Update: my boot questions have been answered, however now I'm trying to determine the best method cloning my hard drive without having access to windows.


I was using JDownloader and I forgot to change my drive from C: to E: my external, and I filled up my C: drive. Now my damn laptop won't boot up, and it won't recover through the startup repair tool either. I got like 10gb in recycle bin that I was trying to clean when it froze and becoke unresponsive. I restarted thw computer and now it won't boot up at all. What can I do? I have windows 10 pro by the way.

Thanks for any input and help.

 

Last edited: May 6, 2025

there is some software that you can put on disk and boot from then delete files and what not. you could also go into a linux distrobpossibly as well just to clean it at least. you need a comouter to burn these from though

 

Hmm I have windows 10 by the way. Would I download to a flash drive?

 

You have to use a USB boot disk of some kind, like HiRens Boot CD to erase .RECYCLE (trash) folder and unnecessary files, Rufus to make the USB boot disk, and a flash drive 8GB or more, then just boot from the boot drive into the PE-OS and use file manager for that.

 

I know about Hirens but I was never sure how to use it. It boots througb the bios or how does it work? Do you have to change the BIOS or boot sequence?

 

That happened to me last year, in my case the windows was corrupted and many tech guys told me that my HDD was done. BUT I just grabbed a 8gb cheap pendrive from the nearest batcave, made a bootable windows for it, got a new clean cheap SSD from china in a week and installed windows using the NEW SSD. ONCE the windows was running fine, I changed the SSD with my previus HDD and boom, everything OK, all my files were OK, I cleaned it made like 4 gmails to store some family pictures and saved all my other stuff on a external drive. So what I'm saying is, if you can just test your HDD on other machine and see if it's ok. Every said "professional" told me my HDD was dead but it's fine.

 

You can create a USB flash drive using tools like Rufus. You just have to change your boot sequence, (in BIOS settings) so the computer will boot directly from the OS you put onto the USB flash drive. It loads the entire thing into memory, but then you can mount your real internal SSD in it, access whatever you have to delete, and thats it. Reboot with the flash drive removed. It has been a while since I did this, so you may need to switch your boot sequence back to its original state.

 

If you have an internet connection and can at least get to the command prompt, you might be able to salvage windows by running the dism command. I believe you can do it by booting while holding shift+F10, or just by having a few unsuccessful boots in a row. After that, just run "Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" (without quotes, of course).

 

This is a classic example of why you should always keep an up-to-date backup of your boot disk. Another key practice is to avoid using the C drive for data: use additional disks for that.

 

Wow damn they said the HDD was dead lol. I'm pretty sure mines find its not returning any errors judges not enough space available to load windows lol. Damn I really don't want to have to go through all that lol

 

Damn I was really hoping it was a simple fix somehow I could open cmd or power shell and delete that 10 fb in my recycle bin so the damn thing will start up lol.. fucking Kontakt libraries

 

That was what I'm about to try now hopefully it works for me otherwise I made need to get some system repair tools from a flash drive or a windows restore file

 

Right lol I'm a dummy I'd been watching my C: always trying to maintain around 100 gb but I downloaded a huge Kontakt library and I forgot to change the drives . I thought I had a back up but apparently its not finding it

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2025

Did you already try booting in Safe mode with command prompt?

You do realize how basic this is? Some 6 hours after your first post, when ChatGPT would spit out perfect instructions in 5 seconds...

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2025

Fix: Free Up Space on the C: Drive Without Booting Normally
Option 1: Use a Windows 10 Installation USB to Boot into Recovery and Free Space
You'll need access to a second computer to create the USB if you don't already have one.

1. Create a Windows 10 Installation USB:
   
   • Use the Windows Media Creation Tool.
     
     
   • Create a bootable USB drive (8GB+).
     
2. Boot from the USB:
   
   • Insert the USB into your laptop.
     
     
   • Power on and enter the boot menu (usually F12, Esc, or F2 depending on your laptop).
     
     
   • Choose to boot from the USB.
     
3. Enter Command Prompt:
   
   • On the installation screen, click “Repair your computer” at the bottom-left.
     
     
   • Navigate to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.
     
4. Delete Files or Empty Recycle Bin:
   
   • You can now manually delete files using Command Prompt. For example:
     
     cmd
     del "C:\Users\YourUsername\Downloads\*.*"
     
     
   • To empty the recycle bin, run:
     
     cmd
     rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.Bin
     
   Caution: These deletions are permanent — do not delete important files unless you're sure.
   
   
5. Restart and Try to Boot Normally:
   
   • If you freed up enough space (~2–3 GB at minimum), Windows may now boot normally.
     

 

or
1.you can download GhostSpectre Windows 10
2.make a bootable USB pendrive with RUFUS
3.boot from this pendrive and INSTEAD of reinstall windows, you can use the file explorer to empty recycle bin and delete other files

When you boot GhostSpectre usb flashdrive you get a screen where you have the option to install Windows and other options, like use file explorer

 

you dont need any tools at all you can just in the startup repair tool choose open command prompt, then navigate:
"C:"
next "del /f /s C:\$Recycle.Bin\*"

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2025

+1 to people saying that Recycle Bin contents are in C:\$Recycle.Bin\ and a further note: it's not a real directory as such so it's a pain to search in command line. Something like this has been helpful to me in the past using PowerShell:

Code:

$searchdirectories = "C:\Users\$($env:username)\AppData\Local\Temp\", 'C:\$Recycle.bin';

foreach ($file in (
    get-childitem $searchdirectories -recurse -force -file |
    sort-object -property length -descending |
    select -first 20))
    {
        write-host "$($file.fullname) -- size: $($file.length) bytes"
    };

Unless you're running as Admin you might get some permission errors, ignore. That lists 20 biggest files in the Temp directory and the Recycle Bin. Delete as needed.

Applications shouldn't assume anything in the Temp directory persisting between reboots so technically you can wipe out all of it's content.

Code:

remove-item -path "c:\users\$env:username\appdata\local\temp\*" -recurse -force -erroraction silentlycontinue

This will skip files that might be in use.

 

you can pull the drive, attach to a usb interface and mount if from another computer.
now you can delete away.. at least enough to get a functional system.

btw I did this (filled up my boot drive) last week, and I guess I caught it in time, as when I got an error message from my torrent client, I immediately moved a 17gb directory to another drive (a 14 tb usb drive I always keep atached) and all was well once again. - windows 7 is what we mostly use here at the Furbish estate..

if you can boot from cd, you can use hiren's boot cd to mount the filled drive and erase or copy off whatever files you want to make space..