Windows 10 Upgrade an ASUS Laptop (32G storage)

Hello Anne,

What is occurring here is that Microsoft have not anticipated the possibilities of tablets, etc. having only enough disc space for the Windows platform and other secondary apps and software... which leave a pitiful amount of space left for Microsoft upgrades!

Am I the only one thinking that if Microsoft switched their brain on for one minute and thought about this, then the whole upgrade process would actually take into account any inserted media like USB Flashdrives and/or SD Cards for the purpose of the upgrade?

This is what people are complaining about and it's about time someone listened.  Again Microsoft is being reactive (and damned slow about it) instead of being reactive.  Only when Apple takes the monopoly and business off them will they ever listen and react. Typical.

Surely if the Create Media Tool asks "please select" option for USB drives (in order to load update onto USB drives for updating another PC or Tablet with not enough memory) then the auto-update process should be developed to accommodate too?

Come on... we are approaching 2020...

Microsoft with it's multi-billion empire can surely break into its profit and sort things like this out?

Hi Stephen,

Upgrading to a newer version of Windows 10 basically needs at least 20GB of storage for the download to pursue. If you are having a hard time upgrading because of not enough space issue, we suggest deleting some files and apps that are not needed. Or, you can transfer them to another external hard drive to free up space for the upgrade. You can refer to this article for tips on how to free up drive space.

If anything comes up, don't hesitate to get back to us anytime.

Hi, thanks for the answer, however...

My laptop - ASUS E200H - only has 32G of storage. I deleted/uninstalled absolutely everything possible but it still isn't enough.

If the update needs 20G then I cannot physically clear that space as the current Windows/system files only leaves 12G

I have an additional 32G on an external SD card but the update will only download to the local storage, where I cannot create 20G free space. 

My laptop tells me that it cannot install important security updates until I upgrade but how can I upgrade my laptop ?

Hi,

To add to my last reply.

I've put this together based on the reports of success of some others that have found themselves in this situation.

The full procedure is shown below, I hope that this helps, and Good Luck!

For devices, such as tablets with very limited main drive space (32GB, 16GB, etc.) having problems installing Win 10 Feature Updates or the Win10 OS, the below method has been reported to be successful, in many cases:

In all cases you should start with inserting your SD card (or USB stick) in the computer and have it formatted in NTFS format. Also assign it with a letter so that you recognize it as a drive (for example assign the letter O and name it "Win 10 ISO").

(Note: If you are planning to create an installation media with the USB, the USB will be reformatted in FAT format and you will not be able to use it for extra space during the upgrade process if/when your hard drive has limited capacity.)

1. Visit the Microsoft site and go to Download Windows 10 page.
2. Use the Media Creation tool to download the latest version of Windows 10.
3. Choose not to upgrade now but rather download an ISO to upgrade later (be sure to select the correct Edition and architecture (32bit     or 64bit) for your device.
4. Save the ISO to the SD card (or USB stick) (formatted in NTFS) (a 32GB or above is recommended).
5. Once the download is completed go to the SD/USB folder and right click the ISO file.
6. Using a free program (for example WinRAR - www.rarlab.com - or 7zip - www.7-zip.org/) extract all         

    contents of the ISO file to a folder in the SD/USB.

7. Open that folder and right click the setup.exe file using the "run as administrator" option.
8. The program will reinstall Windows 10 in your computer and when prompted choose to keep your apps and files.
9. When the installation program asks for more space, choose once again the SD card/USB stick. (In some     

    cases you may have to click on "Fix Issues", if presented, to be given the choice).

At the end of the process you will have the latest Windows 10 edition installed.

An Important Note: You should have the device connected to the charger through the entire process, so, if your tablet (or other device) has only one USB port then you will want/need to use the SD card method.

Credit:

ThanosGR on MS community for coming up with this method.

-Richard

Thank you for all the information. We've followed this thread to see the progress of the issue. We'd like to know if you tried doing the steps provided by RichardEiler on how to resolve the storage issue. If not, please do so and give us an update on how it goes so we can provide further assistance.

We're just a post away if you need further help.

So far I have tried every suggestion without success.

Windows insists on downloading to the primary drive, which in this case is 32G internal memory.

according to your description, you problem is that your hard drive do not have enough space for you to upgrade ASUS laptop. 

I think you need a larger hard drive. If you still use this hard drive on your computer, it will run out of space sooner or later. Thus, you'd better replace hard drive to larger one first. Then, you can upgrade your computer again.

Thanks, but this is a 32G laptop by design. There is no hard drive to replace. Additional storage can be added via micro SD card but the upgrade will not download to it.