Disk 0 bytes in Windows — possible causes and solutions

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Some Windows 11/10 users may encounter a situation where an SSD, HDD, or partition that previously worked properly displays “0 bytes” of free space in the properties with the NTFS file system or without a file system at all. At the same time, there is not enough data on the disk to take up all the space.

This guide provides detailed information on what may cause this situation and how to fix it.

Inability to determine the amount of free space and ways to fix it

The most common reason for this situation is not that there are actually only 0 bytes of free space (often with 0 occupied), but rather that there are no rights to obtain this information (for NTFS partitions) or that there is no file system on the disk partition (if the file system is not specified in the disk properties). In this case, when attempting to open the disk, the user usually receives an “Access denied” error message.

If the current user has limited access rights to the disk (this may be the result of their own actions or the work of malicious software), the file system has crashed, or a partition has been created but not formatted, you may get the result in question.

In the first case, when 0 bytes of “Free” and ‘Used’ are displayed for a disk with the NTFS file system, it is usually sufficient to perform the following steps:

1. Open the disk properties and go to the “Security” tab.
2. Click the “Advanced” button, and then ‘Continue’ in the next window.
3. At the bottom of the permissions list, click the “Add” button (you may need to click the button to view permissions first).
4. Click “Select Subject” and add either the ‘Users’ group or your specific user, then grant the necessary permissions (for example, “Full Access”). To select, you can enter the appropriate names manually or click “Advanced” — “Search” and then select the desired group or user from the list.
5. Click “OK” and then ‘OK’ in the next window. If this is not a system disk partition, it may be useful to check the box “Replace all permission entries on child objects with entries inherited from this object.”