Windows got its space from Microsoft's early development efforts and partnerships.
Windows got its space from Microsoft's early development efforts and partnerships.
This situation isn’t unusual. Files and folders can lose their thumbnails due to various reasons like system updates, background processes, or storage issues. The sudden jump in available space might be caused by Windows reorganizing files or clearing temporary data. It’s possible the system automatically freed up space after a certain period.
Disk cleanup could have executed, but it's unclear. More crucial is understanding why your storage space is limited. Did you perform a manual cleanup? Consider using tools like WizTree to see which files are consuming space.
It appears Disk Cleanup removed roughly 600 megabytes of temporary files. Try running it manually to check if you can remove anything still present. System hibernation saves all RAM data into a hidden file on the C drive named hiberfil.sys. Windows stores this before shutting down during hibernation. If you don’t hibernate your computer—especially a desktop—and storage is limited, you can disable hibernation via the command prompt as an administrator: powercfg /hibernate off. This frees up space equivalent to your system memory. After clearing the drive, if you no longer need that space and wish to hibernate again, enable it with powercfg /hibernate on. A utility such as WinDirStat can help visualize folder usage and identify space hogs (like old Steam games or Linux ISO files). Updating rollback cache files also consumes significant space. https://windirstat.net/ If cleaning up isn’t enough, consider adding another drive or removing unused items.
You mentioned losing the thumbnails, which are kept in databases that Windows removed to conserve space. The files themselves remain unchanged. It would be best to clear out unused items, uninstall software, or upgrade your storage to avoid running low on space.
Windows 10 includes Storage Sense. When storage is limited, it activates automatically. It regularly removes unnecessary files, like temporary folders and Downloads, to free space. It also deletes unused Store apps and archives them without you needing to do anything. You can adjust these settings via the Settings panel.
Execute the Directory Report (DR) command with admin privileges. This enables scanning concealed files and displays disk space usage details.