Freeing Disk Space on C:

DxO PhotoLab
1

Hi,

I recently noticed that the free space on my Windows SSD C: drive was so small that it was stopping an application from running. A quick check with WizTree showed that folders like C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\DxO\DxO PhotoLab 5 took up 5.3GB of the drive. I noticed that I had 6 versions of Optics Pro and PhotoLab installed and thought it might help if I uninstalled everything except the final version, so I did that.

However I was wrong: the space used on C: was unchanged.

My question is can I just delete the folders for the uninstalled versions to free 5.3GB or would that cause a problem? If so what can I do to free up space?

Thanks,
Mike

2

In my view, if it has the version number in the name of the folder, it should be safe to delete. If it’s just called, e.g., “DxO PhotoLab” or even “DxO” then I would leave it.

Of course, you have backups, right? :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
3

Could change the folder names first and see what happens.

1 Like
4

That would only be the case if the older programs (Optics Pro, PhotoLab, etc.) were not installed on C:. If you know that they were in fact installed on C: (in C:\Program Files\ or some other location on C:), then make sure the files really were removed from that location. They shouldn’t be in your Recycle Bin, either.

If the apps really are uninstalled, then simply refresh your “This PC” folder - the free disk space might not be showing correctly. Right-click on C: and select Properties. You’ll see the free disk space reported again. If it doesn’t look right, select the Tools tab and consider running a disk check or the optimize routine. These should run automatically as needed, but if your disk was full for a while Windows might need a little help with its housekeeping.

In Settings, select System and see what the layout on your C: drive is. You might see recommendations here, too.

Note that if C: is completely full, you might not be able to do any of this without errors. In that case, let us know. That’s a tough problem to overcome, but it’s possible.

You can manually remove the folders pertaining to old versions of DxO software in the AppData folder tree. Those aren’t all removed when you uninstall the software. But uninstalling the software should free up quite a large amount of space. Note that anything you delete will probably go to the Recycle Bin unless it’s too big to recycle. That will not free up disk space - you’ll need to also empty the Recycle Bin to do that.

And yes, back up your stuff first! :wink:

5

Deleting files doesn’t result in more free disk space. Deleting is just moving the files to the trash folder. You must also empty the trash folder to get more free disk space.
It’s called the Recycle Bin.

George

3 Likes
6

Hi all,
just for info…in Windows (DIFFERENCE to Mac) you can change 2 locations for Database and cache

image
image785×671 31.5 KB

image
image783×661 21.1 KB

the advantages are

  • your system disk got’s more space
  • you can use an external SSD or internal HD/SSD
    -your userprofile ismuch smaller and this sppeds up loading Windows

best regards

Guenter

2 Likes
7

or use shift del and that bi passes trash.

8

Did you empty the Recycle Bin after the uninstalls?

1 Like
9

Hi,

Thanks for all the replies!

Just to be clear, the reason that the space on C: stayed the same was that the folders and files weren’t deleted. The uninstalls just left them there. It has nothing to do with the Recycle Bin which contains just a few small files.

Guenter: Re moving the location of the data base and cache, does that have a noticeable effect on speed if I go from my C: SSD to my E: HDD? Moving either would be a help.

John: Thanks for the Shift-Del to delete bypassing the Recycle Bin. That’s handy.

I make a back up image of C: every night so I can recover anything I need for at least 2 weeks and maybe up to 6 mo. Experience is an effective teacher and it’s taught me well.

I looked in the folders of interest (DxO, and I also found DxO_Labs for Optics Pro 11 and View Point 3), and everything for the applications that I uninstalled was old. I deleted everything in DxO_Labs, and in DxO I deleted everything but “DxO PhotoLab 6” and “DxO.PhotoLab.exe_StrongName_addo3jomrfkt2faiwwfxxb444r1xfvlh” which appears to have current configuration data.

I ran the current PhotoLab 6 and all seems well.

Thanks,
Mike

10

I depends of the speed of the SSD and the connection. An internal SSD most times is faster than on external USB, but there are a lot of paramters that affect this.

11

Did you get VP4 or do you still need VP 3 ?!?

12

If you’re that short on space on your C: drive, you may want to consider reassigning your ‘user’ folders to a different physical drive, if you haven’t already.

13

If the empty disk space didn’t change is it not the first thing one does: looking if the files are gone?? And if so to empty the trash. If you deleted them afterwards you still have to empty the trash.

George

14

Hello @MikeA01730

there are also other possibilities to check.

And in your used Browser you can delete Temporary Internet files. Lot of people carrying this files over the time which is not necessary.

And…don’t delete files you are not sure if they are system relevant!

Have fun

Guenter

15

But use it with caution because deleted is ‘really*’ deleted in that case.

(* aside from file recovery tools but on a much used disk as your OS disk your mileage can vary with those)

16

Those folders are cache , database and settings.
It’s pretty safe to delete , as long as you got your .dop files , or if you don’t touch the latest version and only use that version.

Uninstalling a program has nothing to do with the recycle bin (an uninstaller doesn’t use that ) , but it also won’t touch those local files that are left behind in the ‘%appdata%’ and %localappdata%’ folder.

So removing them by hand is a good thing to do if you are low on space.

Another tool to recover disk space is to run the ‘storage sense’ module in recent windows versions.

Also, the oldskool disk cleanup tool is still around. You need to run it twice , once for user files and once for system files . Specially system files , can clear up backups of older windows versions in case of a big windows update .

The only thing that i don’t blindly trust, is my downloads folder. I dont want that to be cleaned up by some automatic tool :).

Also, there might be ‘restore points’. When software gets installed , or drivers or other stuff , there is a snapshot made so you can restore to the point before. By default thats allowed to use a certain percentage of disk space. Cleaning the points might free up a chunk as well.

17

Thanks for this. I specifically installed a 1TB SSD (addition to my 512GB NVMe C: drive) to use as a swap drive, but I didn’t know PL had those settings. Old Photoshop habits. :slight_smile:

1 Like