5 Methods to Fix Error Code 0x80070070 Windows 11

Error code: 0x80070070 upgrading Windows 11

"Now I am getting error when trying to upgrade to Windows 11. It checks compatibility and CPU, Memory and disc capacity all show good. Then get the page which shows error code 0x80070070 and states not enough space to install and suggests disc cleanup. I have 18.0GB free space. But it will not let me download and install the upgrade. I do not have any apps running which I can remove. Surely 18GB is enough space. Please respond with a fix for me."

What does error code 0x80070070 mean?

Error code 0x80070070 usually occurs when you perform an upgrade like upgrading to Windows 11, which is a sign that there is not enough free space on the drive you are planning to store the operating system on.

Usually, the Windows 11 ISO file only occupies 4.5GB of space, however, it will expand during the installation process, which can amount to nearly 20GB. Therefore, it's essential for you to free up enough space on the drive, and then upgrade to Windows 11 so that you can prevent such errors during the upgrade.

How to fix error code 0x80070070 Windows 11?

If you want to free up space to fix error code 0x80070070 Windows 11, here are five simple methods that are applicable to your situation.

• Method 1. Empty Recycle Bin
• Method 2. Clean up disk space
• Method 3. Uninstall unused apps
• Method 4. Move apps to a different drive
• Method 5. Extend partition

Method 1. Empty Recycle Bin

Every time when we delete some files or folders, we usually drag them to Recycle Bin where is the place to store deleted files indefinitely. As long as you don't delete the files on it automatically, it will exist forever, which continues to take up the free space on your drive. Here are the steps:

Step 1. Right-click the Recycle Bin.

Step 2. Select "Empty Recycle Bin" from the context menu. Wait for a while and the files will be deleted.

Note: Please check if the files on it are all you no longer need before you empty the Recycle Bin.

Method 2. Clean up disk space

Disk Cleanup, the inbuilt PC cleaner in Windows, is also suggested by Microsoft to get more free space on the C drive. It can delete the files that are usually running on the background to constantly consume the disk space. The steps are as follows:

Step 1. Type "disk cleanup" in the search box and hit "Enter".

Step 2. Select the disk you want to clean and click "OK" to get into "Disk Cleanup" window.

Step 3. Tick the files you want to delete and hit "OK".

Then you will receive a confirm message saying that "Are you sure you want to permanently delete these files?", click "delete files" to perform the deletion. To free more space, you can use "Clean up system files" to remove older Windows restore points from your drive.

Method 3. Uninstall unused apps

Various apps are installed when using the computer, some of them are not used often or won't be used any more. Although they may seem like only 16MB or 86MB, many a little makes a mickle. For such apps, just remove them and you will get a lot of space. Do as the tutorial below:

Step 1. Press "Windows + R" at the same time, type "control panel" and go to "Programs" > "Programs and Features".

Step 2. Select the apps you want to uninstall, right click it and click "Uninstall".

Method 4. Move apps to a different drive

If the previous method can't free up enough space for your upgrade, or you think the applications on the system drive are critical important and necessary and you are reluctant to delete them directly, what can you do? In this case, you can move apps to another drive, which can be safely done via AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, allowing the apps run normally as before after movement.

Its "APP Mover" function perfectly realizes the movement of apps, programs, or folders(including  Downloads, Documents, Videos, etc.) from C drive to another drive without damaging the execution files. Download the demo version and see how to move apps or programs from one drive to another drive in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP or Vista:

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Click "Free up" > "App Mover".

Step 2. Select the system drive (C drive) in the pop-out window.

Step 3. In the next window, all movable apps will be listed. You can choose one or multiple apps to move to another location. (You will see the available space after movement as well.)

Step 4. Now, you can select a new drive to store the moved apps. Then click "Move" > "OK" to start moving.

Step 5. Just a few seconds later, the movement will be finished. Moreover, if you wrongly move the apps or programs, you can click "Manage/Restore" to help you cancel the movement. It can be done only in three clicks.

Method 5. Extend partition

What if you don't want to move apps on the system partition to another drive? As a powerful and practical software, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional will provide you with more choices. Here we take "Extend system partition" as an example. This built-in feature in AOMEI software enables you to extend C drive from 16GB to 36GB, and how much space to be increased is determined by you.

Let's look through the steps:

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, click "Tools" at the top menu, then select "Extend Partition Wizard".

Step 2. Here we choose the first option "Extend system partition" and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the partition that you want to allocate free space from (here we take D drive for example) and click "Next".

Step 4. Move the slide bar to enlarge the partition size of C drive as you wish and then click "Next".

Step 5. Preview the operations that will be executed and click "Proceed" to operate.

★Notes:

Extend Partition Wizard does not support GPT disks.

Extend Partition Wizard only supports NTFS partitions. If you want to extend a partition formatted with FAT32, you can use Resize/Move Partition feature in AOMEI Partition Assistant.

AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional also provides you with Allocate Free Space feature to allocate unused space from other partitions on the same disk to the target drive.

Conclusion

How to fix error code 0x80070070 windows 11 when you are upgrading the OS? The best way is to prevent problems before they happen because Microsoft doesn't tell how much free disk space you had better prepare for upgrading to Windows 11. Therefore, the more free space is, the less rarely the error will occur.

Before upgrading, you can try the five ways provided in this passage to get more free space. Among them, AOMEI software should be your best choice for its plenty of powerful functions to help you free up space on your system disk. Besides what we mentioned, Delete Large Files, Merge Partition or Wipe Partition is also available.