Windows 10 says it needs more space for it's latest update...

[rolanaj]

When I bought my current PC the hard drive was split into C drive 149 GB and D drive 1.6 TB. Now  Windows needs more space and is apparently going to upgrade to Windows 11. The idea of  moving the partitions is a little daunting and I am wondering if I would be better to get a new drive and have it for just windows or if I should use the new drive for data and the current one for windows which is still going to require fixing the partition. Does anyone have any thoughts on the best and possibly the easiest way to do this? 

 

 

[Corrine]

Personally, with the D drive being 1.6 TB (1000+ GB), I'd allocate space from there to the C drive and the D drive would still have plenty of space. 

 

This shows how to do it manually:  Easy Ways to Transfer Disk Space from the D to C Drive: 9 Steps (wikihow.com)

This route is using the free trial of EaseUS Partition Manager:  Direct Drag to Move Space from D Drive to C Drive Windows 11/10/7 - EaseUS

[zlim]

Could the 149 GB drive be an ssd and the 1.6 TB be a spinning hard drive? The sizes make me think that your computer has two hard drives.

[Bookmem]

On 11/12/2021 at 12:43 PM, rolanaj said:

When I bought my current PC the hard drive was split into C drive 149 GB and D drive 1.6 TB. Now  Windows needs more space and is apparently going to upgrade to Windows 11. The idea of  moving the partitions is a little daunting and I am wondering if I would be better to get a new drive and have it for just windows or if I should use the new drive for data and the current one for windows which is still going to require fixing the partition. Does anyone have any thoughts on the best and possibly the easiest way to do this? 

 

 

I know Windows can be a resource hog but 149gb should still be plenty.  I have Windows 11 running fine on an 85gb partition.  I think your easiest solution would simply be to cleanup the 149gb partition and move anything you can to the 1.6tb partition.

Edited November 15, 2021 by Bookmem

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Hmm... my Win 10 is humming along fine on a 120Gig partition with lots of space to spare.

[Corrine]

Good point, Eric.  I hadn't even thought to check my laptop.  I have Windows 11 installed and used space shows 79.9 GB.  

 

Perhaps a starting point would be to open File Explorer, right-click OS (C:) and run Disk Cleanup, including the option to Cleanup System Files.  In checking that option on my laptop, I could add an additional 7.30 GB of free space by selecting Windows Update files.

[Bookmem]

18 hours ago, Corrine said:

Good point, Eric.  I hadn't even thought to check my laptop.  I have Windows 11 installed and used space shows 79.9 GB.  

 

Perhaps a starting point would be to open File Explorer, right-click OS (C:) and run Disk Cleanup, including the option to Cleanup System Files.  In checking that option on my laptop, I could add an additional 7.30 GB of free space by selecting Windows Update files.

I agree, that should be the first step.  Moving all of the User folders, Downloads, Documents, Pictures and Videos, to the d:\ drive is another good option.  I like to do that anyway in case you need to format the c:\ drive for a clean install.  https://www.windowscentral.com/how-move-default-user-folders-new-drive-windows-10

Edited November 16, 2021 by Bookmem

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Oh, and my Win 10 is using 68Gig of space on that drive mentioned above. When I look at that 68Gig figure, it blows my mind that it takes that much space to install this operating system.

 

On my main drive, I'm running Slackware64 14.2. It's only taking up 35Gig of a 50Gig partition.

 

I guess I'm stuck in the past a bit. I remember happily running Win 98SE on my old Pentium I machine with a 2Gig hard drive.

[Bookmem]

21 hours ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

Oh, and my Win 10 is using 68Gig of space on that drive mentioned above. When I look at that 68Gig figure, it blows my mind that it takes that much space to install this operating system.

 

On my main drive, I'm running Slackware64 14.2. It's only taking up 35Gig of a 50Gig partition.

 

I guess I'm stuck in the past a bit. I remember happily running Win 98SE on my old Pentium I machine with a 2Gig hard drive.

That's about 20gb more than Windows 11 is using on my 85gb partition.  Have you run the Disk Cleanup on your c:\ drive?

[V.T. Eric Layton]

It's not known as c:/drive on my system. It's known as /dev/sdc1/part1.

 

And no, I probably haven't defrag'd since the before the upgrade from 7 to 10. Defrag takes about 8 weeks (just kidding) to complete in Windows.

 

Windows is probably the least pressing technical thing in my life. I don't use that OS for anything but playing one particular game -> S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Chernobyl, which is a modded/combined version of the three original games in this series. My Windows has no network access and hasn't been updated since installing Win 10. I do have it cloned on another drive, but truthfully... if it crashed and burned tomorrow, it wouldn't bother me too much. I'd just reinstall.  

 

When I think of Windows, I wish that I could have all the moments of my life that I've spent waiting... waiting... waiting for things to complete in that OS returned to me. Windows wasn't too bad in Win 98SE or even XP. It turned ugly for me after all the "service packs" destroyed my XP installation in 2005. Shortly after that I went to GNU/LINUX and never turned back. My Win installations on my system these days are definitely NOT a critical part of my life.

 

But hey... GNU/LINUX isn't for everyone. I understand that. Everyone should use the things that work best for them. I've tried over the years to not criticize MS or the Windows franchise too much; often, I fail.

[Bookmem]

59 minutes ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

It's not known as c:/drive on my system. It's known as /dev/sdc1/part1.

 

And no, I probably haven't defrag'd since the before the upgrade from 7 to 10. Defrag takes about 8 weeks (just kidding) to complete in Windows.

 

Windows is probably the least pressing technical thing in my life. I don't use that OS for anything but playing one particular game -> S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Chernobyl, which is a modded/combined version of the three original games in this series. My Windows has no network access and hasn't been updated since installing Win 10. I do have it cloned on another drive, but truthfully... if it crashed and burned tomorrow, it wouldn't bother me too much. I'd just reinstall.  

 

When I think of Windows, I wish that I could have all the moments of my life that I've spent waiting... waiting... waiting for things to complete in that OS returned to me. Windows wasn't too bad in Win 98SE or even XP. It turned ugly for me after all the "service packs" destroyed my XP installation in 2005. Shortly after that I went to GNU/LINUX and never turned back. My Win installations on my system these days are definitely NOT a critical part of my life.

 

But hey... GNU/LINUX isn't for everyone. I understand that. Everyone should use the things that work best for them. I've tried over the years to not criticize MS or the Windows franchise too much; often, I fail.

I'm not talking about defraging.  The Windows app, Disk Cleanup allows you to choose ununsed files to delete. And, to Windows, it is c:\ and not /dev/sdc1/part1.  Open File Explorer and right click on the C drive and choose Properties/General and click on Disk Cleanup.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yes, I'm quite familiar with it, @Bookmem. Thanks for the reminder, though. There probably isn't much superfluous carp on my Windows because nothing much gets done with that OS on my system. There wouldn't be any cookies,downloaded temp files or anything like that... no Internet/Network access for me with this OS. Just for funzies, though, I'll check next time I boot it up.

[Bookmem]

2 hours ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

Yes, I'm quite familiar with it, @Bookmem. Thanks for the reminder, though. There probably isn't much superfluous carp on my Windows because nothing much gets done with that OS on my system. There wouldn't be any cookies,downloaded temp files or anything like that... no Internet/Network access for me with this OS. Just for funzies, though, I'll check next time I boot it up.

There has to be something to account for the extra 20gb.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

46 minutes ago, Bookmem said:

There has to be something to account for the extra 20gb.

 

Probably the gaming software I have installed and the proprietary Nvidia drivers I'm using.

[Bookmem]

1 hour ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

 

Probably the gaming software I have installed and the proprietary Nvidia drivers I'm using.

Yeah, saving games can eat up storage space quickly.

[Scot]

Could it be simply that it needs more space while it's installing? Windows 11 uses no more disk storage than Windows 10 (according to a Microsoft doc I was reading the other day), but it requires a big chunk to install. It preserves your Windows 10 for two weeks, giving you time and a user interface (Windows Update) to back out of Windows 11. Then it automatically reclaims the disk space for you.

 

I've been running Windows 11 on a production machine for a couple of months. My two cents: I hate the new Start menu. It actually makes it harder to get to your applications and at first runtime looks like a giant ad for Microsoft software. But other than that and the hiding of a few things that are soon ferreted out (like settings for private, public etc. networks), it's more like a 3.0 version of Windows 10. There are lots and  lots of tiny changes, mostly for the better. It's Windows 10 MORE.

[goretsky]

Hello,

It might be useful to look at the drive's contents using a program that shows a treemap like WinDirStat or TreeSize to see what the space is being used for on the drive.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

 

[xrobwx71]

On 11/17/2021 at 9:17 AM, Bookmem said:

That's about 20gb more than Windows 11 is using on my 85gb partition.  Have you run the Disk Cleanup on your c:\ drive?

I know this is a somewhat old post but have you guys used the enhanced Disk Cleaner that comes with Windows?

 

Open an elevated command prompt and enter Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr/sagerun:65535 it will open Disk Cleaer as before but with extra spaces to clean like the SxS folder and old Windows Update files no longer needed.

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

By the way, Hardware Stats direct from Microsoft's website:

 

Storage: 64 GB* or greater available storage is required to install Windows 11.

• Additional storage space might be required to download updates and enable specific features.

 

I have a bare Win 11 (upgrade from 10 and from 7) on my system. I've installed 4 rather large games and some other hardware drivers. I think my 68Gig usage is right there in the realm of possibility based on MS's own disk space requirements and my added software.

[jcgriff2]

Hi. . .

 

The upgrade from W7 to W8, then to W8.1, then to W10 all would probably have used a lot of space.

 

Please run dxdiag - 

 

Press the WIN key; type dxdiag - you should see dxdiag at the top-left; "run command" below or beside it. RIGHT-click on dxdiag above, select "Run as Administrator"

 

A screen will appear. Look at the bottom toward the center - click on "Save all Information"

 

A SAVE-FILE screen will appear with DxDiag.txt filled in. Look up top - save it to Documents folder. File size should be <300 bytes.

 

Attach the text file to your next post.

 

That file will provide me with info on your hard drives.

 

Regards. . .

 

jcgriff2

 

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Thanks, @jcgriff2 (assuming this was meant for me)!

 

I actually went from Win 7 directly to 10. I never had 8 or 8.1 on this system. Since MS Windows is far, far from a priority in my life, and the fact that it's currently functioning just fine and dandy on those rare occasions that I actually boot it up, I'm OK with just leaving it the way it is. :)

 

I have no plans to upgrade to Win 11.

 

~Eric