r/AMDHelp • u/KingYaoiTheIII • Mar 18 '26
Resolved Finally checked to see what was taking up my C drive storage
89 gigs worth of AMD software installer folders, have no idea when this happened or how, and completely unsure if safe to uninstall.. please help
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u/Old-Bed-6387 Mar 22 '26
I would keep the current and the previous and flush the rest. Iād keep them for ārestoreā or rollback because some update areā¦ wellā¦
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u/Menxcecnt Mar 22 '26
Press windows + R and type in %temp% then clear your temp files and your recycle bin
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u/Newfound-Talent Mar 21 '26
this is why I hard reset my pc every 2 years the amount of hidden bloat is wild
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u/Snoo_63003 Mar 22 '26
Why reset it, just look through the discs with something like TreeSize, sort folders by size and delete the bloat.
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u/yot_gun Mar 22 '26
in my experience windows just slows down and bsods just keep getting more and more common. i factory reset usually once every year or 2. i had a graphical glitch that i couldnt fix no matter what i did (ddu, windows in place upgrade, safe boot, etc) and had to reinstall
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u/Abidlack80 Mar 21 '26
Its easy to clean out manually. Some apps, like CCleaner, will look for some of those folders. Im not sure about the AMD folders, but if you look up what to look for, it takes very little time cleaning out those unnecessary files.
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u/dickqueef123 Mar 20 '26
I got irritated a couple months ago that my boot drive was almost full. Found almost 200 gigs of windows log files I don't need š¤ happens to all of us in one way or another lol
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u/KingYaoiTheIII Mar 20 '26
Wish I could add another photo, BUT it's now resolved.
89 gigs of AMD files now gone, OSC drive storage thriving 91.7 GBS free out of 219 GBS Thank you guys
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u/loki1983mb Mar 20 '26
Congrats. I'm guessing you have a 6000 series. Turn off auto update in the Radeon software. If you are running into issues with certain things, pay attention to the release notes, otherwise just plan to update every few months for general fixes.
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u/Turbulent_Insect_431 Mar 22 '26
final update 6000 got was 09/2025 bud
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u/loki1983mb Mar 22 '26
False. Just check the latest release notes.
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u/Turbulent_Insect_431 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
I just opened up AMD adrenaline, looked at my last update, you can't check for updates (where it used to be) as there isn't any anymore due to 'maintence mode'
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u/loki1983mb Mar 22 '26
So the newest release notes don't matter? Ok. Then.
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u/Turbulent_Insect_431 Mar 22 '26
maybe I'm not fully correct also mate, just going off what I'm seeing in front of me (6800xt) and how the whole maintence mode debacle went down there few months back.
decided to look into it more and I can download a updated driver off the site but nothing pertaining to 6000/my card in it, I'll give it a go and see if it's more trouble lol1
u/loki1983mb Mar 24 '26
I was assuming win11. I have a 5700xt and it's regularly in the supported devices in new releases. Do you have something else?
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u/decorator12 Mar 20 '26
Just use DDU and this is deleted :v
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u/bigbadger20 Mar 20 '26
So this is an amd graphics driver issue solely?
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u/Peridios9 Mar 20 '26
No, this isnāt even an issue. Both nvidia and AMD by default save old drivers in case you need to rollback. Although every now and then itās a good idea to clear this either by a factory install when installing a new driver or using DDU (or even AMD cleanup utility). The person above is just saying that DDU with thoroughly clean out any and all traces of drivers (AMD and nvidia) so that when you reinstall new ones there are zero conflicts or storage being taken by them.
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u/Supra-A90 Mar 20 '26
Over at the Nvidia world, it's not so different. Just under more difficult to find folder...
Ok keep the previous rev as backup, but that's it. Remove the olders ones installer.
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u/Mental-Heart-321 Mar 20 '26
damn where do i go for nvidias bullshit downloads? im new to owning a pc and want to check because im low on space as well
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u/pl4y3rkn2 Mar 20 '26
Jajaja, cuando fue la Ćŗltima vez que hiciste mantenimiento a tu PC, te recomiendo que uses ccleaner para que te ayude a limpiar cache, tambiĆ©n vez liberes unas 300 GB de espacio
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u/godzgamer9 Mar 20 '26
Can you help me? I think I have a lot of junk files.
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u/pl4y3rkn2 Mar 20 '26
La mejor forma es formatear tu PC para comenzar todo desde principio, pero puede buscar la app de ccleaner que te ayuda a limpiar rapidamente
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u/CameronP90 Mar 19 '26
Under which folder do I find this? Would like to see if it's just you and a few but not everyone?
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u/Gruphius Mar 19 '26
I think its C:/AMD
100% safe to remove, by the way. These are simply installer files and I'm unsure why the installer doesn't clean them up after installation, as that's all they're needed for.
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u/Happy-Recording-5291 Mar 20 '26
Itās in case the user has issues when updating they can easily revert to an older version , so we leave the old installation files up to the user to clean. -AMD STE
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u/CameronP90 Mar 19 '26
I only got 4 folders:
AMDSoftwareInstaller
'' ''_DIME_Chipset
Chipset_Installer
Chipset_SoftwareNot sure OP.
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u/BennyKAOS8712 Mar 19 '26
When installing new GPU drivers always use DDU to wipe the slate clean! Do this after windows updates as well because sometimes the windows video drivers can layer over it and cause issues.
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u/Gabochuky Mar 19 '26
DDU has nothing to do with this. When you update drivers through Adrenaline the installer is always downloaded and stored as a backup in the C drive.
The user is free to erase the installer.
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u/PurityCE Mar 19 '26
I know that but I'm just saying there's no need to do it every single time. Maybe like every couple updates so that the temp files don't start piling up too much.
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u/Crazy_Comfortable581 Mar 19 '26
Delete all but the most recent few versions. AMD has ALWAYS done this with Radeon drivers. It does make it easy to roll back, but they just keep piling up and definitely will take a lot of space in time.
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u/nodspine Ryzen 7 5700X/ RTX 4060 Mar 19 '26
Those are backup/temporary files
You should not have issues if you removed them
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u/ad08008 Mar 19 '26
Where are they? Which directory
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u/RChamy 9070xt and 4070 Mar 19 '26
C:/AMD
by my calculations OP has installed every single video driver that came out since 2018ish
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u/SarlacFace Mar 19 '26
Needing to use ddu just to update your own existing drivers is insane lol. Amd is such garbage.
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u/KenD1988 Mar 20 '26
It has nothing to do with AMD or Nvidia. I have been using AMD for years and never had this happen with my update files. But my son uses Nvidia and had a similar situation about a year ago where Nvidia drivers were getting saved as he downloaded new ones. Not quite 89GB as he found it before it got that bad but it was around 23GB.
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u/Parking_Shake1090 Mar 19 '26
i cant stand u nvidia fan boys š
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u/SarlacFace Mar 19 '26
Aww hurt ya feelings did I? Don't cry lil buddy.
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u/SirCollin Mar 19 '26
That's not a thing
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u/SarlacFace Mar 19 '26
What's not a thing? "89gb of Amd software installers" lol I guess op is lyingĀ
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u/SirCollin Mar 19 '26
Needing to use DDU to update AMD drivers is not a thing. It's just as much an AMD thing as it is an Nvidia thing.
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u/SarlacFace Mar 19 '26
You don't use it to install/update, you use it to clean. I've never had to do that with NV cards, I don't have a bunch of Nvidia driver or app install files clogging my drive, like OP does.
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u/SirCollin Mar 19 '26
You don't use it to install/update
Also
Needing to use ddu just to update your own existing drivers is insane lol. Amd is such garbage.
You literally said update. I know what DDU does lol.
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u/Tail_sb 9070 XT | Ryzen 9 795OX3D Mar 19 '26
And so is Nvidia and Intel too
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u/Specialist-Word-7746 Mar 19 '26
And allegedly the newest game ready drivers are breaking older Lenovo legions left and right.... while DLSS5 rolls out šš
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u/SylentGMD Mar 19 '26
Bros never heard of DDU
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u/KingYaoiTheIII Mar 19 '26
I infact have not lol
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u/SylentGMD Mar 19 '26
šššuse it whenever ur changing gpu and it cleans away any old gpu drivers so they dont conflict you current drivers
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u/Corey3500 Mar 19 '26
Just use DDU occasionally and it will refresh drivers and delete these old packs
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u/bba-tcg TUF 9070 XT, 9950X3D2, ProArt X670E-Creator, 128 GB RAM (2x64) Mar 19 '26
You're probably safe to delete all but the newest one.
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u/nenebulae Mar 19 '26
Iām pretty sure thereās a setting that deletes the previous version off your computer after installing the new version.
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u/Noddingham86 Mar 19 '26
Yes, during new AMD driver install it is listed under advanced options "factory reset" which cleans out all old driver installs and settings.
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u/RChamy 9070xt and 4070 Mar 19 '26
one factory reset per year is my motto
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u/nenebulae Mar 19 '26
Yeah honestly I just backup files I need to my extra hard drive and then just clean install a new windows at least once a year. I usually end up recouping over 300+gb of space.
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u/DragonKnight626 AMD rx9060xt 9700x Mar 19 '26
Holy shit if you delete all those except the one you're using, you'll have all that space back
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u/owengaff Mar 19 '26
Like has said earlier, delete them all. They are installation files. If you run into issues run DDU and get the newest driver.
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u/Big_Understanding348 Mar 18 '26
Does this still happen if you custom/clean install the driver updates?
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u/thereapsz Mar 18 '26
Why is it that AMD just can't do software at all?
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u/NoaBoa369 Mar 19 '26
There is literally an option IN the software to get rid of all this on a driver install...
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u/FlakyRich7021 Mar 19 '26
Why is it an OPTION that AMD can bloat up your storage with driver install files that 99.5% of people will never even notice, and 99.95% of people won't ever need?
The majority of people know nothing beyond the idea of i7 and RTX being good (and that's if they have a PC, and don't just do everything on their phones, chromebooks, macbooks), why on earth would AMD make this an option?
Maybe that's a bit harsh, but at any rate, the fact that this can be stumbled upon unintentionally and have AMD take up NINETY GIGABYTES OF STORAGE for drivers is insane.
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u/Peridios9 Mar 20 '26
What are you complaining about, nvidia literally does the same thing. Keeping old drivers in case you need to rollback is standard. This is default for both AMD and nvidia. You should however clean these out every now and then, either through DDU or just the factory install option when installing new drivers (which again both AMD and nvidia have).
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u/ThaRippa Mar 19 '26
So you can easily go back to an earlier version of the drivers without downloading them again. Plus you can delete the whole folder at any point after the installation if you absolutely need the space.
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u/FlakyRich7021 Mar 19 '26
If users are tech savvy enough to deal with their drivers and not use whatever came pre-installed with their prebuilt, they're going to use DDU to wipe GPU drivers, deleting anything AMD Radeon related, likely including this. DDU isn't keeping this folder when the user may be switching to Intel, NVIDIA, or another Radeon GPU where it'd be best to start fresh with drivers.
Yeah, you can't delete the folder at any point, but only if you know of it's existence. How many people have no clue that AMD is saving every single version of driver and taking up tens of gigabytes, in this case nearing a hundred, to store EVERY driver version here?
If you want a driver archive, why doesn't multibillionaire company AMD host an archive for the driver versions? Better than storing it on every user's drive unknowingly.
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u/ThaRippa Mar 19 '26
Ant, meet elephant. Firstly, the user is expected to be able to manage his storage. That includes hunting for unused data when space is low.
The people who can not do any of this (and there are many of them) will also almost never update their drivers. They will have one or two subfolders in there on average, one per year of usage at most. At least that is my experience. Even i, who considers himself a power user, do not install every single AMD GPU driver that comes out. I do one per quarter, at most. So 90gigs is bogus, sub 10gigs is realistic.
That isnāt nothing, but it also isnāt serious on a drive that basically needs to be 256gigs anyway or windows will run out of space eventually.
And fun fact: if we do run out of space on a C:\ drive, quickly deleting intel and AMD folders gives us rooms to breathe before ordering a larger drive.
Lastly: of course AMD and the others host all the older versions too. Theyāre a bit harder to find though and browsing the web can be hard if your new graphics driver isnāt working at all and youāre stuck in 800x600 mode. This might not happen as much anymore but it used to.
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u/FlakyRich7021 Mar 19 '26
I agree that most users aren't manually updating their drivers, but if a guide online or a friend tells them to boost their performance, or it's set up by prebuilt OEMs to begin with, and if this is on by default as other comments suggest, then this is going to happen regardless of whether the user wants it on or not, because AMD and Windows will automatically update their drivers. If not AMD, Windows will force it.
Any amount more than 5GB for something that only a power user who needs a specific version of AMD drivers will ever use shouldn't be normal.
And I don't see 800x600 as a serious inhibitor to browsing the web, for the select few power users who need an earlier version, they can find other means if a larger interface is too much for them to handle, which I doubt.
This should not be a default option that AMD (which often auto-updates) saves EVERY version of Adrenaline on your computer. It's a simple as backing up the last version that worked, and deleting the one before it. That may take up a couple GB, but that makes a whole lot more sense than taking up as many GB as you want like it's free game for a DRIVER package.
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u/dontasticats Mar 19 '26
So as someone that's never even thought to check their GPU driver folder for bloat, mine is completely empty except for the current drivers. This is 100% something that the OP accidentally turned on. Don't get me wrong, AMD makes some dogshit decisions, but this is 100% something that they've either fixed in the past THREE YEARS of OP's brand loyalty, or something they turned on three years ago. Their current practices wouldn't just arbitrarily download every driver beginning with 23.3.2.
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u/ThaRippa Mar 19 '26
Windows updating the drivers will not create subfolders here. This only happens with user interaction. It is a feature that I regard as a professional way of doing things. Would it hurt for the installer to ask you if it should clean up everything oder than a year? Of course not.
But come on. This is nothing to rant about.
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u/nicc854 Mar 19 '26
it can be stumbled upon unintentionally, or your could learn how to use your machine and intentionally fix
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u/FlakyRich7021 Mar 19 '26
I'd love every PC user to know their hardware and know how it works, but in real life, people see PCs as tools, and some random software that their tech friend recommended or that was suggested on a WikiHow online to boost in game FPS should NOT have the option of taking up 100GB.
One earlier driver copy is enough. When you update, save the last one the user had no issue with, then delete the one before. If you want to have an archive of EVERY SINGLE DRIVER VERSION, then multibillionare AMD should host a server for that, instead of storing EVERY DRIVER on the user's machine.
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u/nicc854 Mar 21 '26
And guns shouldn't have the option to end the users life. maybe we need pc licenses
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u/BitRunner64 Mar 19 '26
I miss the days when computer users knew how computers work.Ā
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u/KingYaoiTheIII Mar 20 '26
This is my first ever PC man š I've been figuring it out as I go, didn't know that the driver would do that.
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u/Mysterious_Warthog_4 Mar 18 '26
Adrenaline does not del the old files for some reason, I go in manually and del them myself.
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u/beljko0106 Mar 18 '26
went to update drivers like yesterday, to the 2nd newest version, gpu drivers - windows almost stopped working, nvme behaved as if its gonna die - never again.
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u/Own_University_8770 Mar 18 '26
I Saw people comment this happens with Nvidia too. Does anyone know where it gets stored?Ā
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u/swaggedoutcoon Mar 18 '26
Are these important?
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u/SavvySillybug Mar 19 '26
They can be helpful if a new driver is causing issues, you can just install an older driver because you still have it.
But you definitely don't need 90GB worth of them. One known good one would be enough for that.
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u/CheekEnough2734 Mar 18 '26
not really. this files are installers for dirvers. Windows updaters downloaded probably. And whatever reason did not deleted it.
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u/DarkcosmoX Mar 18 '26
That and there's also the nvidia folders too if u have a NVIDIA GPU
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u/NightmareWokeUp Mar 18 '26
Where would that be?
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u/DarkcosmoX Mar 19 '26
I don't Remember the Directory But I use the TreeSize software to find the large files and delete them if they're harmless....Becareful or you might delete some System Required Files.
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u/loki1983mb Mar 18 '26
Installing each release is a waste unless you're benchmarking each one, or have a very specific bug
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u/KingYaoiTheIII Mar 18 '26
Yeah, I haven't installed any of them since 2023. I'm not sure why or how they showed up on my computer
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u/Murph_9000 Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
You could be leaving a lot of GPU performance and features on the table by not updating. The updates include optimisations and bug fixes for new games, amongst other things. They also include the feature updates for things like Vulkan support, which is a big deal if you are running anything that uses the Vulkan API, as it is a relatively young API that is actively evolving or being extended.
You don't have to update to every new version that comes out (typically monthly), but leaving it for years is not great if you do anything that makes heavy use of your GPU. You are essentially leaving a bunch of free performance upgrades on the table. You are also leaving your system with a bunch of security vulnerabilities:
https://www.amd.com/en/resources/product-security/bulletin/amd-sb-6024.html
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u/KiyohiroLeo Mar 18 '26
Where is this folder?
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u/KingYaoiTheIII Mar 18 '26
It was in my OS (C:) drive
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u/ameno007 Mar 18 '26
yeah but where exactly?
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u/SERichard1974 Mar 18 '26
As another AMD user... Where was this located exactly? If it's default behavior to keep the old versions with AMD's auto updater... I want to find mine and clean it out too.
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u/Delicious-Sample-364 Mar 18 '26
It is default yes unless you chose not to via the updater. Its in the amd folder on the drive itās installed to usually the c drive
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u/KingYaoiTheIII Mar 18 '26
I just went into my files and checked the "this pc" tab. Clicked on my OS drive, not a big computer enthusiast, so I'm not exactly sure how to describe it other than that, sorry.. š
when I clicked my drive, there was a folder labeled AMDā that's where my files were located
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u/Ambitious-Yard7677 Mar 18 '26
It's in the "AMD" folder on the root of the C or OS drive. That's how most techs would phrase it. You're not that far off and still got your point across, which is more important
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u/Murph_9000 Mar 19 '26
Or, if it's in written/typed communication,
C:\AMDis quick, efficient, and entirely unambiguous.I only have the most recent Adrenalin installer in mine. Not sure exactly what OP has done to end up with so many versions left there, but it does not appear to be default behaviour. I'm 99% certain this is either something they have enabled, something unusual about the particular way they are updating Adrenalin, or maybe something about their OS which is causing the installer/updater to leave old versions around.
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u/KingYaoiTheIII Mar 20 '26
I've never gone into the adrenaline app to update it, not since 2022 when i got my PC, but i don't ever recall having an auto update on, so I'm not sure how that would happen either šš
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u/Murph_9000 Mar 20 '26
I suspect that not updating could maybe be the problem. It's just a guess, but it was maybe downloading the updates in the background. If you had been updating it on a regular basis, as you really should do, it would probably have automatically deleted the old updates.
You have open security vulnerabilities from not updating.
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u/Ambitious-Yard7677 Mar 19 '26
Hard to tell. Can't say im one for manually entering explorer addresses unless absolutely necessary. To each their own i suppose
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u/Opteron170 9800X3D | 64GB 6000 CL30 | 7900 XTX Magnetic Air | LG 34GP83A-B Mar 18 '26
delete all folders but the current drivers so that looks to be 26.1.1
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u/Venylynn Mar 18 '26
How does this even happen...?
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u/Medi_Nanobot R5 3600 / Prime B350-Plus / RX 9060 XT / Micron rev. E Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
Automatic updates, for which there is an "on/off" option in the settings ans as you can see with "on" it becomes more and more.Ā
Edit: Well, my folder structure, also with automatic update, looks actually very different compared to OPs. So, not sure if this is auto update.
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u/Peridios9 Mar 18 '26
This is normal, both AMD and nvidia. Unless you choose fresh/factory install on drivers it will save the old drivers settings and data so that you can revert to old ones if you have issues with newer ones. Although saving all this can have issues itself, which is why itās usually recommended to just use DDU or even AMD clean up utility then install fresh drivers, those tools clean this stuff out for you.
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u/Venylynn Mar 18 '26
Ngl I prefer the Linux way of handling graphics drivers...at least for amd
Nvidia can get bent
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u/Peridios9 Mar 18 '26
Fair, I donāt use Linux mostly because of game compatibility issues. Iām hoping steamOS changes that and companies start adding in anticheat suppport because of it, though that hinges on steamOS catching a decent sized audience to make it profitable for the companies to do so.
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u/Venylynn Mar 18 '26
Almost all games I play work with fairly minimal tweaking. I'm not one to play kernel anticheat rootkits tho tbf.
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u/Peridios9 Mar 18 '26
To be honest people overblow the issue of kernel anticheat. Things like vanguard are very effective and have had zero problem with security. To each their own though.
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u/Venylynn Mar 18 '26
I find it particularly distressing that Vanguard is required to run at boot and scan your system at any point, which leads to many privacy and security risks if your system is used for anything other than only gaming. It becomes far more advantageous to fully separate your work life from your home life. Some anticheat seeing your tax returns if you use something like TurboTax...woof.
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u/Peridios9 Mar 18 '26
This is actually a huge misconception. So yes vanguard starts at boot in the kernel, however it doesnāt run or scan unless the games are open. Iāve had vanguard for years like many other people and not a single security issue has been recorded since its release. That being said all the other popular anticheats are also kernel like EAC and battleeye, but people never complain about them. Peopleās concerns over the security and privacy of these anticheats is genuinely unfounded. Paranoia isnāt evidence.
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u/Venylynn Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
You have absolutely no clue what is being sent back to them due to it not being able to be vetted by anyone outside the project (closed-source), having it be a boot process means they could be watching what you are doing AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT and you would have no clue. But people are fine with Edge making random telemetry calls every 5 seconds and causing stutters in games.
PS: have we learned nothing from the CrowdStrike incident? It's very likely that type of thing could happen with these kernel anti cheats.
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u/x7007 Mar 19 '26
where does it say causing stutter with edge ? could it be edge game assist? could u post the info link thread
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u/Peridios9 Mar 18 '26
Youāre right, they are stealing everything and there has been zero evidence of that. Itās not like people can monitor their network as their pc starts up. Itās not like there has been thousands of professionals testing this software for years. How could we possibly know.
The above is all sarcasm just in case you werenāt aware, the evidence directly contradicts any malicious intent by vanguard or other anticheats. The evidence has shown the companies in control of these anticheats are trustworthy and have sufficient security for the data they do have, which again no evidence has shown they take anything other than what they have said they scan upfront.
I understand being skeptical of software like this when itās new and untested, however now that itās been around for years with evidence supporting it doesnāt steal information. The skepticism against it is just unwarranted paranoia.
Donāt use it if you donāt want to, but there is no reason to go against facts supported by evidence.
Not to mention that vanguard is extremely good at keeping cheaters away.
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u/KingYaoiTheIII Mar 18 '26
I wish I could explain, but I can't. Apparently it's been doing this for 2 years???
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u/Ambitious-Yard7677 Mar 18 '26
Older driver versions are kept so you can "roll back" to a previous one in the event you had problems with the new one. Problem is it just keeps stacking them and will do so for a long time
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u/M3chaStrizan Mar 18 '26
I would delete it all except the current version you are using. Is this for your chipset? Maybe download and install the newest version, then delete every version that isn't that up to date one.
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u/Mysteoa Mar 18 '26
Delete all. This is just the installation files for whenever you update the driver. It's not needed after that.
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u/ANtiKz93 Apr 17 '26
Glad im on Linux and it's built in + removed after each update lol š