Is Windows 11 24H2 stealing some of your SSD space? Microsoft explains what's really going on

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Windows 11 users are getting the 24H2 update, but as this upgrade is being gradually rolled out, some folks are encountering problems - one of which is 24H2 seemingly eating some of their drive space.

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Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with your SSD or hard disk, and no drive space has gone missing (Image Credit: Microsoft)

You may recall that we previously reported on this issue, whereby after the 24H2 update has been installed, the user will see 8.6GB of cached files for the upgrade, which can be removed by Disk Cleanup. However, when that cleanup is actioned, Windows 11 still reports that the 8.6GB of files remain.

This has left many people scratching their heads, but now Microsoft has come forth with an explanation. Essentially, the cleanup operation actually works fine, the bug is in the figure reported by Windows 11. So, your drive has actually had said space freed, it's just that the OS still says the files are present.

In short, there's no need to worry - nothing to see here, move along. Microsoft will issue a fix for the misreported information, which is obviously good news at it could be confusing, or even alarming for those who have a small SSD (and believe part of that drive has been permanently cordoned off by the 24H2 update somehow).

Microsoft's full explanation runs as follows:

"After using the Windows Disk Cleanup application, it may display an incorrect amount of disk space that can be freed up in the 'Windows Update Cleanup' category.

"Please note this is a reporting error. When 'Windows Update Cleanup' is selected and Disk Cleanup is run for the first time, some or all files in that category (for example, 15 GB) are cleaned up correctly and the related disk space is freed as expected. However, after this initial run, the tool may inaccurately report an amount of space still available for cleanup (for example, 88 GB) in the 'Windows Update Cleanup' category. This inaccurate amount of disk space is reported even though the space was already freed in the initial run."

Microsoft says that it is working on a cure and will update us when that resolution is coming through for Windows 11 24H2.

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