220-1102 Operating Systems Practice Question
A user reports that their Windows 10 workstation is running slowly and they see a notification that Windows is low on disk space on the C: drive. The technician runs Disk Cleanup, but it only frees a small amount of space. Which additional step should the technician take to reclaim the most space?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Disk Cleanup’s ability to remove temporary files with the much larger space occupied by the hibernation file, and they mistakenly choose defragmentation or virtual memory adjustments because those sound like performance-related fixes.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Disable hibernation
Disabling hibernation reclaims the most space because Windows reserves a file called hiberfil.sys on the C: drive that is approximately equal to the amount of installed RAM. For a system with 8 GB or more of RAM, this file can be several gigabytes—far more than Disk Cleanup typically frees. Running `powercfg /h off` from an elevated command prompt removes this file and prevents the system from reserving that space for hibernation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Disable hibernation
Why this is correct
Disabling hibernation is the correct space-recovery step because Windows reserves the hiberfil.sys file at installation, sizing it to roughly 40% of physical RAM (or up to 75% when Fast Startup is enabled). Running 'powercfg /h off' from an elevated Command Prompt deletes this file immediately, often freeing several gigabytes on systems with 8GB or more RAM. This directly addresses the low-disk-space condition without affecting normal shutdown or restart operations.
- ✗
Run defragmentation
Why it's wrong here
Defragmentation rearranges fragmented file clusters to make reads more sequential, which can speed up mechanical hard drives, but it does not delete or compress any data. The process may even require temporary extra space while it consolidates files, and it has no meaningful effect on the total available capacity. On solid-state drives (SSDs), defragmentation is largely unnecessary and can reduce the drive's lifespan, making it an irrelevant solution for a full disk.
- ✗
Enable System Restore
Why it's wrong here
Enabling System Restore would actually increase disk usage because Windows creates restore points using Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) snapshots, which reserve space on the system volume. By default, System Restore allocates up to 5% of the disk capacity or as much as 10GB, further shrinking the already insufficient free space. While restore points are useful for recovery, turning this feature on when the disk is nearly full will worsen the storage shortage and may even trigger alerts about the system running out of memory.
- ✗
Increase virtual memory
Why it's wrong here
Increasing virtual memory means enlarging the pagefile (pagefile.sys), which is a hidden system file stored on the boot drive. A larger pagefile consumes more disk space, directly counteracting the goal of freeing up storage, and can also lead to excessive disk thrashing if the drive is already full. Since the paging file cannot be stored in RAM, this option would further reduce free space and provide no benefit for a purely capacity-related slowdown.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Windows Disk Management
Key term
Command Prompt
Command Prompt is a text-based interface in Windows that lets you type commands to perform tasks like managing files, troubleshooting networks, or launching programs.
Key term
Windows 10
Windows 10 is a personal computer operating system developed by Microsoft that combines the familiarity of Windows 7 with the modern features of Windows 8, designed to run on a wide range of devices from desktops to tablets.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every 220-1102 question from scratch — 925 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1102 exam.