[SOLVED] 4gb Watchdog file? Please help!

kaminthewoods

kaminthewoods

Member
Feb 27, 2025
9
Hey there,

I know VERY little about computers. Probably just enough to mess things up, but I don't like to play with things I don't know.

I just completed my first PC build yesterday, and I spent most of yesterday transferring files and downloading programs. I downloaded WizTree, and when I looked at my C: drive there was a watchdog file that is 4gb, which seemed suspicious. It was also suspicious that it was named 1337, but I quickly realized that was the time (1:37pm) it was captured. This time coincides with the time of first boot after getting windows installed. I know that the Gigabyte Control Center for my motherboard was a laborious download process, and the computer seemed to be struggling downloading all of the crap they force you to download. The only watchdog files I have start at 1:37pm and end at 2:25pm which is probably about how long it took to download all of that (likely) bloatware and b.s. Gigabyte forced me to download.

BTW.. Anyone know of a quality resource for deleting bloatware and actually removing it completely? And actually knowing what is okay to delete?

Thanks y'all!
 
What exactly is the name and extension of the file? watchdog.txt? What is the exact path? C:\Windows\

There are various apps and scripts to debloat a Windows installation but beware, they can also mess it up.

Before making any change, make sure you have a validated backup image of your drive/s. That way, if you mess something up, you can restore from backup in minutes.

Veeam has a nice free product for home use. I am currently using it on a few PC's at work. They have a stellar reputation.
 
Yes, i will provide a link as soon as it uploads to Drive. Like I said it is 4Gb, which seems crazy large to me, but I have no idea.

Also, my suspicion like i said is that it was likely during the download of Gigabyte Control Center and all of it's forced bloat. It stalled out for quite a while, and that nearly hour long window of kernel dump files coincides to that time.
This file is going to take a long time to upload. Right now Drive estimates an hour.
 
I have another question as well, and I may have totally screwed myself here, but I built this computer with the intention of running the operating system on a 250gb nvme drive, and I have a second 1tb nvme for programs, and then a 5tb Lacie for long term storage.

I make music, and this is primarily a music production build. Maybe it was a stupid idea, especially since I dont know PCs very well and this is my first build. Part of me is wondering if I should just start over and put the operating system on the 1tb nvme along with all my programs.

The problem i have reached is that some programs I'm trying to download are automatically installing to C: drive, and some of the installers dont give you an option of where to download. Feeling this might turn into a big head ache, especially since the C: drive is only 250Gb.

My intention was to keep the small drive solely for windows, my music production software, all the plugins, and active projects on the 1tb drive, and then all of my long term storage and audio samples on the 5T Lacie drive.

idk if this even makes sense or is possible. I know it's possible through registry edit, but that's a whole can of worms that i probably shouldnt open. Windows 11 supposedly has the functionality to choose where new "apps" are installed, and I selected the drive I want them on, and it hasn't done anything. My suspicion is that this function is only for "apps" downloaded from the Microsoft store. Uhhhhg! Probably will end up starting over.
 
here is the link to that watchdog file.

WATCHDOG-20250226-1337.dmp

After thinking about it: I am just going to save myself the headache and reformat my drives just run OS and programs on the 1tb drive. That will give me an opportunity to (hopefully) forego the bloatware downloads in the Gigabyte Control Center. Now I just have to figure out which of the things are necessary in their download package.
 
kaminthewoods said:
Maybe it was a stupid idea, especially since I dont know PCs very well and this is my first build.
Click to expand...
It's never a stupid idea to try something new. It's how we learn, and you must start somewhere. Kudos to you.

kaminthewoods said:
The problem i have reached is that some programs I'm trying to download are automatically installing to C: drive, and some of the installers dont give you an option of where to download. Feeling this might turn into a big head ache, especially since the C: drive is only 250Gb.
Click to expand...
I have a similar setup and run into this as well. A few years ago 250GB was ok but today not so much. If you are going to do a clean install, I'd consider obtaining at least a 1TB drive if you can for the OS.
kaminthewoods said:
I know it's possible through registry edit, but that's a whole can of worms that i probably shouldn't open.
Click to expand...
Correct but if you have a full backup solution and image your drives daily, you can quickly revert to a good working condition in minutes if you mess up.
Again, it's not recommended to mess with the registry but we have to start somewhere if we are going to learn new things. Make sure to have a backup image of your drives.

Veeam has a nice free backup solution.
 
Thanks so much for your encouragement.

So i successfully swapped my drives and did a fresh OS install. I did NOT download the gigabyte control center this time, and instead went to their website and downloaded the drivers, so none of the bloatware. However, im wondering if it will have full functionality/efficiency without the Gigabyte Control Center. Everything WAS going smoothly and i was very happy to have a (mostly) bloat free computer without crazy webs of folder chaos. hahaha BUT I must have messed up my windows install because this time around it would NOT let me do a local install, and it forced me to create a microsoft account, which I REALLY didnt want to do. When I downloaded my music production software it partially backed up some of it do OneDrive, and my software warned me that this had occurred. I changed the onedrive settings to not backup anything, and tried to install software again, and again it did this. I completely signed out of and disabled OneDrive and tried again, and same thing. So i deleted onedrive "completely" and yet again same thing. Finally went into gpedit and disabled the default onedrive backup, and it still is doing it. I must have deleted and reinstalled this one program five or six times last night.

Going to ask my uncle for his usb with microsoft on it, as that was the one i used first and it made me a local account. Unless I just missed a really obvious option to set up locally.
 
I forgot to say that the file path it is saving to is C:\user\name\program files\ etc

and for whatever reason it's splitting up the install. Only part of it is being backed up to OneDrive, and that happens to be the data folder of my music software, which cannot function properly on a cloud service.
 
To create a local account in Windows 10 after setting up a Microsoft account and then remove the Microsoft account, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a Local Account​

  1. Open Settings
    Press Win + I to open Settings.
  2. Go to Accounts
    Click on Accounts > Family & other users.
  3. Add a New User
    • Under Other users, click Add someone else to this PC.
    • When prompted to enter an email, click I don’t have this person’s sign-in information.
    • Click Add a user without a Microsoft account.
  4. Enter Local Account Details
    • Choose a username and password.
    • Set security questions for recovery.
    • Click Next to create the account.

Step 2: Change the Local Account to Administrator​

  1. Go back to Settings > Accounts > Family & other users.
  2. Click on the newly created local account and select Change account type.
  3. Choose Administrator from the drop-down menu and click OK.

Step 3: Sign in to the Local Account​

  1. Sign out of the current Microsoft account by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del and selecting Sign out.
  2. Sign in to the newly created local account.

Step 4: Remove the Microsoft Account​

  1. Go to Settings > Accounts > Your info to ensure you're using the local account.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts.
  3. Under Accounts used by other apps, locate the Microsoft account and select Remove.
  4. Next, go to Settings > Accounts > Family & other users.
  5. Click on the Microsoft account and select Remove.
  6. Confirm by clicking Delete account and data.
Your Microsoft account will now be removed, leaving only the local account.

From ChatGPT
 

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