I’m not sure if my problem is a Windows problem but suspect that is the case because a number of unrelated installed programs have been affected by a recent change.
I am running 64 bit WIN 10 Pro ver 22H2 on a Dell XPS 8950 desktop with a 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12600K 3.70 GHz processor. I have a 4T SSD C: drive. An analysis showed the drive to be 90% in use, which was highly suspect, as I have a separate 6T HD data drive. My initial attempt to free up space included:
- Uninstalling unused programs
- Using AOMEI Partition Assistant to move seldom used programs to another drive, leaving only a link that made Windows operate as if the program was still on the C: drive
Surprisingly this only increased free space by a few percentage points. I therefore used the same program to reverse the process and return all of the moved files back to the C: drive.
I was then able to drill down to see the size of all files still on the C: drive. I found that a file labeled HandyBackup was using 3T of my C: drive. I use HandyBackup ver 8.0 to do a daily data backup with files stored on a third drive (2T NVMe SSD).
In a recent Ask Woody newsletter (9/25/23), Deanna McElveen praised a program, Uninstalr, for its versatility. I was intrigued, especially by the program’s ability to find and remove leftover references to previously uninstalled programs. I used this program to uninstall a few leftover references as well as to uninstall the massive file labeled HandyBackup. The removal was successful.
A few days later I started having trouble with programs that were previously installed and previously working as expected. Several of these installed programs refused to open or gave error messages when trying to open. I’ve had to reinstall these programs. Some of the re-installs proceeded correctly but many did not. I then began to suspect that the file labled HandyBackup was not solely the actual HandyBackup program but contained some essential Windows files.
I examined the error messages from some of these failing programs to see any information that might help. One such error message pointed to a file that was missing (ose.exe). I secured a copy and stored it in the appropriate Windows directory. This did not help. Other error messages gave me hints as to other missing files. In an attempt to restore any and all missing Windows files, I have re-installed WIN 10 with an option to not delete personal files. This did not help.
I am at a loss as to what to try next. I am writing to many of the companies that provided the software that is now no longer working to see if they have any suggestions. I would also appreciate any suggestions from Ask Woody readers who have taken the time to wade through this story.
