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Why is my free disk space decreasing each day?

Alana Perry 0 Reputation points
2025-06-11T08:11:24.66+00:00

I try to keep my free disk space above 50gb to be able to update my games, but it seems to be decreasing my itself recently. For example, yesterday my free space was 51gb but today it went down to 47gb. every day I run disk cleanup (and I never use it without ticking clean up system files, so don't ask), storage sense, clear browser caches, delete contents of temp folders, and delete restore points. I checked treesize but my largest files (my games, mainly) haven't changed much.

Windows 10 Hardware Performance
Windows 10 Hardware Performance
Windows 10: A Microsoft operating system that runs on personal computers and tablets.Hardware Performance: Delivering / providing hardware or hardware systems or adjusting / adapting hardware or hardware systems.
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  1. Mark Dicks 540 Reputation points
    2025-06-11T08:42:47.2+00:00

    I used to have this issue as well, I know how annoying it can be.
    A few things I did to improve my diskspace may not be relevant in your case but feel free to take some/all the suggestions below.

    1) Your system restore points

    • Windows may automatically create new ones, especially after updates.

    You can reduce the max allocation space in System Properties > System Protection > Configure.

    2) Windows Update Cache

    • Windows stores update files in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download even after installing them.
    • Check: Open Disk Cleanup > Clean up system files > Check Windows Update Cleanup
    • Fix: Run net stop wuauserv (as admin)

    3) Hibernation

    • Windows stores hibernating data (hiberfil.sys) which can get large.
    • Delete the file and turn off hibernation: powercfg /h off

    4) Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) Leak

    • A bug can cause shadow copies to not be deleted properly.
    • Fix: Run: vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=C /on=C /maxsize=5GB (limits shadow storage to 5GB)

    5) Browser & Streaming Apps

    • Netflix, Youtube, Spotify, etc. cache large amounts of video data.

    6) Automatic Game Updates

    • Steam, Epic, etc., may pre-allocate space for updates.
    • Check: Open your game launcher settings and check "Downloads" for pending updates.

    Next Steps: Monitor Daily Changes:

    • Use a tool like WizTree (faster than TreeSize) to scan daily and compare snapshots.

    Enable Storage Sense:

    • Go to Settings > System > Storage > Turn on Storage Sense and configure it to run automatically.

    Check for Large Files Modified Recently:

    • In TreeSize, sort by Last Modified Date to spot growing files.
  2. Docs 15,661 Reputation points
    2025-06-14T03:32:18.4166667+00:00
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