how can I fix my storage system issue

Question

how can I fix my storage system issue

soda 20

I have been kind of paranoid for the last 3-4 months about my laptops storage system as it has been constantly dropping almost every since I got this thing back in December 2025. I used to have around 119 gb, then about 2 weeks later its at 80, then a week later its at 60, then 40, then 20, and now its sitting at 7 gb. I also happen to be a steam gamer but from the storage stats on there only 23 gb is being used up by steam games and over 88gb of it by anything else, and I have also tried to use storage sense and basically every other more basic way of removing storage. and I don't have a lot of apps or things installed too so I'm not sure what is using so much of it.

anyway, to try to keep this short, what can I do about this isn't something really technical or complex as I'm getting really sick of it and I don't want my computer files to get corrupted or have to buy a 200 dollar external hard drive.

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Answer accepted by question author

DaveM121 929.7K Independent Advisor

File Explorer is not great at showing where the space on your drive is being used.

Download the free TreeSize app from the Microsoft Store.

Very Important - to run TreeSize, you must right click its icon and choose Run as Administrator.

Please provide a screenshot of your C drive in that TreeSize utility, so I can see your hard drive and work out where that space is being used and if there is an underlying problem.

Please ensure the full TreeSize window is in the screenshot, there is information on the top and bottom bars I needs to see.

soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T06:42:51.11+00:00

here it is. pretty nice that I can now see what file directory's are using up the most space now.
DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T06:52:32.66+00:00

Thank you for the screenshot.

There is no problem indicated on your drive, the Windows folder... etc. are the expected size, you have a 120GB SSD, that is the minimum requirement for Windows 11, the only place where space is being used on your drive is in the Users folder and in the Program Files (x86) folders most likely by software you have installed on your system, try digging down into those folders in TreeSize to find what is using most of that 50GB of data is being used and please provide a screenshot of what you find
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T07:35:46.17+00:00

here is what is mostly using up those folders, including the contents of the windows system files (mainly included this because a big chunk of it seems to be used by temporary files so I thought it might help to show). I'm not sure if I should delete the intel Shader Cache as I am not sure if it will mess up anything in my system.

steams file size is pretty expected since I know most of that space is just games I have installed as I explained in my question.
DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T07:42:16.7233333+00:00

Thank you for the screenshots, there is no problem indicated with the storage on your C drive, it is the games that is taking up the space, you can delete the contents of the Shader folder, but when you play a game again, the Intel graphics process will just recreate the cache, because that helps games to load faster.
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T07:44:34.36+00:00

would it be alright to delete any SystemTemp files
DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T07:55:23.9733333+00:00

Yes, you can safely delete the files/folders in the SystemTemp folder, not the folder itself.

Open File Explorer.

Go to C:\Windows\SystemTemp.

Select everything in that folder, and press Delete.

Any files that are not in use will be deleted, any files that refuse to be deleted are currently in use, that is normal.

Then, empty your recycle bin.
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T08:10:25.6666667+00:00

wow my storage already looks a LOT better, though I'm not sure if I want to continue commenting on this since I kind of feel like this has taken a lot of time already and I kind of want to go do something else now so if it would be possible to give me some kind of list of a few more things I might want to delete that would be awesome, also thanks for the help so far.
DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T08:14:05.2233333+00:00

Well done, I did not notice the size of the SystemTemp folder in your screenshot.

I do not see anything else in your screenshots that can be safely deleted, you can run Disk Cleanup twice as indicated below, that will delete anything that can safely be deleted from your drive.

1

Open File Explorer

Click 'This PC' on the left.

Click on your C drive on the right.

Click the 3 dots on the top menu, then select Cleanup

Let Disk Cleanup do its initial scan

Select everything in the list and choose Delete

2

Start Disk Cleanup again

Let Disk Cleanup do its initial scan

Very Important - this time in the resulting dialog, click 'Cleanup System Files'

Let Disk Cleanup run another scan

Select everything in the list and choose Delete
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T08:45:47.79+00:00

one more thing, I have these really peculiar folders I found and I'm not sure if they are important or not to delete

2 additional answers

Your answer

soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T06:42:51.11+00:00

here it is. pretty nice that I can now see what file directory's are using up the most space now.
DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T06:52:32.66+00:00

Thank you for the screenshot.

There is no problem indicated on your drive, the Windows folder... etc. are the expected size, you have a 120GB SSD, that is the minimum requirement for Windows 11, the only place where space is being used on your drive is in the Users folder and in the Program Files (x86) folders most likely by software you have installed on your system, try digging down into those folders in TreeSize to find what is using most of that 50GB of data is being used and please provide a screenshot of what you find
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T07:35:46.17+00:00

here is what is mostly using up those folders, including the contents of the windows system files (mainly included this because a big chunk of it seems to be used by temporary files so I thought it might help to show). I'm not sure if I should delete the intel Shader Cache as I am not sure if it will mess up anything in my system.

steams file size is pretty expected since I know most of that space is just games I have installed as I explained in my question.
DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T07:42:16.7233333+00:00

Thank you for the screenshots, there is no problem indicated with the storage on your C drive, it is the games that is taking up the space, you can delete the contents of the Shader folder, but when you play a game again, the Intel graphics process will just recreate the cache, because that helps games to load faster.
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T07:44:34.36+00:00

would it be alright to delete any SystemTemp files
DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T07:55:23.9733333+00:00

Yes, you can safely delete the files/folders in the SystemTemp folder, not the folder itself.

Open File Explorer.

Go to C:\Windows\SystemTemp.

Select everything in that folder, and press Delete.

Any files that are not in use will be deleted, any files that refuse to be deleted are currently in use, that is normal.

Then, empty your recycle bin.
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T08:10:25.6666667+00:00

wow my storage already looks a LOT better, though I'm not sure if I want to continue commenting on this since I kind of feel like this has taken a lot of time already and I kind of want to go do something else now so if it would be possible to give me some kind of list of a few more things I might want to delete that would be awesome, also thanks for the help so far.
DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T08:14:05.2233333+00:00

Well done, I did not notice the size of the SystemTemp folder in your screenshot.

I do not see anything else in your screenshots that can be safely deleted, you can run Disk Cleanup twice as indicated below, that will delete anything that can safely be deleted from your drive.

1

Open File Explorer

Click 'This PC' on the left.

Click on your C drive on the right.

Click the 3 dots on the top menu, then select Cleanup

Let Disk Cleanup do its initial scan

Select everything in the list and choose Delete

2

Start Disk Cleanup again

Let Disk Cleanup do its initial scan

Very Important - this time in the resulting dialog, click 'Cleanup System Files'

Let Disk Cleanup run another scan

Select everything in the list and choose Delete
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T08:45:47.79+00:00

one more thing, I have these really peculiar folders I found and I'm not sure if they are important or not to delete

Answer 1

soda 20

one more thing, I have these really peculiar folders I found and I'm not sure if they are important or not to delete Screenshot 2026-08-22 013912

Screenshot 2026-08-22 014310

DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T08:47:52.9766667+00:00

What is the exact location of those folders on your C drive.
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T08:53:36.5633333+00:00

it is just directly located in the C drive
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T08:58:09.8033333+00:00

I probably shouldn't delete them though since the largest file in one of the folders has a lot of important looking stuff in it
DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T09:00:57.55+00:00

Those folders contain updates for Windows and the .Net Frameworks on your system, I do not recommend manually deleting the folders if the Disk Cleanup process did not automatically delete those folders.
soda 20 Reputation points

2026-08-22T09:20:44.95+00:00

ah ok thanks for helping me dude
DaveM121 929.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-22T09:21:53.3233333+00:00

Glad to help!

Answer 2

A steady drop like that is commonly caused by Windows update files, temporary files, system-reserved storage, or other system files growing over time.

Start with the built-in storage tools to identify what is using space:

Open Start > Settings > System > Storage.
Review the categories such as Installed apps, Temporary files, and System & reserved.
If needed, select Show more categories to get a fuller breakdown.
If more than one drive is connected, go to Advanced storage settings > Storage used on other drives to compare usage.

Then clean up space using the recommended Windows tools:

Go to Start > Settings > System > Storage.
Turn on Storage Sense.
Select Cleanup recommendations.
Review the suggested files and select Clean up.

If that has already been tried, run Disk Cleanup as well:

Type Disk Cleanup in the search box and open it.
Select the drive to clean and choose OK.
Select the file types to remove and choose OK.

A few important points:

Storage Sense can automatically remove temporary files and Recycle Bin items, but by default it does not clean the Downloads folder or cloud files unless configured to do so.
Storage Sense works on the system drive only, usually C:.
Windows also uses system reserved storage for temporary files, caches, and updates. When space is low, Windows can clear some of that reserved storage for update-related work.
Low free space can happen after Windows updates because update downloads and temporary files can consume several GB.

For Windows Update specifically:

If there is not enough free space, Windows can prompt to free more space.
Typical free space needed can vary. Quality updates often require 2 GB–3 GB or more, and feature updates often require 6 GB–11 GB or more.

If the device is too full to update normally, an external storage device can be used temporarily instead of buying a large drive:

Connect an external storage device with at least 10 GB free space.
Open Start > Settings > Windows Update.
If Fix issues appears, select it.
Choose the external storage device from the drop-down list.
Select Next and complete the update steps.

Before using external storage for updates, back up important files.

If the main goal is to find where the missing space is going, the most useful next check is Settings > System > Storage and specifically the System & reserved and Temporary files categories. If those are large, the growth is likely from Windows system files or update-related files rather than Steam.