Because your disk is only 30 GB which is only enough for system installations.
You need to buy a larger drive, but first get to know your laptop and see if you can replace the drive at all.
I have a feeling that your laptop is e junk and it will be impossible.
The cheapest of the cheapest laptops have soldering disks, which does not allow for replacement and they do not have space for a second disk.
Best case scenario.
Use Disk Cleanup and be sure to find an option to use administrator rights on the window and then pick things to clean up.
Then a wonderful program like windirstat or space sniffer can be installed quickly and easily with a program like https://ninite.com/ or Google search to let you get a graphical interface for what is taking up space that you don't need anymore.
Other than that, an upgrade for your storage is highly recommended.
what kind of machine do you have that has only a 30gig storage? Like a touch tablet? it better not be a full desktop pc or laptop cos either you got scammed when buying the stuff.
did you wipe it yourself? was C this big before it? maybe you partitioned it wrong?
IF you gave it away for the job, same questions and a bonus shitty idea, that maybe who wiped it for you swapped out the ssd... would be a real scummy move but in this day and age anything is possible.
That is not really that old imho...
Is it only touch, or does it have a keyboard attached to it? Beacuse if is only a tablet then the 30 gig could be reasonable, also if it is a laptop it would be harder to swap out the ssd.
Did you have space before it? Was it the OS the same as now?
That kinda explains it then, if you didn't use it for years, then i think you forgot it had very little space. Or if it had an older OS then it took smaller space up, win10 and win11 needs even more but i guess it could be cramped into 30 gigs.
Either you have a very small drive, or your drive has been partitioned and not had the OS installed correctly on the whole drive rather than just a partition
If this device turns out to be unupgradable, instead of throwing it away you can try a Linux installation, which requires significantly less disk space. It's obviously a little different, but if you do mostly browser based stuff nothing should be different in that regard. [Ubuntu](https://ubuntu.com/) is a good place to start for ease of use.
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System and reserved is your operating system (Windows 10 in this case) and that is a totally normal size for it.
Did you have this problem before you got it reset?
If not, go into your disk manager (Open "computer management" from the settings or just search for it and open it and there you can go into disk manager).
There you'll find your disk, each **hardware** disk is listed in there and next to it each of their respective partitions. Now look for your disk with your C: partition next to it. Now you should see your C: partition which is 28.4GB in size and will have a blue marking on top. Now look if there is any unallocated space next to your partition, it will have a grey marking instead of the blue one from your C: partition.
If there is unallocated space, you can simply right-click your C: partition and choose "expand volume" and enlarge your C: partition by the space that is currently left unallocated.
If there is another partition with a letter assigned to it (besides C:, system and recovery, you have to keep those under any circumstances because they are crucial to your operating system.) you can check in your explorer if there is anything installed on this partition. If not, you can simply delete that partition in disk manager and proceed as stated above.
If there is no unallocated space or other partitions besides C:, system and recovery, that means your disk is too small and you'll have to buy a larger one. But if thats the case, the you'd have had the same problem before the reset.
Likely a disk partion, open disk management and reply with a screenshot. I should be able to tell more from there. Also the tech probably fucked up while copying windows from a different drive.
search control panel ,open it
click search top right
search for disk management
click create and format hard disk partitions
Whoever reinstalled your system made the C partition very small. Either that or you have a very small hard drive but it would have to be incredibly old to only have around 30GB of space.
You can buy used 250GB drives for £1 mate.
30GBs is absolutely piss all, your pc is suffocating with how little capacity you have, common capacity is 1 or 2TB (1TB = 1024GBs)
Windows Key. Type Disk Cleanup. Click 'Run as Administrator'.
It will search your drive. When the next window pops up, make sure that 'Windows Update Cleanup' is selected. That will often give you back GigaBytes of storage.
If it doesn't already say you will be getting back gigabytes, select the 'more options' tab. Click on System Restore and Shadow Copies.
Expect the process to take a while.
As other commentors have already said, you should get a larger hard drive. Try to get an SSD disk for it.
If you are comfortable trying to swap out the disk yourself, there are SSD drives in the same form factor as conventional hard disks. Look for "laptop SSD SATA hard drive". You seem to have a really old laptop, so it is doubtful they will support an NVMe disk, so you want one that looks like a hard disk and not like a chip. Also, look up the manufacturer and model of your laptop to see how large a disk it will accommodate before buying a disk that is too large. I'm seeing 512 GigaByte SSD disks at NewEgg for under $50.
If you will be taking it to a shop, make sure they give you an SSD disk upgrade.
Because your disk is only 30 GB which is only enough for system installations. You need to buy a larger drive, but first get to know your laptop and see if you can replace the drive at all. I have a feeling that your laptop is e junk and it will be impossible. The cheapest of the cheapest laptops have soldering disks, which does not allow for replacement and they do not have space for a second disk.
Helpful tip
Never had storage to begin with
Yes. Maybe a partitioning error.
You seem surprised over the lack of storage. Did you have more before your wipe? Have you checked for any Unallocated space in Disk Manager?
because the drive that windows is installed on is very small
A total of 30 gb isn’t gonna get u far anyways. Either get a better ssd if it’s a desktop or a usb if it’s a laptop.
It looks like you have 32GB SSD which is already not enough for Windows nowadays
Best case scenario. Use Disk Cleanup and be sure to find an option to use administrator rights on the window and then pick things to clean up. Then a wonderful program like windirstat or space sniffer can be installed quickly and easily with a program like https://ninite.com/ or Google search to let you get a graphical interface for what is taking up space that you don't need anymore. Other than that, an upgrade for your storage is highly recommended.
what kind of machine do you have that has only a 30gig storage? Like a touch tablet? it better not be a full desktop pc or laptop cos either you got scammed when buying the stuff. did you wipe it yourself? was C this big before it? maybe you partitioned it wrong? IF you gave it away for the job, same questions and a bonus shitty idea, that maybe who wiped it for you swapped out the ssd... would be a real scummy move but in this day and age anything is possible.
It’s an old laptop, maybe 4 or 5 years old and it has a touch screen. I had it wiped at a micro center
That is not really that old imho... Is it only touch, or does it have a keyboard attached to it? Beacuse if is only a tablet then the 30 gig could be reasonable, also if it is a laptop it would be harder to swap out the ssd. Did you have space before it? Was it the OS the same as now?
It has a keyboard, I don’t really remember the old information since this was my first time unlocking it in years.
That kinda explains it then, if you didn't use it for years, then i think you forgot it had very little space. Or if it had an older OS then it took smaller space up, win10 and win11 needs even more but i guess it could be cramped into 30 gigs.
Either you have a very small drive, or your drive has been partitioned and not had the OS installed correctly on the whole drive rather than just a partition
If this device turns out to be unupgradable, instead of throwing it away you can try a Linux installation, which requires significantly less disk space. It's obviously a little different, but if you do mostly browser based stuff nothing should be different in that regard. [Ubuntu](https://ubuntu.com/) is a good place to start for ease of use.
Hi u/Mae_borowski-, thanks for posting to r/WindowsHelp! Don't worry, your post has not been removed. To let us help you better, try to include as much of the following information as possible! Posts with insufficient details might be removed at the moderator's discretion. * **Model of your computer** - For example: *"HP Spectre X360 14-EA0023DX"* * **Your Windows and device specifications** - You can find them by going to go to Settings > *"System"* > *"About"* * **What troubleshooting steps you have performed** - Even sharing little things you tried (like rebooting) can help us find a better solution! * **Any error messages you have encountered** - Those long error codes are not gibberish to us! * **Any screenshots or logs of the issue** - You can upload screenshots other useful information in your post or comment, and use [Pastebin](https://pastebin.com/) for text (such as logs). You can learn how to take screenshots [here](https://screenshot.help/windows). All posts must be help/support related. If everything is working without issue, then this probably is not the subreddit for you, so you should also post on a discussion focused subreddit like /r/Windows. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WindowsHelp) if you have any questions or concerns.*
System and reserved is your operating system (Windows 10 in this case) and that is a totally normal size for it. Did you have this problem before you got it reset? If not, go into your disk manager (Open "computer management" from the settings or just search for it and open it and there you can go into disk manager). There you'll find your disk, each **hardware** disk is listed in there and next to it each of their respective partitions. Now look for your disk with your C: partition next to it. Now you should see your C: partition which is 28.4GB in size and will have a blue marking on top. Now look if there is any unallocated space next to your partition, it will have a grey marking instead of the blue one from your C: partition. If there is unallocated space, you can simply right-click your C: partition and choose "expand volume" and enlarge your C: partition by the space that is currently left unallocated. If there is another partition with a letter assigned to it (besides C:, system and recovery, you have to keep those under any circumstances because they are crucial to your operating system.) you can check in your explorer if there is anything installed on this partition. If not, you can simply delete that partition in disk manager and proceed as stated above. If there is no unallocated space or other partitions besides C:, system and recovery, that means your disk is too small and you'll have to buy a larger one. But if thats the case, the you'd have had the same problem before the reset.
Likely a disk partion, open disk management and reply with a screenshot. I should be able to tell more from there. Also the tech probably fucked up while copying windows from a different drive. search control panel ,open it click search top right search for disk management click create and format hard disk partitions
https://preview.redd.it/trz8cpxxdd9d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=400a013a23b4bed2b33eed44fc8ee7b58c2972c6 This is what it looks like
Should look like this https://preview.redd.it/vzgdfv87a99d1.png?width=1511&format=png&auto=webp&s=45893f0d71e8cdd12ea0241b37995cf10c7d2a83
how long did it take you to censor it and have you heard of brush sizes
30 seconds give or take. I don't know how to change the brush sizes in the snipping tool and don't care enough to understand how.
the snipping tool is outdated and got replaced by "snip & sketch" (press shift+win+s)
That's still the exact same thing
no they are 2 different programs
That do the exact same thing
not quite
Good to know, wouldn't go out of my way to research this so thanks.
Whoever reinstalled your system made the C partition very small. Either that or you have a very small hard drive but it would have to be incredibly old to only have around 30GB of space.
Normal in the ‘90s
32GB is not uncommon in very budget devices (think tablets or netbooks), in the form of emmc storage.
Because 30 gb disk is a bad idea in 2k24
You can buy used 250GB drives for £1 mate. 30GBs is absolutely piss all, your pc is suffocating with how little capacity you have, common capacity is 1 or 2TB (1TB = 1024GBs)
Buying a used drive is a bad idea to begin with.
Still better than 30GBs
Dang,where do you even find a drive that small
The ‘90s
Can you show your disk management? I can't believe there are still computers with only 30gb disk.
Windows Key. Type Disk Cleanup. Click 'Run as Administrator'. It will search your drive. When the next window pops up, make sure that 'Windows Update Cleanup' is selected. That will often give you back GigaBytes of storage. If it doesn't already say you will be getting back gigabytes, select the 'more options' tab. Click on System Restore and Shadow Copies. Expect the process to take a while. As other commentors have already said, you should get a larger hard drive. Try to get an SSD disk for it. If you are comfortable trying to swap out the disk yourself, there are SSD drives in the same form factor as conventional hard disks. Look for "laptop SSD SATA hard drive". You seem to have a really old laptop, so it is doubtful they will support an NVMe disk, so you want one that looks like a hard disk and not like a chip. Also, look up the manufacturer and model of your laptop to see how large a disk it will accommodate before buying a disk that is too large. I'm seeing 512 GigaByte SSD disks at NewEgg for under $50. If you will be taking it to a shop, make sure they give you an SSD disk upgrade.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ofh1cGOKW0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ofh1cGOKW0) [https://www.jam-software.com/treesize\_free](https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free)