Q4OS Forum

sloth

Member

Registered: 2025-07-02

Posts: 4

Windows Uninstaller Issue

So I installed Q4OS into my Windows 10 to try it out, I made a 128 GB install on a 500 GB drive and it worked well but I have another hard drive I would rather put a full installation on so I ran the .exe to uninstall... it works, sort of... it is gone but my Windows drive is still missing about 100 GBs of storage now. I thought this was supposed to be completely removed? Can anyone clue me in on where to find files and folders to delete so I can get my hard drive space back?

crosscourt

Member

From: Wash DC

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 2,423

Re: Windows Uninstaller Issue

Did you go into the Windows 10 drive manager and see if there is an unallocated 100gb partition? Im assuming once you got rid of the Q4OS install, whatever space that was used for that install, still exists but isn't allocated any more.

Last edited by crosscourt (Yesterday 04:14)

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Q4OS KDE 5.8  full desktop - Lenovo M73 Thinkcentre Tiny

sloth

Member

Registered: 2025-07-02

Posts: 4

Re: Windows Uninstaller Issue

Thanks for the response, yeah that was the first thing I did. It shows my whole drive is still one partition. From my understanding it installs inside Windows since I did find a Linux64 folder, which is empty, in Windows.

crosscourt

Member

From: Wash DC

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 2,423

Re: Windows Uninstaller Issue

I've never used it myself but after doing some research, it does install within Windows so you'll more than likely need to look around to see where that 100gb of space went.  The faq for the installer on the front page of the site indicates it should completely uninstall itself without issue.

https://www.q4os.org/dqa014.html

Last edited by crosscourt (Yesterday 05:32)

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Q4OS KDE 5.8  full desktop - Lenovo M73 Thinkcentre Tiny

sloth

Member

Registered: 2025-07-02

Posts: 4

Re: Windows Uninstaller Issue

Well the presence of a Linux64 folder and my loss of space proves the faq is wrong. It definitely is still taking up space because I had the option to install 256 GBs but chose not to and now I couldn't install 256 GBs even if I wanted because I don't have that much space anymore.

I have looked through Windows files and folders but other than that empty folder I don't see anything out of the ordinary. I don't know if everything was in there or not. There's no documentation on where the files get installed exactly and I didn't think to look before uninstalling.

I tried removing files using a storage cleanup in Windows and that only freed up a small amount of space (around 6 GBs). I checked add/remove programs and there's nothing in there. I just ran a system restore to a day before installing Q4OS and that didn't do anything.

I don't NEED the space it just bugs me that it is gone.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 5,044

Website

Re: Windows Uninstaller Issue

We are not able to reproduce that. All the files that belongs to Q4OS installation went into Linux64 folder. You only need to remove it to free the space. It's just what uninstaller does.

We would guess the 100G space loss isn't connected to Q4OS anyhow, rather some Windows update or some other applications. However we admit we just don't know.

In anyway you can easily count Windows folders sizes, make a sum and see how files and folders occupy the disk space. Subsequently you can conclude what files take the space in question.

sloth

Member

Registered: 2025-07-02

Posts: 4

Re: Windows Uninstaller Issue

Thanks for the response. It looks like something triggered Windows hibernate to re enable itself... I had disabled it and in turn it deleted the huge storage space it occupied. (I have 128 GBs of RAM so it uses a minimum of over 50 GBs of drive space - 40%) It was taking up around 80 GBs.

I do not know if installing Q4OS triggered this change, doubt it could but who knows. Maybe Windows just being Windows and not doing what I tell it to.

So this accounts for most of the space I was missing and I will assume the small amount left was just other files and perhaps Windows updates. Windows likes to continue to grow bigger and bigger without ever installing anything.

crosscourt

Member

From: Wash DC

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 2,423

Re: Windows Uninstaller Issue

It could have been a recent Win 10 update that caused it. Most members here onsite that have used the installer haven't had issues of this nature, but glad you got it figured out.

Last edited by crosscourt (Yesterday 21:54)

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Q4OS KDE 5.8  full desktop - Lenovo M73 Thinkcentre Tiny