Why does windows continually reduce my hard drive space?

Question

I had over 15GB of hard drive memory before the recent updates installed, after installation I had 10.3GB. I cannot believe that the updates made windows over 4GB larger. After 5 minutes use it's less than 10. I only had windows explorer open, I have disabled memory intensive programs that start on start up. Obviously I always empty my recycle bin and have run disk cleanup and defragmenter, my hard disk has no errors and I have no viruses or malware. I have also restarted the computer so any temporary files should clear. My page files and RAM cache are nowhere near large enough to account for this loss of space. This is just the latest instance of windows sucking my storage into the ether, it does it all the time and has from since the computer was new. Usually space returns after a hard shutdown but not this time. Why does windows 11 suck up storage? (why does windows 11 suck?)

Where has this memory gone and how can I get it back?

Answer 1

Hi,

Windows updates can indeed take up a significant amount of disk space for several reasons:

1. Update Files: The update itself includes various files that need to be downloaded and installed. These files can be quite large, especially for major updates or feature updates.
2. Backup Files: Windows creates backup copies of the current system files before applying updates. This allows you to roll back to the previous version if something goes wrong.
3. Temporary Files: During the update process, temporary files are created. These files should be deleted automatically after the update, but sometimes they linger.
4. System Restore Points: Windows often creates a system restore point before applying updates. These restore points can take up a lot of space.

How to Reclaim Space:

1. Disk Cleanup: Run Disk Cleanup and select Clean up system files to remove Windows Update Cleanup files.
2. Storage Settings: Go to Settings > System > Storage and use the Cleanup Recommendations feature to delete unnecessary files.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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