I keep finding articles and community posts recommending a minimum "free storage" of 45gb for upgrading older versions of OSX which are already installed.
However, I need to know what the minimum disk capacity is for installing onto an empty drive.
Can anyone tell me?
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.4
That will depend on the size of the Empty Drive ? 128 GB drive, 256 GB drive, 500 GB drive
For the purposes of installing Big Sur on any size drive - the OS itself will require about 22 GB. That does no include any Applications, Pictures, videos, podcasts, music etc. Then, for good performance and wiggly room , keep at least 15 GB of Empty Space at all times.
That will depend on the size of the Empty Drive ? 128 GB drive, 256 GB drive, 500 GB drive
For the purposes of installing Big Sur on any size drive - the OS itself will require about 22 GB. That does no include any Applications, Pictures, videos, podcasts, music etc. Then, for good performance and wiggly room , keep at least 15 GB of Empty Space at all times.
Ultimately, it takes up just shy of 16GB, but I don't know if it takes up any extra space while installing. Above that, it needs space for the Data volume for at least one user. The minimum volume size with more than two volumes seems to be 300MB. My guess is it will want more.
The minimum size when upgrading from Sierra or later is 35.5GB, if that helps.
As you can see, the quoted figures on this thread vary between 16 GB via @Barney-15E and 22GB from myself and then 18.3 GB from your installation. It is not a exact measure to predict - really only estimates.
Personally, gave a conservative estimate and find quoting More Space is better than too little. Too little space will possibly cause other issues afterwards. Had the drive in question been a small 128 GB SSD and had plans to load up the drive with Applications etc. the empty Space would disappears rather fast and run into the issue of poor performance due the empty space 15 GB at all times not being maintained.
I just needed to know how much for the OS itself, which it looks like you've answered. Where did you get the 22GB figure though? When I install a fresh copy onto my external drive and haven't installed anything, but have setup the OS and can login, browse the internet, etc. it only takes up 18.3GB.
I think it is also dependent on total RAM, as the VM gets larger depending on the amount of RAM.
I think all of mine are 8GB Macs, and I only see about 16GB on the OS Volume.
Minimum disk capacity for installing OSX Big Sur 11.4 on an EMPTY drive?
