Fix "We Can't Tell If Your PC Has Enough Space to Continue Installing Windows 11" Error [5 Methods]

Jean updated on May 02, 2024 to Partition Master | How-to Articles

Want to install Windows 11 update? What to do if Windows 11 update pops up an error message, telling that 'We can't tell if your PC has not enough space to continue installing Windows 11'? Follwo this page, you'll learn how to free up sufficient space on your hard disk using the simple 5 solutions and get Windows 11 installed on your PC successfully.

Are you excited about the Windows 11 free upgrade from Windows 10? But, unfortunately, you end up getting the following error messages every time you try to update your device on Windows 11. All those errors are related to one issue - Windows 11 update not enough disk space.

  • "Windows needs more space." 
  • "Can't install due to low disk space."
  • "Get more space with external storage."
  • "There is not enough free space on the partition (C:)".
  • "We can't tell if your PC has enough space to continue installing Windows 11", etc.

Why "We Can't Tell If Your PC Has Enough Space to Continue Installing Windows 11" Error Rises?

Do you know why you are getting all these error messages?

That's because, for Windows 11 update installation, your device must have 64 GB or higher free space. It is a mandatory requirement mentioned in Windows 11 hardware and system requirements list. 

Once your PC didn't reach these requirements, you'll highly possible to get one of the listed errors here while trying to install Windwos 11:

Among these errors, Windows doesn't have enough space to install Windows 11 is one of the top concerned issue. Since Windows 10 and Windows 11 are programmed to coexist, your device requires sufficient free space to support both operating systems' tools and processes. 

To get rid off this issue and install Windows 11 on your computer successfully, here, you have two simple solutions:

  • One is to free up space on your device; The other one is to get more space from other drives.
  • Then, add the free space to extend the system C drive. 

The following part will give 5 ways to fix this error, and you can help more users by clicking the buttons below.

 

5 Ways to Fix "We Can't Tell If Your PC Has Enough Space to Install Windows 11" Error

Here, we collected 5 efficient methods that works efficiently to assist you get rid of 'We can't tell if your PC has enough space to continue installing Windows 11' error. And ,you can follow each one of them to free up space so as to get sufficient space to accomplish the Widnows 11 installation:

Workable Solutions Step-by-step Troubleshooting
Fix 1. Delete the Windows.old folder Go to the Startup menu search box > Type Cleanup > Click Disk Cleanup...Full steps
Fix 2. Remove junk and useless large files Install EaseUS CleanGenius on your PC, navigate to "Cleanup" and click "Scan"....Full steps
Fix 3. Transfer Free Space to C Drive Right-click on the D: partition with enough free space and select "Allocate Space"...Full steps
Fix 4. Resize C Drive Space  Right-click on the System C: drive and select "Resize/Move"...Full steps

These methods also work efficiently to fix the similar issue of "We can't tell if your PC has enough space" to install Windows 10 on older computers.

So, let's now check out 5 easy ways to implement both these solutions and become an early Windows 11 user. 

Solution 1. Delete the Windows.old folder

The easiest way to free up space in C drive so as to fix 'We can't tell if your PC has enough spae to istall Windows 11' error is to delete the Windows.old folder. This folder is automatically created when you upgrade from one Microsoft OS version to another, starting with Windows Vista. Windows.old folder contains all the data from your previous Windows version that you can use to restore your old versions or files.

You can find the Windows.old folder in the C: drive of your system storage. However, it is a great feature, but this folder can easily consume 20 GB or more space on your hard disk, depending on your previous Windows installation size. 

Here if your Windows.old folder contains data from your Windows older versions or you no longer require old files, it's better to delete the Windows.old folder and free up space for  Windows 11 update. 

To delete the Windows.old folder, follow the below steps:

Step 1. Go to the Startup menu search box > Type Cleanup > Click Disk Cleanup.

Step 2. Next, select drive C: and click "OK." You have to wait while your drive gets scanned.and then click Clean up system files. 

Step 3. Select C: drive again when prompted and press OK. 

Step 4. Now, just select the "Previous Windows installation" checkbox from the files to delete the list and click "OK." 

This method also can significantly assist you fix 'Low Disk Space' error. 

However, if you delete the Windows.old folder from File Explorer, it can produce an error message. You can easily avoid this error message by using the PC cleanup tool to scan and remove the Windows.old folder (discussed in solution 2). 

It doesn't matter if you can't delete the Windows.old folder, follow this guide here and you'll learn why and how to remove it successfully:

Solved: Can't Remove Windows.old Folder in Windows 11/10

Although Windows.old folder is accessible but it requires administrator permission from the System to make changes to this folder. Without the permission, you can't directly delete Windows.old from C: drive. Follow and learn how to remove it.

Solution 2. Remove Junk and Useless Large Files 

Your computer produces numerous junk files daily to perform different tasks like opening a document or an image. When these junk files remain on your device, clogging it up and consuming a large space. This could also be a reason that prevents you installing Windows 11 successfully.

To fix this issue, you need a PC clean tool so as to finding and removing junk and useless large files fast and efficiently. 

Using the PC cleaner tool like EaseUS CleanGenius, you can easily detect and delete junk files, useless files, and rarely used files. The tool can also remove browser plugins, free up RAM, startup optimization, and so much more. 

Free Download

Windows 11/10/8/7100% Secure

Step 1. Download and install EaseUS Partition Master Suite on your PC. Click to download PC Cleaner on panel.

Step 2. Install EaseUS CleanGenius on your PC. To begin with, navigate to "Cleanup" and click "Scan."

Step 3. EaseUS CleanGenius will start immediately to scan all the useless files, select system junk files and invalid entries, and click "Clean" over all your PC.

Step 4. Once completed, you can see clearly how many MBs or GBs of data are cleaned. Click "Done" to finish the process.

Moving forward, the next three solutions revolve around the disk and partition space management. So, once again, you require a tool to manage your drivers' space. There you can use another member of the EaseUS family — EaseUS Partition Master

EaseUS Partition Master is an easy-to-use disk partitioning software used by over 60,000,000 global users. This tool can increase C drive space on your device so you can seamlessly get Windows 11 updates. Additionally, it can resize, format, delete, wipe, or convert disk, migrate OS without reinstalling OS, etc.

So, let's manage your disk space better as the coming three solutions!

Solution 3. Transfer Free Space to C Drive

If you have more free space on your D, E, F, or G drivers on your hard disk, you can easily reallocate their space to C: drive. For this, you simply have to use the "Allocate Space" feature on EaseUS Partition Master. 

Using this feature, you can free up unallocated and allocated space for C drive and install your Windows 11 setup. 

Step 1. Right-click on the D: partition with enough free space and select "Allocate Space".

Step 2. Select the target partition - C: drive and drag the partition panel rightward to add the free space from D: drive to C: drive. Then click "OK" to confirm.

Step 3. Click the "Execute Task" button and click "Apply" to start the process of moving free space from D: drive to C: drive.

Solution 4. Resize C Drive Space 

If your system disk has no unallocated space, you can use it in your favor to expand your C drive space. To do so, you have the EaseUS Partition Master "Resize/move" feature at your disposal. 

You just have to right-click on a partition excluding the C: drive and click on the "Resize/move" feature. Then, by simply dragging the left panel of the partition to shrink and leaving unallocated space for the C: drive, you can get enough space for Windows 11. 

Option 1. Extend System C drive with unallocated space

  1. 1. Right-click on the System C: drive and select "Resize/Move".
  2. 2. Drag the system partition end into the unallocated space so to add it to the C: drive. And click "OK". 
  3. 3. Click "Execute Task" and "Apply" to execute the operations and extend the C drive.

Option 2. Extend System C drive without unallocated space

  1. 1. Right-click a big partition with enough free space on the system disk, select "Allocate Space".
  2. 2. Select the system drive at the Allocate Space From (*) To section, and drag the end of System C drive into the unallocated space. Click "OK" to confirm.
  3. 3. Click "Execute Task", it will list the pending operations, and click "Apply" to save the changes and extend the C drive.

0:00-0:26 Extend System Drive with Unallocated Space; 0:27-0:58 Extend System Drive without Unallocated Space.

Solution 5. Merge C Drive with Any Other Drive 

If you have several partitions on your hard drive and many of your drivers have adequate free space while the C: drive barely has any space left. In this case, you can merge the drives with large free space to the C drive and create a bigger C drive to absorb all Windows 11 updates. 

This drive merger process might look massive right now. But once you install the EaseUS Partition Manager, this process will automatically become simpler. 

Step 1: Select the target partition

Right-click on the partition which you want to add space to and keep, and select "Merge".

Step 2: Select a neighbor partition to merge

Select one partition next to the former selected partition to merge.

And click "OK" to continue.

Step 3: Execute operation to merge partitions

1. Click the "Execute Task" button at the top and then click "Apply".
2. The program will merge space and add files from the second partition to the first partition.

Final Thoughts on "We Can't Tell If Your PC Has Enough Space to Install Windows 11" Error

So, here you go, Microsoft users, you are all set to install Windows 11 on your device. It doesn't matter when the error message of 'we can't tell if your PC has enough space to continue installing Windows 11' pops up.

It's just a matter of getting the sufficient free space on your hard disk that you can easily get by—

  • Deleting the Windows.old folder 
  • Removing junk files
  • Transferring free space to C drive 
  • Resizing C drive
  • Merging C drive with other drivers 

To perform all these partition solutions, you can install the EaseUS Partition Master today and manage partition resizing, shrinking, merging, transferring like many other features with ease. Once you have tried Windows 11, don't forget to share your experience here.

FAQs About We Can't Tell If PC Has Enough Space to Install Windows 11

If you are having other related questions about not nough space to install Windows 11, or you can't install Windows 11 successfully, follow the listed questions and find answers below:

1. How do you fix we can't tell if your PC has enough space?

Here is a list of 6 quick tips that you may follow to fix 'We can't tell if your PC has enough space' error:

  • Run Disk Cleanup
  • Delete the Windows.old folder
  • Clean and remove junk files & useless large files
  • Extend C drive with unallocated space or disk free space
  • Migrate OS to a new and larger disk
  • Transfer files to external hard drive

2. How much space do you need for Windows 11 install?

According to Windows 11 system requirements, it requires for 64GB or bigger storage capacity to install Windows 11.

3. Do I have enough space for Windows 11?

To confirm if your PC has enough space, or at least 64GB free space for Windows 11 update or installation, you can open Disk Management, and chekc the left free space in the system C drive.

If yes, you have enough space to install Windows 11. If not, you can extend the system C drive so as to get enough space to install Windows 11.