Why is windows displaying that my SSD is full even tho it's not?

[Alma_Tes]

I have my operating system on a 120GB SSD and a message popped up telling me the disk is almost full. I went through all my files to see what I could delete to make some space but there wasn't much I could get rid of. When I select all the folders and click "properties" it says all the files take up 70gigs which would imply that I have a 50GB reserve but I don't. How does this work?

[Syntaxvgm]

It is full. Not all space taken is by things that are visible to you through file explorer. Page files and hibernation files are the two most common causes. 

A couple of useful programs-

Windirstat

https://windirstat.net/index.html

Folder size explorer 

https://www.folder-size-explorer.com/

 

[Alma_Tes]

4 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

It is full. Not all space taken is by things that are visible to you through file explorer. Page files and hibernation files are the two most common causes. 

A couple of useful programs-

Windirstat

https://windirstat.net/index.html

Folder size explorer 

https://www.folder-size-explorer.com/

 

 

Windows wouldn't take up almost 120GB of storage right? I don't install almost anything to that directory what could be taking up all that space?

[seagate_surfer]

It could be the Windows.old folder, I have seen it getting as big as 80GB

 

Here's the proper way to delete the Windows.old folder:

Step 1: Click in Windows' search field, type Cleanup, then click Disk Cleanup.

Step 2: Click the "Clean up system files" button.

Step 3: Wait a bit while Windows scans for files, then scroll down the list until you see "Previous Windows installation(s)."

Step 4: Check the box next to the entry, then make sure there are no other boxes checked (unless you do indeed want to delete those items). Click OK to start the cleanup.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Run something like space sniffer to find out what is really using the storage space.

[Alma_Tes]

2 minutes ago, seagate_surfer said:

It could be the Windows.old folder, I have seen it getting as big as 80GB

 

Here's the proper way to delete the Windows.old folder:

Step 1: Click in Windows' search field, type Cleanup, then click Disk Cleanup.

Step 2: Click the "Clean up system files" button.

Step 3: Wait a bit while Windows scans for files, then scroll down the list until you see "Previous Windows installation(s)."

Step 4: Check the box next to the entry, then make sure there are no other boxes checked (unless you do indeed want to delete those items). Click OK to start the cleanup.

 

That's not it. All the file sizes in my disk cleanup add up to not more than 150MB but thanks for your entry

[Princess Luna]

7 minutes ago, seagate_surfer said:

It could be the Windows.old folder, I have seen it getting as big as 80GB

I have seen it go as high as half a terabyte, quite ludicrous if your windows is old enough and you never got rid of it.

[seagate_surfer]

On 2/1/2019 at 2:42 PM, Alma_Tes said:

That's not it. All the file sizes in my disk cleanup add up to not more than 150MB but thanks for your entry

You are welcome!  But did you read that you had to click on "Clean up system files" button?:

 

I just wanted to point that on the previous window it shows the size in MB but when you click "Clean up system files", it opens a second window that offers the option to clean a lot in GB:

[seagate_surfer]

On 2/1/2019 at 2:47 PM, Princess Cadence said:

I have seen it go as high as half a terabyte, quite ludicrous if your windows is old enough and you never got rid of it.

Gee! That's a lot!! I have never had the opportunity to see it getting those numbers!