How to Free Up Disk Space on Windows 11/10 [8 Effective Ways]

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Sherly 

Last updated on April 22, 2024

Is your C drive always full? Are you looking for a detailed guide on how to free up space on your C drive? Don't worry! We've got you covered! This article will show you

Why does the C drive get full?

Drive C is the primary hard disk partition that contains the operating system and related system files. You can check the total disk space on Windows 11. After using your device for some time, it usually gets full. This is because Drive C stores:

• The Windows operating system, system files, and settings
• Installed applications, built-in Windows apps, and downloaded software
• User data, such as documents stored on the desktop, photos, and personal information

Sometimes, you can move unallocated space to drive C to get more room. Here's a link to help with that.

How to Move Unallocated Space to C Drive in Windows 10/11 [Step-by-Step Guide]

Unallocated space can be used to extend another partition or create a new volume. In most cases, users might want to use the unallocated space to expand another partition.

As we can see, the operating system is located in the C drive. Over time, to improve performance, it needs to be updated, which takes up more and more space.

On the other hand, we might save large working files, big game videos, or other such files on the C drive for everyday use. When your computer has too many large or messy files, you can run into serious performance problems.

By the way, we've listed some other issues you might encounter, and you can click on those links for help:

But how do you free up space on the C drive for Windows? Read on to learn how!

How to Free Up Space on the C Drive in Windows - 8 Effective Ways

There are mainly two ways to free up C drive space: extend C drive and clean up C drive. This part offers you 8 methods to free up C drive space.

Method 1: Extend the C Drive to Get More Space

Option 2: Move the larger files to another drive

Method 3: Run Disk Clean-Up

Method 4: Enable Compact OS

Method 5: Delete Temporary Files

Method 6: Empty the Recycle Bin

Method 7: Uninstall Apps You No Longer Need

Method 8: Disable Sleep Mode

Let's explore each of these in turn.

Method 1: Extend C Drive to Get More Space

Extending C drive is the most effective way to get more space on C drive. Here, I'd like to introduce you a professional Windows disk management tool – AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.

It breaks the rules of Windows and offers greater flexibility for extending/moving partitions. Most importantly, with the help of a professional disk partition manager tool, the entire process of adding unallocated space, whether contiguous or non-contiguous, to drive C is simplified without data loss.

Step 1: Right-click on Drive D with enough space and select "Allocate Space".

Step 2. Select the target partition - C: drive, and then drag the partition panel to the right to add the free space from Drive D: to Drive C:. Then click “OK” to confirm.

Click the "Execute Task" button, and then click "Apply" to start moving the disk space from D drive to C drive.

AOMEI Partition Assistant is compatible with all Windows systems, so you can use it to free up disk space on Windows 8, and more. In addition to adding unallocated space to the C drive, Partition Assistant offers many other features, such as:

• Convert MBR to GPT
• Merge and resize partitions
• Extend SSD C drive across disks
• Check for file system errors and bad sectors
• Format hard drive and external hard drives

So, if you are having disk management issues, download it; it will be very helpful.

Method 2: Move the Large File to Another Drive

You can also move larger files to another drive to free up space on Drive C. There's a great professional PC transfer software, Todo PCTrans tool, that can help you efficiently transfer large files and programs to another drive. Let's see how it works.

Step 1: Run Todo PCTrans on your computer. Click on "Large Files Cleaner" and then hit the "Start" button to proceed.

Step 2. Select the disk you want to scan and click "Scan".

Step 3: Once the scan is complete, all files larger than 20 MB will be listed. Select the ones you want to move and the target drive. (Click on the triangle icon to choose the destination or hit "Browse" to pick the location.)

Click the “Move” button, check the file in the pop-up window, and click “Move” again.

Method 3: Run Disk Cleanup

Windows comes with a useful tool called Disk Cleanup that can help you get rid of junk files that build up and take up space on your hard drive over time. Follow the steps to try it out.

Step 1: Click on "This PC," right-click on the C drive, and select "Disk Cleanup" from the most relevant option.

It will show you a list of file types and their sizes. Check the ones you don't need, then click "OK."

Method 4: Enable Compact OS

Compact OS can reduce the disk space used by Windows apps, freeing up space. That could make sense in the context of Windows Disk Cleanup. But before you do this, back up your important data on the C drive.

Step 1: Search for “Command Prompt” and right-click to select “Run as administrator.”

Step 2: Type in the command “Compact.exe /CompactOS:always” and press Enter.

Step 3: Wait about 20 minutes – be patient.

Method 5: Delete Temporary Files

Temporary files can also take up space on the C drive, so you should delete them regularly. Here's how.

Step 1: Press “Win + I” to open “Settings,” then choose “System” and “Storage.”

Step 2. Select "This PC (C:)" to scan.

Click “OK.”

Click "Temporary files." Windows will list items like "Temporary files," "Recycle Bin," and "Downloads" here.

Click on “Temporary files”.

Step 4: Select the items you want to delete, and click “Remove Files.”

Method 6: Empty the Recycling Bin

When you delete files on Windows, they aren't actually removed from the drive. Instead, they're moved to the Recycle Bin and marked as deleted. Over time, though, the Recycle Bin can take up a lot of space, so emptying it can free up room on your C: drive.

Step 1: Open the Recycling Bin from your desktop.

Step 2: Select all files and documents in the Recycling Bin, right-click on them, and choose “Delete.”

Method 7: Uninstall Apps You No Longer Need

If you have any programs installed that you used for a specific problem but no longer need, uninstall them to free up space on your C drive.

Step 1. Right-click the Windows Start menu and click “Apps and Features.”

Step 2: Right-click on the program you no longer need and select "Uninstall."

Step 3. Repeat this process to remove any other unwanted applications.

Method 8: Disable Hibernate

Hibernate, in computers, is the process of keeping the system state while turning off power. If you have Hibernate enabled on Windows, it also takes up a few gigabytes of space on your C: drive. You can disable it with these steps.

Just open the CMD and run the following command: Powercfg /hibernate off

Hibernate disabled:

Then you can disable the sleep mode.

Try some of these methods to free up space on your C drive. By the way, if you run into issues, here are some links you might find useful:

Conclusions

Alright, now you know how to free up space on C drive, a common issue for Windows users. We've provided you with eight effective methods to do so. Feel free to choose the simplest option based on your needs. By the way, if you have more questions about freeing up C drive space, continue reading the next paragraph.

Frequently Asked Questions on How to Free Up Disk Space on C Drive (UTF-8)

This article lists three questions related to freeing up space on the C drive. Continue reading if needed.

**1. What can I delete from my C drive to free up space?**

It can delete Recycle Bin files, upgrade log files, Windows Update cleanup files, Temporary Internet Files, device driver packages, and other temporary files.

Why is my C drive so small?

The reasons for insufficient space on the C drive might be as follows.

• Viruses and malware can create files that take up space on your C drive.
• You may have large files saved to your C drive without realizing it.
• Paging files, old Windows installations, temporary files, and other system files could be taking up space on your C drive.

3. How to fix a full C drive?

You can try the following methods:

• Uninstall programs
• Delete duplicate files
• Remove large and unnecessary files
• Run Disk Cleanup
• Delete temporary files
• Extend C drive space with Partition Master tool