Fixed: Additional Space Is Needed on the Drive to Reset PC

Confronted with “Additional space is needed on the drive where Windows is installed” when trying to reset your PC? Don’t worry! This page will help you out.

By @Lily Last Updated December 10, 2024

Error: Additional free space is needed on the drive where Windows is installed

“Automatic Repair loop and nothing has seemed to work. The only way to resolve this issue seems to reset my PC. However, when I try Windows says ‘Additional free space is needed on the drive where Windows is installed. Free up some space and try again.’ How can this be fixed? Thank you very much.”

– windowsphoneinfo.com

Why does this error occur? A corrupted boot system parameter is one of the possible reasons. Read on to get it fixed.

Top 3 fixes to additional disk space needed for resetting Windows 10

Here are 3 quick fixes to additional disk space needed to reset PC.

🙂If your PC can still boot

Fix 1: Run Disk Cleanup

Fix 2: Extend C drive

🙁If your PC refuses to boot

Fix 3: Clean install Windows 10

🤩Bonus tip

If the “Reset this PC” feature fails, you can rely on the best free backup and recovery software.

Fix 1: Run Disk Cleanup

1. Restart your computer. After your computer boots up, press Win + E to open File Explorer.

2. Right-click on the system drive (usually C drive) and select Properties.

3. Under the General tab, find and click the Disk Cleanup button.

4. In the Disk Cleanup window, select the files to delete and click OK.

5. In the pop-up window, click Delete Files to confirm the operation.

Tip: To gain more space, open the Disk Cleanup window again and select Clean up system files in the left bottom.

Fix 2: Extend C drive

1. Restart your computer. After your computer boots up, right-click on This PC and hit the Manage option.

2. In the pop-up window, click Disk Management on the left panel.

3. If there’s unallocated space next to the C drive, you can right-click on C drive and select Extend Volume. Then follow the onscreen guide to finish the rest steps.

Tip: Disk Management can only add contiguous unallocated space to C drive. To make use of non-adjacent unallocated space, try third-party software like AOMEI Partition Assistant to extend C drive.

Fix 3: Clean install Windows 10

If your computer cannot boot, you can create a Windows 10 repair USB on another PC. Then, follow the instructions below:

1. Attach the repair USB on your PC and boot from it.

2. When the Windows Setup wizard opens, select your language, time, and keyboard preferences, and then click Next.

3. Click Install now and follow the wizard to clean install Windows 10 on this PC.

Recommend: Backup and restore Windows with an efficient tool🔥

When you encounter some serious system errors, you may choose to reset your PC to bring it back to life. However, the “Reset this PC” feature fails sometimes. To get fully prepared for potential computer errors, you can rely on the best free Windows backup software– AOMEI Backupper Standard. It offers you all-around backup solutions.

AOMEI Backupper
Easy Backup and Recovery Software
  • There are multiple backup types available, including System/Disk/Partition/File/Cloud Backup.
  • It supports various backup devices. You can backup to external hard drive, USB stick, network share and cloud storage, etc.
  • You are able to create automatic backup as per your need. Automatic backup runs in the way of incremental backup by default to save disk space for you.
  • You are allowed to create a bootable media to restore system in WinPE.

To create a system image on your PC, just click Backup System Backup.

To restore your computer to an earlier date when problems occur, you can go to Restore > Select Task/Select Image File.

Wrapping things up

There are 3 quick fixes offered in this article to help you resolve “Additional space is needed on the drive where Windows is installed”. If your computer can still boot, you can run Disk Cleanup to free up disk space or use Disk Management to extend C drive. If your computer fails to boot, you can create a repair USB on another PC and then clean install Windows from it.

To provide comprehensive protection for your computer, you can backup OS with AOMEI Backupper. It offers all-around Windows backup solutions. If you upgrade to higher editions of AOMEI Backupper, you can clone NVMe boot drive with the Disk Clone feature. Just give it a shot!