10 Top Previews Pick The Perfect Laptop That You Need
Are you buying a new laptop with a limited budget and looking to sacrifice hard disk space? You must be figuring out is 128GB enough storage for a laptop. When buying a new laptop, it can be a headache to decide.
Yes, a 128GB storage laptop is enough for people who use the laptop only for minimal tasks, like presentations, scrolling social media or checking emails. But if you are an office worker and do a lot of intensive work on the laptop, then a 128Gb laptop is insufficient. Let me tell you in the next steps why it is not enough for you:
Table of Contents
Is 128GB Enough for The Laptop?
Yes, 128GB storage is big enough for most laptops if the user only uses it for minimal tasks and no gaming is involved. Intensive tasks like heavy gaming will affect the performance of the 128GB laptop.
Whenever you purchase any laptop with 128GB, remember that all 128 GB is not available in the system. Windows recovery management, partition management and other supportive software are already installed and have taken up their space.
128GB storage is not sufficient and enough if you want to use the laptop to save pictures and videos, play games and for any intensive tasks. The scenario is different for smartphones because the apps and software are much larger in laptops than in smartphones.
So, in short, if you use your laptop for only web surfing, checking email or any other minimal task, then 128 GB storage is big enough for you. But if you have to do any intensive task, like editing videos and pictures, playing high storage games and any other task, that will highly affect the laptop’s performance because 128GB is not enough for them.
How Much Free Space Does a User Get with A 128GB SSD?
There is no specific answer to this question because every laptop is different from others and has different software and applications installed. But according to the calculation, a user gets around 90-110GB of free space with a 128GB laptop.
That free space is usually used for quick startup, hibernation, storing Windows files, patches, updates on Windows files, headroom for apps and no-permanent files. All these laptop system requirements take up that free space and help the system perform better.
Here is the list of free space required for the operating system:
| Windows | Space Needed |
| 64-bit Windows 10 | 20GB |
| 32-bit Windows 10 | 16GB |
| Windows 11 | 27GB |
The free space needed for each laptop is different from the others. It might differ for some users, but it is true for most Windows 10/11 users. According to the calculation, the 64-bit version of Windows 10 needs 20GB of free space to store the files.
The 32-bit version of the Windows 10 laptop needs 16GB of space for the apps and other software. A fresh Windows 11 laptop needs almost 27GB of free space in the disk. It means that the need for free space is every laptop’s requirement. It can exceed from 30GBs.
Remember that if the system said it has 128GB storage, it does not mean you have all that 128GB to install the apps and use the software. Users can use only a significant amount of storage because of already installed apps and software.
Is 128GB Storage Enough for The Students?
Yes, as a student, 128GB storage in the laptop is enough for you to do your tasks smoothly. If you are a student who only needs a laptop for simple presentation work, scrolling social media, checking emails or any other minimal task. In that case, a 128GB laptop is enough for you.
More than 256GB laptop will be perfect if you are a student and have to perform a few intensive tasks on your laptop.
Otherwise, a 128GB storage laptop is big enough to work on it freely. An extra HDD will also help if you need more GB space in the system. Most students only use laptops under 30GB of space for their daily tasks, so 128GB is the best for students.
Media department students will need more audio and video files storage space. There is no harm in attaching any external hard drive or device for more space. It will only help the user store more data and use it long-term.
Is 128GB Storage Enough for Gaming?
No, 128GB storage is too short for the laptop if you want to play space-taking games. Installing any recently launched modern game will take a lot of laptop memory because the game will have to download different pictures and sounds.
Whatever game you install on your laptop takes a minimum of 10-20GB of storage. If you install multiple games on your laptop, there will be no space left in the 128GB system.
It means that a 128GB storage laptop is not enough for the user who loves to play games and only uses it for gaming purposes. Ensure to purchase a laptop with a memory of more than 256GB.
Sometimes, a 256GB laptop is insufficient for users who download games demanding too much storage. If you play games on Steam, you must know that Steam allows installing multiple games without worrying about storage.
You can download and play various games simultaneously on Steam without purchasing any external hard river. That is the best thing. So, in short, if you want to play games on a normal 128GB laptop, it is impossible. The game will take up entire laptop space and become difficult to play due to the slow laptop performance.
Is 128GB Storage Enough for The Office Work?
The 128GB storage laptop is normally enough for the office and regular workers. Workers usually work in text files, excel sheets and Word documents. These files use very little space on the laptop. A user constantly using space for storing these types of files will barely use 5GBs of laptop in a year.
Normally, this type of file is 321 KB; ten thousand such files will make 3.16 gigabytes. How interesting, right? Many people also work in Google Sheets, Google Docs, etc. They are also cloud-based services, which means you can save your work in google drive without downloading or storing it in the laptop space.
It also eliminates the usage of the laptop space. So, if you wonder, “is working too much on a 128GB laptop will hang or slow your laptop?” No, saving and storing the text and document files in a 128GB laptop will not affect the laptop’s performance.
On the other hand, not all users do minimal office tasks; some might do a lot of intensive tasks and work and save on their laptops. Some people do a lot of work with heavy files and wonder about “can these heavy files hang on their 128GB laptop.
Yes, if you are an engineer or a graphic designer, you must work on various heavy files, drawings and graphics. There is a chance that these all-heavy files can eat all of your laptop space, leaving no space for saving more files even after a few days.
Of course, 128GB of laptop storage will not be enough for those people. If you only have a 128GB laptop, and cannot buy another one, then there are some ways to delete some files to empty some space for saving the next files.
What To Do If A 128GB Laptop Runs Out Of Space?
If you use a 128GB storage laptop, there are some simple ways to empty some space for installing and saving more files. If you run out of space in your laptop as a student or office worker, follow the steps given below:
1. Shift the Files into A Flash Drive
One of the simplest methods to empty the space in your 128GB laptop is to transfer or shift the files into a flash drive. You must have files on the laptop that you no longer need or have not used for some time; then, you can transfer them to any other device. The files like old records, text documents and others you do not often open or use can be shifted.
Place that flash drive at a place from where you can find it later. The files will be saved for longer, and you will also get some free space in the laptop system to save the new needed files you often use.
2. Shift Data to A Cloud Platform
If you do not have a flash drive at home, there is also another simple method to transfer your data. There are many cloud platforms where you can upload your data and delete internal storage from your laptop to clean up some space.
iCloud and Google Drive are best for uploading the data for as long as you want. It is the simplest method in which you will not need any external drive to transfer the files. You can upload the files on cloud platforms and use them later whenever you want.
The drawback of uploading the data to the cloud platform is that you can only access it with an internet connection. If you need any file urgently but do not have internet, you cannot access it until you do not connect your device to the internet.
3. Use an External Hard Disk
An external hard disk is also a better option if you can afford it. It never harms any laptop; it helps a user to save as many files as he wants. Some users prefer to purchase an HDD and install it alongside the SDD on the laptop.
The best thing about attaching the external hard drive is that you do not need to delete files from your 128GB laptop. All you need to do is to start saving the files in the hard disk drive and keep using it for longer. If you can afford a large GB hard disk drive, using it will be better than transferring the data to any other device.
Final Verdict: Is 128GB Enough for A Laptop?
128GB is enough for most users, but it also has disadvantages for some. After reading the article, I hope it helped you know if 128GB is enough for your usage or if you need more space. You can always follow the given methods to manage the space when you run out of it after heavy usage.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much GB Is Best for The Laptop?
8GB RAM is enough for the daily use of any student or kid. But if you are a university student or office worker and need a lot of processing, downloading, and saving intensive tasks, 16GB RAM or more will be better. If you are a gamer and love to play games, then more than 32GB RAM will be enough for installing and playing high GB games.
Which Is Better 128GB or 256GB Laptop?
256GB laptop is better than the 128GB laptop because it offers much more space and better performance. It gives many benefits to the user, like large SSD capacity, which allows the laptop to provide impressive and best performance.
Is 128GB Enough for Laptop Windows 11
Yes, 128GB storage is enough for the Windows 11 laptop. But it will not be enough if you need to perform intensive tasks. You better have to purchase an external hard disk to save more files.
