Fixed: C Drive Is Getting Full Automatically in Windows Server 2012 R2

Why C Drive Is Getting Full in Windows Server 2012 R2?

There are many reasons of why C drive getting full automatically in Windows Server 2012 R2. This issue also exists with other Windows Server versions (eg. 2019/2016/2012). Before we start to understand the solutions, let's analyze the reasons why C Drive is getting full in Windows Server 2012 R2:

♨ Windows continuously generates a lot of system junk files on the C drive. You'll find them in caches, logs, thumbnails, downloads, internet files, and more.
♨ Some of you may know that temporary files can crash or slow down your system. If you don't delete these temporary files, you will get a C drive full error in Windows Server.
♨ Windows native backups, restore points, and updates can take up a lot of space.
♨ There are too many large programs on the C drive, occupying a large amount of computer memory, resulting in insufficient disk space.

When this happens, some programs may not function properly. You need to fix this problem quickly to get your computer back to work.

How to Fix ‘C Drive Full’ Error in Windows Server 2012 R2

Once you understand the cause of this problem, you can try the two methods provided below to help you solve the “C drive is getting full automatically in Windows Server 2012 R2” problem.

#1. Clean Up Disk to Increase Free Space

When Windows Server 2012 R2 reports full disk but files do not add up, it may be caused by junk files and too many temporary files on the hard drive. You can try performing a disk cleanup to free up space. How to free up space on C drive in Windows Server 2012 R2? Follow the steps below.

1. Click Server Manager on bottom left, click the second option “Add roles and features”.

   

2. Click Next till you see the Features.
3. Click the check-box in front of “Desktop Experience” and click Next.

4. Within several minutes, the installation complete, click Close. Restart the server to finish adding features.

5. After rebooting Windows Server 2012 R2 to desktop, open This PC. Right click C drive and select Properties.
6. In the Properties window, navigate to the General tab and click on Disk Cleanup button.

7. Select the files you want to safely delete and hit OK.

8. After the freeing up complete, you may redo step 7 to Clean up system files.

After completing these steps, you can free up some disk space more or less.

#2. Transfer C Drive Data to Another Drive

You can free up some disk space with Windows built-in tool Disk Cleanup, but generally you don't get a lot of free space, so the C drive will be full again in the near future. Here is another solution to help you solve the problem of C drive getting full automatically in Windows Server 2012 R2. You can try transferring or migrating the data on the C drive to another drive.

Here I introduce you a reliable disk cloning software to help you clone C drive to another drive, which can help you migrate all data and system-related files to another drive with just a few clicks. The System Clone function provided by this software will automatically select the C drive for you, so there is no need to worry about cloning the wrong drive. Besides System Clone, it also enables you to perform Disk Clone and Partition CLone. With the help of AOMEI Backupper, you can easily boot your computer from the cloned hard drive without any boot issues.

You can first see how to use it to transfer the data on your C drive to another disk. Click the download button below to install this software on your computer.

1. Launch AOMEI Backupper and you will see a dark blue interface. Click Clone -> System Clone in order. C drive and System Reserved Partition are selected by default. 

2. Next, you need select a destination disk to clone the source disk to.

   

✭ Tip: You can use this software to clone MBR disk to MBR, MBR to GPT, GPT to MBR, or GPT to GPT.

3. Then you can see the relevant clone information in the Operation Summary page. After confirmation, click Start Clone to transfer C drive data to another drive.

   

Useful Tips:
✶ SSD Alignment: If the destination disk is an SSD, it’s recommended to select this option. Because it can improve the writing and reading speed of SSD disk.
✶ Sector By Sector Clone: This software adopts “Intelligent Clone” by default, which just clones the used sectors on the disk. So it enables you to clone a larger drive to a smaller one. But if you want to clone all sectors on the source disk, you can try this option.
✶ Edit Partitions: This option allows you to adjust the partition size or location on the destination disk. Among them, if you choose to Add unused space to all partitions, the destination disk partitions will be automatically resized to the entire disk, appropriate for the disk size. You will not encounter the “cloned hard drive shows wrong size” error.

Note✍: If you clone the C drive (on a MBR disk) to a GPT disk, you need to boot into BIOS and change legacy to UEFI boot mode. Otherwise, you will encounter the problem – clone MBR to GPT won’t boot.

Besides Clone function, AOMEI Backupper can provide you with other useful functions:

◉ 4 Backup Methods: File Backup, System Backup, Disk Backup and Partition Backup. You can use its Backup function to protect your files in your daily life. You can use it to set up automatic backups, saving time by eliminating repetitive actions.
◉ Backup Scheme: It provides you 3 backup methods - Full Backup, Incremental Backup and Differential Backup. Among which incremental backup and differential backup can help you save target disk space.
◉ Different Sync Options: You can use it to sync your files to different cloud storages, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox. Besides cloud storage, you can also sync folders to network locations, external/internal hard drives, or NAS devices.

Conclusion

This article provides you with 2 solutions of C drive getting full automatically in Windows Server 2012 R2. Although Disk Cleanup can help you free up some free space, the free space freed up is very limited, and some junk files will still be generated during your future use of the computer. In order to avoid encountering the problem of full C drive again, cloning the C drive is undoubtedly a better choice.

In the future, if you want to upgrade your computer's hard drive, you can easily use AOMEI Backupper to help you migrate your system and all your data. It ensures that you can successfully boot your computer from the cloned hard drive after cloning.