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Reseting Windows 11 Unit - Not enough Storage

Michael Rother 0 Reputation points
2025-08-13T01:08:30.7733333+00:00

I need to reset a Windows 11 unit with the 24H2 update. I have 21.7 gigs of free space on my C drive, but the reset is asking for another 9.9. Why does it need so much? I have deleted everything I can using the Disk Cleanup & Settings>System>Storage>Storage used on other drives ; & >Storage Sense. I have deleted the Temporary Files and even the System Recovery files. I have no personal files on the computer. I have even uninstalled every installed app that Windows allows. The only things I see using storage are undeleteable data.

I have reset another unit that had 22H4 on it, and it only needed about 16 gigs.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Recovery and backup
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  1. Gunasekar N 27,295 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-08-13T01:52:59.0233333+00:00

    Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

    May I please know the total disk size of your hard drive or C: Partition?

    The 24H2 update usually requires 40GB or more of free space to do a system reset compared to previous versions, like 22H2. This is why because the current Windows folder will be backed up into the 'Windows.old' folder, and it needs space for temp files as well.

    So, if your total hard disk partition is 64 GB, a clean installation of Windows 11 24H2 is only possible because the system files might be using 30GB of space.

    If you cannot free up more than 40GB of space on your device, we recommend performing a clean installation of Windows 11 from a bootable USB installation media drive.

    Windows 11 Clean installation process-

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsinsider/cleaninstall

    Let me know if you still need more help.

    1 person found this answer helpful.

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