Question Windows 11 + drivers + updates taking up to 100 gb storage

[BrainGlue]

I recently performed a "clean" installation of Windows 11, using a 1 TB NVMe M.2 (from Samsung) as local disk. After only installing essential drivers and all Windows updates, I have around 100 GB being used out of 930 GB available on the local disk. Is it normal for it to take that much space? Another strange thing is that on rare occasions, I notice that it is only using 60 GB, but it later goes back up to 100 GB on reboot.

 

[USAFRet]

I recently performed a "clean" installation of Windows 11, using a 1 TB NVMe M.2 (from Samsung) as local disk. After only installing essential drivers and all Windows updates, I have around 100 GB being used out of 930 GB available on the local disk. Is it normal for it to take that much space? Another strange thing is that on rare occasions, I notice that it is only using 60 GB, but it later goes back up to 100 GB on reboot.

Likely culprits are the pagefile and hibernation.


Install and run either WinDirStat, or WizTree.

Run as Administrator, selecting only the drive in question.
Post a screencap here.

Also, a screencap of your Disk Management window.

 

[BrainGlue]

Unfortunately, I do not have the computer right in front of me at this time. From what I remember, file explorer said I had total of 930 GB capacity, and 830 GB free.

However, page file might be the case as you mentioned...Is that the same as virtual memory? I read somewhere that you can calculate the initial page file size by multiplying 1024 with GB of RAM, then multiply by 1.5. Since I have 64 GB of RAM, my initial paging file size would be around 1024 x 64 x 1.5 = 98,304 MB or 98.3 GB. Is this correct? That would also be strange though, because if 98.3 GB is the minimum page file size, then that leaves only around 1-2 GB being used by rest of Windows.

 

[USAFRet]

Unfortunately, I do not have the computer right in front of me at this time. From what I remember, file explorer said I had total of 930 GB capacity, and 830 GB free.

However, page file might be the case as you mentioned...Is that the same as virtual memory? I read somewhere that you can calculate the initial page file size by multiplying 1024 with GB of RAM, then multiply by 1.5. Since I have 64 GB of RAM, my initial paging file size would be around 1024 x 64 x 1.5 = 98,304 MB or 98.3 GB. Is this correct? That would also be strange though, because if 98.3 GB is the minimum page file size, then that leaves only around 1-2 GB being used by rest of Windows.

Pagefile (virtual memory), at any particular moment, can go up and down.
Especially if you leave it at "System Managed".

98.3GB is not your "minimum".

When you do have the opportunity, that WinDirStat screencap will almost certainly clear up this question.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I recently performed a "clean" installation of Windows 11, using a 1 TB NVMe M.2 (from Samsung) as local disk. After only installing essential drivers and all Windows updates, I have around 100 GB being used out of 930 GB available on the local disk. Is it normal for it to take that much space? Another strange thing is that on rare occasions, I notice that it is only using 60 GB, but it later goes back up to 100 GB on reboot.

In the Search box, type "Disk Cleanup". Pick C: drive, which most likely is the drive Win11 is installed on.

In the dialogue that opens go down the list and pick the things you want cleaned up...I usually do them all. At the bottom click on the Clean Up System Files button too. It may take a while as it finds them but it will add a few things to the list, most likely old Windows installations left behind from a major Windows updates and other old update data. Windows updates itself during and after a clean install so there may be quite a bit of old stuff left behind.

Even with a mature Windows installation, if you've never done a Disk Cleanup it can return a large amount of disk space.