How to Fix C Drive Running Out of Space

When the C drive running out of space, you need to clean up it in time. In this article, we will analyze what causes the insufficient space on the C drive and provide 5 effective solutions.

Posted by @Tina July 24, 2024 Updated By @Tina May 12, 2023

Why is my C drive running out of space?

 

" Hi, I'm running out of space in my C drive. Everything keeps downloading/saving to there even though I've changed the settings to save to my D drive. Why is my C drive running out of space? How can I clean up my C drive? I’m willing to clarify anything that needs to be clarified. Thank you for the help!"

- Question from forums.tomshardware.com

 

After using the computer for a period of time, many users received a low disk space warning without reasons. In fact, there are many reasons for C drive running out of space, such as the accumulation of a large number of junk files, the damage of virus, hard drive aging, etc.

If you ignore the problem of C drive space is almost full, it will cause the performance of the computer being worse, and even leading to freezing in serious cases. Therefore, in order to solve the insufficient space of C drive, you need to know how to release space in C drive.

Solved: C drive running out of space

In this chapter, you will learn 5 methods on how to free up space in C drive.

Method 1. Run Disk Cleanup

Disk Cleanup is a computer disk cleaning tool that comes with Windows OS, which can help Windows users delete temporary files, thumbnails, cache files, etc. on the C drive. The detailed steps are as follows:

Step 1. Type "disk cleanup" in the Windows task bar, then click "Open". There's a small window, choose C drive and click "OK".

Step 3. Tick the files you decide to remove and then click "OK".

Method 2. Show hidden files

There are some files hidden in the computer. If they are not displayed, they are likely to accumulate in the computer and take up a lot of space on the C drive. Therefore, we need to show hidden files and delete some files as required, freeing up space on the C drive.

Step 1. Click "This PC" and turn to File Explorer. Click "File" and "Change Folder and search" options.

Step 2. In the "Folder options" window, click "View". Then click "Show hidden files, folders and drivers" and click "Apply".

Method 3. Clean up junk files

Just running Disk Cleanup and showing hidden files is not enough to completely clean up the computer, so you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard to solve C drive running out of space issue, this is a reliable computer cleaner.

It can fully scan the C drive and other partitions on your PC, dig out and completely delete stubborn junk files with a few clicks. Please download this free software to see how to solve C drive running out of space.

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Step 1. Download and open AOMEI Standard, all the PC disks and partitions will appear in the interface, click "Free up" and "PC Cleaner".

Step 2. To effectively cleanup junk files from computer, please click "Start Scan".

Step 3. Wait for a while, this tool is scanning the junk files.

Step 4. Select the junk files you want to remove and click "Clean All".

Step 5. Click "Back" after cleaning all the selected junk files.

Method 4. Delete unneeded large files

It is undeniable that there're some large files larger than 16MB on the C drive, and you cannot tell whether you can delete them. For these files, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional Version has specially developed the "Delete Large Files" function to scan and distinguish which files can be deleted.

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Step 1. Download the Demo version, then click "Free up" and "Delete Large Files".

Step 2. Choose the drive you want to free up and click "Start Scan" to find and delete large files.

Step 3. Select the target large files in the interface below and click "Delete".

Step 4. Click "Delete Now" to clean up all the chosen large files.

Method 5. Move applications to another drive

When too many applications are installed in the C drive, it will also run out of space, so you need to uninstall some applications to release the C drive space. If you don’t want to uninstall them, you can use "App Mover" to migrate them to another drive.

Step 1. Open AOMEI Professional Demo, click "Free up" and then "App Mover".

Step 2. You can move apps or files, please select "App Mover".

Step 3. Choose the C drive, then click "Next".

Step 4. Tick the applications you want to move and select the destination drive, then click "Move".

Step 5. Finally, click "OK" to move them to the destination drive.

Note: Other advanced features are provided, including migrating OS from hard drive to SSD, allocating free space, cloning hard drive to larger drive, converting between MBR and GPT, etc.

Conclusion

How to fix the C drive running out of space? In this article, we have shared 5 ways to free up C drive. Obviously, AOMEI Partition Assistant can bring you great convenience to clean up your C drive.

If you want to clean up the C drive in Windows Server system, please turn to the Server Edition; if you want to install and use AOMEI on unlimited computers, please go to the Unlimited Version.