Why is the Recovery Drive Full?
A recovery drive should not usually be visible, but if you can see it, it should never be used. Windows don’t make any change in the drive, but If the Recovery Drive is full, open in File, explore and locate your personal files, and remove it.
Recovery Drive is full in Windows 11/10
If you see Recovery Drive is full warning in Windows11/10, that means the Recovery disk has no space left. This can be very annoying as you will get the warning frequently, but the good thing is you can fix this issue in several ways. This could happen even when the Recovery drive is not full. In this post, you will get a complete guide on using these solutions to get rid of the recovery drive full issue. To do this, it’s always advisable to backup your stored information. In case the process stops in between, it can result in loss of data. Let’s discuss this more in detail.
1] Hide or Remove Recovery Drive from File Explorer
One of the best ways to avoid the Recovery Drive full warning is to use the Remove Drive letter from File Explorer. This will not delete the drive or its data. It will only remove the drive letter.
Click on Start, type diskmgmt.msc, and Enter to open Disk Management.Near the bottom half of the window, you will find the list of drives. Locate the drive letter you want to remove from the list, then click left to select it. Once it’s highlighted, right-click it and select the Change Letters and Paths.A new window will appear with the same drive letter chosen; click the Remove button to remove the drive letter from the Windows File Explorer.You will get the warning—Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly; are you sure to remove this drive letter? Click Yes!Close the disk management window and go to the PC/My Computer; you will find the drive letter removed from there.
No more warning about disk space. Read: How to use Recovery Drive to restore Windows 11/10
2] Extend Recovery Partition with Disk Management
Extending the recovery partition is the best and safe way to clear the low disk space warning from your system. You can easily increase the space of the Recovery Partition with the help of the in-built Disk Management utility. Post this; it will go through a long process to clear out the physical space and then add it to the recovery partition. That said, you should know that if you want to extend partition space, you need free space on the same disk. Even if you have enough space on the second disk, it is impossible to extend or add a partition. If it is absolutely necessary, you can use the Shrink volume feature to free some space next to the recovery and then merge or extend the partition. Read: We can’t create the Recovery drive, A problem occurred while creating the recovery drive.
3] Disable System Protection
To avoid low disk space on the recovery drive warning of Windows 10/11, you can disable the system protection. System Restore is not needed for Recovery Partition, so you can choose to disable it. Ensure to delete the existing restore points. Read: We can’t create a Recovery drive on this PC, Some required files are missing.
4] Run Disk Cleanup to free up Disk Space on Recovery Drive
Whenever your Recovery Drive runs out of space, you can run the in-built disk cleanup program to scan the drive and delete unnecessary files. You need to be careful what you delete here. Read: How to create a System Recovery Drive in Windows 11/10
5] Delete Recovery Drive
Deleting the Recovery Drive is another option for you to avoid recovery drive is a full warning. However, make sure to take a backup partition before using this method. This post will show you in detail how to delete Recovery Partition in Windows 11/10.
What happens if I delete the Recovery Drive?
Many people usually ask, “can they delete the recovery drive,” the answer is yes! You can delete a recovery drive without any issue. Deleting a recovery drive will never affect your operating system. Still, keeping the Recovery Drive is always recommended because it will help recover if it crashes, reinstall OEM drivers, etc.
How to clean up Recovery drive?
Open the RECOVERY partitionShow Hidden and Protected operating system filesDelete the contents on $RECYCLE.BIN folderAlso identify other files you can deletePress Shift + Delete to permanently remove the files.Now Run cleanmgr as administrator and use it as described above in the post.
Does it matter if the recovery drive is full?
If the Recovery Drive has the required percentage of free space, it only helps during the recovery process. Low disk space can cause serious issues when using System Recovery, so it’s always recommended not to store files on the recovery drive.
Can I compress my recovery drive?
While you can compress to get more space, it is highly recommended not to do so. If you have an SSD, compressing will crash your computer. It will also reduce the life of the SSD. The better option is to remove all personal files you have stored in it or add more space to it.
Why is Extend Volume option greyed out?
There can be multiple reasons for the Extend Volume option to be greyed out:
There is no unallocated space on your driveYou need disk space right next to the drive you want to extend.The targeted partition should be in NTFS or Raw file system.The partition capacity has reached the 2TB limit on the MBR disk. You will need to convert Disk from MBR to GPT.
Recovery Drive doesn’t need a lot of space, they need is enough space so it can function properly when used. The safest approach is to remove any of your personal files and make the drive invisible so no one is able to use it. I hope the post was easy to use.
