C drive space question please
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For the past few weeks i've been using one of the older Windows 8.1 laptops which is not connected to the internet to play GTA V which runs flawlessly and the laptop itself runs fine with no problems until now.
Yesterday using Codewalker and OpenIV to edit car mod.yft xml files (playing with dial needle color options), putting the edited files into OpenIV and playing GTA V all good no issues there, everything worked as normal. Btw. Codewalker and GTA V are on the internal drive, OpenIV is on the c drive.
Issue.
When I checked the c drive I lost .4 of a gb of drive space?? Definitely happened after using Codewalker and OpenIV because when I booted the laptop all was as normal, I always check.
After doing my daily cleanup routine which always / usually restores any lost c drive space space and even after multiple restarts, shutdowns no change, that .4 of a gb had not returned??
Ftr. Total c drive space is 118 gb, was always 75.5 gb free, now only 75.1 gb free. Lol I know it's not a lot of drive space to lose but it's the principle of the matter and understanding of what's going on.
I watched many YouTube videos and Googled written tutorials and they all said the same stuff which I already do.
If anybody knows and especially if there is something I can do to regain my lost .4 gb of c drive space please advise I would really appreciate it stuff like this drives me crazy until I find out lol.
Thanks in advance,.
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@gtavjamal Even Bill Gates wouldn't be able to give you a definitive answer. One possibility is you have temp files, just crap taking up space.
So I don't know where your 0.4GB went exactly, but I can tell you how to reclaim space.
Right click your C: drive (assuming that's your OS partition) and select Properties, and then Disk Cleanup.
Make sure all boxes are checked. At the bottom left you'll see a button that says Clean up system files. Click that as well.
Given your laptop is an older one, backup before doing this.
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@JohnFromGWN Thanks dawg I appreciate your help as always.
Good idea yeah tried Disk Cleanup again 5 more times and no dice, didn't even budge. Also manually cleaned and used programs like CCleaner plus manually checked all I can think of and all says good. ??
Grinds my gears having a loss with no logical explanation. I'm no computer guy but computers are logical and designed from the ground up right? Therefore somebody must know where the c drive free space vanishes to beyond what they say on YouTube etc. Especially after doing all the regular maintenance that usually restores the free space.
II am wondering if it's possibly a hardware damage issue? Like the solid state drive itself is worn despite the computer saying it's all good?
Ftr. If it applies the boot speed is always quick and consistent. Operation is silent, no weird drive or fan noises, everything appears to work perfect. ??
If I had to guess either as you said Bill Gates doesn't know or he secretly does know but it's all secret hush hush stuff and by design intended for computers to crap out over time encouraging consumers to keep buying.
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Just to get some perspective, 0.4 GB represents a 0.3% loss of space on your 118 GB drive.
Don't sweat the small stuff.
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@JohnFromGWN That is true and if this was just a guaranteed one off mystery then no big deal I could let it slide but in this case it's likely related to stability and stability is something I never take lightly since stability is related to control and control is everything so always got to nip potential issues in the bud before they snowball, watching like a hawk for warning signs.
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@gtavjamal SSDs are much more reliable than mechanical drives but any drive can fail which is why external storage or cloud storage is essential.
I'm not a fan of laptops for so many reasons and given yours is still on Win 8 I'm inferring it's on its last legs. In other words backing up is now more crucial than a suggestion.
As for missing drive space, there's lots of shit going on in the background, well beyond what's in your startup folder and in the run section of your registry. Apps without permission do their thing and Windows does all kinds of shit without permission even with Windows Update disabled in policies.
All that to say you are absolutely right about possible drive or system failures but unnecessarily paranoid about an insignificant change in disk size.
You can download disk and system diagnostic software to do some reliability checks.
I stopped doing those, I stopped sweating this shit because my self assembled rig has 3 separate drives and 1 external drive permanently attached. I have another external drive as well. I don't, however, have cloud storage.
Should I move storage off site? Yes, but I never have. That would be advisable if the house goes up in flames.
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@JohnFromGWN My concern is the hardware. Storage is never an issue. I got plenty of externals off site too. Personally would never use cloud services etc for any personal data / info I wouldn't post online publicly.
Yeah dawg I don't like laptops either other than for the portability factor. I'm just testing a stack of old gaming laptops for my brother. This was one of the blast from the past ones in storage and m.i.s.b for many years. Was only opened like 3 months ago if that and used lightly since.
I don't sweat the insignificant but always take warning signs very seriously. This is what I would class as a warning sign. I prefer to find answers not just accept mystery. I chose to be in control in all areas possible in life..
I'm wondering if there is a way to access and control those deep background processes you mentioned.
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Regarding the monitoring, no...absolutely no foolproof way to do this.
Windows is a shitshow and at some point you stop trying to figure things at the finest level of detail and just accept them.
The obvious stuff is what's in your startup folder and the "run" keys of your registry. For example:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
But there's more than one.Also, open the task manager (ctrl alt del) and checkout the startup tab - you might be surprised as to the amount of crap there - from your keyboard, your mouse, all kinds of crap that you can disable.
The real issue is the services tab - lots of crap running in the background, some necessary, some not - lots of stuff happening behind the scenes whether you want it to or not.
One final note. Temp files can be stored in several locations. A disk cleanup doesn't clean everything.
Whether you like it or not, you have limited control over your OS and other apps. Don't drive yourself crazy.
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@JohnFromGWN Thanks again dawg i'll re-check those tabs to see what else I can delete. I think I got all the temp file locations but always pays to re-check.
Would be dope if someone made an OS like Windows fully compatible but without all the bs. Just bare bones, light weight and maximum efficiency / user friendly.
Correct me if wrong, crazy how each new release of Windows seems to be roughly +10 gb bigger in size. Shows how much extra crap MS cram in there we don't need or want.
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Finally found the culprit!!
Windows.edb
In case anyone wants to check theirs its located at...
C: / ProgramData / Microsoft / Search / Data / Applications / Windows
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@gtavjamal you may want to turn off indexing on your PC because it's crap and just slows down your PC.
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@JohnFromGWN Thanks dawg yeah roger that. I took ya advice the other day and turned off all the crap services I could see etc but had kept that one thinking it sounded important lol.
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@gtavjamal Just downloaded this and will install it. You might want to try it as well.
Free and safe (official Microsoft).
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@JohnFromGWN Dope thanks dawg will use on my Win 10 pc's.