What Is “System & Reserved” in Windows Storage, and Can You Reduce It?

When you analyse Windows storage in Settings → System → Storage, System & reserved is often one of the largest categories, sometimes over 20 GB. Select it (under Show more categories in Windows 11) to see the breakdown. Most of it is required, but two parts depend on your settings.

What each part of System & reserved means

Reduce restore point usage

Search for Create a restore point, select the system drive, choose Configure, and adjust Max Usage. Lower usage keeps fewer restore points, so you have fewer points to roll back to. Deleting all restore points frees the space immediately but removes that recovery option, so keep at least a recent one if you rely on System Restore.

Turn off hibernation if you do not use it

Hibernation and Fast startup rely on hiberfil.sys. If you never hibernate the PC, an administrator can run powercfg /hibernate off in Terminal to remove the file. This also turns off Fast startup. You can reverse it with powercfg /hibernate on.

1. Open Terminal as administrator.
2. Run powercfg /hibernate off.
3. Check Settings → System → Storage again to measure the change.
4. Run powercfg /hibernate on if you need hibernation back.

When System & reserved looks too large

A large System & reserved figure is normal after a major Windows update, on PCs with lots of RAM (a bigger hibernation file and page file), or when System Protection has a high usage limit. If space is tight, change the two settings above first, then look at other categories with the Windows storage full checklist. Most space you can safely reclaim is usually in apps, temporary files and personal files, not here.