How To Fix Windows 10 Update Error 0xc190020e

Nik Read more June 23, 2021

Of all of the errors common to Windows, error 0xc190020e is one of the easiest to fix. It means you don’t have enough free disk space in order to download and install the update. This usually only occurs with Windows Feature Updates like the Fall Creator’s Update where the install can take up a couple of gigabytes of disk space. Here is how to fix Windows 10 Update error 0xc190020e.

How To Fix Windows 10 Update Error 0xc190020e

On the surface, any error that complains of not enough free space should be easy to fix. We either free up some space or buy a larger disk. Not everyone has the ability to just buy a larger disk so this tutorial will concentrate on effective ways to clean up hard disk space in Windows 10 so we can fix Windows 10 Update error 0xc190020e.

Fix Windows 10 Update error 0xc190020e

Windows 10 is more space efficient than ever before but it still likes to spread out and make itself comfortable. Between keeping download files, multiple System Restore versions, File history and multiple copies of most files, Windows does take up quite a lot of space. Fortunately, there are lots of ways you can safely free up disk space on your computer.

First, let us see how much space we have so we can see how effective our disk cleaning efforts are.

Right click the Windows Start Button and select System.
Select Storage from the left pane.
Check the Local Storage pane to see how much free space you have.

Local Storage tells you how many hard drives you have and how much free space they each contain. For Windows Updates we are only concerned with your C: drive as this is where all the files are stored. Don’t close the Storage window just yet.

Select Storage Sense.
Toggle it to on.
Choose from the list below the storage.
Check all the boxes in the next window over 250MB in size.
Select Remove files and let the process complete.

Depending on how much space this tool finds to free up, you may not need to do anything else. As you can see from the image above, Windows Update had 8.33GB of space to free up. A couple of those and you have plenty enough space to fix error 0xc190020e.

Storage Sense is a very neat tool. Where we used to have to manually perform a disk cleanup, delete Windows Update files, previous Windows installations in the sometimes huge Windows.old folders, clean out the recycle bin and temporary files, it is all now taken care of for us. Using Storage Sense and configuring it to run regularly is now the new way to manage disk space. It is one of the best housekeeping features of Windows 10.

Free up more disk space in Windows 10

The most obvious way to free up more disk space in Windows 10 is to uninstall any program you no longer use. So let us do that.

Right click the Windows Start Button and select Apps and Features.
Select Sort by: at the top of the list and select Size instead of Name.
Work your way through the list and uninstall any app you don’t use.

Depending on what you find here, you may have freed up several gigabytes of space by now. You can retry the Windows Update if you like to see if you have freed up enough space. If you still see error 0xc190020e, we have more work to do.

Disable Hibernate

Hibernation is a power state in Windows that takes a snapshot of your system and boots from that snapshot when you start your machine. It works well but can use up several gigabytes of space. If you need that space and don’t user Hibernate, we can put your disk to better use.

Right click the Windows Start button and select Command Prompt (Admin).
Type or paste ‘powercfg.exe /hibernate off’ and hit Enter.
Type ‘exit’ and hit Enter or just exit out of command prompt.

Depending on your setup, this could free up 3-4GB of disk drive space. You will need to reboot your computer and may need to run Storage Sense again to claw back your space though.

Move programs from your boot drive

On computers with multiple hard drives, I tend to suggest installing programs on a different drive than Windows. This means any reinstall of Windows will not necessarily mean a reinstall of all your programs. It also means Windows can do what it likes with the drive it is installed on. The exception to this is if you boot from an SSD and have HDD spares. The speed benefit of an SSD is too good to ignore.

However, if you’re desperate for space and have another hard drive, consider moving programs from your C: drive to your spare. Where you when into Apps and Features and sorted by size above, move those larger programs that you still use. You can drag and drop them into the new disk using Windows Explorer and Windows will take care of the rest.

Somewhere during this process you should have addressed Windows 10 Update error 0xc190020e. You may also have freed up a ton of wasted disk space too!