Windows Server 2012 is still a popular server operating system although Server 2025 has been released. The longer you use the server, the higher the risk that the C drive will run low on disk space. This is a common but annoying issue. This article introduces low disk space alert in Windows Server 2012 R2 and how to fix this issue easily.
Why C Drive Running Low Disk Space on Server 2012 R2
Partitions are created while installing the Operating System or are allocated by the server manufacturer. Naturally, the more programs you install or files you save to a partition, the less disk space is left. Compared to data volumes, the system C drive is more likely to run low on disk space because many types and large amounts of files are saved or generated in it continuously.
Windows Updates, programs and relative output files eat up free disk space very quickly. Many administrators encountered the low disk space issue in their servers. It is annoying, because Windows may pop up the "low disk space" alert again and again. If you do not fix this issue as fast as possible, your server may freeze or reboot unexpectedly.
About Server 2012 Low Disk Space Alert/Warning
It is very dangerous if the system C drive is getting full. In that case, the server may freeze, reboot unexpectedly, or even crash. To avoid future damage, Microsoft provides a "low disk space" notification to alert users when a drive is running out of space. When you see such low disk space balloon warning on the bottom right corner, you should take action as soon as possible.
Some users report that Windows Server 2012 pops up the low disk space alert by mistake. If there's plenty of free space indeed, search Google for how to disable the "low disk space" alert in Windows Server 2012.
In most cases, system C drive is really getting full. You may open File Explorer or Disk Management to check the remaining free space. C drive will be changed to red in File Explorer when it is getting full.
How to Fix Low Disk Space Issue in Windows Server 2012 R2
To completely solve this problem, there are 2 necessary and 1 optional step. Below are the reasons and corresponding solutions.
1. Clean Up to Reclaim Disk Space
As with other versions, Windows Server 2012 has a built-in Disk Cleanup utility to help remove junk and unnecessary files, then you can reclaim free disk space. This utility is easy, fast and able to delete junk files safely. For servers that have never been cleaned up or have not had disk space freed up in a long time, Disk Cleanup may help reclaim over 10GB of disk space.
Steps to fix Windows Server 2012 low disk space issue with Disk Cleanup:
- Press Windows + R on your keyboard, type cleanmgr and press Enter.
- Select C: (or other) drive in the drop-down list and click OK.
- Check the boxes next to the files you want to delete and then click OK to execute.
If you receive error message Windows cannot find 'cleanmgr', you need to install or enable Disk Cleanup on Server 2012 in advance.
2. Add More Free Space to C Drive
Even if you can reclaim more than 10GB free space, it will be eaten up in a short time by newly generated junk files. This is the reason why many people complain that the low disk space alert pops up again and again. To solve this problem completely, it is highly recommended to extend the C drive to a larger size, especially for servers where the C drive was created small.
With server partition software, you can shrink another partition to get free space on the disk and then transfer it to the C drive. No other operations are needed even if you use any types of hardware RAID arrays. The Operating System, programs, associated settings, and everything else remain the same as before.
Download NIUBI Partition Editor and follow the steps to extend C drive in Windows Server 2012 (r2):
As the safest tool, NIUBI Partition Editor has unique 1 Second Rollback, Virtual Mode and Cancel-at-will technologies to ensure the system and data remain intact.
3. Monthly Maintenance
As mentioned previously, new junk files will continue to be generated, so it is highly recommended to run Windows Disk Cleanup monthly. If you installed programs with default settings, it is better to change the default output path to another large partition.
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