HDD not giving back space

[Cat with the Gat]

First off, i'd like to apologize if this is in the wrong sub-forum

alright.. So I decided to install some mods for GTA V, I started out with about 13 GB of hard drive space.. fast forward a few minutes later and i'm down to about 10. I start installing the mods and I get an error "No hard drive space" uhh... what? so I delete the mods, wipe them from my pc 100% and now im back to.. 3 gb? uhh.. okay, maybe I just didnt uninstall them right? So I go and delete ALL of the affected folders (Which is most of the game content, I ended up deleting 40 GB of the game! thats a lot!) thinking I can verify the cache later and have them all back... Still 3 GB. W. T. F. ok.. so, I delete ALL of GTA 5 and now im back to 31 gb, I should be back to 60-70 GB (Thats 40GB of missing hard drive space!)

Please, Please someone help me with this.. I'm at a loss for words right now

[Seven7]

if it system partition, all this space in hidden restore points, + $:Tops:$:T + $UsnJrnl:$, + $Badclus if your disk have problem
try check file system, delete some restore points, clear steam download caches:
%steam%\depotcache\
%steam%\steamapps\downloading\
%steam%\steamapps\common\%gta folder%\

remove and recreate $:Tops:$:T and $UsnJrnl:$ in cmd.exe run as Administrator

fsutil resource info c:\
; ^check status transactions C:\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$TxfLog\$Tops:$T:$DATA
fsutil resource setautoreset true
; ^remove $Tops:$T:$DATA and set it autosize
fsutil usn deletejournal /n c:
; ^delete :\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$Extend\$UsnJrnl:$J
fsutil usn createjournal m=0 a=0 c:
; ^recreate :\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$Extend\$UsnJrnl:$J

[Cat with the Gat]

tried chkdsk, didnt help, no restore points, and whats "$:Tops:$:T and $UsnJrnl:$" and how do I remove it?

[WarmedxMints]

Don't forget your recyle bin. Although that's the least of your issues. It really is time for a cleanup or adding another HDD/SSD to your system.

It is good practice to always have around 10% of the drives capacity free. The drive needs free space to work with. Having so little could affect performance.

[Seven7]

it's super hidden journals of NTFS $:Tops:$:T - is parts of Windows Update system reserved space for update file system used with $:Reparse, normally it will auto shrink when not used, but some bags can make it extra large, some times few gb
$UsnJrnl:$J ~=same for user data

delete it only if they not used currently and your file system and disk surface checked, and dont have bad clasters

+ some data may be used in C:\ProgramData\Package Cache\
cache of distributives visual c++ they installed when you install game or application, that requires a certain version of components
+ cache in C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp\ when system install or update system files, old files not deleted, it moved here

what hdd or ssd you use? maybe it failure?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

The OS will state you are low of disk space (of the C / OS Drive anyways) once it dips below 10% free space (10% of the total formatted space available)

It is always a good idea to never tip below 10-15% free space on the OS drive.

It is fine if it is temporary (like when extracting files and such) but overall you will need this kind of a % to be free most times, so the OS and other apps (such as Steam + Games) can grow, download files, extract files, etc...

Plus a defrag app will generally not have enough room to move files around effectively if the free space dips too low (below 10% on average)

Run these to free up space:
- CCleaner (be mindful about Browser History or Cookies)

- Microsoft Disk Cleanup (select System Files to view all options)

- IObit Uninstaller ~ Setup for Deep/Power Cleaning Scans when uninstalling; use this app to uninstall things when needed, to which can do a much better job of scanning for and cleaning up residual files left over by most apps after a typical uninstall.

- Rid the System of System Restore Points after a few months of having the system running stable. You can pick/choose which Restore Points to remove (using CCleaner) if you do not wish to wipe them all out. And cap the size System Restore can use as well. Around 10-15GB is plenty of System Restore (a setting of around 1-2% for a 1TB HDD)

- Rid the system of Hibernation Mode if you have no use for this specifically. This does not interfere with and/or disable Sleep Mode, which works differently. You can disable Hibernation fully and the large amount of space it takes up, by pressing Winkey+R > type CMD > click OK > type POWERCFG -H OFF (for WinXP/Vista/7) -or- POWERCFG /HIBERNATE OFF (for Win8/10)