How to Delete System Error Memory Dump Files

When your computer crashes and you encounter something like the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), the Windows operating system performs a memory dump to a location on the hard drive. You can delete these system error memory dump files to free up disk space.

How to Delete System Error Memory Dump Files Using Disk Cleanup

If the memory dump file has grown over time, delete the file to restore hard drive space. The easiest way to clean up dump files is to perform an elevated cleanup using the built-in Disk Cleanup utility.

1. Open Start and search for Disk Cleanup. Right-click its entry and select Run as administrator.

   Running the Disk Cleanup utility as Administrator is what launches it in elevated mode and allows the utility to delete the memory dump file.

   

2. Press OK on the start screen to scan the C: drive (or the drive that contains the operating system).

   When you see the screen shown below, select all options, or at least select System created Windows Error Reporting or System error memory dump files.

   

3. Select OK > Delete Files to have the utility complete the cleanup, and then reboot the system to finish.

   This tool doesn't always successfully remove the memory dump file—often because of file permissions or local policy settings on the system. If it doesn't work, move to the next method below.

   

More Disk Cleanup Settings

Disk Cleanup includes some hidden settings that you don't see unless you run a special Command Prompt command. Listed here are other memory dump files you can mark for deletion.

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt. One way is to search for it from the Start menu; just be sure to right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

   

2. Type this into Command Prompt, then press Enter to run it:

    Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535
   

   

3. This command opens the Disk Cleanup utility with extra options for files to delete. Select all options, or at least System error memory dump files and System error minidump files.

   

4. Select OK to finish the cleanup procedure, then reboot the computer to complete the cleanup.

   

Use CCleaner to Remove the Memory Dump File

If you find it difficult to delete the system memory dump file using the Windows cleanup utilities, use alternative software solutions instead. One of the most popular apps for this is CCleaner, which actually has lots of other useful system cleaning options built-in.

1. Download CCleaner and install it on your computer.

2. Select Custom Clean and make sure Memory Dumps is selected under the System section.

   

3. Select Analyze at the bottom of the program. When the analysis is complete, you should see System - Memory Dumps in the list of files to be deleted.

   

   If you see lots of other results, it's because there are other items checked on the left side of CCleaner. Feel free to uncheck anything you don't want to scan, including items in the Applications tab.

4. If it's worth it to run this tool (i.e., if the analysis says there are things to remove), select Run Cleaner to have CCleaner complete the cleanup routine. This removes of the files that were listed in the analysis results.

   

Remove MEMORY.DMP Manually

If you know where to find the memory.dmp file, you can delete it manually from Command Prompt. Here's how this works with the del command:

1. Note the path and file name in the Startup and Recovery window in the first section of this article. Typically, it's this:

    %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP
   

   

2. To delete the file, first launch Command Prompt as an administrator.

   

3. Type this, followed by Enter, to change the path to the right folder:

    cd %systemroot%
   

   

4. If the system captured a memory dump at any point, there is a memory.dmp file in this folder. Enter this command to delete it:

    del memory.dmp
   

How to Edit Memory Dump Settings in Windows

If a BSOD error occurs, Windows dumps the RAM into a file on the hard drive that can be used for troubleshooting purposes. This means that if your system is using 8 GB of RAM at the time of the crash, the memory dump file will be 8 GB.

In other cases, Windows may make a kernel dump file, which only includes the memory allocated to the Windows kernel for things like drivers and active applications. This memory dump file is significantly smaller than a full system memory dump.

Follow these steps to change how your computer behaves when it creates a memory dump. You can even prevent future memory dump files from being created.

1. Open the Run dialog box (WIN+R), then enter sysdm.cpl into the box to open System Properties.

2. Select the Advanced tab.

   

3. In the Startup and Recovery section, select Settings.

   

4. Under Write debugging information, open the drop-down menu and choose Automatic memory dump (it might already be chosen) so that each time the computer performs a memory dump, it only backs up the kernel and conserves hard drive space.

   Alternatively, choose (none) to prevent the creation of future memory dumps. Remember, however, that doing this also means there's no way to analyze the cause of the crash.

   

5. Select Overwrite any existing file so that the dump file doesn't continue to grow over time.

   

6. Select OK to save your changes.