Acer Spin 5 - My system files on my new laptop take up over 35GB!! - Is this normal?

ronanski

My system files on my new laptop take up over 35GB!! - Is this normal? A quick google suggested windows 10 should only take up 15gb.

Easwar

Hi ronanski,

It depens upon the format of the files.

billsey

It's not unusual for that much space to be used, what with downloaded updates and such. How are you determining that they are all system files? Looking at just the C:\Windows folder, or just subtracting the free space from the size of the drive?

ronanski

Oh okay, it's just my old mac (over 6 yrs old) only has 6gb taken up by system files. It says system and reserved (although now only 34.2 GB) apparently 23.6 gb system, 7.39 gb reserved & 3.12 gb hibernation file.

billsey

With 23GB taken up I'd say you have a bunch of older update files stored in the SoftwareDistribution folder. Try running Disk Cleanup with the cleanup system files option. That's likely to remove 10GB or so of stuff. There might also be a Windows.old folder that could be cleaned out as well, if you have done any of the semiannual upgrades.

ronanski

But this is a brand new computer, so surely there shouldn't be all that on it? Can I do that disk cleanup thing without affecting any of the functionality of the computer? Like will it only remove completely useless files that are completely unnecessary?

ronanski

Also, where would I find this. I had a look on acer care centre and just found delete junk files which was only up to 0.15 gb or disk cleaner which just listed large document files

billsey

Disk Cleanup, I typically launch it by hitting the Windows key and typing Disk Cleanup. Turn on the cleanup system files and it will remove the downloaded update files that usually are the culprit.

ronanski

Had a look at that and there's 0 bytes of downloaded programme files. The main thing is delivery optimisation files (which sounds important) and that's not even 1 gb anyway