I cannot delete the "System queued windows error reporting" file, and it is occupying 12.6 GB. Help urgently needed

Question

Hello everyone,

I cannot delete the "System queued windows error reporting" file, and it is occupying 12.6 GB (Fig. 1).

I go to Disk Cleanup, choose the option to delete the file, and Windows prompt the window: "Are you sure you permanently want to delete these files?". I choose the "Delete Files" option, and the system apparently proceeds to delete the files (Fig. 2).

But then when I check again the Disk Cleanup, the file with 12.6 GB (Fig. 1) is still there! I have done this process several times but the file does not get deleted.

I have already disabled the Windows Error Reporting option in the Local Group Policy Editor (Fig. 3).

Please your help with this issue.

Thanks!

Sebastian

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig.3:

Answer 1

I expect that the answer it "Yes," but did you run Disk Cleanup "As administrator" and not just from a user account with "administrator" privileges?

Take a look in the following locations:

• I believe that the System Queued Windows Error Reporting Files are here:  %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue
• But they might be here:  %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue

On the system I'm looking at, the above folders, which happen to be empty, are in blue text, which means that any files in them are supposed to be compressed.

If you find your 12GB of files and have difficulty manually deleting them, it's likely to be a permissions problem.  Right-click on a file and select Properties, then take a look at the "Security" tab. 

Be careful when making changes here.  These system files/folders have some fairly esoteric permissions and properties, but the "Administrators" group should have "Full Control" permission, which means that a member of the Administrators group should be able to delete them.

If you have a problem other than permissions, post back with the complete text of the error message.

Answer 2

Hi Lem, both commands prompt me: "The network path was not found"

These are the exact names of the folders:

• Critical_6.1.7601
• Critical_6.1.7601.23505

Answer 3

Sorry.  I forgot a \ character after the dot

the /s /q can go at either the front or the back

rd /s /q  \.\c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\Critical_6.1.7601

I don't think you should need the quote marks.

Answer 4

Sorry.  I forgot a \ character after the dot

the /s /q can go at either the front or the back

rd /s /q  \.\c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\Critical_6.1.7601

I don't think you should need the quote marks.

I got the following message:

Answer 5

At this point, I think the best way to deal with this would be to delete the files and remove the directories from outside of Windows.

Although you might have to go as far as using a completely non-Windows operating system such as a live Linux distro, perhaps just the Windows Recovery Console will work.

Restart the computer and as soon as the power-up cycle begins, start tapping the F8 key about once/second until you see the Advanced Boot Options menu.  Select the first option, "Repair Your Computer" and press Enter.

Select your keyboard language and log on as the user you have been using up to now.

When the System Recovery Options menu appears, make a note of the drive where Windows is located.  It almost certainly will NOT be the normal C: drive. 

Select "Command Prompt" (the bottom option).  Notice that the "prompt" indicates that you are on the X:\ drive.  This is because you are not really operating using the normal Windows operating system.

Type the drive letter, followed by a colon, where Windows is located (as you noted on the System Recover Options menu) and press Enter. 

For example, if what you saw was the first image above, you would type D: and then press Enter.

The prompt would now look like this (remember that I'm using D: in the examples below because that was in the image above; your system may be different):

D:>

Now get to the directory where your problem files are located.

Type CD ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\Critical_6.1.7601

and press Enter

The prompt should now look like this:

D:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\Critical_6.1.7601>

Type dir

and press Enter

You should see a list of those CBSPersistxxxx.log files

Type del CBSPersist*.log

and press Enter

If this works, type the following

CD ..

and press Enter.  This will move you up one level in the folder hierarchy and you can now type

CD Critical_6.1.7601.23505

and press Enter to get to the second folder.  Then use the del CBSPersist*.log command again.