How to Free Up Disk Space on C Drive Before/During Windows 11 Update

There's little that's more frustrating than running out of disk space, right? Not having enough room on your drive can prevent you from installing important updates or upgrading your Windows OS, and it can even slow down your computer's performance. A reset is an option, but it can sometimes delete all the important data on your device. So, one of the best things you can do is free up space on C drive. You can do this before or after receiving the low disk space notification. Or, if you plan to install the Windows 11 update, you might want to do it beforehand.

How to Free Up Disk Space on C Drive before or for Upgrading to Windows 11?

It's beneficial to clean up your system before updating to Windows 11. If you don't have enough disk space, you won't be able to install all of Windows 11 on your PC. As a result, you won't be able to enjoy all the latest and coolest features that Windows 11 has to offer. Therefore, you must ensure that you have enough storage space to install Windows 11. You'll receive a notification stating that Windows has found your storage space to be insufficient.

What is taking up space on my hard drive?

Follow these steps to see what's taking up space on your hard drive: 1. Open Settings by clicking the Windows icon. 2. Click on System from the available options. 3. Now, select Storage from the left-hand menu.

Next, under the Storage section, you'll be able to see what's taking up the most space on your hard drive. Then click on "Show more categories" to view all the categories that are taking up space. Here, you can check each file type and how much storage it's using. If needed, you can delete some temporary files that you consider unnecessary. Now, click on "View storage usage by other drives" under the "More storage settings" tab. Click on "Data" to check the storage usage on your secondary drive. Here, you can see the storage consumption of different types of files. So, that's how you can view the disk space usage. Now, go through each category one by one and analyze them in detail.

5 Ways to Free Up Disk Space Before Updating to or Installing Windows 11

Utilize the Todo PCTrans tool to clean system junk files, large files, and transfer programs from the C drive

The first step to freeing up desktop space is by deleting all the junk files, not necessarily the unused ones that take up a lot of space. Another option is to move some important or unused necessary files somewhere else to gain more storage. Wondering how to do it? Don't worry because there are tools that can help you with all of these. Tools is a software that offers app migration, system cleanup, large file cleanup, app management, and more for a C drive cleanup on all Windows operating systems. Hence, it easily gets rid of all the junk files regularly. You can also use Todo PCTrans Tools to transfer files for free. With this software, you can quickly and securely transfer your files. It offers three different transaction modes, which are via network connection transfer, image file transfer, and local transfer. It works with various versions of Windows and other applications such as Adobe software, Apple apps, Zoom, Spotify, AutoCAD, Dropbox, and more. So, it can be very helpful in many ways. The software comes with a free version and a paid one. They also offer an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee for the pro version. So, downloading it from the get-go can be very beneficial for you.

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Step 1: Launch the Todo PCTrans tool on your computer, click on "System Cleanup," and then hit the "Scan" button.

Step 2: When the scan is finished, the junk files will be displayed. Select the ones you don't need. Be careful not to delete anything that might affect your computer or software.

< strong > Step 3. Click the “Clean” button and confirm the cleanup. You can use this feature regularly to free up disk space.

Delete the "Windows Old" folder

To remove old Windows folders, follow these steps: 1. Search for the "Disk Cleanup" option using the Windows icon. 2. Click on "Disk Cleanup" from the available options. 3. A small window will appear, and then click on "Clean up system files."

1. Wait for a while as the system does its internal processing. You'll then see another pop-up window that's calculating.
2. Wait for this process to finish. A new window will then appear on your screen.
3. Scroll down through the current menu to look for your previous Windows installation. Click the box to its left once you've found it.

Select the files to clean up

1. Next, tap on "OK" at the bottom of the page.
2. In the pop-up dialog box, tap on "Delete."
3. A new window will appear, starting the deletion process for the old folder. When prompted to allow the deletion of the old folder, tap "OK." Wait a moment, and the old folder will be removed.
4. Check your C drive, and you'll notice that the old folder option is gone since it has been deleted.

Using Storage Sense on Windows

Follow these steps to use the Storage Sense feature in Windows: 1. Open the Settings app by clicking on the Windows icon. 2. Click on the 'System' option from the available choices. 3. Now, in the left-hand menu, select the 'Storage' option. 4. Under the storage management section, click on 'Storage Sense.'

A new window will open. Scroll down and look for the “Automatic Content User Cleanup” option. Enable it when you find it.

Configure the cleanup settings according to your preferences, then click the "Run Storage Sense now" option. Wait for it to finish. When it's done, a checkmark will appear next to it.

"Use Disk Management to clean up system files"

To use Disk Cleanup to get rid of system files, follow the same steps as for deleting old folders. This time, instead of selecting Old Files, browse all of your system files and analyze them. Check any unnecessary files that you no longer use. When you're done, click “Clean up system files.” Wait a moment, and all of the unnecessary system files will be deleted.

Delete temporary files or folders

Regularly deleting temporary files can save you a lot of storage space. To do this, go to the Settings tab and select the Storage option. Now, click on the "Temporary Files" option. You'll see a menu with different types of temporary files. Select all the types of temporary files you want to delete. After selecting the files, click on the "Delete Files" option. Wait a moment, and all the temporary files will be removed.

Tips to Free Up Disk Space on Windows 11/10 C Drive

Here are some practical tips for Windows users to avoid the "low disk space" error on Windows 11/10, with the encoding format set as utf-8: 1. Install large programs on a non-system drive to save significant space on your primary drive. Always check the file size before installing any files or programs. 2. Regularly clean and delete large unnecessary files from the C drive. Don't wait for a cleanup prompt; proactively remove unused and unimportant files. Uninstall applications or software that are no longer needed or used. 3. Move programs installed on the C drive to a local drive. This can also save a considerable amount of space. You can use utility software to do this, as it is simple and user-friendly. 4. Shrink the size of the WinSxS folder. While you cannot directly delete the WinSxS folder as it may harm your computer, you can reduce its size using the Task Scheduler. 5. Set only essential OneDrive files to be available offline, as offline files typically take up more storage space than online files.

Conclusions

This is a comprehensive guide on how to free up disk space on your C drive before/while updating to Windows 11. Firstly, inspect all the files that are taking up storage space. After analyzing the storage usage, you can start cleaning up files as needed. With these five methods, you can easily free up all the storage space on your C drive. Once you've maximized your storage, it's time to manage it effectively. Regularly delete junk files and perform clean-ups as mentioned above. Following all these instructions will ensure a successful outcome, leading to better storage management in the future.