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Windows 7: 567GB unknown file in windirstat

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4K views 23 replies 4 participants last post by  Oddba11 
#1 ·
Windirstat is showing a 567GB file and it is not restore points because I checked under
Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings>System Properties>System Protection Tab> and the protection for this particular disk is turned OFF.

The drive is a secondary drive that does not contain OS files it simply stores data.

What could this file be and is there a way to delete it without having to reformat the drive?

All help is greatly appreciated.
 

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#7 ·
Swap file is what Windows uses as Virtual Memory when and if the real memory is not enough for a task. If you don't know, don't worry as the default settings will do.
Disk Clean up is a tick box in the Window that appears if you right click on properties for the disk from Windows Explorer.
 
#9 ·
Did it run CHKDSK as well as removing files? I ask because if the swap file was on there it would have asked to do a restart of your machine.

In any case it certainly would not hurt to do the same on all volumes.
I do one as a matter of course once a week. It will ask to restart for the disk you are running Windows from so if you are in the middle of something important leave it till overnight.
 
#10 ·
Did it run CHKDSK as well as removing files? I ask because if the swap file was on there it would have asked to do a restart of your machine.

In any case it certainly would not hurt to do the same on all volumes.
I do one as a matter of course once a week. It will ask to restart for the disk you are running Windows from so if you are in the middle of something important leave it till overnight.
It did not run CHKDSK that I was aware of. It did not ask for a restart. How do i go about doing a CHKDSK proceedure?
 
#17 ·
I'm not having any success in running chkdsk.

When I go to right click on the VOLUME in COMPUTER> Properties>Tools>error check I get "Windows can't check the disk while its in use. Do you want to force a dismount?

Also, when i try CMD in the START menu> open terminal window> type chkdsk /f

Do you think the PC is confused btwn "f" meaning "fix" and "f" meaning VOLUME F?

Please advise
 
#18 ·
Both comments are sort of correct.
You cannot check the disk while it is in use and should allow a dismount. It may well then say can't do that do you want to schedule a check on next restart which you should do;
To save the second confusion use CHKDSK F: /f

where the upper case one is the drive letter and the lower case one is the parameter
 
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