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"System & reserved" files taking up way too much space

Anonymous
2021-11-04T02:36:50+00:00

I'm looking for an answer about how to clear up disk space!

I have a 256GB SSD, and nearly half of it is "System & reserved" files!!

It is a Dell XPS 15 9575, a two-in-one laptop with touchscreen and pen. About 2 years old, bought it new. It still runs great, no issues (except battery, but that's a separate issue with a 2-in-1), just no space to work with. I've never used any external storage or other drives except C:

I have deleted so many programs, several of which I did not want to delete, emptied almost all of my personal files onto external storage, tried the Disk Cleanup app and the Storage manager in Settings. I've been running on 2GB of free space for a while now and it is quite annoying. I clean out my downloads and recycle bin and temporary files daily, just to be able to work on a Word doc. I also scanned with Microsoft Defender and nothing came up.

I finally noticed the "Show more categories" button in the Storage settings and it shows that all of the space is being taken up by "System & reserved" files:

Also, the Temporary files section says 4.73 GB but if I go in there and select all the check boxes, it only amounts to a few MB. The 4 GB is for Updates? But my computer is all up to date (except for Windows 11, which is ready to download. I did try to download it but it didn't finish probably because of no disk space).

How do I clear those system files?? That seems like way too many system files.

Would installing Windows 11 solve this by getting rid of a bunch of Windows 10 files? or would those get put in reserves or something and make my space even more full?

I do have a rather large OneDrive folder logged in with my job's Office account, but that whole folder is always on Online-only mode. Not sure if that's related to System Files.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-11-05T04:50:15+00:00

    Hi again, Joey. Nice work, the culprit appears to be Windows.edb file in the Program Data Search folder.

    The fixes for the known issue are here:

    http://woshub.com/windows-edb-file-too-big-how-...

    https://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-edb-file (Avoid ad links which intrude into editorial copy, especially avoid Restoro and Reimage ads)

    https://winaero.com/fix-windows-search-fills-yo...

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/w...

    http://woshub.com/windows-edb-file-too-big-how-...

    I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions. Please report back results for all steps given so I know what else to suggest if necessary.

    ______________________________________________

    Standard Disclaimer: There are links to non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the sites that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the sites before you decide to download and install it.

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-11-04T04:02:41+00:00

    Hi Joey. I'm Greg, 10 years awarded Windows MVP, specializing in Installation, Performance, Troubleshooting and Activation, here to help you.

    Please post a screenshot of Disk Management, which I read like a doctor reads X-rays. Follow the steps here so I can see everything needed to advise you: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/foru...

    The Windows (System) files should not be more than around 20gb, so something is wrong there. It may be misreported as Storage Sense settings are often mistaken. But we can usually fix that. It may also have a bunch of old Updates and Version staging files that have never been cleaned up by Disk Cleanup which we can also fix.

    Install Treesize to trace graphically what is eating up that space on C drive:
    https://www.groovypost.com/howto/map-hardrive-u.... Please post a screenshot so I can see what you're seeing. Here's how to take one and attach using Attach Image button in reply box: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/o...

    Open Disk Cleanup, run it, when it reports choose the button for System Files, then run it again and clean up what it finds.
    Tutorial here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/d...    

    Run a full Disk Check: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/check-hard-dri... to check the file system which can correct misreporting errors.

    Type Maintenance in Search, open it and

    Based on the results you post back I may have other suggestions if necessary.

    _____________________________________________
    Standard Disclaimer: There are links to non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the sites that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the sites before you decide to download and install it.

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-11-07T04:13:43+00:00

    Marked the helpful posts.

    In a concise note:

    The answer in this particular case (likely applicable to others) was

    1. run TreeSize Free as administrator to identify large file/s. In this case it was Windows.edb, so then
    2. Re-index using the Index Options app.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-11-05T04:55:41+00:00

    Also, an interesting thing I noticed was that when I go to Program Files\Microsoft\Search\ from File Explorer, it won’t let me open the Data folder in there and when I open properties of that folder it says 0 bytes.

    Very strange since TreeSize says there 110GB in there.

    I did run the Disk Cleanup, Disk Check, and the Maintenance like you also suggested. Nothing significant there.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-11-05T04:38:26+00:00

    Hi Greg, thanks for the tips here. TreeSize was quite informative and indicated a clear culprit. Here are screenshots of Disk Management and TreeSize.

    I tried to look up how to deal with this Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows folder. Seems like there's a couple options to delete it or mess with some indexing settings? Do you have any thoughts from here?
    I'd be curious also to know what is this Search folder and what have I done to fill it up that much so I can avoid it in the future?

    Thanks

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