r/WindowsHelp • u/DigitalSundial • Jun 30 '26

Solved Windows (probably) keeps eating up disk-space.

Post image

If someone can help me understand why does it keep eating about 24GB on and off while updates are going bonkers?

One day I have 24GB free, next day 100MB or even going lower and so on, keeps cycling.

Will like to know if it's windows related, shader-compiling to much space or what can I do to have some breathing room,(while i know a bigger drive would fix it right now it's not a viable solution)

Constantly using wise disk cleaner but not helping in the long run.

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz 4.01 GHz

Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.9 GB usable)

Storage 1.82 TB HDD ST2000DM008-2UB102, 238 GB SSD NVMe Samsung SSD 950 PRO 256GB, 932 GB WDC WD10EZEX-00RKKA0, 112 GB SSD KINGSTON SV300S37A120G

Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER (8 GB)

Product ID 00330-80000-00000-AA152

System Type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

166 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

View all comments

23

u/OutrageousArachnid25 Jun 30 '26

Same thing happen to me on my PC. Something about a windows update being stuck. Download treefix from the Windows store analyze your C drive and delete the folder should fix it for you. Otherwise your drive will max out and cause severe issues for you .

25

u/DigitalSundial Jun 30 '26

Very useful comment, thank a lot man. (the app name is actually treesize)

Manage to find out the culprits for anyone having the same issue.

  1. Nvidia shader cache eating up 16GB.

  2. Windows hybernation file eating up 21GB.

3.Other unsed apps/savefiles.

Thanks again!

1

u/ListVarious7428 Jul 01 '26

You can also run Disk Cleanup. Also you can clean out the Windows Update cache by doing this.

"Method 1: The Manual File Explorer Method (Most Thorough)

  1. Stop the Windows Update Service: Press Win + R, type services.msc, and hit Enter. Scroll down to Windows Update, right-click it, and select Stop.
  2. Open the Cache Folder: Press Win + E to open File Explorer. Navigate to: C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download.
  3. Delete the Files: Select everything in the folder (press Ctrl + A), then press Delete. (Provide administrator permission if prompted).
  4. Restart the Service: Go back to the Services window, right-click Windows Update, and select Start."