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Steffen Maier
Asked: 2016-12-14 12:07:19 +0800 CST

Clean up Windows hard drives: What to delete?

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I have various Windows Servers (2012 R2), and I am running out of disk space. Can anyone give me suggestions what to delete? Which folder is lots of space and safe to delete?

windows windows-server-2012-r2

5 Answers

  1. As a simple, first step you can install the "Desktop Experience" package and run the Disk Cleanup utility. With this utility you can safely remove quite a bit of old stuff.

    EDIT: the "Disk Cleanup" utility can be installed even without installing the entire "Desktop Experience", rather copying two specific files (as explained here).

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  2. When cleaning up unneeded files on a Windows Server I use this checklist:

    • The obvious %Windir%\Temp, User temp folders, etc.
    • Remove unneeded user profiles
    • %Windir%\Logs, particularily %Windir%\Logs\CBS. The Windows Modules Installer service should maintain this folder automatically, compressing into CAB files old logs, etc. but sometimes this does not happen. I usually delete any .CAB files in this folder that are >1 month old
    • If IIS is installed %Systemdrive%\inetpub\logs\LogFiles
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  3. You don't specify which roles are installed, which are the most common sources of bloat. The answers provided, including these additional, are generic for Server.

    In addition to those previously mentioned, here are some lesser known items:

    • Check your pagefile sizes.

    • From an elevated command prompt, run:
      dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /analyzecomponentstore
      Based on the information in analyzecomponentstore, you have some options that are not easily undone. Please read the information carefully in dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /?

      • /startcomponentcleanup is non-destructive and is a good maintenance step.
      • /rebase is a flag that you can add to the component cleanup but is not reversible.

    • If you have configured your server as you expect and do not plan to add additional features via DISM or Server Manager later, you can use PowerShell's Remove-WindowsFeature -Remove with a list of features. It will work against features either currently installed or not, and will remove the installation files from the SxS file for those features. This step is technically reversible, but not easily. If you're a novice server administrator and/or without backups and a disaster recovery plan, I wouldn't recommend going there on an active system. These are steps better done when setting up a new server.

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  4. Install data deduplication feature if you are not referring to you system drive. It will drastically free up space

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  5. I load "TreeSize" on all of my servers, there is a free version you can download from the JamSoft site. I run in periodically to get a visual perspective or where all my data sits and what's taking up most of the space.

    Sometimes I find that a user did a full backup of his PC to his share folder or that the SoftwareDistribution folder needs to be emptied out. Other times its just too many restore points or temp files in a folder you didn't expect to look in.

    Download it, give it a try, it should answer your question in about 60 seconds.

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