Inaccurate C: drive capacity reading/Unable delete winold folders

tosalet said:

I have 2 problems which may or may not be connected.1. Following the Fall Creator 'upgrade' the 'Windows10' C: drive shows red with '5.67GB free of 97.2GB'. I have completed a disk cleanup of system files and the total of all files actually existing in all folders showing on C: using WinDirStat is 49.2GB.2. Despite completing system disk cleanup the 'windowsold' folder still exists. All files were deleted but 245 folders remain and cannot be deleted despite apparently having permissions set.The 245 remaining folders in 'windowsold' are WINDOWS/Software Distribution/Download/ and a random number code . . . . etc.Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Step 1: Run disk cleanup a different way to see if it makes any difference. Open an Administrator Command window, and copy/paste this command, press ENTER. Check off all boxes and let it run to completion (you may see flashing command windows in the task bar, just let it finish). Then check your space. Windows.old we'll get to later.

%SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535

tosalet said:

I have 2 problems which may or may not be connected.1. Following the Fall Creator 'upgrade' the 'Windows10' C: drive shows red with '5.67GB free of 97.2GB'. I have completed a disk cleanup of system files and the total of all files actually existing in all folders showing on C: using WinDirStat is 49.2GB.2. Despite completing system disk cleanup the 'windowsold' folder still exists. All files were deleted but 245 folders remain and cannot be deleted despite apparently having permissions set.The 245 remaining folders in 'windowsold' are WINDOWS/Software Distribution/Download/ and a random number code . . . . etc.Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Easiest option is to boot from a live linux drive or winpe drive (eg Macrium Reflect Rescue drive) and delete it from there.

To eliminate the possibility that lost clusters are occupying the rest of the used space you should run Chkdsk.

Open a command prompt (Admin) and type CHKDSK C: /F
When it says...

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

...type Y then restart the PC. A disk check will run at boot. Any lost clusters will be turned into files that can then be deleted.

If there is still a lot of space 'missing' after that, what does WinDirStat say for the size of 'System Volume Information'? You may need to run it as administrator for it to be able to see the true size.

I do not see 'System Volume Information' in your screenshot. This is a hidden folder on the root of every drive, you'll need to show hidden files (and perhaps System files) in order to see it.

System Volume Information is where restore points are kept, so can grow to many GB if left to its own devices. This tutorial tells you how to see the space currently being used for restore points, and how to limit the space it's allowed to use.

Change System Protection Max Storage Size for Drive in Windows 10