing.
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Anonymous

2015-02-04T22:07:47+00:00
Glad to hear that you've got free space again! Now, let's see if we can figure out what is writing those files in the first place.
1. Download and run Sysinternals Process Monitor (it is a standalone application).
2. Clink cancel on its Filters dialog.
3. In the Filter menu, make sure that Enable Advanced Output and Drop Filtered Events are both ticked.
4. On the toolbar, in the group of five buttons on the end to the right, make sure that only the second one, Show File System Activity is ticked.
5. Click the Filter button on the toolbar (or press [Ctrl]+[L]) to bring up the Filters dialog.
6. You will see a row of controls at the top of the Filters dialog where you can fashion a rule. Set them to "Path" "contains" "NetworkService\AppData" then "Include".
7. Click [Add], click [OK], and then click the Clear button on the toolbar (or press [Ctrl]+[X]).
    When a program starts reading/writing files to the Network Service AppData folder, events should start appearing in the list, along with the name of the process that is responsible for the writes. If nothing appears, make sure that the Capture toolbar button (the third one, it looks like a magnifying glass) doesn't have an "x" over it. It if does, click on it to enable monitoring.

    Please note that due to the rather loose filter we set, some legitimate events will probably end up in that list as well. After running for a few minutes on my system, a couple of entries appeared pertaining to a "VirtualStore" from svchost.exe, a Windows component. The kind of suspicious activity that is filling up that folder on your computer should be hundreds or thousands of events, so it should be obvious. You can click on the fourth button on the toolbar (next to the Capture button) to toggle auto-scrolling on or off.

    You may be able to figure out the problem on your own by Googling the suspect's name (as long as it isn't svchost.exe). If not, you can take a screenshot of the suspicious activity and post it here, or save the Process Monitor log by clicking Process Monitor's save button and upload it somewhere, posting a link here.
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Anonymous

2015-01-21T17:02:31+00:00

You may need to show hidden files. Type Folder Options in the search box above the Start button and select View, Advanced Settings and verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is checked and "Hide protected operating system files" is unchecked. You may need to scroll down to see the second item. You should also make certain that the box before "Hide extensions for known file types" is not checked.

Let’s check a folder where something is obviously wrong. Your system32 folder (C;\windows\system32) should be nothing like 51.8gb. On this computer it is 4.2gb (or 4239.8mb). The larger sub-folders are:

Driver store                                     1766.2mb

2789 Files                                        1405.8mb

Config                                             381.9mb

Winevt                                              119.3mb

Drivers                                                65.4mb

Spool                                                  62.3mb

No other folders over 50mb

What are the corresponding figures on your computer?
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2 people found this answer helpful.

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