Why is 300GB being used up on my hard drive?

[Windows Central Question]

I have a 1 TB drive that's been partitioned into two separate drives of 465GB each. One has Windows 8.1 (I use to work from home) and the other is Windows 10 for personal use and my preferred operating system.

However, the drive with 10 installed on it has a whopping 300GB of used space and I can't figure out where it's coming from. I've cleaned out all unnecessary files with the cleanmgr but that was a blip.

I also deleted all of the restore points, which is set to use 10% of the drive's capacity.

My documents, download, video, music and photo folders are a combined 13GB and I figure the Windows 10 installation is taking up maybe another 20GB for a combined 33GB out of 465GB.

So what exactly is the rest of the 267GB comprised of and where is it? The load times are way slower than they should be and this is just something I can't wrap my head around.

Any suggestions?

 

[skt_diaz]

I have a 1 TB drive that's been partitioned into two separate drives of 465GB each. One has Windows 8.1 (I use to work from home) and the other is Windows 10 for personal use and my preferred operating system.

However, the drive with 10 installed on it has a whopping 300GB of used space and I can't figure out where it's coming from. I've cleaned out all unnecessary files with the cleanmgr but that was a blip.

I also deleted all of the restore points, which is set to use 10% of the drive's capacity.

My documents, download, video, music and photo folders are a combined 13GB and I figure the Windows 10 installation is taking up maybe another 20GB for a combined 33GB out of 465GB.

So what exactly is the rest of the 267GB comprised of and where is it? The load times are way slower than they should be and this is just something I can't wrap my head around.

Any suggestions?

Maybe it still has the old windows 7/8 OS from which you upgraded to windows 10?

 

[TechFreak1]

What is the recycle bin set as?
Reason I ask is because when you delete something from the recycle bin; it is not actually deleted but it goes to the hidden recycler folder or in the case of windows 10 it't $Recycle.Bin. Which functions rather strangely in 10... as you can see from the images below normally another obscure folder would be made after items are "deleted" if the one previously used is open or deleted. However if you have the Recycle bin to permanently to delete than they are indeed "deleted". But you can still recover these files with a simple program providing the HDD hasn't been used after they have been deleted. Or by using something much more sophisticated used by data forensics teams for example.





The other things that could be taking space are:
1) the installer cache
2) shadow volume (you will need to run command prompt with admin privileges - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd348398.aspx)

Are you using a SSD, Mechnical or Hybrid HDD?

Edit:

Maybe it still has the old windows 7/8 OS from which you upgraded to windows 10?

Good point, naturally I presumed the OP did a clean install as I'm in the habit of doing that myself and pretty much everyone I know who upgraded did so after upgrading bar a handful of users.

 

[skt_diaz]

What is the recycle bin set as?
Reason I ask is because when you delete something from the recycle bin; it is not actually deleted but it goes to the hidden recycler folder or in the case of windows 10 it't $Recycle.Bin. Which functions rather strangely in 10... as you can see from the images below normally another obscure folder would be made after items are "deleted" if the one previously used is open or deleted. However if you have the Recycle bin to permanently to delete than they are indeed "deleted". But you can still recover these files with a simple program providing the HDD hasn't been used after they have been deleted. Or by using something much more sophisticated used by data forensics teams for example.


View attachment 112832View attachment 112833
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The other things that could be taking space are:
1) the installer cache
2) shadow volume (you will need to run command prompt with admin privileges - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd348398.aspx)

Are you using a SSD, Mechnical or Hybrid HDD?

Edit:

Good point, naturally I presumed the OP did a clean install as I'm in the habit of doing that myself and pretty much everyone I know who upgraded did so after upgrading bar a handful of users.

Ya, that could be a reason.