Windows 10 Bug: DoSVC files occupy all hard drive space

Martin Brinkmann
Jul 3, 2015
Updated • Jul 5, 2017
Windows, Windows 10
|
28

So I started my PC running Windows 10 as usual and noticed on Steam that there was an update for Team Fortress 2 available.

The update would not complete and the error message returned was that there was not enough disk space available to apply it.

This on a 160 Gigabyte Solid State Drive with Windows 10, some apps and two Steam games installed. Something was not right and I decided to investigate to find out more about that.

I downloaded WizTree, a free program that displays the storage space distribution on the drive you select, and let it ran its course on the main drive Windows 10 was installed on.

The result was astonishing. Not only did the program confirm that zero space was available for the drive, it highlighted that the folder dosvc in the Windows directory occupied more than 81 Gigabyte.

The full folder path is C:\Windows\Logs\dosvc.

A total of 333436 files were found in the folder most with a size of 256 or 512 Kilobyte, the file extension etl and yesterday as the creation date.

Dosvc, or more precisely DoSVC, can be linked to the Windows service Delivery Optimization which, according to its description "performs content delivery optimization tasks".

delivery optimization

Now, if you stop the service you will notice that most logs get deleted automatically in the process.

  1. Tap on the Windows-key, type services and hit enter to open the Services Manager of the operating system.
  2. Locate "Deliver Optimization" in the list of local services. It's status should show that it is running.
  3. Right-click on it and select stop.
  4. Double-click on it afterwards and switch its startup type from automatic to disabled.

This reduced the occupied storage space to 30.3 Gigabyte and 123871 files in the directory. Since I had no other option at this point in time, I made the decision to remove all files in the dosvc folder to free up disk space.

This can be done in File Explorer for instance or any other file manager you may be using. You will receive a prompt that you need administrative privileges to delete the files.

Tip: Hold down Shift while you right-click and select delete or hit the delete button to bypass the Recycle Bin.

The filling up of the hard drive by the service is a bug obviously, but it is a serious one, especially on Solid State Drive systems thanks to the number of files that get written to the folder as a consequence.

Summary
Windows 10 running out of space? Check the Dosvc directory
Article Name
Windows 10 running out of space? Check the Dosvc directory
Description
If you receive messages that your hard drive is full, you may want to check the dosvc directory on Windows 10 as it may be the reason.
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Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Zero said on November 22, 2016 at 8:20 am
    Reply

    ThankYou So Much… Really Helped Me…

  2. Tomek said on December 18, 2015 at 12:03 am
    Reply

    Thank you for wizztree. Had the same story as Ron R – avg web tune up. Cleaned over 100gb. Anyway I cannot remove the avg – just doesn’t start to uninstall… Anyone knows what to do? (I used usual system tool for uninstal and also Glary Utilities)…

    1. Ron R. said on December 18, 2015 at 3:41 pm
      Reply

      Not sure if Tomek had or is having the same problem I did, but; I have an always on WiFi, I temporarily turned it off because all my free space filled up as fast as I deleted items. I then deleted some very large files & emptied my recycle bin just to make a little free space on my hard drive, (I deleted some old videos). Again, I used CCleaner – free, not because it is fancy, it just puts several applications I use all in the same place.

      I then began the uninstall with WiFi still off. After it begins, you need to turn WiFi back on because this is one of those uninstalls that takes you to their page asking “Why are you deleting me, tell us why?”. The uninstall will not complete until it does that. Plus do not allow it to reinstall during the next update.

      Once deleted, my disk usage went to it’s normal usage immediately, about 1/2 my disk size and has remained there ever since – ‘so far’.

      I did place a comment on the AVG website about this matter, anybody having this same problem please do the same, maybe they will have an easy fix soon.

  3. Ron R. said on December 12, 2015 at 4:16 am
    Reply

    I had this same issue, unsure, but think it started soon after a Win 10 update. In my case it was AVG Web Tuneup which also had a search toolbar. I disabled the toolbar a long while back, but never deleted the Web Tuneup program itself.

    After hours of moving and saving files before they got lost to what I thought was a virus and searching online for answers and running every malware program I could find. I came across this program “TreeSize Free” that list all files and what they take up. Confusing at first, it showed my “User/APPS/” file taking up all free space on my hard drive.

    Looking further I saw a recurring file, AVG Web Tuneup, (neshdesign above was on the right track). AVG AV itself has been good to me for many, many years, just the Web Tuneup was bad.

    Just take it out with Windows using ‘settings’ or I used ‘CCleaner’. Took forever because I had virtually zero disk space left. Once out, my disk usage went back to it’s previous amount, about half my drive size.

    Now Windows 10 may be the problem with a bug, so if you do not have AVG, it may be another ” Search Toolbar”, I think AVG’s is hosted by the “ASK Toolbar”. Check it out.

    One good thing, I actually backed up ALL my files finally. Good comes from bad sometimes.

  4. Ashwin Koshti said on September 3, 2015 at 9:41 am
    Reply

    Thanks for the tip, however i used wiztree and found a single file of 41GB created in my ‘Sharekhan’ (Trading brokers folder) folder under folder name Logs. Strange as it is not at all related to windows use.

  5. Dorel said on August 31, 2015 at 12:25 am
    Reply

    This did not resolved my issue, I’m out of space out of 250 GB Solid state HDD, 207 GB is reserved for system Files.
    Any Idea!?
    Thanks

  6. Jozsef said on July 14, 2015 at 5:04 am
    Reply

    Thank you for this. BTW, in the line describing the full folder path, you have inadvertently added an extra character to the file name.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on July 14, 2015 at 5:06 am
      Reply

      Thanks, corrected this.

  7. SCBright said on July 6, 2015 at 2:37 pm
    Reply

    This is why I installed every test build in a VM, it will never screw my real system.

  8. b003 said on July 6, 2015 at 4:07 am
    Reply

    Bookmarking now!

  9. Rocky said on July 5, 2015 at 6:46 pm
    Reply

    Hope we have the stable version soon.

  10. Testuser said on July 5, 2015 at 3:15 pm
    Reply

    This should be one more proof why a test version of Windows shouldn’t be used as a production system (if, then really only by experienced users). Somehow enough very inexperienced users have installed this as their main system, and are then even surprised if something doesn’t work. Even worse, if family members have this trouble because their wanna-be IT brother knows everything and has installed the system on every PC available. *sigh* (sadly a true story!)

  11. Z said on July 4, 2015 at 5:03 pm
    Reply

    Logs..
    Who does this ‘Optimization’ serve? not the user. More data burrying malarky. Windows has always crapped all over your system with your data, and obfuscated the methods and reasons. Nothing changes with MS.

  12. Edds said on July 4, 2015 at 3:26 pm
    Reply

    My dosvc folder is exactly 2,46MB big (14 files)… so no problem. Build 10162.

  13. Dwight Stegall said on July 4, 2015 at 3:08 pm
    Reply

    All I have n Drive C: is the operating system and installed programs. Everything else is on a partition so the system has less to keep track of. That keep Windows running like a sprinter.

  14. elben said on July 4, 2015 at 11:26 am
    Reply

    I was just planning to install the preview and got a doubt. If I install the preview, will the programs that I install on the preview get deleted when the final version is installed?

  15. James said on July 3, 2015 at 8:47 pm
    Reply

    I have the newest build 10162 and a 128 gig ssd and this is not a bug in this build.

    So maybe just a bug with that build.

  16. Joe said on July 3, 2015 at 5:33 pm
    Reply

    Got rid of 18.6gb on my C: drive – THANKS for publishing this tip.

  17. Purplemaize said on July 3, 2015 at 4:54 pm
    Reply

    Thanks Martin, my son and I play that game and we could not update last night. Thanks for the tip.

  18. Dave said on July 3, 2015 at 4:12 pm
    Reply

    On which build is this bug occurring?

    1. Collin said on July 3, 2015 at 6:17 pm
      Reply

      I went from 10130 to 59 and then started receiving this bug

      1. Dan82 said on July 3, 2015 at 6:55 pm
        Reply

        Me too. I’ve just taken a look at the drive image I made of my 10130 installation before the update and the folder only has 13 files in a total of 1.21MB used space. Once upgraded to the latest build, this has quickly shot up to almost 2GB.

        Well, I guess that’s what happens when you’re in line for the fast ring updates, it occasionally adds some more bugs to your system ;)

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on July 3, 2015 at 5:50 pm
      Reply

      I noticed it in 10158.

  19. Inderjeet said on July 3, 2015 at 2:58 pm
    Reply

    Thanks martin for the tip to solve this issue. May be the final release doesn’t have this this problem.

  20. Daniela said on July 3, 2015 at 11:41 am
    Reply

    Holy hell! :D

  21. Collin said on July 3, 2015 at 9:40 am
    Reply

    I just started having this issue earlier.. Was wondering how my Windows drive was completely maxxed out.

    1. neshdesign said on December 10, 2015 at 10:59 pm
      Reply

      hi, until a few minutes ago i was really concerned as i had the same issue. the issue is that IE stores everything so look for the AVG folder and your problem will be solved i just emptied 105GB from the IE stored files. its a joke. hope it helps

      1. Volt said on December 12, 2015 at 12:53 pm
        Reply

        That put me in the right track, and I found that the AVG Web TuneUp cache folder was taking up 163.9 GB!!! Why was it doing that?! My drive suddenly kept filling up a few days ago. Guess it’s time to uninstall that. Using WizTree made it easy to find. What a PITA otherwise.

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