How to Free up Space When D Drive is Full: 5 Tips

Used up D drive space and cannot save more files on it? Don't worry! On this page, we list 5 effective approaches to fix “D drive is full” for free.

Jonna

by Jonna Lasted Updated March 2, 2023

Share this: instagram reddit

What Should I Do If My D Drive is Full on Windows 10?

 

Low disk space on D: drive, but I don't know why. What to do when D drive is full? Any advice?

Question from answers.microsoft.com

Are you bothered by the fact that d drive is almost full on Windows 10/8/7? Is your PC running slow? You can't install new programs or save files on D drive? Take it easy! The hard disk is full issues, such as C drive is full without reason and D drive is almost full, are very common problems.

Here are some solutions to help you get out of the "Windows 10 D drive almost full" issue. Please read on to find what you need.

D drive is full

Why is My D Drive so Full?

Why is D drive full? What is taking up space on my D drive? The possible causes can be:

  • The D drive has a small disk space.
  • You have too many applications or files saved on the D drive.
  • Hidden files are taking up a lot of space on the D drive.
  • A virus or malware attack causes the D drive to become full.

So how to resolve the “D drive full on Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7” problem? Let's troubleshoot with the following effective solutions.

5 Ways to Free up Space When D Drive is Full

These tips below will help you fix “D drive is showing full”. Also, they can be applied to how to clean D drive in Windows 10/8/7 in some relevant situations, such as “D drive full but no files”, “my hard drive is full but I don't know why”, “C drive is full”, etc.

Tip 1. Run Disk Cleanup Tool

Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) is a Windows computer maintenance utility designed to free up space on computer’s hard drives. It can help you remove unnecessary files, including temporary Internet files, and let you empty Recycle Bin to speed up your hard drive.

Steps on how to run Microsoft Disk Cleanup to make room when my D drive is full are shown as follows:

Step 1. Right-click the D drive and choose Properties.

Step 2. Tap on the Disk Cleanup button on the General page.

Disk Cleanup D Drive

Step 3. Select the files you want to delete and click OK.

Disk Cleanup D Drive Delete Files

Tip 2. Show Hidden Folders and Files for Deletion

If you don’t have saved many files on D drive, but your D disk shows full, which means local disk D full without reason, you can try to unhide files and folders and delete useless ones to make room on your hard drive.

Step 1. Go to Control Panel and click on File Explorer Options.

Step 2. Choose Show hidden files, folders and drives in the View tab and hit Apply.

File Explorer Options Show Hidden Files

Step 3. Go back to the full D drive and select files to remove.

Tip 3. Uninstall Unnecessary Applications

If you are used to installing programs on D drive instead of C drive, there is a high possibility that D drive gets full due to a lot of programs. For example, it happens from time to time that Dropbox is filling hard drive space and OneDrive takes up space on PC.

In this case, you can uninstall some applications to free up D drive space with the following steps:

Step 1. Open Windows Settings and select Apps.

Step 2. Find all your installed apps and select Filter by: D: (D:).

App Filter

Step 3. Click the program you wish to uninstall and click Uninstall, then confirm it.

OneDrive  Uninstall

Tip 4. Remove Uselessly Files

Although you may not care about some small unimportant files, when there are enough of them, they can take up a lot of hard disk space. Especially for users with small local storage space, regular cleaning of unnecessary files is an effective way to keep the hard disk tidy and usable.

Tip 5. Backup D Drive Large Files and Delete them

What should you do with the important files on the D drive? We strongly recommend that you use CBackup to backup your files and then clear them to make room on disk when D drive is full.

CBackup Main Page

CBackup is a free cloud backup service that makes it easy and smooth to backup D drive to OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox. You are able to use this tool to backup an entire hard disk or certain files and folders. It offers Schedule Backup to help you automatically backup D drive files daily, weekly, or monthly, so you don’t lose any important files.

Download this free cloud backup utility to backup your D drive files and free up disk space NOW!

Download CBackupWin 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Step 1. Install and launch CBackup. Sign up for an account free and login.

Step 2. Click Storage on the left, select a cloud to save your D drive files (such as Google Drive), then tap Authorize Now to permit CBackup access to your cloud storage.

Select Cloud Drive

★Note:
CBackup allows you to backup files to CBackup Cloud (select Backup PC to CBackup Cloud on the Backup screen) without adding clouds, which gives 10GB of free backup space and 1TB/5TB expandable cloud storage for your subscription.

Step 3. Choose Backup and click Backup PC to Public Cloud.

Create Task

Step 4. Select the whole D drive or some important files/folders, then pick the target cloud as the destination path. Click Settings and then Scheduler to set up Google Drive auto backup. Then, press Start Backup.

Add Source

Step 5. After the backup task is complete, you can simply remove the local files to free up D drive space and they will always be stored in the cloud.

In addition, you can enjoy more features of CBackup:
File Sync: you can synchronize files and folders to Google Drive/OneDrive/Dropbox without local copy.
Cloud Backup/Sync: you can move files between clouds using the Cloud to Cloud Backup/Sync features quickly and easily.

In the End

5 practical methods for how do I free up space on my D drive when D drive is full are provided here. The simplest answer that works, while keeping your files safe, is to back up your data and then erase it from the D drive. Hope the tips in this tutorial will be helpful.

Jonna
Jonna · Editor
Jonna becomes a professional in the areas of cloud backup and restoration, data protection, etc. after years of learning and researching. She maintains a keen eye for the latest technology trends, ensuring that the information provided is always in step with industry developments.

Free Cloud Backup & Sync Service

Transfer files between cloud drives, combine cloud storage to gain free unlimited space

Get Started Now

Secure & Free