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**Tech71** · (This post was last modified: 11-20-2016, 01:20 PM by Britec.)

Is it true that you shouldn't go below 10% free or your data will become corrupt? Some people have told me that it will and then some people have said that is completely false

**Partha** · (This post was last modified: 11-20-2016, 01:20 PM by Britec.)

(11-20-2016, 05:44 AM)Tech71 Wrote: Is it true that you shouldn't go below 10% free or your data will become corrupt? Some people have told me that it will and then some people have said that is completely false

If the space is below a certain level, it can prevent disk defrags but, the lack of space can never lead to data corruptions.

**Tech71** · (This post was last modified: 11-20-2016, 07:02 AM by Tech71.)

Quote:If the space is below a certain level, it can prevent disk defrags but, the lack of space can never lead to data corruptions.

So, is there such thing as too full? I have externals with lots of space left but was afraid of filling them up too much...is it safe to defrag them?

**Partha** · (This post was last modified: 11-20-2016, 01:19 PM by Britec.)

(11-20-2016, 07:01 AM)Tech71 Wrote:
Quote:If the space is below a certain level, it can prevent disk defrags but, the lack of space can never lead to data corruptions.

So, is there such thing as too full? I have externals with lots of space left but was afraid of filling them up too much...is it safe to defrag them?

Are they solid state drives?

**Tech71** · (This post was last modified: 11-20-2016, 01:19 PM by Britec.)

(11-20-2016, 07:04 AM)Partha Wrote:
(11-20-2016, 07:01 AM)Tech71 Wrote:
Quote:If the space is below a certain level, it can prevent disk defrags but, the lack of space can never lead to data corruptions.

So, is there such thing as too full? I have externals with lots of space left but was afraid of filling them up too much...is it safe to defrag them?

Are they solid state drives?

Nope, SATA HDD's

**Partha** · (This post was last modified: 11-20-2016, 01:19 PM by Britec.)

(11-20-2016, 07:14 AM)Tech71 Wrote: Nope, SATA HDD's

It's absolutely safe to defrag the drives. Even if they are SSDs, Windows would recognize them and optimize them accordingly

**Compton** · (This post was last modified: 11-20-2016, 01:20 PM by Compton.)

windows need 10% of free space to operate correctly

you should not allow your hard drive to below 5GB or 10

***Britec*** · (This post was last modified: 11-20-2016, 01:31 PM by Britec.)

5% to 10% is as low as you should go, its not good to run the hard drive at full capacity, it will become slow and fragmented, so the less space you have, the more fragmented your hard drive will become and you or Windows will not be able to defrag the drive anymore. Which is not healthy for the hard drive. Solid State Drives (SSD) might be a different story altogether.

This is not good:

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Hard-Drive-Full.jpg (Size: 23.3 KB / Downloads: 32)
Image Source

Here is a nice article:
Why Does Emptying Disk Space Speed Up Computers?

**Double clutch** · 11-20-2016, 05:06 PM

(11-20-2016, 12:18 PM)Compton Wrote: windows need 10% of free space to operate correctly

you should not allow your hard drive to below 5GB or 10

yes I agree completely

**Partha** · 11-20-2016, 05:59 PM

Like we pointed out, if the available space is below a certain level, you won't be able to defragment the drive and that could lead to a reduced overall performance

To answer your initial question though, the data on the disk will not get corrupt because of this