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.

Please go to the c drive, open Windows folder, then open the Temp Folder, press ctrl A to highlight all, then press Shift-Delete to delete all permanently, this will free up the C Drive Back in the XP and earlier days, this would've been a major place to look. But nowadays, that folder is rarely used. Temporary files are normally stored at C:\Users**{username} \AppData\Local\Temp** instead.

LeonardRL, my problem was resolved using Treesize to identify the specific Temp file. In my case there was an additional Temp file not identified as a direct root of the C drive. It was buried within a file structure and not identified easily, hence the usefulness of Treesize.

Please go to the c drive, open Windows folder, then open the Temp Folder, press ctrl A to highlight all, then press Shift-Delete to delete all permanently, this will free up the C Drive

I agree, I changed just about everything I could think of, including an external hard drive to back up to instead of c drive, and like I said before, it's fine for a while and then boom, c drive is full, but I don't know of what!! I may just take the whole computer to best buy and have them check it out, thanks for you feed back!

@jsdrgrandma Your post is a good example of why people SHOULD start their own question instead of adding on to a thread started several years ago and SHOULD NOT go to chain stores, electronics stores, office supply stores, and the like for computer help. In your case, we have no idea what "it" might be ... and perhaps you don't either, if all that you were told by the Geek Squad was "it was some sort of glitch." If you read through the original post and 26 replies (and counting) in this thread, you'll notice that there are different problems that cause a hard drive to fill up. TreeSize Free is a good tool for diagnosing such problems, but after the problem is diagnosed, there are going to be different ways of proceeding depending on what was found. Your question doesn't provide enough information to send you any more help. Frankly, it's difficult to see how you might be having a problem similar to those mentioned in the thread because shutting down and restarting the computer should not delete files from your hard drive and thus would not alleviate a problem of your hard drive filling up, even temporarily. Please read: How to begin your own, new thread about your computer & your problem How to ask a question

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

2017-12-22T02:13:41+00:00

Please go to the c drive, open Windows folder, then open the Temp Folder, press ctrl A to highlight all, then press Shift-Delete to delete all permanently, this will free up the C Drive

Back in the XP and earlier days, this would've been a major place to look. But nowadays, that folder is rarely used. Temporary files are normally stored at C:\Users**{username}\AppData\Local\Temp** instead.
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Anonymous

2017-12-21T21:33:45+00:00

LeonardRL, my problem was resolved using Treesize to identify the specific Temp file. In my case there was an additional Temp file not identified as a direct root of the C drive. It was buried within a file structure and not identified easily, hence the usefulness of Treesize.
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Anonymous

2017-12-21T16:06:02+00:00

Please go to the c drive, open Windows folder, then open the Temp Folder, press ctrl A to highlight all, then press Shift-Delete to delete all permanently, this will free up the C Drive
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Anonymous

2017-11-19T18:56:18+00:00

I agree, I changed just about everything I could think of, including an external hard drive to back up to instead of c drive, and like I said before, it's fine for a while and then boom, c drive is full, but I don't know of what!! I may just take the whole computer to best buy and have them check it out, thanks for you feed back!
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LemP 74,985 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2017-11-19T17:07:44+00:00

@jsdrgrandma

Your post is a good example of why people SHOULD start their own question instead of adding on to a thread started several years ago and SHOULD NOT go to chain stores, electronics stores, office supply stores, and the like for computer help.

In your case, we have no idea what "it" might be ... and perhaps you don't either, if all that you were told by the Geek Squad was "it was some sort of glitch."

If you read through the original post and 26 replies (and counting) in this thread, you'll notice that there are different problems that cause a hard drive to fill up. TreeSize Free is a good tool for diagnosing such problems, but after the problem is diagnosed, there are going to be different ways of proceeding depending on what was found.

Your question doesn't provide enough information to send you any more help. Frankly, it's difficult to see how you might be having a problem similar to those mentioned in the thread because shutting down and restarting the computer should not delete files from your hard drive and thus would not alleviate a problem of your hard drive filling up, even temporarily.

Please read:

How to begin your own, new thread about your computer & your problem

How to ask a question
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