C Drive Space Issues

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Sakers

PCHF Member
Dec 19, 2019
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Hello, i have an Acer Aspire v15 Nitro Laptop, and my C drive is extremely full however i cant find anything non vital to delete. I now cant update Windows 10 and the alerts are incredibly annoying. The PC has a 50GB C drive, and 2TB D drive as standard. Since new i have only ever installed files / programs to the D drive, iv had the PC around 4 years and only windows updates have been installed to C.

Apologies for the upcoming list, but it saves unneccessary questions if i tell you all the things that i have tried already:
- Ran CC cleaner with almost every box ticked
- Done a defrag, and then disk cleanup with *clean system files* ticked
- Manually looked through the C drive with *show hidden files* ticked and moved everything that i dare to drive D
- Been into C/Windows/Software Distribution/and cleared all i could
- I have never had system restore point enabled, and have no restore point data space allocated on the drive
- Deleted all irrelevant pre installed apps and language packs etc.
- Opened Disk Management, and the option to extend volume is greyed out

Is the PC just old and full now? or is there anything else i can look for? i was reluctant to delete anything i wasnt sure about incase it was a critical file so if theres anymore info or a screenshot i could provide to help you help me il do all i can. i only have 1.6GB free remaining.

Thanks for reading!
 
Welcome to PCHF Sakers,

Can you take then upload an expanded view of Disk Manager for usl

Access Disk Management via Run.

Press the Windows+R keys to open Run, type diskmgmt.msc in the empty box then press OK.

To capture and post a screenshot;

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... after typing in any response you have... click on Upload a File to add the screenshot.

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.
 
Hello, here is the screenshot of my disk management screen
 

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The PC has a 50GB C drive, and 2TB D drive as standard.
There is only the one physical HDD in the computer, C: is a partition on the 2TB and not a separate drive, any partition or drive where Windows gets installed is by default allocated the drive letter C: by Windows, also taken out of this 50GB are a back up image, the additional partitions that Windows creates when it installs + no doubt a whole load of bloatware that Acer loaded.

Small wonder that you have had problems, the computer has been badly set up from day one and whoever allocated only 50GB (42.96GB is what Windows actually has had for itself) of storage space for Windows either did not know what they were doing or they really had no clue as to what they were doing, bad news for you is that there is no easy way around this because even if you deleted all of the pre installed partitions you would still not have enough free storage space for clean installing Windows 10.

Your best course of action would be to create a new 200GB partition on the D: partition and call it Windows 10, clean install Windows 10 and the system drivers to the new partition, once you are happy that Windows 10 is fully up to date and the computer is running as it should, go back and delete the previous partitions and reallocate the space accordingly.

We can help you with this step by step if you need us to but if not can I just make sure that you follow the golden rule and first of all back up all of your important data and system drivers to a source other than the storage device on this computer,an external USB HDD, Windows OneDrive or the Cloud as a couple of examples.

NB: Am I correct in that this computer originally had Windows 8.1 on it and has been updated to Windows 10.
 
Hello and thanks alot for the above information, it has cleared alot up for me in regards to how the drive space has been used, i do have a few questions about creating the new partition and a doing fresh install however before i ask, you are correct that the PC originally came with an older windows installed, it must have been 8.1 but i cant honestly remember for certain. It came with a free upgrade package to Windows 10 which was carried out straight away. Is this also a further issue?
 
There is no issue with the OS that the notebook shipped with, reason why I asked was to make sure that it was not a Windows 10 recovery partition in which case I would have suggested that it be left alone.

It is entirely up to you with how you wish to proceed but if me I would do as was suggested in my reply #4;

Your best course of action would be to create a new 200GB partition on the D: partition and call it Windows 10, clean install Windows 10 and the system drivers to the new partition, once you are happy that Windows 10 is fully up to date and the computer is running as it should, go back and delete the previous partitions and reallocate the space accordingly.

For you to do before we proceed, you will need a couple of USB thumbdrives, one the capacity does not really matter as long as it has enough space on it to save all of the notebooks drivers to, the second thumbdrive needs to be 16GB or more.

Do you know how to save the notebooks drivers to a thumbdrive, you can get all the drivers from here if it would be easier for you.

Use the second option here to create Windows 10 installation media for clean installing Windows 10 on the present D: partition.

Post back when you are ready and you are welcome btw :)
 
Any update for us? This thread will be closed if not replied to within 48hrs.
 
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