Freeing up space on C:

James1093 said:

Is there a simple app that'll show what paths on C: contain all the data?
My C: is 230GB and 192GB is used.
5GB is in C:\Users\Me\AppData. Can some (what?) be safely deleted?
Thanks. Using Win 10.0.19041.964

The Four Best Free Tools to Analyze Hard Drive Space on Your Windows PC

The Hidden AppData directory is used mostly for managing your various apps and programs. There also is a big Temp file. Many of the files in the Temp directory can be deleted if you use a temp file remover program. Like the Windows 10's Disk Cleanup, CCleaner, or my favorite System Ninja. You don't want to just delete the whole Folder because there are some temp files that are needed, but most aren't.
With the price of SSD's and HDD's coming down, there is no reason to be running out of space. You can upgrade to a larger drive and clone your current C: drive to it using a Macrium Reflect.

I use TreeSize Free and also use Wise Disk Cleaner. Consider deleting files in the LCU folder - How to clean files in C:\Windows\servicing\LCU

These may be of interest:
Free Up Drive Space in Windows 10
Turn On or Off Storage Sense Automatically Free Up Space in Windows 10

In addition note for example that some programs generate significant dmp files in various places that may not be cleared by normal means.
Using a program such as Wiztree you can change the colour scheme used to immediately highlight file types of interest.

I then occasionally check for and note these and add the relevant folders/files to a specific cleanup task.

As you are using a SSD, consider disabling hibernation to immediately save space. Note this also disables fast startup (not significantly useful with a SSD) and hybrid sleep.

Windirstat is now out of date and not supported. Wiztree is similar and is updated.

Hi, how did you create the image, and of what did you create it?

Try 'Explore Image' to see what your image file consists of.
(Using that you can see what's in it, extract files from it as a mounted drive).


You should not restore an image lightly- all data - including personal files- are restored to as at the date of image creation.

Disk imaging is a truly useful way of ensuring you can recover even if your disk fails, your PC is stolen, or you are hit by ransomware... etc.

James1093 said:

Someone mentioned Macrium Reflect. I am just trying this now (making a backup boot drive). I have created the Image but when going to restore it just tells me "Unable To Load" and the filename. No reason given. So very pleased I didn't have to rely on it. Has anyone else struck this ?

Creating an image before you start messing around with "cleaning" programs is/was an excellent idea.

You mention about a boot backup drive ... not sure what you mean here, or what you've created. You need to create 2 media with Macrium Reflect - a bootable USB (e.g. flash) drive, and create the image of your drive using Macrium Reflect, creating/saving the image to a separate external drive (HDD/SSD).

You then boot from the USB flash drive, and choose the option to restore an image. Navigate to the external SSD/HDD, select the image file, and then go!

EDIT A good idea is to move all your personal data files (docs, images, music, videos, etc) out of the Windows user system folders (but leave the folders there), and then create the image. This minimises the size of the image file - it's only the OS and your installed programs that get imaged - and reduces the time it takes to create the image.

EDIT2 You don't say what type of device you have. Is it a proprietary branded device? If so, you might consider getting rid of all the bloat/junk/demo-ware that comes with these devices. Also, has the device got a secondary drive - 230GB primary drive is usually only for system and programs - personal files get saved to the secondary drive.