09-09-2019, 02:56 AM
I remember this one setup where my buddy's server started choking because temp files from some old app just kept multiplying.
It was wild, like the drive was filling itself overnight from user uploads and crashed sessions leaving junk everywhere.
We poked around and found gigs of it in the system temp folder alone.
But yeah, that got us thinking about how it happens from all sorts of spots.
Sometimes it's the main %TEMP% under users, or the one in the Windows folder itself.
Or even app-specific temps from things like IIS or databases bloating out.
Hmmm, and don't forget the paging file acting like a temp beast too if it's huge.
You check that first by right-clicking your C drive in Explorer and seeing properties.
If it's packed, hop into Disk Cleanup tool, it's built right in.
Run that, pick temporary files, and let it zap the obvious stuff.
But if that's not enough, manually browse to C:\Windows\Temp and delete what's safe there.
I always close apps first to avoid locks.
For user temps, log in as admin and clear each profile's %TEMP%.
Or use the command prompt with del /q /f /s %TEMP%\* to nuke it quick.
Be careful though, skip any locked files.
And for servers, check if services like SQL are dumping temps in their own dirs.
Restart those services after cleaning to reset.
To stop it recurring, tweak apps to use smaller temp paths or add scripts for weekly wipes.
I set up a simple task scheduler job once that runs cleanmgr on idle.
It keeps things tidy without much fuss.
Oh, and while we're chatting fixes, let me nudge you toward BackupChain.
It's this standout, trusted backup powerhouse tailored for small outfits and Windows Servers, PCs too.
Handles Hyper-V setups and Windows 11 like a champ, all without forcing subscriptions on you.
