2 Effective Ways for C Drive Low Disk Space in Windows 11

Many Windows 10 users encountered the problem that the C drive runs low on disk space after upgrading to Windows 11. If Windows 11 is pre-installed on your laptop, desktop, or tablet, you will encounter the same problem someday. Many people report that there is not enough free space in Windows 11 after installing updates. In that case, the C drive shows as red in File Explorer. It is annoying when the C drive runs out of free space because the computer becomes much slower, gets stuck, or even crashes. This article introduces the 2 most effective methods to fix the C drive low disk space issue in Windows 11.

Why Is the C Drive Low on Disk Space in Windows 11 After an Update

Before updating to Windows 11, most Windows 10 computers have been running for a long time. There is already a large amount of files saved to the C drive. If you install all programs to the system partition by default, the C drive is filling up quickly. It will become full even if you created it as large as 100GB.

When updating to Windows 11, additional files are saved to the C drive. In general, it consumes about 5GB to 10GB of free space. When you receive a "low storage space" alert in a Windows 11 computer, you had better fix this issue as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the system will run slower, and the computer may get stuck or even crash.

How to Fix the Windows 11 Low Disk Space Issue

Method 1 - Remove Junk Files from the C Drive

When the system C: drive runs low on disk space in a Windows 11 laptop, desktop, or tablet, the first thing you should do is clean up the disk to remove junk and unnecessary files. If you just upgraded from Windows 10 and never cleaned up the C drive before, you may reclaim over 10GB of free space. To free up disk space in Windows 11, there is a native Disk Cleanup tool. It is easy to use and runs quickly. Most importantly, it is able to remove most junk files safely without worrying about system damage.

How to fix low disk space on the C drive in Windows 11 by cleaning up the disk:

1. Press the Windows and R keys together on your keyboard, type cleanmgr, and press Enter.
2. The C: drive is selected by default; simply click OK to continue.
3. Click the checkboxes in front of the files that you want to remove. If you are not familiar with them, click on them and read the corresponding description at the bottom.
4. Confirm this deletion in the pop-up window.
5. Repeat from step 1 and click Clean up system files in step 3.

Method 2 - Move Free Space from Another Partition

The second and most important step is adding space to the C drive from another partition. Some people have tried cleaning up the disk before, but the Windows 11 low disk space alert pops up again after a short time because new junk files are saved to the C drive continuously. If you cannot get over 20GB of free space, the C drive will, of course, become full again shortly.

With safe partition software, you can shrink a partition on the disk to release free space and then add it to the C drive. In this way, the operating system, programs, and everything else remain the same as before. To accomplish this task, NIUBI Partition Editor is highly recommended. It provides a free edition for Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP home computer users.

How to fix C drive low disk space in Windows 11 by moving free space:

1. Download this tool, right-click the adjacent partition D (or E), select the "Resize/Move Volume" option, and drag the left border rightward in the pop-up window. Then Unallocated space will be created on the left.
2. Right-click the C: drive and run "Resize/Move Volume" again. Drag the right border rightward to combine this Unallocated space.
3. Click Apply on the top left to take effect.

Besides shrinking and extending partitions, this free partition software helps you perform many other disk partition management operations, such as moving, merging, copying, converting, defragging, hiding, and wiping partitions. Compared to other tools, it features Virtual Mode, Cancel-at-will, 1-Second Rollback, and Hot Clone technologies to protect your system and data. It is 100% clean without any bundled advertisements or plugins.

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Method 3 - Move Programs and Files from the C Drive (Optional)

Many people install programs to the C drive with default settings, which is not a good habit. The more programs you install, the less free space is left in the C drive. In addition, some programs output large files in their installation directories. You had better install them to a separate partition such as D instead of throwing everything into the system partition C.

What can you do if you have already installed programs on the C drive? In a Windows 11 computer, you can move programs (installed from the Store) to another partition without reinstalling them. Follow the steps below:

1. Press the Windows + R keys, paste the command ms-settings:appsfeatures, and press Enter.
2. Click an app or game.
3. Click the Move button.
4. Select the new location from the drop-down list.
5. Click the Move button.
6. Repeat step 2 to move more items.

For programs installed using traditional methods, change their default output paths to another partition. Programs for video, projects, and games will output large files. In addition, you had better change the download path of your Internet browser to another partition as well. For files in the original download folder, you can delete them or move them to the new folder. Finally, run the Windows native Disk Cleanup utility monthly to remove newly generated junk files. After doing this, you can fix the C drive low disk space issue in your Windows 11 computer completely.