Have Problems with your Disks Getting Eaten Up by Windows 7?

There is a common problem with Windows 7 machines where the disk gets eaten up. This is caused by a log file compression bug that can fill up your hard drive. We do have a manual fix for this but we are not certain this can work in all cases.

Why does this happen?

This seems to be happening with Windows 7, 8, and 2008 R2, there are possibly other versions as well. The problem is accumulated log files have grown to a size that overwhelms. If you delete the files, you can start fresh, until you run out of hard drive space again. 

How do you fix this?

If your Windows 7 or 2008 R2 hard drive is overwhelmed by log files, here's what to do:

1. Stop the Windows Modules Installer service.

   • Click Start and in the Search box type: services.msc
   • Press Enter and you see the Local Services list

2. Scroll down to the Windows Modules Installer service and double-click on it.

3. Under Service status, click Stop. Click OK.

4. Use File Explorer to go to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS. (If Windows is installed on a different hard drive, you have to go to that drive.)

5. Move or rename all of the files in that folder.

6. For good measure, delete all the "cab*" files in your Windows Temp folder, typically C:\Windows\Temp. Makecab won't ever delete them, so you get to.

7. Reboot.

Having issues with your disk getting eaten up?