Easily Fix Not Enough Space for Windows 10 (6 Ways)

Why Not Enough Space for Windows 10?

Windows Update is an important part of keeping your computer smooth and fast. This is how Microsoft fixes any glitches, system errors and common fixes to the operating system. If you want to upgrade your operating system to Windows 10, you may want to install updates regularly. However, you might get the "Windows needs more space" error. In this case, you will be asked to use Disk Clean-up to free up space, select another drive or attach an external drive.

This error occurs because the drive you are using doesn't have enough free space. According to Microsoft, you need at least 32GB of free disk space to upgrade to the latest version of Windows 10, regardless of whether you are using a 32-bit or 64-bit Windows operating system. You can continue reading to learn 6 ways to fix the “not enough space for Windows 10 update” problem.

💡Bonus tip:
Recently, Microsoft has released KB5034441 update for Windows 10, version 21H2 and 22H2. However, when installing KB5034441 update, some users receive an error message titled “0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE”. Want to fix it? Check this page: KB5034441 update.

How to Fix Not Enough Space for Windows 10

Next, this article will introduce 6 different ways to solve this “not enough space for Windows 10 update” problem, including a method that can completely solve the problem of lack of space. You can try them in turn to fix the problem. You can continue reading for more details.

Fix 1. Delete Useless Files and Programs

When there is not enough space for Windows 10 update, deleting useless files and apps to free up space on C drive is one of the most common methods. In order not to accidentally delete some important data, you'd better make a disk backup for your C drive in advance.

After that, you can clear all the files you don't need and release more free space for Windows updates, for Windows 10 21H2 update, Windows 10 22H2 update, etc. To delete files, just select and delete them. But to delete applications, you need to uninstall them in Control Panel or third-party programs.

Fix 2. Clean Up the C: Drive

To solve the “not enough disk space in Windows 10" problem, many people will choose to create more space by cleaning up the drive where Windows 10 is installed. Usually, this drive is the C: drive. You can use the Windows 10 Disk Clean-up tool to help you.

It will perform a quick scan of your drive looking for files that you can delete from your computer without making changes to Windows 10. This method is a great way to be able to create enough disk space without affecting your important files. You can follow the steps below.

Step 1. Type Disk Cleanup in your Start menu search bar and select the Best Match.

Step 2. When the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection window pops up, select the C: drive and click OK.

Step 3. When the Disk Cleanup for Drive (C:) window pops up, click Clean up system files.

Step 4. Select all the files you want to delete, and click OK to continue.

Fix 3. Extend the C: Drive Using Disk Management

If you can't free up enough disk space on your computer, expanding the C drive is also a solution to fix the "not enough space to install Windows 10" problem. Of course, this method only works when you have unallocated space on your drive, but you can always check and find out. You can use Disk Management to expand your C drive storage space. You can follow the steps below.

Step 1. Type disk management in the Start menu search bar and select the Best Match.

Step 2. When the Disk Management window appears, check whether there's unallocated space on the C: drive or not. If you have some unallocated space, right-click the C: drive and select Extend Volume to add the unallocated space.

Fix 4. Create More Space By Using External Storage Devices

To fix the "not enough disk space for Windows 10 update" problem, you can also try using an external storage device to complete the Windows 10 update. For this, you'll need an external storage device with about 10GB of free space or more, depending on how much extra space you need.

To get started, select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for Updates.

Windows will pop up the "Windows needs more space" error message. On the Windows Update page, select Fix issues. This will launch the Windows Update tool and allow you to update your computer using an external storage device. Then follow the steps below.

Step 1. Connect an external storage device with enough free space to your computer.

Step 2. On the Windows update page, you'll see an External Storage Device option with a drop-down menu. Select your external storage device from the menu and then click Next to continue.

Step 3. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish installing the update. Once the installation is complete, you can safely remove your external storage device and restart your PC.

Note: Before updating your computer with an external storage device, please back up your important files in advance to avoid data loss.

Fix 5. Migrate OS to a Larger Drive

If you don't have an external hard drive to help with Windows upgrade, or your internal hard drive doesn't have any space to expand the C drive, you can consider upgrading your system drive to SSD or even a bigger HDD to solve the “not enough space for Windows 10 update” problem. 

The safe and reliable system cloning software AOMEI Backupper Professional can help you migrate your OS to a larger drive easily without reinstallation. It also has the advantages below.

Secure boot: When the cloning process has been done, you can boot your system successfully from the cloned disk.

Live clone: When you clone the C drive, the software allows the cloning task to work in the background. Therefore, you can continue using the computer during the cloning process.

SSD Alignment: If you want to clone the C drive to an SSD for improving the performance, this feature can help you to accelerate the reading and writing speed of SSD.

Different systems: Except for cloning C drive in Windows 10, it also supports multiple operating systems, such as Windows 11/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista.

Clone the system to different type of disk: It allows you clone system GPT to MBR/GPT, or clone system MBR to GPT/MBR easily without disk conversion.

Before you migrate OS to a larger SSD or HDD, you need to backup your important files in advance because the cloning process will erase all data on the target drive. Please follow the steps below to migrate OS to a larger drive for fixing the “not enough space for Windows 10 update” problem.

Step 1. Connect the target drive to your computer and make sure it can be detected. Download AOMEI Backupper Professional, install and open it, click Clone > System Clone. If you are a Windows Server user, you can choose AOMEI Backupper Server.

Note:✎...

Except for System Clone, this software also provides Disk Clone and Partition Clone to meet your various needs.

Step 2. The system-related partitions are selected by default. You need to select the connected drive as the destination location to clone your C drive to.

Step 3. If your target drive is an SSD, you can tick SSD Alignment to make the reading and writing speed faster. Confirm your operations and click Start Clone.

Notes:✎...

Sector by sector clone: When your target drive is equal to or larger than the source drive, you can tick the Sector by sector clone option, which will clone all sectors on the source partition, whether they are used or not.

Make full use of disk space: It can add unallocated space to the system partition to maximize the use of space on the target partition.    

Fix 6. Upgrade or Update Windows 10 Using Media Creation Tool

In addition to the previous 5 methods, there is another way to help you solve the “not enough space for Windows 10 update” problem. You can choose to upgrade Windows 7/8 to Windows 10 or update Windows 10 to the latest version with the Media Creation Tool. You can follow the steps below to upgrade or update.

Step 1. Go to Download Windows 10 page on Microsoft website via your Windows 10 browser.  

Step 2. Under Create Windows 10 installation media, click Download tool now and run the media file after the downloading.

Step 3. Choose Upgrade this PC now.

Step 4. Follow the prompts to set up Windows 10. Remember to tick Keep personal files and apps during the process.

Step 5. Wait for the process to complete, then you may restart your computer and use Windows 10.

Summary

When you encounter the “not enough space for Windows 10 update” problem, you can try the 6 methods mentioned in this article to fix this problem. And instead of struggling to find more ways to update your computer when you don't have enough drive space, cloning your operating system to a larger drive is a long-term solution to ensure you don’t run into any drive storage problems in the future.

Microsoft releases a different version of the update every year to fix the problems that already exist. This year, Windows 10 22H2 update will be released, and there are some known issues, such as KB5021233 causing a blue screen, and you don't what will happen. To protect your system and data, it is recommended that you back up your computer in advance with this software.

You can use the secure and professional system cloning software AOMEI Backupper Professional to help you clone your system to a larger SSD/HDD. After cloning, you can successfully boot your system from the cloned drive. Download this software and explore more by yourself.