Couple of things on the subject of Hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys:

Hibernation - If you configure your PC so that it NEVER goes into Hibernation (in Power Options) it will never allocate that file beyond the default/minimum file size allocation.

Page File - The size of the Page file will automatically be adjusted by Windows, and is influenced by the size of the HDDs installed. I usually wait to install add'l physical drives until after I've installed the OS. I will go through all of the configuration options, setting everything as I want it, including locking down the Page File size. The default Page File size is reasonable at the default allocation, and IMO should NEVER need to be increased. After all that's done, then I install/plug in the add'l HDDs, and then I change the Target Folder locations for all of the User Data (Pics, Videos, Documents, and Downloads) to another physical drive.

How old is the Windows Installation? Windows grows with every update. There is a good chance that is where your storage space has gone.

quote:

Out of the 232gb of total space, only 71.7gb is free. It used to be over 100...

Not discounting any of the previous comments to increase free space but with that ratio the question is" "what is the problem?".

You really don't have anything to worry about unless it is decreasing a fast rate.
70gb vs 100gb free space will make zero difference in performance.
When it gets down 10 or 20gb then I would be concerned and of course an option is always to migrate to a larger disk.
Not difficult or inordinately expensive.

Just buy a new bigger drive. They are so cheap now!

Several have recommended a new drive, so I took a gander at BezosWorlds offerings, you'd of course have to check compatibility but...

In fact checking my SSD it's in a similar situation 256GB and getting full, data is on other drives.

A 1TB Crucial SSD on Amazon is on sale for $47

Link

Before messing with pagefiles and any settings in Windows that work get a larger drive, install a fresh copy of Win11, install any programs on the new drive, then make the current drive a slave for data storage.

Then go up and clean up that drive, removing program and windows from it, copy the data off to a big USB first, then clean up the 256 drive and put your data on it...

^^^Why not do the free stuff first...It's not like it cost anything! 250GB is PLENTY for any Windows OS and right now the OP's SSD is only 68% full anyway!

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
^^^Why not do the free stuff first...It's not like it cost anything! 250GB is PLENTY for any Windows OS and right now the OP's SSD is only 68% full anyway!

Well, that's no fun.

but, I want to buy something!

Ran it picked up just a few GB of space, between the outlook mail file 23GB, which is pretty large since I keep a lot of older reference mail and the rest of the OS stuff, not much data other than my docs which is 29GB so not much to clean out.

Checking the specs I can add a 3.5 SATA 2TB drive up to 6 GB/s WD has a Caviar HD for $84, segate has a barracuda for $57

^^^23GB PST file huh...Wow, that's a lunker!

I'd bet the VAST majority of people don't even download email onto their personal PC, and damn few are using Outlook! Most, I'm sure most are using Gmail or some other web-based email provider, and never download anything except the occasional attachment. Of course, if anything, many 'could' have THOUSANDS of Pics and Videos that 'might' be backed up on their PCs to compete with your 23GB archive. More than likely though, as nearly everyone takes all their pics & video w/ their phones now, they're utilizing a web-based/cloud backup scheme for that as well.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
^^^23GB PST file huh...Wow, that's a lunker!

I'd bet the VAST majority of people don't even download email onto their personal PC, and damn few are using Outlook!

I download email and I use Outlook. I preserve all important email in the form of .pst files. I leave nothing on the servers.

The real surprise is that a 23 gigabyte .pst file is not corrupted. Microsoft (or a third party) has or had a tool- PST2GB- which is used to attempt to recover .pst file which have become corrupted at past the 2 gigabyte files size. A 23 gigabyte .pst file that retains integrity is remarkable.

The recommendation to disable hibernation in order to recover disk space is a good one. I would never use hibernation mode anyway. Sometimes, a machine will not wake up from hibernation.

^^^Para, I don't include you in the 'VAST majority' of people by most measures, and certainly believe you to be exceptional in many respects! And that's a good thing! Just sayin'

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
On Desktop use ~ you are usually looking at excess user files in the primary profile ~ pics, videos, docs, email.

Even if my C: drive has ONLY...ONLY...Windows 10 O/S??? I save EVERYTHING onto my D: or F: SSDs. My E: drive is the nightly backup of my C: and D: drives.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
On Desktop use ~ you are usually looking at excess user files in the primary profile ~ pics, videos, docs, email.

Even if my C: drive has ONLY...ONLY...Windows 10 O/S??? I save EVERYTHING onto my D: or F: SSDs. My E: drive is the nightly backup of my C: and D: drives.

Your profile will still be on C: unless you moved it to another drive.
Additionally, there may or may not be files there if you saved or moved the files to a data drive.
Windows will use the profile location by default unless you specify otherwise or consciously aka manually save the files to a different drive.
The default location is C:\Users\{profile name}.
You can always verify where the files reside with the file/folder apps we mentioned previously.

Copy…thanks!!