Troubleshooting low disk space for a Windows cloud server

This article is intended to help customers who have received a low disk space
warning for a Microsoft® Windows® cloud server by providing remediation
steps.

Check Rackspace status

Before using the following steps, check
https://status.rackspace.com for open issues
that might be impacting your server instance.

Process overview

The following troubleshooting steps are described in detail in this article:

• Log in to the device.
• Check for open tickets.
• Determine the amount of disk space available.
• Clean up the C:\ drive.
• Verify disk space after the cleanup.

Log in to the device

Log in to your server by opening a remote desktop connection. For instructions,
see Log in to your server via RDP.

Check support tickets

Check your open support tickets for information about any incidents that might
be affecting the service. To check your open support tickets, log in to the
Cloud Control Panel and click Tickets >
Ticket List in the top navigation bar.

Determine the amount of disk space

To determine disk space, run the following steps:

1. Open the Windows File Explorer and click This PC.
2. Under Devices and drives, make note of the amount of free space.

Clean up the C:\ drive

If the low disk warning was for the C:\ drive, perform the following steps
to delete old or unnecessary system files and folders:

Note: To delete a file from the command line, change directory to the
file's location and type del <file name>.

1. Open a command prompt.
2. Change directory to C:\temp. If the directory exists, delete all files and
   folders that are older than 7 days.
3. Change directory to C:\DRV. If the directory exists, delete all files and
   folders.
4. Change directory to C:\WINDOWS\Installer\$PatchCache$\UnManaged. If the
   directory exists, delete all files and folders that are older than 60 days.
5. Change directory to C:\WINDOWS\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed. If the
   directory exists, delete all files and folders that are older than 60 days.
6. Change directory to C:\Windows\Minidump\. If the directory exists, delete
   all *.dmp files that are older than 60 days.
7. Change directory to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\. If
   the directory exists, delete all files and folders.
8. Empty the Recycle Bin by right clicking on the desktop icon and clicking on
   Empty.

Verify disk space after the cleanup

To determine disk space, run the following steps:

1. Open the Windows File Explorer.
2. Under Devices and drives, make note of the amount of free space.

Conclusion

If you've followed these troubleshooting steps but disk space is still low,
contact the Rackspace Support team by creating a support ticket in the
Cloud Control Panel by clicking Tickets > Create Ticket
in the top navigation bar. To expedite the issue, include all of the
troubleshooting steps that you have already taken.