How to Free Up Disk Space for Gaming (Steam & More)
A Practical Guide to Reclaiming Gigabytes for Steam and Beyond
To free up disk space for gaming, clear Steam's download cache, delete shader caches and Workshop files for games you no longer play, remove leftover folders from uninstalled games, and move large titles to a second drive. These steps alone can recover tens of gigabytes without uninstalling a single game you still play.
With modern releases regularly crossing 100 GB and patches growing with every update, Steam's 'not enough disk space' error has become something almost every PC gamer runs into. The real culprit usually is not the games themselves but the debris around them: stuck download data, shader caches, forgotten mods and half-removed installation leftovers.
In this guide we will first show you how to see exactly what is filling your drive, then walk through cleaning Steam and your game folders step by step. Each section covers the manual method first, followed by the Disk Mop features that make the job faster.
Why Modern Games Eat 100+ GB of Disk Space
4K texture packs, uncompressed audio and high-quality cutscenes have pushed many big releases well past the 100 GB mark. And installation is only the beginning: when a large patch arrives, compressed chunks are written to disk first, then unpacked and applied to the existing files. That is why an update can temporarily need far more space than its download size suggests.
Steam requires that extra headroom on the same drive where the game is installed. Downloaded chunks land in a temporary downloading area inside the steamapps folder, get unpacked, and are then moved into the game folder. Even if your drive looks like it has room for the game itself, running out of space for these intermediate steps triggers the 'not enough disk space' error.
Add shader caches, Workshop mods and folders left behind by uninstalled games, and a gaming drive fills up fast. The good news: a large share of that space can be reclaimed without touching the games you actually play.
See Exactly What Is Using Your Drive Before Deleting
Before deleting anything, do some reconnaissance. On Windows, open Settings, then System, then Storage to see a category breakdown of your drive; on macOS, System Settings under General, Storage offers a similar summary. These built-in views are a decent start, but they stop at rough categories — a bucket labeled 'Apps' or 'Other' will not tell you which game folder has ballooned.
Disk Mop's Disk Analysis draws your drive as a visual treemap: every folder appears as a block sized proportionally to the space it occupies. Game libraries stand out instantly on this map, and drilling into the common folder under steamapps shows you exactly how many gigabytes each individual game takes.
The Large File Finder complements this by listing every file over 500 MB. Game archives, old ISO images and especially gameplay recordings show up here often — capture tools can quietly accumulate tens of gigabytes of clips. Decide what to delete only after this recon step, not before.
Clean Up Steam: Download Cache, Shaders and Workshop Files
Start with Steam's own download cache. In Steam, open the Steam menu in the top-left corner, choose Settings, go to the Downloads tab and click Clear Download Cache. This removes stuck or corrupted download data; you will be signed out of the Steam client and need to log in again, but your installed games and saves are untouched.
Next come shader caches. Inside your Steam installation you will find steamapps\shadercache, containing one folder per game named after its app ID. Deleting the folders of games you no longer play is safe — each game rebuilds its cache on the next launch, with at most some brief stutter during the first session.
Finally, check steamapps\workshop. This is where Workshop mods, custom maps and community content live, and for heavily modded games it can grow enormous. Unsubscribe from content you no longer use, either in-game or from the Workshop pages, and check this folder for content belonging to games you have already uninstalled — it is often left behind.
Uninstall Games Properly and Remove Leftover Folders
The right way to remove a Steam game is through the library: right-click the game, open Manage and choose Uninstall. For non-Steam games on Windows, go to Settings, then Apps, then Installed apps and uninstall from there. Avoid deleting game folders directly — launchers lose track of the game and leave manifest and registry clutter behind.
Unfortunately, even a proper uninstall rarely removes everything. Mods, config files, crash dumps and launcher remnants often stay behind under steamapps\common, while saves and settings live on in the My Games folder inside Documents and under AppData. Before removing any save files, confirm cloud saves are enabled for that game or make a backup.
Disk Mop's treemap makes these leftovers obvious: a folder from a game you thought you uninstalled that still occupies 20-30 GB jumps out immediately on the map. Instead of browsing folder by folder, you can spot the big remnants in the analysis view and clear them with confidence.
Hunt Down Duplicate Installers and Forgotten Downloads
The Downloads folder is a silent space consumer for gamers: old game installers, launcher setups downloaded more than once, and helper packages like DirectX or Visual C++ redistributables pile up there. Once a game is installed, none of these files are needed — but sorting them out by hand takes time.
Disk Mop's Downloads Cleaner categorizes the old files in your Downloads folder so you can see what is taking space at a glance. The Duplicate Detector goes further by comparing files with SHA-256 content hashes: it reliably finds the same installer saved twice under different names, duplicate screenshots and repeated video clips.
Because the comparison is hash-based, it confirms files are identical byte for byte — so you can be certain that deleting one of the copies is safe. A scan of a few minutes can recover gigabytes of duplicated data you forgot existed.
Move Games to Another Drive the Right Way
For big games you do not want to delete, the best answer is moving them to a second drive. Steam has a built-in tool for this: open the Steam menu, choose Settings, switch to the Storage tab, and use the drive selector at the top to add your other drive and create a library folder on it. Then tick the games you want to move and click the Move button — no re-download required.
Avoid cutting and pasting game folders in File Explorer: Steam may fail to recognize the moved game and force a full re-download. Use the Storage manager instead, and for other launchers check their own move or locate options — after copying a folder, pointing the launcher at the new location usually avoids re-downloading.
A practical strategy: keep the games you play most, where loading times matter, on your fastest SSD, and move large single-player titles from your backlog to a roomier secondary drive. You free up your system drive without sacrificing speed where it counts.
Keep Space Free for Your Next Big Release
Aim to keep around 10-15% of your gaming drive free, plus headroom for one large installation. Preload windows for major releases open days before launch — if the space is not there, you risk missing day one.
A simple routine is enough: clear the Steam download cache occasionally, check for shader and Workshop leftovers after uninstalling a game, and empty the recycle bin. Disk Mop's Speed Up feature handles most of this routine in one click, automatically cleaning old downloads, system cache, browser cache and the recycle bin. With Scheduled Cleanup you can turn it into an automatic weekly or monthly task.
The System Health Score adds an at-a-glance indicator of your disk's overall state. Instead of discovering the 'not enough disk space' error in the middle of a preload, you notice the drive filling up early and act before it becomes a problem.
評決
Steam's disk space warning is usually the result of accumulated debris rather than one huge file. Analyze the drive first to see the real consumers, then clear the download cache, prune shader and Workshop files, remove leftover folders, eliminate duplicate installers and move big titles to a second drive — apply all of these steps and you can recover tens of gigabytes without touching the games you play.
Disk Mop supports every stage of that process: the treemap Disk Analysis and Large File Finder cover reconnaissance, the Duplicate Detector and Downloads Cleaner handle the cleanup, and Speed Up with Scheduled Cleanup takes care of ongoing maintenance. You can download the free version and analyze your drive right away, and unlock everything with a one-time $9.90 lifetime license.
Reclaim gigabytes for your next game with Disk Mop
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