100gb randomly gone

[TAHIRMIA]

Today I noticed on my laptop that 100gb of space had randomly gone. I ran WinDirStat and there is an unknown file which I cannot delete. I looked at restore points but there is none. Any ideas how I can get this space back or what it is?

Spoiler

 

I've attached a screenshot of the scan.

[johnukguy]

Could be any number of things, some legitimate. Try this:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3012-open-use-disk-cleanup-windows-10-a.html

[TAHIRMIA]

8 minutes ago, johnukguy said:

Could be any number of things, some legitimate. Try this:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3012-open-use-disk-cleanup-windows-10-a.html

Only got 5gb back, biggest thing was my recycle bin

[johnukguy]

Then maybe CCleaner might help. Be careful with some of the options.

[Stefan1024]

13 minutes ago, TAHIRMIA said:

Today I noticed on my laptop that 100gb of space had randomly gone. I ran WinDirStat and there is an unknown file which I cannot delete. I looked at restore points but there is none. Any ideas how I can get this space back or what it is?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I've attached a screenshot of the scan.

Make hidden files visible, go to the directory and delete it yourself?

[TAHIRMIA]

1 minute ago, Stefan1024 said:

Make hidden files visible, go to the directory and delete it yourself?

Checked that, even set it to show system files. Deleted my hiberfil.sys which was 3gb.

[Stefan1024]

Just now, TAHIRMIA said:

Checked that, even set it to show system files. Deleted my hiberfil.sys which was 3gb.

If you selct all folders on the drive and make a right clokc -> properties, does the combined size mathc with the space used on the drive? (computing the size may take a minute or 2).

[TAHIRMIA]

1 minute ago, Stefan1024 said:

If you selct all folders on the drive and make a right clokc -> properties, does the combined size mathc with the space used on the drive? (computing the size may take a minute or 2).

Yes they match

[Stefan1024]

Just now, TAHIRMIA said:

Yes they match

Ok, then the file is visible by the file system. You should be able to fine it manually and delete it. Look for unusual large folders with the top down method.

I once had to do the same as I had a VM running and when moving files to or out of the VM it copied the file to a temporary folder first and never deleted it.

[TAHIRMIA]

1 minute ago, Stefan1024 said:

Ok, then the file is visible by the file system. You should be able to fine it manually and delete it. Look for unusual large folders with the top down method.

I once had to do the same as I had a VM running and when moving files to or out of the VM it copied the file to a temporary folder first and never deleted it.

According to the scan it should be in the root of my C so shouldn't take long if it actually is there.

[Stefan1024]

Just now, TAHIRMIA said:

According to the scan it should be in the root of my C so shouldn't take long if it actually is there.

It could also show root as default if it didn't finde it....

[TAHIRMIA]

1 minute ago, Stefan1024 said:

It could also show root as default if it didn't finde it....

Guess it's gonna take a while then

[Stefan1024]

Just now, TAHIRMIA said:

Guess it's gonna take a while then

Or you search for a similar program like WinDirStat that can finde it.

[Tabs]

1 minute ago, TAHIRMIA said:

Yes they match

 

If WinDirStat can't determine where/what a file is, but it's large enough to show as a ~100GB contiguous block, it may be data that has been stored in filestreams.

 

These are data blocks that are usually tiny, and used to store information about a file, but not like a standard flat database; more like a mini registry for each file/folder since it can contain binary data also. Explorer can measure these file streams, but cannot access them directly.

 

An example of something a filestream is used for is the location a file came from; this gets stored in the :Zone.Identifier filestream and is how Windows knows if a file has come form the internet, even if you copy it to other systems over a local network or over a usb flash drive. It's extremely rare for it to be anything more than just minor data usage, except in the case of a bug or some kind of weird undocumented feature of a program. 

 

Run a scan using http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/alternate_data_streams.html and let us know if any files show a very large "Stream Allocated Size".

[Stefan1024]

1 minute ago, TAHIRMIA said:

Guess it's gonna take a while then

And it's should not take more than 10 minutes if you just select one halve of the folders at once and look at the size.

[TAHIRMIA]

1 minute ago, Stefan1024 said:

Or you search for a similar program like WinDirStat that can finde it.

I did use TreeSize but that didn't show it. 

[TAHIRMIA]

1 minute ago, Tabs said:

 

If WinDirStat can't determine where/what a file is, but it's large enough to show as a ~100GB contiguous block, it may be data that has been stored in filestreams.

 

These are data blocks that are usually tiny, and used to store information about a file, but not like a standard flat database; more like a mini registry for each file/folder since it can contain binary data also. Explorer can measure these file streams, but cannot access them directly.

 

An example of something a filestream is used for is the location a file came from; this gets stored in the :Zone.Identifier filestream and is how Windows knows if a file has come form the internet, even if you copy it to other systems over a local network or over a usb flash drive. It's extremely rare for it to be anything more than just minor data usage, except in the case of a bug or some kind of weird undocumented feature of a program. 

 

Run a scan using http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/alternate_data_streams.html and let us know if any files show a very large "Stream Allocated Size".

I'll give it a try 

[TAHIRMIA]

19 minutes ago, Tabs said:

 

If WinDirStat can't determine where/what a file is, but it's large enough to show as a ~100GB contiguous block, it may be data that has been stored in filestreams.

 

These are data blocks that are usually tiny, and used to store information about a file, but not like a standard flat database; more like a mini registry for each file/folder since it can contain binary data also. Explorer can measure these file streams, but cannot access them directly.

 

An example of something a filestream is used for is the location a file came from; this gets stored in the :Zone.Identifier filestream and is how Windows knows if a file has come form the internet, even if you copy it to other systems over a local network or over a usb flash drive. It's extremely rare for it to be anything more than just minor data usage, except in the case of a bug or some kind of weird undocumented feature of a program. 

 

Run a scan using http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/alternate_data_streams.html and let us know if any files show a very large "Stream Allocated Size".

There are 24 that have an allocation size of 4096 and 3 are 424 and the rest are lower

[Tabs]

Just now, TAHIRMIA said:

There are 24 that have an allocation size of 4096 and 3 are 424 and the rest are lower

Not that then - the sizes are given in bytes so that's less than 1MB combined.

[TAHIRMIA]

Just now, Tabs said:

Not that then - the sizes are given in bytes so that's less than 1MB combined.

mm okay. I did read this https://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/334240-169gb-unknown-file-windirstat.html

Although I do not have the exact game I uninstalled a few of the games I had on this computer and steam to see if that will affect anything.

[Tabs]

15 minutes ago, TAHIRMIA said:

mm okay. I did read this https://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/334240-169gb-unknown-file-windirstat.html

Although I do not have the exact game I uninstalled a few of the games I had on this computer and steam to see if that will affect anything.

Give us an update letting us know what you removed if it helps.

[TAHIRMIA]

23 hours ago, Tabs said:

Give us an update letting us know what you removed if it helps.

So far uninstalling did not help. tried a DISM repair but still there. I guess I have to go through each folder 1 by 1 till I figure what it is. I am sure it is a windows file because I managed to reduce it to 85GB just by the repair. 

[TAHIRMIA]

@Tabs I managed to fix it by scanning every folder manually and deleting the things I didn't need. Now all it comes at is 9gb. Clearing my recycle bin from root instead of just my account reduced it to around 20gb. IDK why it worked but 9gb is a lot better than 100gb so I'm fine with it for now. I will monitor it to see if I can see what causes it to grow.