Read this comprehensive guide on how to free up disk space on Windows 10. It provides multiple solutions to get rid of the storage full warning message on your Windows PC.
All our PCs have a limited disk space. Hence, there is always a chance of getting the storage full. And this is one of the worst situations as it prevents you from saving anything on your PC, no matter how important it is. Along with this, your system also starts performing sluggish when the storage gets full. Hence, it is essential to clean the hard disk regularly. But not everyone knows how to free up disk space on Windows 10. Considering this, today, we are here with this comprehensive yet simple guide to clear disk space on Windows 10.
Even for the tech experts, it is one of the most tricky tasks to clean up PC storage. The reason is no one exactly knows what is hogging their hard disk. Hence, in this post, we have discussed 13 different solutions to free up disk space on Windows 10. So, without being sluggish like a PC showing the storage-full warning, let’s proceed to the guide.
Also Read: How to Fix 100% Disk Usage in Windows 10
Your search for how to free up disk space on Windows 10 PC ends here. Below are the helpful solutions to clean the hard drive and restore the disk storage on your computer.
When you delete something on your Windows 10 PC, it doesn’t get deleted permanently. The system transfers the file to the Recycle Bin so that you can restore it if required in the future. To delete the file or folder permanently, either you have to press the Shift + Delete keys on your keyboard or remove it from the Recycle Bin. If there are multiple files in the Recycle Bin and you want to remove all of them from your PC, then you can follow these steps.
You can also try the Disk Cleanup tool of Windows to clean the hard drive. The utility helps to clean C drive in Windows 10 by eliminating the temporary files, shadow copies, and older system restore points. Here are the steps to use Disk Cleanup and retrieve the lost storage.
Along with the temporary files, you can also delete the shadow copies & older system restore points to retrieve some space on the C drive. Below are the necessary steps that you have to follow.
Windows 10 offers a built-in junk cleaning features known as Storage Sense. Enabling this tool of the operating system helps you to get rid of unwanted files and eventually get more disk space. Here is how you can enable Storage Sense on your Windows 10 PC.
It’ll help you to eliminate all the junk automatically as per the set schedule. However, if you are looking to free space on Windows 10 PC immediately via Storage Sense, then here is all you have to do.
Another helpful solution to clear disk space on Windows 10 is making the data available online only using OneDrive. For this, you first have to enable the OneDrive Files On-Demand. Here are the needed steps.
After enabling the OneDrive Files On-Demand, here is how you can make your data available online only.
Also Read: Best RAM Cleaner, Optimizer, and Booster for Windows 10
All of us have several programs, games, and utilities installed on our PCs. However, we do not require all of them. Hence, it is good to uninstall such utilities, or else they may acquire a large proportion of your disk space. Below are the steps to uninstall unwanted software and games manually on your Windows 10 PC.
You can repeat it for all the apps that you want to uninstall on your Windows 10 PC. However, if you find it time-wasting to remove programs manually from your computer, then you can use some best app uninstallers for Windows to do the task automatically.
If you are constantly getting the ‘Storage Full’ warning, then one of the most effective solutions that you can try is to transfer the local files to an external drive. First of all, you have to install an external drive on your PC. After that, below are the steps that you have to follow to transfer your local data & files to the new drive.
Along with the files, you can also transfer the installed programs to the external drive to get some extra free space. Below are the needed steps.
Also Read: 14 Best File Copy Utility Software for Windows 10, 8, 7 in 2021
Solution 7: Enable Windows 10 NTFS Compression
You can also compress your files and drives to free space on Windows 10. Windows provide an NTFS compression option to help you decrease the file or drive size. First, let’s discuss how to enable NTFS compression on files & folders.
If you want to enable NTFS compression on a particular drive, then here are the steps that you have to follow.
Windows operating system saves memory data in the form of hiberfil.sys file on your hard drive to ensure the safety of your current session. This feature is known as hibernation. However, hibernation is pretty helpful, but it consumes a hefty amount of your drive space. You can disable the hibernation feature on your Windows 10 PC to clean the C drive and get more disk space. Here is what you have to do.
Compact OS is a benefit offered by Windows that helps to reduce the size of the operating system and its related apps & files. It serves as a decent solution if your storage is getting full. Here is how you can use the Compact OS feature to free up disk space on Windows 10.
Following the above steps will help you to shrink the size of Windows 10 and apps installed. However, any mistake can cost you a lot and even the complete data loss. Hence, we suggest you create a backup for all your data before proceeding with this method to regain disk space.
Also Read: Best Free Hard Drive Encryption Software for Windows 10
Sometimes, indexing issues can make the Widows database grow immensely. It eventually causes storage troubles on the PC. However, do not worry. One can easily get rid of this by rebuilding or configuring the Windows 10 Search Indexer. First of all, let’s check out the method to rebuild the Search Indexer and clean the hard disk of your PC.
If you want to configure the Search Indexer, then below are the instructions you have to follow.
If you share your PC with other users, then you might have created multiple user accounts. However, it is necessary to remove those accounts that are not in use. It helps you to have more space on the hard drive for the active users. Hence, deleting unwanted and unneeded user accounts can be a great solution to clear disk space on Windows 10. Below are the necessary steps to do so.
Also Read: Best PC Optimizer Software for Windows 10, 8, 7
Windows reserves a specific amount of your system storage for the updates, cache, & other temporary files. However, just like hibernation, it is also a quite useful feature offered by the operating system. But, if you have a PC with low storage, then it may trouble you. Hence, to regain some additional space on your hard disk, you can disable the Windows Reserved Storage feature.
However, we do not recommend this method to every PC user. Disabling Windows Reserved Storage may cause several troubles during your next Windows Update. Hence, we suggest you to proceed with this solution only if you are a tech expert or someone who understands this function of Windows quite well. Below are the instructions to disable Reserved Storage on your Windows 10 PC.
Well, that was all we have to share with you on resolving the storage-full problem on your PC. It was a comprehensive guide to free up disk space on Windows 10. We hope the above solutions helped you to clean the hard drive of your computer. There are multiple benefits of having more disk space. So, keep your storage clean by following the above methods. However, if you think that we have missed something important on the topic, then feel free to share it via comments.
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