HDD Capacity Question.

Winuser · Dec 24, 2024

I have a 6TB USB HDD that has 1.27TB of free space. I'm using it for my media files. What is the maximum limit I can safely use before I should stop adding files to it?

Berton · Dec 24, 2024

If the drive holds the Boot/System files I try to leave 20% free to allow some room for updates. For storage drives you could use all of the space but 4TB does not actually hold 4TB of data, some space is lost to the partitioning/formatting of a drive. If wanting to maximize the space it may be necessary to first check the drive for errors, Tools, Error Checking, followed by Optimizing or Defragging it. The last several years I've left Win10 and Win11 to managing the drives, have no issues.
My 4TB USB drive:

Winuser · Dec 25, 2024

@Berton, The drive is a external USB HDD. I only use it to store my media files. I did know that the system drive has to have a certain amount of free space. I wasn't sure about data drives.

Berton · Dec 25, 2024

I've never filled a USB drive to where I couldn't add any more data, yet, but it's possible

Sometimes there will be a System Volume Information folder on a drive, probably important to keep that.

System Volume Information folder in Windows 11/10

What is the System Volume Information folder in Windows? Is it consuming huge disk space & is the size growing large? Can you delete it? Click here for the answers.

www.thewindowsclub.com

gladson1976 · Dec 25, 2024

.. if it's going to be a data drive, then i don't see any problems filling it to full capacity.. i have a few external disks (G, H, N) filled to almost full capacity that are working fine..

Berton · Dec 25, 2024

One more thing I forgot to mention, it's wise to leave some room as drive optimization may need it to temporarily write data to consolidate parts of files first before finishing. Deletion of files is not a simple thing, the first character of a file name is changed and is marked as available when other files are written to the drive. When that space is needed is when the original occupant is finally deleted which is why files get fragmented and defragging does the moving of parts of files to contiguous spaces or sectors. Think of the process in terms of a spouse wanting the kitchen cupboards reorganized.

gladson1976 · Dec 25, 2024

.. that's a nice analogy @Berton..

.. to defragment a drive, you would need at least 15% free space.. for the swapping that happens during the process..
.. but i don't see someone defragmenting a drive every now and then especially if you have drive optimization turned on which basically does a defragment on schedule..

.. so with 0% fragmentation you don't have to worry about filling up the drive..

bobkn · Dec 25, 2024

gladson1976 said:
.. that's a nice analogy @Berton..

.. to defragment a drive, you would need at least 15% free space.. for the swapping that happens during the process..
.. but i don't see someone defragmenting a drive every now and then..

Oddly enough, my data-only HDD has always shown up as 0% fragmented. But it's less than 40% full.

gladson1976 · Dec 25, 2024

bobkn said:
Oddly enough, my data-only HDD has always shown up as 0% fragmented. But it's less than 40% full.

.. i just edited my previous post..

.. drive optimization defragments on schedule.. and some of my drives are less than 10% free..
.. you don't need more free space if its done regularly.. since there will not be much to defragment..

badrobot · Dec 25, 2024

Winuser said:
I have a 6TB USB HDD that has 1.27TB of free space. I'm using it for my media files. What is the maximum limit I can safely use before I should stop adding files to it?

I don't think it's going to be an issue anyway. It will just work as usual except it will give you a warning saying that you don't have enough space if you are adding more files into it.

gladson1976 · Dec 25, 2024

badrobot said:
I don't think it's going to be an issue anyway. It will just work as usual except it will give you a warning saying that you don't have enough space if you are adding more files into it.

.. yeah.. the warning comes up when you have less than 10% space on that drive.. and it shows the drive in red..
.. haven't seen any degradation of performance there..

bobkn · Dec 25, 2024

gladson1976 said:
.. i just edited my previous post..

.. drive optimization defragments on schedule.. and some of my drives are less than 10% free..
.. you don't need more free space if its done regularly.. since there will not be much to defragment..

Possibly. But I've never noticed. It's an 18TB drive, with about 6TB of data.

HDD Capacity Question.

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