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.

Check out this article from the Caged Rat: http://www.cagedrat.com/microsoft-windows/microsoft-windows-updates-cab-files-filling-up-hard-drive/ There some good info in there about cleaning up CAB files from old Windows updates.

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.

This worked great. found out that the Bose sound touch app for my speakers went Roque and was consuming my hard drive for whatever reason thanks for the app.

Thank you very much, your answer helped me. Treesize tool helped me to figure out the problem, after that I could solve it easily

I came here to try and figure out a similar issue: free space getting eaten up by ... something. It was driving me nuts. I have a similar size SSD, with not even half of it in use; but I still kept running out of space. Thanks to the hint about TreeSize Free I found what's going on. WinDirStat, which I installed several weeks ago to solve this puzzle, did not help one bit. But with TreeSize I was able to pinpoint the culprit right away: a totally out of control Windows.edb file! As I'm writing this it's 128.8 GB big... Once I Googled that (sorry Bing!) I found that this is a known issue; and that there's a fix for it. It should be covered in KB2836988, which I just tried downloading but it failed - zero bytes left on my drive! I'll try a thumb drive. Important lesson learned (again): when the experts tell you to use program X, don't use program Y.

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

2016-03-24T05:10:48+00:00

Check out this article from the Caged Rat: http://www.cagedrat.com/microsoft-windows/microsoft-windows-updates-cab-files-filling-up-hard-drive/

There some good info in there about cleaning up CAB files from old Windows updates.
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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.
Was this answer helpful?

2 people found this answer helpful.

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Anonymous

2017-10-22T15:05:06+00:00

This worked great.

found out that the Bose sound touch app for my speakers went Roque and was consuming my hard drive for whatever reason

thanks for the app.
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Anonymous

2017-11-05T14:11:17+00:00

Thank you very much, your answer helped me.

Treesize tool helped me to figure out the problem, after that I could solve it easily
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Anonymous

2017-11-19T04:50:25+00:00

I came here to try and figure out a similar issue: free space getting eaten up by ... something. It was driving me nuts. I have a similar size SSD, with not even half of it in use; but I still kept running out of space.

Thanks to the hint about TreeSize Free I found what's going on. WinDirStat, which I installed several weeks ago to solve this puzzle, did not help one bit.

But with TreeSize I was able to pinpoint the culprit right away: a totally out of control Windows.edb file! As I'm writing this it's 128.8 GB big...

Once I Googled that (sorry Bing!) I found that this is a known issue; and that there's a fix for it. It should be covered in KB2836988, which I just tried downloading but it failed - zero bytes left on my drive! I'll try a thumb drive.

Important lesson learned (again): when the experts tell you to use program X, don't use program Y.
Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.

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