This topic describes the operations you should perform when a Windows-based ECS instance runs out of the disk space, including cleaning up space, uninstalling unwanted programs, and expanding disk capacity.

Overview of Practices

As business data increases, the disk space of ECS instances may be insufficient. As a result, applications may fail to run properly, system performance may deteriorate, and data loss may occur. Therefore, maintaining enough disk space is critical to guaranteeing the uptime and performance of your cloud servers.

There are usually the following ways to solve the problem with insufficient disk space:

• Cleaning up disk space by using a disk cleanup tool: You can use a disk cleanup tool to delete temporary files, files in the recycle bin, and other files that are no longer needed.

• Uninstalling unwanted programs: Review the programs and components installed on your cloud server and remove unwanted ones. You can also uninstall and delete programs and components on the control panel.

• Expanding disk capacity: You can choose to expand the disk space. For more information, see Scaling up EVS.

This practice will use the elastic cloud server of Windows 2016 Data Center Edition as an example to describe two methods to solve the problem with insufficient disk space, that is, "cleaning up disk space by using a disk cleanup tool" and "uninstalling unwanted programs". In addition to these two common methods, you need to periodically check the disk space and take proper measures for routine maintenance. For more information, see Disk Space Routine Maintenance in this topic.

Preparations Before Operation

Before you begin, plan and create resources.

Resource Planning

This practice uses the cloud server of Windows 2016 Data Center Edition as an example to describe how to clean up the disk space of the Windows-based cloud server. You need to plan resources in advance. The specific resources are as follows:

Resource	Resource Description	Quantity	Link for Details
ECS	The operating system is Windows 2016 Data Center Edition	1	ECS Billing
Elastic IP (EIP)	ECS must be bound to an elastic IP to download the installation package	1	EIP Billing

Creating Resources

· Create an elastic cloud server with the operating system image being Windows 2016 Data Center Edition. For more information, see Creating ECS.

· Create an elastic IP and bind it to the elastic cloud server. For more information, see Purchasing an EIP and Binding ECS Instance

Operation Steps

This topic describes two methods to clean up disk space, including using a disk cleanup tool and uninstalling unwanted programs.

Cleaning Up Disk Space Using a Disk Cleanup Tool

In the following steps, the operating system of the cloud server is Windows 2016 Data Center Edition. The returned information is for reference only.

Log in to the console.
Click in the upper left corner of the console and select a region. In this topic, East China 1 is selected.
Select Compute and click ECS to go to the ECS page.
Remotely log in to the Windows-based ECS instance by referring to Overview of Windows ECS Login.
In the ECS, click the Start icon in the lower left corner of the desktop. On the left side of the pop-up menu bar, choose Windows Administrative Tools -> Disk Cleanup . The operation is shown in the following figure:
Before the Disk Cleanup window is displayed, the system will display a "Scan and Calculate Disk Space" window to automatically calculate the space that can be released on drive C, as shown in the following figure:
After the disk space is scanned and calculated (this process takes 3-5 minutes), the Disk Cleanup window is displayed, as shown in the following figure:
Note:

The cloud server instance has only one system disk. Therefore, you do not need to select a drive. In this example, drive C is selected. If there are other data disks, you have to select a drive before this step. You can choose to clean up drive C or other disk partitions.
On this page, files that can be deleted are displayed in the " Files to delete " pop-up window. You can select the files to delete and click OK . At this time, the "Are you sure you want to permanently delete these files" dialog box displays. If you click Delete Files , the files are permanently deleted and the disk space is cleaned up. If you click Cancel, the deletion action is canceled , as shown in the following figure:

Uninstalling Unwanted Programs

In the following steps, the operating system of the cloud server is Windows 2016 Data Center Edition. The returned information is for reference only.

Log in to the console.
Click in the upper left corner of the console and select a region. In this topic, East China 1 is selected.
Select Compute and click ECS to go to the ECS page.
Remotely log in to the Windows-based ECS instance by referring to Overview of Windows ECS Login.
In the ECS, click the Start icon in the lower left corner of the desktop. The commonly-used programs menu bar is displayed, as shown in the following figure:
Choose Windows Server > Control Panel from the menu bar. The All Control Panel Items window is displayed, as shown in the following figure:
In the window, click and choose Programs and Functions . The Uninstall or Change a Program page is displayed, as shown in the following figure:
On this page, select the program to uninstall, right-click and choose Uninstall , as shown in the following figure:
After you choose Uninstall , the Are you sure you want to uninstall the program dialog box is displayed. Click Yes to start the uninstallation and release disk space, or click No to cancel the uninstallation.

Disk Space Routine Maintenance

The disk space is closely related to service performance. You must periodically check and maintain the disk space during daily use. The following gives some suggestions on routine maintenance:

• Compressing files: For files that need large storage space, files or folders that are not commonly used, you can compress them using a file compression tool such as WinRAR or 7-Zip. This reduces the file size and frees up disk space.

• Periodic cleanup: Monitor the disk usage in real time and use a cleanup tool to periodically clean up temporary, obsolete, and redundant files to release disk space.

• Uninstalling unwanted programs: Uninstall unwanted programs and programs that are not commonly used in daily use to free up storage space.

• Moving files to other drives: If multiple drives (such as C:, D:, etc.) are available, you can move some files or folders to other drives to free up disk space. Be sure to update the path settings of the relevant application or system after moving the files.

• Using cloud storage services: You can store some files to cloud storage, such as eSurfing Cloud object-oriented storage and eSurfing Cloud Scalable File Service, to reduce the disk space usage on the cloud server.

Elastic Volume Service

Addressing the Problem with Insufficient Space of Windows-based ECS