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[[Category:Wikipedia resources for researchers]]
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= August 4 =
==C: Drive on Windows 11 Dell Filling Up==
I have a two-part question about a problem with my Dell Windows 11 desktop computer (bought in late 2022). About two days ago, I tried to save a Word document to a folder on my C: drive, and got an error message saying that the disk was full. I am in general familiar with this message, and have encountered various sorts of storage exhaustion on various sorts of computer equipment for more than fifty-five years. My C: drive is a 216 Gb solid-state drive. Normally when I restart the computer, a view of the This PC folder shows more than 30 Gb free. After I got the error message, a view of the This PC folder did show that there was no free storage on the C: drive. I have observed that after the computer has been up and running for a few days, free storage on the C: drive drops, sometimes to less than 10 Gb.
I deleted a few files that I knew I didn't need, which left a few megabytes free, less than 1%, but enough to save the Word document, and saved the Word document,. I then restarted the computer, and it showed that I had about 30 Gb free. It also showed that I have more than 900 Gb free on an external 4 Tb drive, but that is not the issue. I know that I can offload seldom-used files from my C: drive to my E: drive, but I don't want to do that.
So I have one short-to-medium-term question, and one medium-to-long-term question. First, what is causing my C: drive to fill up while the computer is running? It appears to be filling up the free space with some sort of crud that is cleared on restart. Is there a script or utility that I can use to free up the crud without restarting the computer? Second, is there a way, short of buying a new computer with a larger solid-state C: drive, that I can make more C: storage available? Is it feasible, with a three-year-old computer, to have the C: drive replaced with a larger internal solid state device? I know that if I come upon a thousand dollars that I don't need for food and rent, I can buy a new computer, and I like electronic equipment, but maybe I would rather travel to somewhere in that case. It I move some of my frequently used user data to a large thumb drive, how much will I degrade my performance?
To repeat the first question, what is causing my C: drive to fill up with crud that goes away? Is there a way to clear the crud short of restarting the computer? [[User:Robert McClenon|Robert McClenon]] ([[User talk:Robert McClenon|talk]]) 19:18, 4 August 2025 (UTC)
:I may be the Windows [[swap file]]. [[User:Ruslik0|Ruslik]]_[[User Talk:Ruslik0|<span style="color:red">Zero</span>]] 19:42, 4 August 2025 (UTC)
::I forgot to mention pagefile.sys, which is growing, but is not growing enough to explain all of what I am observing. It starts at about 12 GB. It promptly grows to 16 GB. I have seen it expand to 24 GB, and sometimes to 28 GB. I didn't happen to check its size when the free storage went to zero. If this happens again, I will check it. However, its growth accounts, as a guess, for about half of the loss of free space. So, yes, thank you, the pagefile is part of the problem, but I don't think it is all of the problem. [[User:Robert McClenon|Robert McClenon]] ([[User talk:Robert McClenon|talk]]) 21:13, 4 August 2025 (UTC)
:I've no experience with recent Windows versions and in particular don't know about its use of swap space, but I'll add a few comments.
:Accounting for storage space is sometimes a bit of a black art. The drive has space visible to the operating system, but may also have some hidden reserve; spare blocks that can be used when other blocks fail. This visible space may not be entirely allocated to filesystems. Your OS drive has multiple partitions, each their own filesystem, so your C "drive" is less than the entire solid state drive. Some of the filesystem is used for overhead and therefore unavailable to store files. Some space may be reserved for the OS, making it unavailable to users. Drive space is allocated to files in blocks, so if the size of a file is not a multiple of the block size, space is wasted. On the other hand, there are sparse files; files with entire blocks filled with zeros, which may be omitted from the drive. This means that the sum of all file sizes differs from the drive space taken by all files. Details depend on the filesystem in use. Finally, there's the difference between gigabytes (of 1000<sup>3</sup>=1000000000 bytes) and gigabinarybytes (of 1024<sup>3</sup>=1073741824 bytes). Tools to analyse file system usage often confuse these matters, each in their own way, leading to conflicting results.
:And keeping some space unused is good. It allows wear levelling to do its job, prolonging drive life, and gives more opportunity to clear unused blocks, improving write speed. On spinning drives, there's also a reduction of fragmentation. It's more useful than the 4% extra storage space on a drive that's 99% full compared to one that's 95% full.
:I don't know how much drive space Windows needs for itself and a basic set of software, but I read that it's a lot, a substantial fraction of your 216 GB. Which is actually pretty small for a computer that's only 3 years old. A somewhat decent computer should last at least 10 years nowadays. You can swap a larger drive in. It's not so hard, in particular in most desktops, but you'll have to reinstall your operating system. [[User:PiusImpavidus|PiusImpavidus]] ([[User talk:PiusImpavidus|talk]]) 09:13, 5 August 2025 (UTC)
:::You can try to use [[Disk Cleanup|Windows Disk Cleanup utility]], especially its option of cleaning system files. Installed windows updates can take a lot of space. [[User:Ruslik0|Ruslik]]_[[User Talk:Ruslik0|<span style="color:red">Zero</span>]] 20:41, 5 August 2025 (UTC)
::::Thank you, [[User: PiusImpavidus]]. I see that at least 59.0 Gb of my C: drive is being used for file system directories that are used by Windows. I infer that you are also saying that some of the 216 Gb is being used in ways that do not show up as file system directories.
::::You say that it should be possible to swap out the 216 Gb drive for a larger drive. I haven't opened the cabinet of a desktop computer since the 1990s. So my question is how you are recommending that I resize my C: drive. I don't want to open the cabinet. Should I ask the dealer if I take it back to their shop for them to replace the C: drive, or will they try to sell me a new computer? Should I look for a third-party electronic repair shop that will swap the C: drive? [[User:Robert McClenon|Robert McClenon]] ([[User talk:Robert McClenon|talk]]) 03:52, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
:::::Some of the physical device in your computer isn't part of the C "drive" and some of that C "drive" may not be available for files. Depending on partitioning, it may be possible that some parts are currently unused and could be assigned to C, but I don't expect that will be significant.
:::::Many sellers (in particular the big ones) only sell, they don't repair. A decent third-party electronic repair shop should be able to swap the hard drive. Just visit them, explain your problem and ask what they can do.
:::::I suggest you take precautions to avoid loss or theft of your data. [[User:PiusImpavidus|PiusImpavidus]] ([[User talk:PiusImpavidus|talk]]) 09:13, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
::::::Thank you, [[User:PiusImpavidus]]. You say to take precautions to avoid loss or theft of my data. Do you have any specific suggestions for avoiding theft of my data? Do you have any specific suggestions for avoiding loss of my data? My defense against loss of my data is that I back the C: drive up periodically to the 4 TB external drive. I have not backed my C: drive up to the Microsoft Cloud. They don't need my data if I know how to copy data to a 4 TB external drive. [[User:Robert McClenon|Robert McClenon]] ([[User talk:Robert McClenon|talk]]) 18:07, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
:::::::Backups on your external 4 TB drive are excellent. Regarding theft, if you've got some really sensitive files on that internal drive (like state secrets), wipe them before you hand your computer over to some repair shop. Just in case. Keep the backups at home. [[User:PiusImpavidus|PiusImpavidus]] ([[User talk:PiusImpavidus|talk]]) 19:13, 8 August 2025 (UTC)
* Later Windows versions are profligate in using up space for old update versions. Both downloaded material for new updates, backups of old Windows states. If they're old and it has successfully updated past them, they're no longer useful. [[Special:Contributions/2A00:23C5:E9AC:DA01:BCF0:9806:F22E:E221|2A00:23C5:E9AC:DA01:BCF0:9806:F22E:E221]] ([[User talk:2A00:23C5:E9AC:DA01:BCF0:9806:F22E:E221|talk]]) 15:26, 16 August 2025 (UTC)
= August 6 =
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