The C Drive is Full and How to Empty It in 6 Ways

Why do you need to clean C drive?

Cleaning the C drive is essential to maintaining your computer's performance and stability. Over time, as the C drive is full of data files, it can cause the system to slow down, crash, or experience the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Regularly cleaning or extending the C drive helps ensure sufficient storage, preventing these issues.

• Performance Impact: A full C drive can cause the computer to become sluggish.
• System Installation Location: The C drive usually holds the system files.
• System Stability: Low space on the C drive can lead to system crashes and the BSOD issue.

Thus, it’s necessary to clean your PC or directly extend the C drive to maintain sufficient storage and optimal performance, especially when there’s insufficient storage left. 

6 methods to resolve "C drive is full how to empty it"

"How to clean C drive" is never hard to deal with Windows built-in tools and third-party software. Let's see how to clear disk space now!

Method 1. Disable hibernate

Hibernate is enabled by default, and it doesn't really hurt your computer and so it's not necessary that you disable it even if you don't use it. However, when hibernate is enabled it reserves some of your disk space for its files -- the hiberfil.sys file -- which occupies 75 percent of your computer's installed RAM. If you have 8GB of RAM, your hiberfil.sys file will take up 6GB of your hard drive space; if you have 16GB of RAM, your hiberfil.sys file will take up 12GB.

1. Double-click This Computer.

2. Select Organization -> Folder and search options.

3. In the Folder Options, select View. Choose “Show hidden files, folders, and drives”.

Method 2. Run C drive cleanup

Disk Cleanup is a useful Windows built-in program that helps clean junk files including cache and cookies from drives on your PC.

1. Click Start, type “disk” in the search box, and select Disk Cleanup.

2. In the Disk Cleanup, select the drive you want to clean up. Here is the C: drive. Click OK.

3. After that, it will calculate how much space you will be able to free on the C: drive.

4. And then, choose to delete files you do not need.

After cleaning up C: drive, you can create a system restore point. Once you need it, you can use it to restore the system.

Method 3. Delete temporary and downloaded files

You can delete temporary files without running Disk Cleanup. The temporary files are usually stored in “C:\Windows\Temp”, or “C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp”. The files in both folders can be deleted directly.

Method 4. Delete Internet temporary files

To delete Internet temporary files, you can do the following steps:

1. Open Internet Explorer (IE), click Tools, and select Internet Options.

2. Then, it will pop up in the Internet Options window. ClickDelete, and it will pop up the Delete Browsing History window, where you can choose to delete temporary files, history, cookies, etc.

Method 5. Empty the Recycle Bin

When you delete items from your PC, they don’t immediately get deleted. They just stay in the Recycle Bin and remain taking up valuable hard-drive space. Thus, emptying the Recycle Bin is another way to free up space for C: drive. To empty the Recycle Bin, you should right-click on the Recycle Bin on the desktop, and click Empty Recycle Bin. It will pop up a warning asking if you are sure you want to permanently delete your Recycle Bin items. Click Yes to proceed.

Method 6. Move all Apps from C to D

If your C drive is almost full because there are too many applications inside, you might want to move them to another bigger drive, the D drive, for example. However, how to move them and ensure they can run as usual? This can be easily done via the AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Its "App Mover" can help users to transfer programs from one drive to another. Here you can download its demo version and have a try.

Step 1. Install and run the software. Click “Free up” on in the top toolbar, and choose “App Mover”.

Step 2. Choose the C drive and click "Next".

Step 3. Select apps you want to move, set a destination path and click on "Move".

Step 4. Click "OK" on the pop-up window.

Those are the most effective way to empty full C: drive we have concluded. I hope this can help you a lot.

Actually, there are certain people whose C: drive full but D: drive empty. For those users, extending C: drive with free space from the D: drive should be the best way to solve the C drive full problem instead of emptying it.

Solve “C: drive is full” by increasing partition capacity

Empty the C: drive when it is full is just temporary expediency. After a while, you may find the C: drive is full again. To solve the C: drive full problem, the best way should be to extend the C: drive with free space from other drives. Some users choose to re-install the system for the re-partitioning hard drive.

But now, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to repartition hard drives without losing data. And you can use it to extend the C: drive without reinstalling OS.

Situation 1. C: drive full but D: drive empty

If your C: drive is Full but D: drive is empty, you can use the free space in D: drive to extend C: drive.

Step 1. Install AOMEI Partition Assistant on your Windows 11/10/8/7, and launch it. It will show you the basic environment of your disks. Right-click the D: drive, select “Allocated Free Space”.

Step 2. Then, it will pop up the window where you can allocate free space from D: drive to C: drive. After setting up, click "OK".

Step 3. Finally, click "Apply" and "Proceed" to execute the progress.

Situation 2. C: drive full, but there is unallocated space on the hard drive

If your C: drive is full, but there is unallocated space on the hard drive, you can extend the C: drive with the unallocated space.

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, right-click C: drive, choose “Advanced” and select “Merge Partition”.

Step 2. Tick the unallocated space to add it to the C: drive.

Step 3. Click "Apply"> "Proceed" when you back to the main interface.

Conclusion

The C drive is full and how to empty it? Generally, there’re 2 kinds of solutions to the issue – freeing up storage space or increasing the C drive capacity. Luckily, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional can do both of them on Windows 11/10/8/7.

You can use this software to move apps from the C drive to another drive and extend its volume with free space from another drive or merge the C drive with unallocated space. If your C drive on your Server machine is full, you can try the Server edition of it.