Running out of space

[sarcoguy]

Hi. I am constantly running out of space on my surface pro 64 gb. When I check the size of my folders of course windows and programs take up a lot of space, but my user folder uses 24 gb. I would like to whittle that down, but I can't figure out how it's taking up that much space. When I look at the individual folders they add up to only about 3 gb, leaving 21 gb unaccounted for.

I am going to get a card to expand the memory, but I need to use it in the meantime, and even if I do I don't want to keep getting error messages that my hd is running out of space for mysterious reasons.

Thanks.

 

[sarcoguy]

A little more detail... For an example of what's been happening, this morning I was working on a tiny .doc file when I got the message out of disk space. I deleted about 100 mb worth of unnecessary music files, figuring I can just re-add them later. After a couple of saves, however, I got the same message and when I looked rather than having 100mb free I had 4.5 mb free.

 

[leeshor]

In the control panel - folder options - view click show hidden files/folders. Use explorer to to to C:\users\(your user)\appdata\local\temp and delete whatever can be deleted.

Then go to c:\windows\temp and delete the files there

Then right click C: - clean up disk. when that's finished click clean up again lower left and checkmark all the items listed, click OK and when it's done reboot.

 

[sarcoguy]

OK, did the first two steps. The last part, I didn't get a 'clean up disk' option when i right clicked on c.

The show hidden folder did reveal the 'AppData' folder in my user file. That's where most of the space is being taken up - over 20 gb. Is there any way to remove unnecessary stuff from there? IF I just delete it all will that affect functionality? How do I know what I can and what I shouldn't delete?

So far it's cleared up about 1 gb, which helps, thanks.

 

[leeshor]

Skipped one step, doing from bad memory. Right click C and go to properties first. The only items you can safely remove from the appdata are any/all the items in the \local\temp folder.

If you compltee that disk cleanup step you may recover multiple GB of disk space. Also check your download folder for anything you may have forgotten about.

 

[kundas1]

ALSO grab 8GB USB stick and copy/save the restore partition on the USB stick and you can then delete the restore partition and you will gain another 7 to 8GB of that too...

 

[sarcoguy]

OK thanks. It helped a little - I have aa couple of gig free. Moving forward, once I get an expansion card will there be any way to redirect some of these temp files to that disk? Would that be just installing the software on the new disk as opposed to local disk?

 

[sarcoguy]

Kundas where is the restore partition?

 

[kundas1]

you cannot install app/programs to the microSD card since 8.1 but could do so before that... as for the recovery you have to do it from the control panel and "create recovery disk" and I think it will ask you after if you want to delete it or keep it... I forget how to exactly do it as its been so long that I did it, lol

edit: try looking on YouTube I'm positive there will be a "how to"

 

[malberttoo]

Also if there's any doubt where your space is being used up, download the "Showman" disk utility, it's free. http://www.satsignal.eu/software/disk.html

Extract it, and place it in the root (C folder, then run it. It's awesome.

 

[dniezby]

Are you testing 10 or using 8. Guess it doesn't matter, both have your app list in the settings which will show you which programs and how much space they're taking up. It should be under All Settings / System / Installed Apps.

Btw, you sure can have your apps installed direct to your memory card. That is under All Settings/System / Storage. (Win 10). It was in the same place on windows 8 if that is what you're using.

 

[Wayne Orwig]

Another good one is called "Treesize Free".
http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/