Resolved Can't find 'Previous Windows' in Disk Cleanup

In an effort to retrieve the 20GB lost after updating to the 2004 Windows update, I used Disk Cleanup to hopefully delete the 'Previous Windows Installation'. Despite following instructions for doing that in the link below, I cannot find 'Previous Windows installation' as indicated in the attached image. Any suggestions please?

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/anniversary-update-wasting-space

 

Why the hurry to get the space?

Ten days
Ten days after you upgrade to Windows 10, your previous version of Windows will be automatically deleted from your PC. However, if you need to free up disk space, and you're confident that your files and settings are where you want them to be in Windows 10, you can safely delete it yourself.

As I understand it - this occurs after all "major updates" from MS.
Your storage space is returned after 10 days.
From your attached image, the tick in the box will usually clean the disc of that item?

Do you in fact still have the "Previous Windows Installation" showing or was the image taken before Disc Cleaner did it's job?

 

I've had Windows 10 for a long time.
The image in my post was from an article explaining how to retrieve the 24.5GB space occupied by the previous installation after installing the 2004 Windows update.
In the image above (not from my computer) from the instructional article, under Disk Cleanup for (C and under 'Files to delete' you'll see 'Previous Windows installation' 24.5GB being offered for deletion.
When, however, I run Disk Cleanup for C: on MY computer and the above image appears, there is no 'Previous Windows installation' option offered for deletion. So, despite losing the 20GB after installing the 2004 Update, it doesn't appear in my Disk Cleanup/Files to delete. What do I have to do to get my 20GB returned through Disk Cleanup, since there is no 'Previous Windows installation' option offered for deletion when I run Disk Cleanup?

 

Open Settings > Storage > you should see drive capacity and how much free space is available.
You should also see how much space your Apps & Features, Other & Temp files take up.
Add these 3 up and take away from Used space figure.
On this laptop my result shows 27.75Gb's which is what the OS takes up.

I do not have show "Previous Windows Installation" in Disc Cleanup as my 2004 was installed on 29/05/2020.

 

My 2004 was installed 26/07/20. I was informed here that if I waited about 10 days Microsoft would restore the lost 20GB in due course. It's been 3 months and it hasn't happened..

I have a C: drive capacity of 219 GB with available space of 39.1. I have 190 Apps & Features (is there an easy way of adding up the space they occupy without taking out a calculator?).

 

Is your Storage drive 500GB in total with C: & D: partitions? Or do you have 2 drive units installed?
Unless you use all 190 Apps - why not delete the ones you don't need?
My C: drive is an SSD NVMe of 120GB.
Data is stored on D: drive which is 1TB HDD. This appears to be the norm for laptop/notebooks these days.

 

My D: drive capacity is 220GB with 24GB free and the C: drive capacity is 219GB with available space of 39GB.

My 190 apps & features amount to no more than 2GB, so removing many of them wouldn't have much effect on my computer experience.

 

Looks like you will need to Backup your drives to an external drive to get more space.

 

Yes, I think that's what I'll have to do. Thanks for your advice.

 

A few days ago I had over 50GB free space on the C: drive. Then I updated my system to the latest Windows update. Today I checked the free space on the C: drive and found that I now only have 33.3GB free space! I, therefore, strictly followed Evan's instructions (above) for creating the Extended Disk Cleanup. In the relevant tick-boxes I chose the following and ran the cleanup:
Temporary setup files
Windows Update cleanup
Temporary internet files
Delivery optimization files
Recycle bin
Update package backup files
Temporary files

When I looked at my updated disk space I found that I still only had 33GB. Any ideas how I can retrieve the lost space? This is the second time after updating Windows 10 that this has happened. The previous time I created more space on my C: drive by transferring 27GB of photos from there onto my D: drive. With only 14GB of space left on my D: drive I can't use that option again. How can I regain the space used by the installation of the last two Windows updates? I do have an 80GB external drive, but ideally I'd just like to recover the space lost by my W10 updates. Thanks.

 

Good news. My C: drive now shows 50.GB! I don't know what brought that about, so maybe , as retiredlearner said earlier, Microsoft has eventually returned what I lost after installing the latest update.
Thanks, everyone.

 

All good things come to he who waits.

 

I'm happy to report that after noticing my c: drive space dropping unexplainably again to 30GB, I was able to recover 35GB, bringing my total free space to 65GB, by following the procedures contained in this article:
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/delete-volume-shadow-copies-in-windows

 

Did you use all the processes or just one of them?

 

I used two of them, VSSAdmin Delete Shadow Copies command and Disk Cleanup Tool.

 

Thanks. That should help others who may experience a similar problem.