Amount of disc space required by Windows 7

[Samendra]

I have updated my OS from Windows XP to Windows 7 (pro 32-bit). After upgrading my OS I observed that Windows 7 is consuming lot of space on my hard drive. I still have not installed any big sized applications on my 40 GB hard disk and I am running out of space. Is this happening because I have not done clean installation? How much space is required for Windows 7 fresh installation?

[Devasis]

I am shocked that it is taking so much space on your hard-drive. I have too installed Windows 7 and that took 10GB on my hard drive. I have installed it on 40 GB partition, and 30 GB is free. I have done fresh installation of Windows 7. Maybe you have upgraded thats why it is taking so much space. Also you will be having another stuff other than your operating system's files. If you think up gradation is taking much space then try fresh installation.

[Solomon]

According to me the only option to upgrade Windows 7 from Windows XP is a clean install. There is only one way. The files of old version of Windows (your case XP) is probably located in Windows.old folder. If your previous installation has used 20GB then that folder will be already presented in the current drive. Windows 7 doesn't take that much of space. Otherwise try to format the whole system and then try to reinstall the Windows 7. This will certainly increase your disk space.

[MrChris-]

Yeah, even I was shocked to see this. Microsoft has declared that you require minimum of 16 GB space on your hard drive to install clean version of Windows 7 (32-bit). There are definitely some older files that are big enough. Try to unhide all your files and folders and then check. There will be much unused stuff on your system. Try to clean your disk by using the disk cleaner utility. Also delete the temp files. This will certainly increase your disk space.