Forum Discussion
How much space does Windows 11 Need?
I honestly am fairly new to Windows 11. I know it is one louder than Windows 10, but wondering how much disk space it requires. I have a fairly new HP r14-fq0070nr laptop I inherited from my Aunt. I just formatted it and installed Windows 11. I went to install Office365 but wasn't even able to run updates because of lack of disk space. The hard drive on this is only 57GB and Windows seems to take up 27 GB with another 11GB of "apps". (I have installed nothing here yet.)
I tried to remove "tempoarary internet files" and cache. but there doesn't seem to be anything.
Is there any way to make this take up way less space? Seems odd that a generic version of Windows is taking so much disk space.
Thanks!
7 Replies
I must be doing something wrong because my Windows installation is taking up almost 200 GB.
Don’t trust what Microsoft says; just get an SSD with at least 1 TB.
Hello, KaiPonte1,
I don't know if you still get answers, but as far as I know, yes, the screenshot you uploaded is typical for all Windows 11 computers. Windows 11 OS does take about 20 to 30 GBs and some basic apps that it also installs when you set up your PC (such as Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Store, Calculator, Pictures, Settings, and more) adds up to several gigabytes. There isn't a way to free up space in your drive right now because all data stored are for your PC to run. To be honest, if you want to install Office 365 and apps related to it like MS Word, Excel, PPT, Teams, and more, and store some files, I recommend you to get your drive replaced with at least 128GB SSD or bigger, even though Microsoft says that 64GB is enough to run Windows 11.
I found out that your laptops uses eMMC memory and it might be upgradable or not. If your laptop mainboard has an additional M.2 NVMe slot or a SATA port, you can increase your storage by simply buying an NVMe SSD or SATA SSD/SATA HDD (but they should fit into your laptop, they will probably labeled 2.5'') and plug it in for just extra storage or clone your eMMC to your new SSD for faster booting. If your mainboard doesn't have one of these ports, you can still upgrade them by desoldering the eMMC chip and clone it to a new, bigger eMMC chip and resoldering it onto the mainboard. However, this may require more skill and tools, so you might want to go to a local computer repair shop or HP repair store (if they would do this for you).
If you don't want to upgrade your local storage, you can use cloud storage like Onedrive (which is included in Office 365) to store your files like images and videos and text. However, you can't store WIndows program files in the cloud storage because you won't be able to run it without a Wi-Fi connection.
I hope this reply helps you.
Thank you.
As far as I know, 200GB is a safe to go!
Microsoft officially recommends at least 64GB of storage for Windows 11, but for practical use, more is recommended.
Wow, that is insane!
I remember the last good version of Windows - Win2K - needed only 2GB. Well, I guess this is useless then. I'll format the laptop. Why would they sell a laptop that can't even install O365?? (rhetorical question)
Thank you for the answers.
Windows 11 typically requires a minimum of 64GB of storage, but the actual installed size can be around 20-30GB, depending on updates and features. Since your system shows 27GB used, you're close to the lower limit, which can cause issues with updates and software installation.
Since you mentioned Windows takes up about 27GB and apps another 11GB, this seems within normal expectations, but your total available space is very tight for installing Office 365 and updates.
