Surface Pro Makes Free Space on its Own...

[EthanDavis]

Okay, this has happened more than once. A week ago or so, I was being very careful because I knew I only had about 100mb of storage free on my hard drive. Today, I downloaded a couple apps, and afterward checked to see how much storage was left after the apps were installed, fearing I was getting really close to full.

To my surprise, I currently have about 7.5 gb of free space left.

How does this happen? I have not been deleting or un-installing anything the past week since I last checked. My concern is OneDrive. I checked, and "access all files offline" is still turned on, as I want it to be. Though it's probably unlikely, I'm worried that Microsoft is deleting files from my OneDrive or something (I keep thousands of family pictures on OneDrive, and this is my only backup of them)... Why else would I suddenly have more free space? There seems to be no explanation. It has me very concerned about how this is happening!

 

[GreyFox7]

You might have had downloaded windows updates using up space when you checked earlier.

 

[Donald King]

It probably was temporary system files or Windows Update files as GreyFox7 mentioned. I would do two things. First, download a program called Tree Size Free. It is a stand alone executable (there is an installable version too) that will scan your drive and show you how big each folder is at a glance. If you look at that regularly, you will get an idea of what is growing and shrinking. Second, I would sign up for some other service in addition to OneDrive for your pictures (think Mozy or Carbonite or similar). Always, always have a backup of the backup......

I sync to OneDrive, cloud backup with Carbonite, and once a month I use imaging software to create a whole disk image of my SP3 to a USB drive I keep in a fireproof safe in my house. I do the same for my wife and kids computers as well as we have also built up thousands of digital photos and videos that are irreplaceable.

 

[Derekamoss]

How did your computer even run with 100mbs left.