Free up drive space in Windows 10

If your PC is running low on free space, you might not be able to install important Windows updates, and your PC’s performance may be affected. Here are some ways to free up space so you can keep your PC up to date and running smoothly. These suggestions are listed in order, so start with the first one, see if that helps, and then continue to the next one if it doesn’t.

To check the total disk space left on your Windows 10 device, select File Explorer from the taskbar, and then select This PC on the left. The available space on your drive will appear under Devices and drives.

Note: If you follow the steps below and continue to have trouble updating Windows because of low disk space, resetting or reinstalling Windows might help. For more info, see Reinstall Windows 10.

If you used Disk Cleanup to free up space on your device and then see a Low Disk Space error, it’s possible that your Temp folder is quickly filling up with application (.appx) files that are used by Microsoft Store. For more info, see Low Disk Space error due to a full Temp folder.

Storage Sense can automatically free up drive space for you by getting rid of items that you don’t need, like temporary files and items in your Recycle Bin. For more info, see Manage drive space with Storage Sense.

If your system doesn’t have Storage sense, you can use the Disk Cleanup tool to delete temporary files and system files from your device.

In the search box on the taskbar, type disk cleanup, then select itfrom the results.

Select the check box next to the type of files you want to delete. (To view a description of each type of file, select the name.) By default, Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, and Thumbnails are selected. Be sure to clear those check boxes if you don’t want to delete those files.

To free up even more space, select Clean up system files, and then select the type of system files you want to delete. Disk Cleanup will take a few moments to calculate the amount of space that can be freed up.

Note: If it’s been fewer than 10 days since you upgraded to Windows 10, your previous version of Windows will be listed as a system file you can delete. If you need to free up drive space, you can delete it, but keep in mind that you’ll be deleting your Windows.old folder, which contains files that give you the option to go back to your previous version of Windows. If you delete your previous version of Windows, this can’t be undone. (You won’t be able to go back to your previous version of Windows.)

After you’ve selected the types of files you want to delete, select OK, and then select Delete files in the confirmation window to start the cleanup.

There’s also an option in Disk Cleanup to Compress your OS drive. Selecting this option compresses the drive on which Windows is installed, helping you gain extra space to install important updates. This action does not delete the contents of this drive, and you shouldn’t experience problems opening and saving files from the compressed drive.

After you install the update, you can manually decompress the OS drive at any time. To do this, select File Explorer from the taskbar, and in the left pane, select This PC. Right-click or tap and hold the OS drive (usually disk C), and then select Properties on the shortcut menu. Clear the Compress this drive to save disk space check box, and then select Apply > OK.

Windows 10 may indicate that it needs more space to get the latest Windows 10 feature update. You can use an external storage device to help you complete the update.

Note: You may need to use a micro-USB adapter if your device doesn’t have a standard USB port.

Personal files such as videos, music, photos, and documents can take up a lot of space on your device. To see which files are using the most space:

Select File Explorer from the taskbar and find the files you want to move.

Under This PC in the menu on the left, select a folder to see what files are saved in it. The Videos, Music, Pictures, and Downloads folders usually contain the largest files that you’ve saved to your device.

To see the size of the files in a folder, select View > Details. Right-click in the open space and then select Sort by > Size to show the largest files at the top of the list.

If there are files you no longer need on your device, you can either delete them or move them to an external storage device like a USB drive or an SD card.

Note: If you delete any files, remember to empty the Recycle Bin to completely remove them from your device and free up space.

To move photos, music, videos, or other files that you want to keep but don’t use very often, consider saving them to an external storage device like a USB drive or an SD card. You’ll still be able to use them when the drive is connected, but they won’t take up space on your PC.

Connect an external storage device like a USB drive or SD card to your PC.

Select File Explorer from the taskbar and go to the folder that contains the files you want to move.

Select the files, select the Home tab, and then select Move to > Choose location.

Select the external storage device you connected in the location list, and then select Move.

Saving new files to another drive will help prevent low space problems on that drive in the future, so you won’t have to move your files to another drive repeatedly. Instead of saving all your new files to the default drive, you can save some of them to a different drive that has more free space.

Under More storage settings, select Change where new content is saved.

For each content type, select a drive from the drop-down menu. If the drive you want to use isn’t listed there, make sure it’s connected to your PC.

Note: OneDrive Files On-Demand requires Windows 10 version 1709 or later and OneDrive client version 17.3.7064.1005 or later. To see which version of Windows you’re running, select Start > Settings > System > About . To see which version of the OneDrive client you have installed, see Which version of OneDrive am I using?
Open About settings

You can save space by turning on OneDrive Files On-Demand, which stores a smaller placeholder file on your hard drive instead of the full-size file that’s stored in your OneDrive account in the cloud. You’ll be able to get to your OneDrive files from your PC without having to use up hard-drive space downloading full-size versions of them all. See Learn about OneDrive Files On-Demand for more info.

Sometimes a virus or other malware can consume significant hard-drive space by corrupting your system files. If you suspect your PC is infected with malware, use an antivirus program like Windows Defender to run a virus scan and cleanup. If this doesn’t fix the problem, you might need to reset your PC.

If you’ve followed the instructions here but still need help freeing up space on your device, you can contact Microsoft support to chat with a support agent. This is also recommended if your attempts to free up drive space trigger particular error codes that you need help resolving.

The following questions concern low disk space and Windows Update specifically. Learn more about Windows Update.

When there isn’t enough free space available to install an update, a pop-up notification will prompt you that additional space is required to install the update.

When you select Fix issues, you’ll be informed about how much additional space is needed. You’ll also be notified that you can use an external storage device so that you don’t need to free up quite as much space on your system drive. Learn how to free up space to install Windows updates.

The total free disk space your device requires to complete an update varies. Typically, feature updates require 6 GB–11 GB or more of free space, while quality updates require 2 GB–3 GB or more. Learn about the difference between a feature update and a quality update.

You need disk space to download the update, download new versions of any optional features and languages that are currently installed, and to apply the update. Additional space is temporarily required to support removal of the update (typically for 10 days). This space can be reclaimed after the update is completed. To do this, Select Start > Settings > System > Storage > Free up space now.
Open Storage settings

The update is compressed to reduce download size.

Note: For devices with reserved storage, an update will first use the reserved storage space before using other disk space. For more info, see How reserved storage works in Windows 10.

The space required to complete a feature update depends on two factors: which update path is followed and the size of optional content and other updates that apply to your PC when the feature update is installed.

Note: For devices with reserved storage, an update will first use the reserved storage space before using other disk space. For more info, see How reserved storage works in Windows 10.

Windows follows three different feature update paths, depending on the amount of disk space currently available.

1. For PCs with plenty of free disk space

Windows automatically tries to complete more of the update process in the background while you use your PC. This significantly reduces the time your PC will be offline (or unusable) during the update, although it might temporarily use more disk space to complete the update. Learn more about our efforts to reduce offline time during updates (English only at this time).

2. For PCs with limited free space but still enough to complete the update automatically

Windows will automatically optimize for reducing the amount of free disk space required to install the update. This will result in a longer offline install time.

3. For PCs that don’t have enough space to automatically install the update

Windows will prompt you to free up disk space or use external storage to temporarily extend the storage on your PC. If you use an external storage device, Windows won’t need as much free space on the system drive as it temporarily uses your external storage.

Across each of these update paths, the total amount of free disk space required will vary, depending on the optional content installed and other updates that apply to your PC. For example:

Optional features. Many optional features available for Windows are pre-installed or acquired on demand by the system, or manually by you. You can see which ones are installed on your PC by going to Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Manage optional features.
Open Optional features settings
These features range in size from less than 1 MB to almost 2 GB for the Windows Mixed Reality portal. You can reduce the amount of space required to install a feature update on your PC by uninstalling optional features you aren’t using.

Languages installed. Windows is localized into many languages. Although many people only use one language at a time, some people switch between two or more languages. You can see which languages are installed on your PC by selecting Start > Settings > Time & Language > Language .
Open Language settings
During each update, all language resources and any associated typing, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and handwriting recognition resources must be updated. The content for each language can range from about 175 MB to more than 300 MB. You can reduce the amount of space required to install a feature update on your PC by uninstalling languages you aren’t using.

Driver updates. OEMs and other hardware partners sometimes publish new graphics, networking, audio, and other drivers in conjunction with the new OS update. The size of these drivers can vary significantly, depending on your PC and on which drivers have been updated.

OS quality updates. During a feature update, Windows tries to download and automatically install the latest quality update so that your PC is fully up to date when you start using it. Shortly after the feature update is released, the quality update for that feature update could be as small as a few hundred MB, but as more quality and security changes are implemented, the quality update can increase in size to 1 GB or more.If your PC is short on disk space, you can download and install the quality update after the feature update is complete.

Finally, Windows Update will temporarily disable hiberfile.sys, pagefile.sys, and other system files in order to use the space these files typically consume to apply the feature update. Any files that are disabled to apply the update will be automatically re-enabled when the update is complete. Because these files vary in size depending on how you use your PC and the amount of RAM your PC has, even in cases where two different PCs have the exact same OS image, the amount of free disk space required to complete an update may vary.

The combination of update path and features means there’s a wide range of free disk space required to complete an update. Here are a few examples for PCs updating to Windows version 1803:

Optimized for reduced offline time

Optimized for minimal disk space

Optimized for minimal disk space with external storage

Minimal optional features, languages, and updates

How to free up disk space in Windows 10 laptop/desktop

by Andy, Updated on: March 1, 2021

This article introduces how to free up disk space in Windows 10 (32 & 64 bit) with Disk Cleanup tool and additional methods.

Content:

Many people feedback that system C drive becomes full after upgrading to Windows 10 or installing some Updates. This is because that system partition is filling up by many types of junk files continuously. It’s more likely to encounter this issue if you use SSD, because it is much smaller than traditional mechanical hard disk.

In this situation, you can remove the unnecessary and junk files to reclaim disk space. In this this article, I’ll show you how to free up disk space in Windows 10 laptop/desktop with native Disk Cleanup utility and additional methods.

Free up space with Windows 10 Disk Cleanup utility

There are many third party system optimization software that can help delete junk files, but to free up disk space in Windows 10, the built-in Disk Cleanup utility is well enough. From Windows XP to the latest Windows 10, I always use this utility to cleans up disk space. It is easy to use, runs fast, and is able to clean up most common types of unnecessary files. The most important aspect, it is safe.

How to free up disk space in Windows 10 with Disk Cleanup utility:

1. Press Windows and R on the keyboard, input cleanmgr and press Enter.
   
2. Select C: drive in the drop-down list and click OK.
   
3. Click the check-boxes in front of the files that you want to remove. Read the associated description on bottom before clicking OK if you do not know what kind of files are included.
   
4. Click Delete Files to confirm in the pop-up window. Disk Cleanup will begin cleaning up, the time depends on your computer performance and the amount of files.
   
5. Repeat to Clean up system files.

8 useful methods to free up disk space in Windows 10

If you never or have not clean up disk space for your computer for a long time, Disk Cleanup may help you regain several GBs of disk space. To get more, you may try the additional methods to free up disk space for Windows 10 laptop/desktop.

① Uninstall apps

You may uninstall some apps and games that you no longer use or that came preinstalled on your computer from the manufacturer.

Steps:

1. Press Windows and X on keyboard, then Settings
2. Scroll down in Apps & features
3. Click the items that you want to remove and click Uninstall.

② Move installed apps and games

All programs are installed to system C: drive by default, the more programs you installed, the less free space left. In previous version, you have to uninstall and reinstall in another partition. Windows 10 has new feature to help you move them to other partition. This is a good method to free up disk space in C drive for Windows 10 computers.

Steps:

1. Click Start >Settings > Apps > Apps & features
2. Click an app or game.
3. Click the Move button.
4. Select the new location from the drop-down list.
5. Click the Move button.
6. Repeat the steps to move more items.

③ Move files/folders

Another option is moving specific files/folders to other volume, steps:

1. Open Windows File Explorer.
2. Select the the files/folders that you want to move.
3. Click Home menu on the top >Move to >Choose location.
4. Select the target location and click the Move button.

④ Reset Recycle Bin

All files that deleted by pressing DEL without SHIFT key will go to Recycle Bin. You can revert these files to original location manually if you deleted them by mistake. When system C drive is almost full, you may consider decreasing the disk space usage or change the location for Recycle Bin. This is another useful method to free up disk space in Windows 10 and previous versions.

Steps:

1. Right click Recycle Bin in Desktop and click Properties.
2. Select a drive for Recycle Bin.
3. Select Customer size and enter an amount.

⑤ Reset Paging File

Paging file uses part of disk space as virtual RAM and it is located in C drive by default. You can decrease it or change it to other partition to release free space.

How to free up disk space in Windows 10 by resetting paging file:

1. Press Windows and R on keyboard to start Run.
2. Input sysdm.cpl ,3 and press Enter.
3. Click Settings under Performance in Advanced tab.
4. Click Change under Virtual Memory.
5. Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives on the top.
6. Select D: or other drive, enter amount of Initial size and Maximum size in Customer size radio box, and then click Set.
7. Select C: drive and select No paging file radio box, then click Set.
8. Click OK. (It may requires reboot to take affect)

⑥ Reset System Protection

System Protection is another Windows built-in backup feature that is able to create system restore point. These restore points are created automatically by Windows when some operations are made to disk drive, and roll back the system to a recent state when you need. This feature reserves quite a big disk space for its functionality.

You can free up disk space by reducing disk space usage, steps:

1. Press Windows and R key to launch Run, type sysdm.cpl ,4 and press Enter.
2. Select C drive and then click Configure
3. Sliding towards the left to decrease the Max Usage of disk space.

⑦ Reset Hibernation Setting

Hibernation is a feature that saves the content in memory to the hard drive allowing you to shut down your device completely without losing your current session. Hibernation is a useful feature but it requires several gigabytes of space to save the content to hiberfil.sys file in C drive.

You can free up disk space by deleting the hibernation files or reduce the size of hiberfil.sys, steps:

Search cmd on task bar on bottom left corner of the screen, right click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator.

Input powercfg -h -size 50

The size will be changed from default 75% to the minimum 50%

if you receive error that «The system fireware does not support hibernation», then you cannot use these commands.

Input powercfg.exe -h off

Hibernate mode will be disabled and any associated saved data from previous hibernations will be deleted automatically.

Input powercfg.exe -h on

⑧ Compress files

Compact OS is a tool introduced with Windows 10 that allows you to compress the installation files and built-in desktop applications reducing the footprint and freeing up space.

This operation won’t affect computer performance, but it will modify system files. This operation is only suggested when disk space is extremely low and you have no other choice.

1. Search for Command Prompt and run as administrator.
2. Input the command: Compact.exe /CompactOS:always

You can revert the changes using the command: Compact.exe /CompactOS:never

Generally speaking, you’ll get several to over 10GB free space after completing the steps above. However, there is still an issue: new junk and some necessary files are continue to be saved in C drive. Therefore, free space will be eaten up again, you’d better complete following additional steps.

Additional steps after freeing up disk space for Windows 10 computers

1. Save files to new location

Windows 10 has new option to save new files of apps, documents, music, pictures, and videos to other place, steps:

1. Press Windows and X on keyboard, then click Settings
2. Click System>Storage.
3. Click Change where new content is saved under More storage settings.
4. Click the drop-down list to select new location and click Apply.

2. Turn on Storage Sense

Storage Sense is a relatively new feature in Windows 10 that users may enable to free up disk space automatically when the drive is running low on space.

Firstly, you need to enable this service:

1. Press Windows and X on keyboard, then Settings
2. Go to System >Storage
3. Switch Off to On under Storage Sense on the right side.

Then click Change how we free up space automatically below it.

You have several options:

1. Select from the list to free up disk space when this partition is running low or every day/week/month.
2. Then you can select whether delete temporary files automatically.
3. Select from the drop-down list to delete files in Recycle Bin and Downloads folder if they have been there for over 1/14/30/60 days.

3. Expand C drive as large as possible

This step is very important to the computers that C drive are created small. Similar with a smart phone, if it is 16GB, you have to clean it up frequently, but if it is 256GB, you won’t encounter the low space issue for a long time.

With NIUBI Partition Editor, you can move free space to C drive from other partitions without losing data. Operating System, programs and associated setting, as well as anything else keep the same with before. It has free edition for Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP home computer users. Besides reallocating free space, it helps you do many other disk partition management operations.

Download the free edition and follow the steps in the video to expand C drive.

In Summary

To free up disk space in Windows 10 laptop and desktop, first of all, delete the junk files with native disk cleanup utility. Then move programs and some files out of C drive, and then delete some restore point. Finally, expand C drive as large as possible with free space in other partitions.