12 Ways to Fix Low Disk Space Error on Windows 11/10/8/7 [2023 New]

List of Ways to Fix Low Disk Space in Windows 11/10/8/7:

If your PC is with low disk space error, you can't install a new Windows update, and the PC's performance may be affected. Here are some ways to fix this error for you to try:

1. 1. Extend Drive with Unallocated Space
2. 2. Combine Low-space Drive with a Neighbour Drive
3. 3. Extend Low-space Drive with Space on Another Drive
4. 4. Clean Junk Files 
5. 5. Clean Large Files
6. 6. Transfer Large Files to An External Hard Drive
7. More details...

Sometimes, when you receive a "Low Disk Space" error pop-up, you might ignore the warning message or try to disable it for permanent. Indeed, modifying the registry value can stop the notification from showing up again, but that's not the thing we talk about here. 

On this page, you'll learn what is "Low Disk Space" error, what will happen when your PC is with this issue, and how to get rid of this issue with over 11/10 fixes.

What Does "Low Disk Space" Mean?

The "Low Disk Space" warning message usually pops up in Windows operating system when you boot up the PC or open a computer hard drive.

There are two types of warning messages, each of them has different meanings:

1. Low Disk Space - "You are running out of disk space on Local Disk (X:). Click here to see if you can free space on this drive."

When you get this error, it means that your local drive (X:) is running out of free space for saving data. 

2. Low Disk Space - "You're running out of space on this PC. Manage storage to view usage and free up some space." 

This error doesn't appear regularly. It is mainly related to the C:\ Windows\Temp folder. When the folder gets full, this error would appear on Windows startup.

When Windows prompts low disk space warning messages, you can hardly save new data, download apps, play games or install a recent Windows update. What's worse, PC performance may be affected. 

Continue to read, and this passage will provide some solutions to free up disk space on Windows 8, Windows 10, and Windows 11. If you think this passage is helpful, click the social buttons to share it with other friends.

Part 1. Fix Low Disk Space in Windows 11/10/8/7 by Extending Disk Space

Applies to: Fix low disk space error by extending disk space with available free space in Windows 11/10/8/7 hard drives.

Difficulty Level: Easy

Best For All levels of users, beginners' best choice.

The quickest and most efficient way to get rid of low disk space error from Windows 11/10/8/7 is to add more space to the current drive. In other words, all you need is to extend the drive or partition which is running out of space, then the problem gets resolved.

Download: Partition Manager Software to Fix Low Disk Space Error

So how to add usable space to extend the low disk partition? Here, we introduce an all-around partition manager software named EaseUS Partition Master to help you out. 

It is a handy third-party software that enables users to extend/shrink a partition, format a partition, convert a file system, migrate Windows OS, clone a hard drive, etc. on Windows 11/10/8/7.

Download this software and follow the tutorials listed below to extend the low disk partition immediately

Fix Low Disk Space Error by Extending Partitions in 4 Methods

Now, you can apply EaseUS Partition Master to solve the 'low disk space' problem in Windows operating systems with any one of the following 4 ways:

1. 1. Extend Drive Which Is With Low Free Disk Space
2. 2. Combine the Low-space Drive with a Neighbour Drive
3. 3. Extend Low-space Drive (Get Space from Another Drive)

Method 1. Extend Drive Which Is With Low Disk Space

When a drive partition like system drive C or data partition D is filled with a red bar, it's having a low disk space issue. Check if there is unallocated free space available? If yes, you can directly extend the currently running low disk space drive as instructed below.

Follow the example here, you're going to learn how to extend a system C drive or a non-system drive with ease:

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.

Method 2. Combine the Low-space Drive with a Neighbour Drive

If there is no unallocated space, but you have an almost empty neighbour drive. You can try to merge two adjacent partitions into one to solve the low disk space on one drive to achieve the same effect.

Now, let EaseUS Partition Master helps you fix low disk space error by combining a neighbour drive to your target drive with the following steps:

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.

Method 3. Extend Low-space Drive (Get Space from Another Drive)

It's also possible for EaseUS Partition Master to get space from another drive so as to extend the current low disk space drive. To greatly ease the worry of users who don't see much free space on drive F, but drive G.

Let's see how to move space from other drives so as to extend the low disk space drive on your own:

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.

Part 2. Free Up Hard Drive Space to Remove Low Disk Space Error

Apples to：Clean up disk temp files, free up hard drive space so to remove low disk space error on Windows 11/10/8/7.

Difficulty Level: Complex

Best For Experienced Windows users

I hope that EaseUS Partition Master has released a considerable amount of disk space for at least a short-term use. It always works by extending partitions and drives.

If you need more basic operations to prevent future low disk space-associated warnings, here are some tips that you can manage your computer hard drive in a logical and clean way.

8 Ways to Free Up Hard Drive Space, Get Rid of Low Disk Space on Windows:

1. #1. Clean Junk Files to Free Up the System Drive Space
2. #2. Clean Large Files
3. #3. Transfer or Save Important Large Files to An External Hard Drive
4. #4. Turn on Cloud Storage Service to Save Files
5. #5. Transfer Programs from C Drive to Another Drive, Change Apps' Default Install Location
6. #6. Empty Recycle Bin on a Regular Basis
7. #7. Delete Duplicate Files and Temp Files
8. #8. Run Anti-Virus Software to Clean Up Malware Regularly

Way 1. Clean Junk Files to Free Up the System Drive Space

Junk files include systems junk files (temporary files, Windows system logs...), and browser data, Windows applications data, and all the unknown and unuseful data that takes up space. For average computer users who use a computer 8 hours a day, if you didn't do a junk files clean up like in a year, you'll pile up around 15GB of space.

When users want to free up their disk space by deleting junk files, one knotty problem is the disk shows "low disk space" but has nothing to delete. Here run EaseUS Todo PCTrans to help you deep scan and clean junk files on system C drive by yourself.

Way 2. Clean Large Files

It's easy for some professions, such as designers or photographers, to create extremely large files. A pile of 100MB~10GB documents, pictures, zip files, ebooks, or movies are account for most of the low disk space problem on a computer.

You don't need to delete all the large files one by one. Using the Large File Cleanup feature in EaseUS Todo PCTrans, it will completely scan your drive and return a result of files, with information of name, size, date created, and file location.

Way 3. Transfer and Save Important Large Files to An External Hard Drive

Personal files such as videos, music, photos, and documents can take up a lot of disk space on your computer. They are important, and usually for long-term preservation. 

Important files like those are seldom for use, so it's a good idea to transfer those files to an external hard drive or USB flash drive:

Step 1. Connect a big empty micro SD card, USB, or external hard drive to your PC

Step 2. Locate and copy those files to your external storage device.

Step 3. When you complete the copy, delete them from your local computer.

Doing so will reduce the heavy load of local hard drives.

Way 4. Turn on Cloud Storage Service to Save Files

Cloud is also a good place to save large files, to reduce disk usage, at the same time, a very good backup location for your valuable data files. Let's see how to free up low-space disk capacity:

Step 1. Sign up for a Cloud drive like OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive.

Step 2. Log in OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive with your account.

Step 3. Select and upload important large files from your PC to the cloud drive.

Step 4. After the uploading, delete the files saved on your local drive.

Way 5. Transfer Programs from C Drive to Another Drive, Change Apps' Default Install Location

C drive, as we know, is for system installation, and it's closely related to system performance.

Low C drive space would affect OS performance, making OS crash all the time. So, when installing programs, customize another location instead of choosing the default C drive.

As for the installed applications, you can transfer them to another local drive so as to free up the disk space. EaseUS Todo PCTrans with its App Migration feature can help you out.

Video Tutorial: Transfer Apps from C Drive to Other Partitions

Way 6. Empty Recycle Bin Regularly

The Windows recycle bin is for holding deleted files and folders for the long term if you need to recover deleted files someday after deletion. But the recycle bin folder with too many files would also take up plenty of disk space.

Regularly cleaning up the Recycle Bin will help prevent the drive from filling up and running out of free space. You can manually empty Recycle Bin on your own or set an automatic Recycle Bin clean up plan with the following steps:

Step 1. Go to Settings > System > Storage.

Step 2. Click "Change how we free up space automatically", set a plan "Every day", "Every week", "Every month", etc. 

Way 7. Delete Duplicate Files and Temp Files

It's inevitable to produce duplicate files. Do not let many copies of the same file eat up your valuable hard drive space. 

To delete the temp files, you can manually delete them by going to: Windows File Explorer > C: > Windows folder > Temp folder and clear files in the folder.

Or you can set up an automatic temporary clean up plan:

Step 1. Go to Settings > System > Storage.

Step 2. Move to Temporary Files, set up a cleanup plan for 1 day, 14 days, 30 days, or more. 

Way 8. Run Anti-Virus Software to Clean Up Malware Regularly

As we know that, sometimes, malware or virus infection may also cause a situation that the system that warns low disk error but the disk actually has enough free space.

To avoid this issue, we also suggest you run antivirus software to clear viruses and malware on your computer regularly.

The Bottom Line

On this page, we explained what does Low Disk Space means and what will happen if you have this error popping up on your computer.

To get rid of this issue, you have two options: one is to extend the disk which is having low disk space. And the other option is to free up disk space.

On helping you fixing low disk space error on Windows 10/8/7, we suggest beginners try EaseUS Partition Master with the listed 4 methods in Part 2 to directly extend a hard drive. It's easy and efficient.

For daily regular prevention, avoid the low disk space issue from popping up, we suggest you try the other 8 ways listed in Part 2 for help. Although complex but indeed helpful.

If you have further concerns, check the answers listed below, your doubts may get released.

People Also Ask About Low Disk Space

1. When and how often will I receive low disk space notification？

The less space that you have left on the drive, the more frequently you will receive the low disk space warning notification. In general, there are three degrees of warnings for the same error message. Refer to the following table.

2. What do I do if the hard drive says it's full but not?

Is your hard drive full for no reason? Is the C drive showing full but no files are there? Here are 10 solutions for you to solve the problem of a Windows 10/8/7 disk full but nothing on it:

1. 1. Verify virus and clean it
2. 2. Check disk error
3. 3. Show hidden files
4. 4. Delete system restore
5. 5. Remove drive letter
6. 6. Clean junk files and large files
7. 7. Delete temporary files
8. 8. Delete unwanted Windows Update
9. 9. Empty recycle bin
10. 10. Replace a hard drive without reinstalling Windows

For a step-by-step guide, follow to fix it: Hard Drive Full But No Files in Windows 10/8/7. 

3. How do I fix the low disk error on my Mac?

The low disk space error message on iMac generally occurs when the system files are not getting sufficient space to utilize the resources to the fullest in order to make the iMac work faster in a better manner.

Identifying and removing these files from the Mac is very tough and can be said is next to impossible. So, to get rid of this problem you need specialized software which should be efficient enough to deal with such a situation.