no appdata folder, incredibly slow processing

[robirdman1]

I keep getting spinning circles and things take so long.  I wanted to open 2 files in Bridge, while Photoshop was already open and it took 6 minutes, and to just to shadow/highlight and levels, the total time was 14 minutes.  In Bridge, most of the RAW files don't preview the crops and adjustments made in camera raw.  I went to preferences, as saw that the Camera Raw cache is listed as in C://users/myname/appdata.  but when I try to look in file manager directory tree, it shows no appdata folder.  I wanted to delete it and put it on the D: drive.  I purged what it showed in preferences and took about 10 or more minutes.  I am trying to make more room on my C: drive and wonder about folders such as AA5677B8DE244720A76DD5D0758E8372gs and BD7B9A37BB7E408FB57BF97CA8DB371Cgs .  Are these important.  When I try to see what is taking up so much space on the C: drive, what I see doesn't seem to add up to the amount used.

I did gain a bunch of space purging the invisible CR cache though and am reassigning to D:.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

The appdata folder is hidden by default, you will need to turn on the view of invisible files and folders.

This may help you to find large or small files and delete/move them (at your own risk of breaking something):

https://windirstat.net/

[robirdman1]

Is that windirstat an app needed to install?

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

The windirstat tool is just a helpful way to visually display the size and location of data on your drive. I'm not sure if there is a portable version that does not require installation. I only suggested it as you stated that you were looking to make space on your drive. There may be other software options that do similar. There are also tools that can find duplicate files. Use at your own risk.

[John Waller]

C://users/myname/appdata.  but when I try to look in file manager directory tree, it shows no appdata folder.

It's there.

To unhide it, see https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/appdata-where-to-find-the-appdata-folder-in-windows-10/

[robirdman1]

Turning on the hidden, did not reveal an appdata folder where Bridge said it would be.  But using %AppData% took me to appdata folder.  I can't remember the original route to the camera raw cache where I wanted to delete it.  If I now go to CR preferences, it says D:/CR cache, which is the new one I created.  I had purged the old one which I can't find, and gained a lot of memory, and Photoshop opens faster, but many thumbs in Bridge stubbornly refuse to show the changes made in camera raw, unless I go there to view.