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.VHDX files

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barryman:
I run Windows 10 and I suddenly seem to be getting short of space on my hard disk drive. Firstly I tried defragging it and the available space mysteriously went down more after doing that. I have now run one of those WinDirStat analysing programs and I have seen that there is a type of file extension at the top of the usage table - it's a .vhdx file called Hard Disk Image and accounts for 238 gigabytes !!

So, a) Can I safely delete this file - is it needed for anything ?
      b) If I can delete it, where do I find it and how to delete it ?
      c) Would there be any files/folders under "Hidden Items" in  File Explorer that I should look to delete ?

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated as I can't understand why my HDD is reducing

Lastly, my D drive shows a size of 830 gb. Disk Management says I have 141 gb free space. But I have totalled up all the individual directories on the D drive and they only total about 36ogb. So, surely I should have around 450 gb free space. Why the discrepancy?? I have read about Shadow Copy Storage taking up space and I attach screenshot showing Shadow storage on both C & D drives. I can understand it being on the C drive but I cannot understand what the 231 gb on the D drive is for?? Any ideas?

Boggin:
This is what a .vhhdx file is - https://www.lifewire.com/vhdx-file-2622849#:~:text=A%20file%20with%20the%20VHDX%20file%20extension%20is,from%20scratch%20or%20from%20backup%20software%20like%20Disk2vhd.

Have you installed a virtual hard drive for any reason ?

It looks like you can delete them but you may also need to check if you have a virtual drive.

This article describes how to remove that - https://www.thewindowsclub.com/delete-a-virtual-drive-in-windows

barryman:
Thank you so much for your reply. I have followed what you said and now know that the .VHDX files found in the WinDirStat scan refer to Windows System Image files that I already know about, so that's OK - I need them.

Next I went into Disk Management as suggested and found a partition that I have not seen previously (see screenshot). Can I use any program to delete the third one down (Disk 0 Partition 3) as I don't know how or why it's got there. It is certainly not needed and I am not sure which drive to then expand as I don't know which drive it is part of . Do I use something like Easeus or MiniTool to delete partition then expand the rest of the relevant drive??

Boggin:
I have that one as well and it's the recovery partition which gives you the advanced boot options.

barryman:
just added a last paragraph on posting re. Shadow Storage Images

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