How Much Hard Drive Space does Windows 10 Really Take up

How much space does Windows 10 take up on a hard drive (SSD or HDD)? This problem may have troubled you for a long time. In this post, we will make it clear how much hard drive space Windows 10 really takes up and show you the hard drive space needed for Windows 10.

Actual hard drive space Windows 10 takes up

To find out how big Windows 10 is, I specially installed the Windows 10 enterprise on VMware Workstation. The screenshot below shows the size of the newly installed Windows 10 (about 9.5GB), which is a little larger than that of Windows 7 and 8.

That is the minimum hard drive space for Windows 10 system. However, Windows 10 will generate more and more system files like Windows update files, Windows log files and Windows backup files resulting in the size of Windows 10 getting larger over time. So how to find out how much space Windows 10 takes up on a hard drive (SSD or HDD) after a period of time? Please follow the steps below.

Steps: Press Windows key + I shortcut -> System -> Storage -> This PC (C:)

Finally, you can see various types of files and their sizes on the system disk (C:). The size of System & reserved is how much hard drive space Windows 10 really takes up. The amount of hard disk space occupied by Windows 10 varies from each other.

You can click it to see more details as shown in the screenshot below. The space occupied by Windows 10 mainly includes System files, Virtual memory, Hibernation file, and System restore.

Now you are aware of how much hard drive space Windows 10 takes up, and then you should know if you have the best partition size for 500GB or 1TB hard disk as it's really necessary:

For 1TB hard disk, see Best Partition Size for 1TB Hard Drive in Windows.

How much hard drive space do I need for Windows 10 - Recommend 50-80GB

Windows 10's previous minimum storage requirement was 16 GB for 32-bit OS or 20 GB for 64-bit OS. But Microsoft has announced that starting with Windows Version 1903, the system requirements for hard drive size for clean install of Windows 10 changed to a minimum of 32GB.

However, this is just the minimum requirement, and it is definitely not enough in actual use. So, how much space do I need for Windows 10? From my perspective, I recommend 50-80gb of space prepared for Windows 10. Firstly, you need to leave 20GB of space available for Windows update. In addition, if you activate the feature of virtual memory and hibernation, you need to prepare 20GB of space available (about 3 times the size of physical memory). Moreover, it is essential to leave 20 GB free storage space to ensure that Windows 10 runs smoothly and seamlessly. In conclusion, 50-80GB of space is the ideal hard drive space for Windows 10. And this is How Much Hard Drive Space Do I Really Need for My Whole Computer - HDD & SSD.

Some tricks to reduce Windows 10 size

It is inevitable that the size of Windows 10 will get larger and larger over time. Here we will recommend some useful tricks to reduce the hard drive space Windows 10 takes up. Is C Drive Full? - Here're 13 Effective Ways to Free Up C Drive Space

Trick 1: Turn off Hibernation

Steps: Type command prompt in Windows search box -> select Run as Administrator option -> type powercfg /hibernate off -> hit Enter

Trick 2: Turn off System Restore

Steps: Right-click This PC on desktop -> click Properties option -> System protection -> select Local Disk (C:) -> click Configure button -> select Disable system protection option -> click OK button.

Trick 3: Reduce Virtual memory size

Steps: Right-click This PC on desktop -> click Properties option -> Advanced system settings -> Settings button in Performance section -> Advanced tab -> Change button -> Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives option -> select system disk -> Custom size -> type pagefile size as you like -> Set -> OK

Trick 4: Third-party tool

System Genius is a multi-functional utility designed to speed up and optimize your Windows computer. It can help you clean temporary files, browser cache, Recycle Bin, Windows history, Windows log files and free up system disk (C:) with one click. It is so convenient to reduce Windows 10 size and free up system disk space with System Genius. Don't hesitate to have a try!

Download: System Genius