When your Windows 10 computer runs into the Blue Screen of Death issue it creates memory dump files which contains the memory of the computer at the time of the crash. This data can be used to determine the cause of the crash. So, if your computer has 16 GB of RAM and Windows is using 8 GB of it at the time of the system crash, the memory dump will be 8 GB in size. This can be quite large if it accumulates over time which is why you will need to delete it. In this latest installment of our troubleshooting series we will show you how to delete system error memory dump files.
How To Delete System Error Memory Dump Files
Normally, you can delete the system error memory dump files using the Disk Clean-up tool.
- Launch Run with the Windows key + R.
- Enter ‘cleanmgr’ in Run’s Open text box.
- Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open Disk Clean-up as administrator.
- Select the C: drive on the Drive selection window, and click the OK button.
- Select the System error memory dump files check box.
- Then click the OK button.
Sometimes though this is not work so it’s time to use other methods.
Using an elevated clean up
- Press Windows + S to launch the search bar.
- Type “disk cleanup” in the dialogue box.
- Right-click on the result which appears and select “Run as administrator”.
- A small window will pop up asking you to select the drive you want to clean up. Select local disk C or the disk where your operating system is installed.
- Windows will scan through the files and check how much space can be freed.
- Check all the boxes which you want to remove and press Ok. Windows will now clear your memory and allocate free space to your drive. To verify if this worked try checking the free space on your disk drive.
Using an extended Disk Clean-up
- Press Windows + S to launch the search bar.
- Type “command prompt” in the dialogue box, right-click the result and select “Run as administrator”.
- Once in the command prompt, copy/paste the following command cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr and press Enter.
- There are various other options available in the extended disk cleanup. Select the ones you want to remove and press OK.
- Restart your computer.
Deleting the dump files
- Press Windows + R to launch the Run application.
- Type “control panel” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
- Select “System and Security”.
- Find the “System” category.
- Once in System, click “Advanced system settings” present at the left side of the window.
- Select “settings” under the tab of Startup and Recovery present at the bottom of the screen.
- Look for the Dump file dialogue box, the dump files are being saved in the system root folder. Click on the drop-down present on top (Automatic memory dump in this case); you will be able to select the type of dump files and check where each one of them is being stored.
- Press Windows + R and paste the location of the dump file (erase the dump file name).
- Search for the file name (MEMORY.DMP) and delete You might require administrative privileges to perform this action.
- Restart your computer.
Disable indexing in C:
- Open your file explorer and navigate to “This PC”.
- Right click on Local Disk C and click Properties.
- Uncheck the option at the bottom which says “Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties”.
- Press Apply to save changes and exit.
- Restart your computer
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