C: drive is full or out of space, what to do?
System C drive is full or running out of free space? Don’t worry, this article introduces how to solve this problem?
When computer is telling you C: drive is full or you are running out of space, Windows pops up a message of Low Disk Space and telling you to free up disk space, what will you do?
To many people, this is annoying, as
- Most of them don’t know how to fix this problem.
- Windows clean up utility cannot free up large amount of space.
- Windows continue to download updates and ask you to install, but there is no free space in C drive.
- Windows is running slowly as a snail.
- Waste a whole day to get GBs free space, but several days later C drive is full again.
Don’t worry, in this article, I’ll give you full answer. To solve this problem, firstly, you should know why C: drive is full or what cause this problem.
Why C: drive is full, what eat up the free space?
1. Windows updates
From Windows XP to Windows 7, both PC and Windows Server, Windows Update always download large number of updates continuously. Of course, C drive becomes full even if you did nothing else to C.
2. Third party applications
Unfortunately, many software companies base their easy installation routines on the assumption that everything is going to go on the C: drive, so non-geeks almost inevitably end up with packed C: drives and empty D: drives.
3. Application data
Why I list it separately? Too many applications installation make C drive full, actually, even 2 or 3 applications can eat up the whole free space in C drive, especially, the applications for download or videos.
4. Other files including
- Windows installation caches, reports, logs and temporary files.
- Windows backup and restore points.
- Browser caches and temporary files.
- Caches and waste of videos and music.
- Invalid or lost registries and DLLs.
- Large number of files on desktop or in Recycle Bin.
After finding out these factors, let’s begin to fix this problem, here we go.
How to fix C drive is full and running out of space problem?
We should solve this problem according to priority.
1. Backup and remove the files on desktop, empty recycle bin.
2. Free up space with Windows utilities
3. Clean caches and temporary files of both Windows and applications.
As there are so many kinds of these files, you’d better do it with a third-party tool, it’s easier and faster.
After the steps above, you’ll get maybe GBs free space, Windows runs faster, no Low Disk Space alert, so you can solve C drive full and out of space problem temporarily.
You may ask us why it is temporary, then how to fix this problem completely?
Obviously, if you don’t think further and make any changes, your C drive will become full again in months or days.
How to completely fix C drive full and out of space problem?
- Change the way you use your hard drives. Many geeks like to keep their data separate from the operating system. This makes it easier to make backups of the data on the D: partition, and easier to replace or reinstall the operating system on C:
- Change default download and cache path of the applications.
- If you turn on Windows backup and restore point, don’t set it too large.
- Delete caches and temporary files in time.
- Change partition size and extend C: drive if it is created as too small.