Your hard drive can fill up faster than you expect. When the system drive gets nearly full, Windows slows down, updates can fail, and you cannot install new programs. The first step to fixing this is finding out exactly what is taking up the space.
Windows 10 and Windows 11 have a built-in Storage page that shows how your disk space is used — by apps, documents, pictures, videos, and temporary files. Once you can see where the space went, you can delete what you do not need and free up room.
This guide shows you how to open the Storage page and read it, step by step, with screenshots.
How to See What’s Taking Up Space on a Windows PC
Follow these steps to see what is taking up space on your Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC, and find files you can safely remove to free up disk space.
Step 1: Open Settings
Click the Start button in the bottom-left corner, then click the Settings gear icon.
Step 2: Open System, then Storage
In the Settings window, click System, then choose Storage from the left side.
Step 3: View your drives
Under Storage, you will see how much space each drive is using. Click ‘View storage usage on other drives’ to see all your drive partitions.
Step 4: Open the drive you want to check
Click the drive you want to inspect, usually the C: drive, to see a breakdown of what is using its space.
Step 5: Clean up the drive
Now that you know what is taking up space, free it up: delete temporary files and uninstall apps you no longer use. You can do both right from the Storage page.
Step 6: Check your other drives
Repeat the same steps for your other drive partitions to see what is taking up space on each one.
Final Thoughts
A full drive is one of the most common reasons a computer slows down. If your laptop still feels slow or freezes after cleaning up space, see our guide to fixing a freezing laptop for more ways to speed it up.
