How to recover space once upgraded to Windows 11 – Guide

Microsoft is still releasing Windows 11 for Windows 10 PCs that meet specific hardware requirements for the new operating system. Many users have already upgraded to the new operating system and many more will be upgraded soon. So unless you take steps to stop it, an upgrade to Windows 11 is virtually inevitable.

Windows 11 has increased the amount of hard drive storage space used on PCs, but if users are happy with the new operating system, they can safely remove recovery files and regain some of the lost storage space.

How to Recover hard drive space after upgrading to Windows 11

If your device has a large hard drive, you should ignore the small hard drive if it exists. If the hard drive is low, recovering 16GB of space will make a big difference.

  1. Use the Windows Update feature to get the latest updates for your computer. This will help to optimize your computer and restore lost files.
  2. Use a hard drive cleaner to clean out any old files and folders that may have been left behind on your old hard drive. This will help to optimize your computer and restore lost files.

How to free up space after Windows 11 using Settings

How to free up space after Windows 11 using Disk Cleanup

  1. Open the Start menu and type “cmd”
  2. Type “netstat -an”
  3. The output will show you the active network connections and their status. If there are any connections that are not listed, then the disk cleaning utility has not been installed on your computer and it should be enabled by default.
  4. To enable the disk cleaning utility, type “netstat -an | grep Disk Cleaning” into a command prompt and hit enter.
  5. The disk cleaning utility will start automatically deleting files from your Windows installation, based on the results of the netstat -an output.

Final note

How to Recover Space Once Upgraded to Windows 11 In order to recover space once upgraded to Windows 11, you will need to follow the steps below. This guide is designed for users who have upgraded to Windows 11 from an earlier version of the operating system. If you are upgrading from a previous version of Windows, please see our guide How to Upgrade to Windows 10.

  1. Start by opening the Control Panel and clicking on the System and Security Center. This will open a new window that will look similar to the one shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: The System and Security Center in Windows 11
  2. In this window, click on the Storage tab and then click on the Change Drive Type button (Figure 2). Figure 2: The Storage tab in Windows 11
  3. In this window, select your original hard drive (Figure 3). If you have multiple hard drives, select them all at once by clicking on the Add/Remove Hard Drive button (Figure 4). Figure 3: Selecting your original hard drive in Windows 11 Figure 4: Adding or removing a hard drive in Windows 11
  4. Click on the OK button (Figure 5). You will now be able to see your new storage type in the System and Security Center window (Figure 6). Figure 5: Viewing your new storage type in windows 11 Figure 6: The System and Security Center after selecting your new storage type