C Drive is getting Automatically Full.

[Suvadeep_Paul]

Hello. Suddenly my PC's C drive is getting full automatically. When I start my PC it shows 78 GB free and then it's starts to slowly fill up and then storage sense notification comes up saying only 7 GB space is left. The bootup and shut down has become significantly slow.

I have done some trouble shooting which is mentioned below.

1. Scanned PC using Windows Defender Offline Scanner. No detection.
2. Scanned using Kaspersky Internet Security. No detection.
3. Scanned using Malwarebytes Antimalware. No Detection.
4. Tried fixing corrupted file system by using this command: chkdsk C:/f /v /x
5. Disabled hibernation by using this command powercfg.exe /hibernate off.
6. System Restore is disabled by default.
7. Ran windows built-in disk cleanup and it only showed approximately 100 MB junk files.
8. Ran Ccleaner and same result.
9. SFC /scannow says no integrity violation.
10. DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth. No error.
11. Didn't install or uninstall any apps or programs.
12. Checked startup object and didn't find any suspicious program running.
13. Checked all installed apps and programs and couldn't detect any suspicious programs running.
14. Only thing that got installed is couple of windows update.
15. This is also happening when my PC is not connected to internet as well.

I need help as I have now ran out of option. I just don't want to factory reset my PC everytime when there is a problem.

Thanks.

 

[anon(5327127)]

Do you use Cortana? There was a bug on the Intel Nuc that basically created lots of log/recorded files. Pain in the rear.

You could also try something like Treesize pro to see what, where and then maybe how.

 

[tgp]

Some years ago I was working in PC repair at my work, and a client's machine had the same problem. It was an older version of Windows, but I don't recall which one. I think it was Windows 7. Anyway, the problem turned out to be that for some reason it was designating 80% of the hard drive to be reserved for System Backup and Restore backups. This meant that something like 100 GB was available of a 500 GB hard drive.

 

[Suvadeep_Paul]

No I don't use Cortana.

 

[Suvadeep_Paul]

As I mentioned in my post that System restore is disabled by default as the C drive is only 128 GB.

 

[Suvadeep_Paul]

C: > Windows > System 32 > Log Files. There is a file called Kernel.etl. When I started my PC it was 610MB. After couple of second I refreshed and it changed to 1.34GB and then 2.61 GB then 3.64GB and goes on. What event trace log is it generating as I am unable to open it to see what is there? I think it is safe to delete but the thing is it might again crop up. Any help? Thanks.

 

[spicypadthai]

Have you used WinDirStat or another disk usage analyzer to see what's using the space? Also, check your page file. If it's the culprit and it's set to allow Windows to manage which allows it to auto grow, then set it to a fixed size. 4 or 8 GB should be sufficient. Then you'll need to figure out what's causing it to bloat.

 

[Suvadeep_Paul]

I think I got the problem. There is Kernel.etl file in log files folder in system32 which is causing this problem and reaching almost the size of 30GB in an hour. I cannot open it as it says the file is being used by another program. So I am unable to detect which program/s is causing so much trace log and also unable to stop the logging service inspite of being admin user.

 

[anon(5327127)]

A 10 second search later, try this:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/557113/811-gb-etl-file-what-is-that/