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I have a Surface Pro 3running on Windows 8.1 with 128GB space as original disk space which was bought around 6 months or so ago and I like it very much.

But what I discovered is that its diskspace dwindles faster than a bullet train. I mean for example at morning I have my disk space at around 32GB and then suddenly at night I have only 31.4GB left. Where does the 600MB goes when I know I didn't even install a program. I made a word file but I don't think it occupy that much :-) And this is only one example I saw it many times.

I already deleted many applications and deleted files from recycle bin and unnecessary pictures and still it's dwindling everyday very fast.

I setup e-mail by the way before for both yahoo and gmail (I have two on gmail) but I removed all of which except for the hotmail in which I don't receive many.

Any suggestion how could I stop this bleeding?

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2 Answers 2

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Here's a couple of things you could try:

  1. Download an application like WinDirStat and scan your drive to determine where all the storage space is going.
  2. The 600MB may be temporary files. Disk cleanup should do the trick, if that is the case.
  3. If you want to gain back some space you could turn "hibernation" off, if you haven't already. To disable "hibernation", open the command line as an Administrator and type the following:

powercfg -h off

You'll need to restart your system in order to see any change.

  1. If you have a secondary drive in addition to the main storage, you could move the pagefile to the secondary drive. To move the pagefile:

    • Open the "System" settings from the "Control Panel".
    • On the left hand side of the window, you should see an "Advanced system settings" option.
    • On the resulting popup, click on the "Advanced" tab and then "Settings" under the "Performance" section.
    • In the "Performance Options" window, under the "Virtual memory" section, click on "Change."
    • In the "Virtual Memory" window, click on the main drive and then on the "No paging file" radio button. Make sure you click "Set" or the change won't be applied. After you've done that, click on your secondary drive and either click on the "Custom size" or "System managed size" option and click set.
    • Finally, click "OK" and you're done.

Moving Pagefile

NOTES:

  • Point 4 is assuming you have a secondary drive and you haven't already moved the pagefile.
  • If you have a sufficient amount of RAM and it's likely you'll never run into a scenario where it's lacking, you could probably set the pagefile to a custom size.
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  • While all suggestions are very good tricks to quickly reclaim space, they will not explain 100 GB space loss in 6 months (if I understand question correctly). And, unlike politicians, Windows will sometimes give back what it took (i.e. shrink pagefile)... ;)And I don't think Surface will have one that big, anyway...;)
    – AcePL
    Feb 11, 2015 at 10:52
  • @AcePL I don't think you understood the question correctly. OP didn't say that the 100GB used is all unaccounted for. In my answer I've suggested using an application to scan the drive and check where all of the space is going. If everything looks good in that regard, OP can use some of the other points to increase/gain back disk space.
    – Yass
    Feb 11, 2015 at 11:06
  • Thank your answer @Yass Although this does not perfectly answers my question as AcePL implies but it did help me pointing out the possible source of the problem. And although aslo I am familiar with some of your solution except turning power-off charge but again it did help me. GOD bless.
    – Edper
    Feb 12, 2015 at 0:57
  • @Yass - Yes and no. Question is not clear, and I had similar episode when switched from windows XP to Windows 7. In 6 months Windows folder bloated from 12 to 65 GB, with literally dozen programs installed (company computer, strict rules). So it is entirely possible for OP to "lose" 100 GB and first thing he needs to do is to know where it went, which your answer don't provide. Disabling hibernate disables "fast startup" and generally makes using portables inconvenient. But if he wants to...
    – AcePL
    Feb 13, 2015 at 10:51
  • I don't know where all the data is going without a physical examination and as such I'm not qualified to provide a better answer. I believe my answer is sufficient, given the information provided by the OP.
    – Yass
    Feb 13, 2015 at 19:25
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Clarification please. You had 128 GB HDD TOTAL space or FREE space? Not clear at the moment.

As for space-taking stuff - there will be Windows Restore (does system backup every time something is installed - and that includes updates). There will be documents and folders of various apps (iTunes for example). There is Outlook (or other email clients). There is Internet Explorer (or other browsers, especially Chrome).

There are other programs as well. Each and every one of them caches data in some manner. Chrome, for example, will store each session. 600MB is not surprising for day's normal web surfing, and it's get stored by Chrome (or other browsers).

Best way is to see which folders take most space. then which subfolder is biggest and look inside. You find out rather quickly where biggest loss of space occurs. I personally use TotalCommander for it. Caution though: my way is not really efficient (however I have full control over the process, obviously, since it's manual really) and it is time intensive. And I usually know which folder should have what size, very roughly.

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