7 Easy Ways to Free Up Space on Your C Drive

Is your C drive getting low on storage space? When your C drive is low on storage space, you can’t install new programs or download new files. It can also lead to slower computer performance. There are a variety of ways you can clean up storage space on your C drive. You can use Windows’ built-in tools like Disk Cleanup and Storage Sense. You can empty your recycling bin, clear your cache, as well as delete programs and files you no longer use. This wikiHow will provide detailed guides on how to clean drive C for more space on Windows.

Ways to Clean Your C Drive

You can use the Disk Cleanup Utility to remove various temp files. Use Storage Sense to automatically maintain your C drive. Always remember to empty your Recycle Bin after deleting files. Uninstall any apps you no longer use. Consider moving files to another storage drive. Run a virus scan.

Method 1

Method 1 of 7:

Using Disk Cleanup

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It should be at the bottom of your screen and located next to the blue Windows icon. You'll see a small box with a magnifying glass, and the word "Search" is written on it.
This operation will help you find matching Windows settings, applications, photos, and website results.

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It should be in the Best Match section in the Windows search box interface. You'll open the Disk Cleanup window after clicking the button.^{[1]
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Select drive C and click OK in the pop-up window. If you change your mind, you can also click on Exit to cancel the disk cleanup. (You can also choose another drive in this selection part.)
- If you don’t have any drive except the C drive, Disk Cleanup will skip this step automatically.
It’s the button at the bottom of the page. This will scan your system for all files that may be deleted.
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Choose files to delete. You'll see multiple items you can delete in Disk Cleanup, and every item has a checkbox. Ensure you check every checkbox next to the items you want to delete. Suppose you don't know the actual meaning of every item. In that case, you can check the following explanation:^{[2]
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- Windows Update Clean-up: Windows keeps copies of all installed updates after installation. You can free up a lot of space by deleting Windows updates.
- Microsoft Defender Antivirus: This includes all non-critical Windows Defender antivirus files.
- Downloaded Program Files: These files include Java applets, ActiveX controls, and website browser extensions.
- Temporary Internet Files: All the internet caches, such as web pages, pictures, videos, and other media items. Basically, these caches were created while visiting the websites.
- Offline webpages: All the webpages you can visit without an internet connection.
- Windows Error and Feedback Diagnostic: This includes all diagnostic files generated from Windows errors and user feedback.
- DirectX Shader Cache: This will delete files created by your graphics system. This will be regenerated as needed.
- Delivery Optimization Files: These are files downloaded from Microsoft to update various Microsoft services. They are stored in a dedicated cache to be uploaded to other devices on your network (if your settings allow it). You can safely delete these files if needed.
- Device driver packages: This includes previous driver update files that Windows keeps even after newer drivers are installed. If you don’t need to revert any of your drivers back to a previous version, you can delete these files.
- Language Resource Files: This includes unused language files, including keyboard inputs and speech inputs.
- Recycle Bin: If you have files in the Recycle Bin that haven’t been deleted, this will permanently delete those files.
- Temporary files: All the temporary files created by the applications and Windows operating system.
- Thumbnails: Windows creates a small image copy of all your image and video files so that they load faster when you open them. If you delete these, they will be regenerated as needed when you look at your pictures again.
- System Recovery log files: These include log files from the last time you used System Recovery or reset. They can help troubleshoot problems that previously occurred if they happen again. If you don’t need them, you can delete them.
If you don't want to delete files and perform a disk clean-up, you can also click Cancel to close his window.^{[3]
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After clicking this button, the Disk Cleanup utility will start to permanently delete the selected files and clean up your disk space. This may take a few minutes.

Method 2

Method 2 of 7:

Using Storage Sense

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It is easy to find this search utility, and you'll see a small box with a magnifying glass, and the word "Search" is written on it.
You'll search for Windows Storage Settings and open the Windows Storage Settings window.
If the Storage Sense is already turned on, the switch button will show blue with the word "On".
You can enable automatic cleanup and run Storage Sense manually in the pop-up window.^{[4]
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Check the checkbox under Cleanup of temporary files, and turn on Automatic User content cleanup. You can configure Windows Storage Sense's cleanup schedules in this window.^{[5]
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- Run Storage Sense daily, weekly, monthly, or when disk space is low.
- Delete files in the Recycle Bin for over 1, 14, 30, or 60 days. You can also set it to never do this operation.
- Clean up files in the Downloads folder that have not been opened for more than 1, 14, 30, or 60 days. Choose Never to prevent the automatic deletion of files in the Downloads folder.
- Clicking Run Storage Sense now will perform a cleanup immediately.

Method 3

Method 3 of 7:

Emptying the Recycle Bin

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Double-click the Recycle Bin icon. You can easily find the Recycle Bin on the desktop.
- You can easily empty the Recycle Bin by right-clicking the Recycle Bin icon and choosing Empty Recycle Bin.
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Review if there is anything you want to keep. Emptying the Recycle Bin permanently deletes any files left in it. Check if the files in the Recycle Bin are what you want to keep, and ensure that there isn’t anything you want to keep.
- If you find something you want to keep, right-click it and select Restore to remove it from the Recycle Bin and return it to its original location.
This button has a trash icon at the top of the Recycle Bin window.
This confirms that you want to delete the items in the Recycle Bin.

Method 4

Method 4 of 7:

Uninstalling Unused Apps

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Open the Apps menu in Settings. Use the following steps to do so:
- Click the Windows Start menu.
- Click the Settings/Gear icon.
- Click Apps.
It’s the first option at the top of the menu. This lists all the apps you have installed. App installation typically accounts for a lot of installed storage space.
Use the drop-down menu next to “Sort by” at the top of the page to select “Size (Large to Small).” This will sort all your apps so that the largest apps that take up the most storage space will be listed at the top.
Look over your list of apps (particularly those at the top). Decide which apps you still use and which ones you don’t need.
To do so on Windows 11, click the icon with three dots (•••) next to an app. Then click Uninstall. Then click Uninstall again to confirm you want to uninstall the app. To do so on Windows 10, click the app you want to uninstall and click Uninstall at the top of the page. Then click Uninstall to confirm you want to uninstall the app.
Continue to uninstall all the apps you no longer use.

Method 5

Method 5 of 7:

Moving Files to External Storage

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Another way to free up storage space is to move your files from your C drive to an external storage or cloud storage. To do so, you can purchase an external drive or a flash drive, or opt for cloud storage space, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive.
Look through your pictures, videos, audio files, and documents. Decide what you want to need to keep on your computer for quick access and what can be stored on an external storage drive.
If you are using an external drive, make sure it is connected to your computer. You can drag and drop the files or folders you want to move to the external drive in File Explorer. If you are using cloud storage, put all the files you want to upload in a single folder (if they’re not already in their own folders. Log in to the cloud storage website and select the option to upload a folder. Select the folder with your files.
Once your files are safely backed up to an external storage drive, you can go ahead and delete them. Right-click the file or folder you want to delete and click Delete to send it to the Recycle Bin. Empty the Recycle Bin once you have deleted all your files.

Method 6

Method 6 of 7:

Saving Files to Another Drive

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Purchase another hard drive. If you have a desktop or laptop computer with a free drive slot, you can purchase a new internal hard drive and install it in your computer. Otherwise, you can purchase an external hard drive and connect it to a free USB slot on your computer.
It is easy to find this search utility, and you'll see a small box with a magnifying glass, and the word "Search" is written on it.
You'll search for Windows Storage Settings and open the Windows Storage Settings window.
It’s next to an icon that resembles a gear.
It’s the second option below “Advanced storage settings.”
Use the drop-down menu below each file type to select where you want those files to automatically be saved. You can select to have your apps, documents, music, photos and videos, Movies and TV shows, and offline maps stored on your other drive.^{[6]
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Method 7

Method 7 of 7:

Running a Virus Scan

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Viruses and malware can corrupt your file system and take up a lot of storage space. You can use Windows Defender to run a virus scan. To open Windows Defender, click the Windows Search bar at the bottom of the screen and type “Virus scan.” Then click Virus & threat protection.
It’s below the Quick Scan button.
Click the radio option next to “Full scan” and then click Scan Now at the bottom of the screen. This will start performing a virus scan. This may take a while.