How to Fix There Is Not Enough Space on the Disk [2024]

What Does There is not enough space on the disk Mean

You may encounter an error “There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation” while doing some operations such create/extend/shrink volumes with Disk Management in Windows 11/10/8/7. This problem means that you are running out of disk space, which can cause your computer to run slowly and certain software may not function properly.

The following 3 reasons usually cause There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation:

Disk Management error: You may have some changes on your hard drive, but Disk Management failed to detect the changes. Thus, when extending or creating a new volume, you should rescan the disk.
MBR disk limit: MBR disk only allows 4 primary partitions at most. Therefore, you can no longer create a fifth partition.
Insufficient disk space: When you extend the volume on the target disk with insufficient space, you will receive the “There is not enough space available on the disk to complete this operation” error.

How to fix there is not enough space on the disk on Windows

We have prepared different methods to solve them for different reasons, including using Disk Management and an alternative. You can try them one by one to see if you can fix it.

• Solution 1. Rescan the disk
• Solution 2. Convert MBR to GPT to fix there is not enough space on the disk
• Solution 3. Check Disk Errors
• Solution 4. Extend Volume using Disk Management Alternative
• Solution 5. Free up disk space with a disk defragmenter

Among all the solutions, we will recommend you an all-in-one disk repair tool - AOMEI Partition Assistant.This tool can help you to do most of the repair work, and it is easy to operate and suitable for everyone.

▶ Solution 1. Rescan the disk

In most cases, you can simply click the option “Rescan Disks” under “Action” tab to fix this problem. After the partitions and volumes are reloaded, you shall be able to shrink volume or do other operations.

Step 1. Press “Win + R” to launch “Run” program, and type “diskmgmt.msc” to open Disk Management. Click Action at the top, and then select Rescan Disks from the list.

Step 2. Shrink the volume again after the disk is reloaded.

Then wait for it scan disks on your PC, and see if the issue is still there.

▶ Solution 2. Convert MBR to GPT to fix there is not enough space on the disk

If your disk uses MBR partitioning, the error "There is not enough free space on the disk to complete this operation" may appear when creating partitions in Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7. The MBR partitioning method is older and only supports up to 4 primary partitions. So to solve this problem, you need to convert the MBR disk to GPT. Because GPT is a new partition style, it does not limit the number of partitions on the hard disk, so you can continue to create primary partitions.

To convert MBR to GPT, you require reliable software. I recommend you to use AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, this is a market-leading disk management utility that supports Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP users. It can convert the disk from MBR to GPT without losing data, and the converted disk can be used normally. More importantly, its operation is very simple. It only takes three simple steps to convert successfully, which is why I strongly recommend it.

Warning:
1. If you want to know more details about MBR and GPT partition styles, go to this page: What's the Difference Between GPT Disk and MBR Disk?
2. GPT-based system disks require UEFI firmware. If you want to convert a system disk, please make sure your computer is using UEFI mode.

Step 1. Right-click on the disk that got the issue, and click “Convert to GPT” or click the disk and choose "Convert to GPT" from the right menu.

Step 2. It will prompt a note to ask you ensure your motherboard supports UEFI if the disk contains a system. Click "OK" > “Yes” to confirm.

Step 3. Click “Apply” on the main console. Wait for a while, the disk will be converted to GPT disk. Then you can continue creating partition on the disk.

▶Solution 3. Check Disk Errors

If the disk has bad sectors, it may also cause you to have enough space but show insufficient space, you can use the "Check Disk" function provided by AOMEI Partition Assistant to check the bad sectors and repair the damaged disk.

Run the AOMEI Partition Assistant on your Windows 10/11. Right click on the drive you want to check and select Advanced > Check Partition. In the pop-up window, you have three options, Check only for errors, Check and fix errors, and Find bad sectors. Choose the one that suits you best.

▶Solution 4. Extend Volume using Disk Management Alternative

Expanding volumes using the default utility in Windows is a tedious process. It can also lead to errors, such as insufficient disk space and you need additional errors. You can use AOMEI Partition Assistant - the best disk partitioning and space extension tool to simplify this process. This tool makes extending the C drive space next to the unallocated space easy without losing any data.

With the help of the "Extend Partition Wizard", you can directly extend a partition with free space to other partitions without deleting any partitions. Or, you can shrink partitions first and then extend other partitions.

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, select "Tools” > “Extend Partition Wizard” as the screenshot.

Step 2. Here, you can choose “Extend system partition” or select other data partition of a disk, and click “Next”.

Step 3. Choose a disk partition that contains free space. The space will be assigned to the partition you want to extend later, and click “Next”

Step 4. Specify the partitions size on the hard disk in this window.

Step 5. Check the operation, and click “Proceed” to start the task.

▶Solution 5. Free up disk space with a disk defragmenter

Your device may also give an "Out of disk space" error when there are space-consuming fragments at the end of the volume. If the sector storage on the disk is not contiguous, there will not be enough free sectors left. Try using the Windows Disk Defragmenter.

Step 1. Click on the search box and type "defrag", select "Defragmentation and Optimization Driver".

Step 2. Under the "Optimize Drivers" window, select "Optimize". It will start analyzing and defragmenting the disk.

Step 3. When defragmentation is complete, click "OK".

Summary

Now, do you know how to solve if there is not enough space on the disk on Windows 10 or 11? If it is the problem of MBR disk limitation, you'd better convert it to GPT. GPT has gradually replaced MBR to become the mainstream. If you want to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11, you must convert the system disk to a GPT disk, because Windows 11 requires the system disk to be a GPT disk. With AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, you can easily realize the conversion between MBR and GPT.