How to Free Up Disk Space on Windows Server - 5 Methods

Updated by

Tracy King 

Last updated on April 22, 2024

Does your server computer run out of hard disk space easily after one or two years of use? Or, if the data drive on your server has a small capacity, you may easily encounter "low disk space" error or slow computer performance in Windows Server.

So, how to free up disk space on a Windows Server computer? On this page, we'll show you five effective methods that most Windows experts and server administrators use to clean up disk space, free up more available space, and optimize the performance of their server computers.

How to free up disk space on Windows Server

Running out of disk space? 5 ways to free up space on your Windows Server

Applies To: Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, 2012, 2012 R2, 2008, 2008 R2, and others.

By following the five methods applicable to most server computers for freeing up disk space on Windows servers, you can successfully and immediately make your server computer as fast as new:

1. #1. Disk Cleanup
2. #2. Uninstall Apps
3. #3. Reset Virtual Memory Page File Size
4. #4. Add More Space or Upgrade to a Larger Drive
5. #5. Move Large Files and Programs to Another Drive

Important: If you risk losing important content while freeing up disk space on your Windows Server computer, remember to back up your valuable server data to an external drive or cloud drive.

Your quick guide:

1. Methods 1, 2, and 3 are free ways to clear out some junk files, unused apps, or temporary content.
2. Method 4 is intended to help you add more space to your main drive so that your computer runs faster.
3. Method 5 walks you through moving large files and programs to another location to free up space on the target drive.

Starting here, follow the Windows experts' guide to freeing up disk space on Windows Server.

#1. Disk Cleanup

Disk Cleanup is a built-in Windows utility that allows all Windows users to effectively clean and delete large, unnecessary files from all existing hard drive partitions.

Content that can be deleted:

• Windows update log files
• Downloaded program files
• Temporary Internet files
• System error memory dump files
• Windows Error Reporting and Feedback Diagnostics files
• DirectX renderer cache
• Delivery Optimization files
• Recycle Bin
• Temporary files
• User file history

How Disk Cleanup frees up disk space:

Step 1: Press Windows + S, type “Disk Cleanup” in the search box, and then click “Disk Cleanup” to open it.

Step 2: Select the disk partition you want to clean up, and click “OK”.

Step 3: Review the large files or unnecessary data taking up space on your target drive, and click “OK” to begin freeing up space.

#2. Uninstall the app

In addition to deleting or removing large unnecessary files from your computer's hard drive, another great way to free up space on your Windows Server is to get rid of corrupted or uninstall unwanted applications. Wise Windows experts know how to make the most of their server's disk space and would never allow unnecessary big apps to occupy so much space.

What to delete? Here is a list:

• Large, unnecessary apps
• Useless games

How to free up disk space by uninstalling apps:

You can use the Programs and Features tool to view the size of your apps and successfully uninstall any that you don't need.

Step 1: Press Windows + X.

Step 2: Click on “Programs and Features” in the search results to open the tool.

Step 3: Once the Programs and Features window opens, look for programs or applications that you do not need running on your server, right-click on them, and select “Uninstall.”

Repeat this process until you have removed all unused applications from your server.

#3. Reset the Size of the Virtual Memory Page File

The page file is mainly used to set up virtual memory and occupies some disk space on System C drive. Usually, when the page file is too large, it will lead to "high disk usage" issue in Windows and Windows Server systems.

To free up disk space on your server, the best way is to reset the size of the virtual memory page file. You have two options here – try either one that suits your requirement:

Option 1: Reset Virtual Memory

Step 1: Press Windows key + R, type sysdm.cpl,3 and hit Enter.

Step 2: Click the "Settings" button under the "Advanced" tab.

Step 3: Click the Advanced tab on the Performance page, and then click Change under the Virtual Memory section.

Step 4: Deselect the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” checkbox.

Step 5: Select the Windows drive, such as C:, and enter the recommended initial size for the virtual memory.

"Change and Reset Virtual Memory"

Option 2: Move the page file from the C drive to another drive:

Step 1: Press the Windows + R keys, type sysdm.cpl, and press Enter.

Step 2: Click the "Settings" button under the "Advanced" tab to access the Performance options.

Step 3: On the Performance page, click the Advanced tab, and then click the Change button under the Virtual Memory section.

Step 4: Deselect “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” and then select the C: drive and choose “No paging file.”

Step 5: Click "Settings" to disable the page file on the C drive.

Step 6: Select a target drive to move the page file to, choose “System Managed Size,” and click “OK.”

After this, you need to restart your computer to keep all the changes and make them effective.

Note: Some server computers have small partitions on the hard drive, but there is unallocated or free space on the disk. If this is the case with your server, you can try either of the two methods described below.

#4. Add more space, or upgrade to a larger hard drive

When you have unallocated space on your hard drive that's not in use, you can add it to an existing partition to extend it. Or, if you're planning to upgrade to a larger disk, you can use a reliable server disk cloning software to clone the drive to a bigger HDD/SSD.

For this reason, Windows Server administrators tend to use reliable server partition management software. Experienced server users know how to choose such tools, and Partition Master Enterprise is one of the preferred partition managers for server users.

You can use this tool directly to add more space to the target drive or easily upgrade the disk to a larger capacity. Here's how:

**1. Increase the space on the target disk volume**

Step 1: Locate the target partition.

Enter the partition manager, find the target partition and choose “Resize/Move”.

Select the partition to extend.

Step 2: Extend the target partition

Drag the divider to the right or left to add unallocated space to the current partition, then click OK to confirm.

Extra option: Get space from another drive

If there isn't enough unallocated space, right-click a large partition with enough free space and select “Allocate Space.”

Under “Allocate space to,” select the partition you want to expand.

Step 3: Perform the operation to extend the partition.

Drag the partition you want to move into the unallocated space, and then click “OK”.

Click Run Task, and then click Apply to save all the changes.

2. Upgrade to a larger disk

Step 1: Select the source disk.

Click "Clone" from the left menu. Choose "Clone system disk" or "Clone data disk", then click "Next". Select the source disk and click "Next".

Step 2: Select the target disk.

Select the desired HDD/SSD as the target disk, then click “Next” to proceed. Read the warning message and confirm by clicking the “Yes” button.

Step 3: Review the disk layout and edit the size of the target disk partitions, if necessary.

When prompted that the utility will erase all data from the target disk, click “Continue” (make sure to back up any important data on the target disk beforehand).

Here you can choose to “Auto Resize”, “Keep the same as source”, or “Edit disk layout”. (If you want to reserve more space for the C drive, choose the last option.)

Step 4: Click Start to begin cloning the disk.

Step 5: Move Large Files and Programs to Another Drive

Many Windows server administrators add a second or even a third hard drive to expand storage capacity. When the system drive starts running out of space, savvy server jockeys try to move large files and programs to other drives to free up disk space.

A reliable Windows Server application migration software can help. Among them, Todo PCTrans Technician is a tool you can't miss.

Here's how experts move large files, applications, and programs to another drive to free up disk space on a server computer:

Step 1: Run Todo PCTrans and choose the transfer mode

On the main interface of Todo PCTrans, go to the “App Transfer” section and click “Start” to proceed.

Select the transfer mode

Step 2: Choose the apps and other drives to move

1. Select the source partition, and check the apps, programs, and software you wish to migrate (labeled as "Yes").

2. Click the triangle icon to select another drive or disk as the target device, and then click “Migrate” to start the migration.

Select the apps to migrate

Step 3: Complete the migration process

After the transfer is complete, click "OK" to finish.

You can reboot the computer to commit the changes, and you should then be able to run the migration tool again on the other disk.

Conclusions

On this page, we've gathered five methods that savvy Windows Server experts often use to free up disk space when computers run slow or throw low disk space errors. Among the first three manual approaches, Disk Cleanup is the most effective way to clear drive space by deleting junk and temporary files. The Partition Master tool always comes in handy when adding more available space to the target drive or upgrading to a larger one.

Are you ready to become an expert at expanding or freeing up space on your server computer's hard drive? Follow these steps, and you'll be well on your way to becoming a tech pro.