Windows 10 Upgrade an ASUS Laptop (32G storage)

Ok,

First of all I do not have nor have access to a device that fits in this class however I've been attempting to keep up on this topic. That being said, it appears that some of these devices are using storage controller drivers that refuse to use (or recognize) the auxiliary SD card slot as a viable secondary drive (to view your storage controller(s) (there are typically more than one) open Device Manager and expand the Storage controller section). In some such cases using the Windows Disk Management tool to assign a permanent drive letter (recommended anywhere from G thru Z) can force the change to recognize the drive as a secondary HDD, but this too is not always. One of the things that come into play with a Feature Update is that it is actually an upgrade type installation to a new version of the OS and therefore will/wants to create a Windows .Old folder for the purpose of being able to have the option available to the user to choose the Go Back to your Previous Build if the need or want be (the 2 together, for all practical purposes, is then the size of the OS, plus personal files, install x 2). In this is were the trick lies, in having the Windows.Old folder installed to the secondary drive instead of the primary drive. With devices were this becomes problematic, or just not possible, a backup of the personal files to the SD card (or other external drive) and then performing a truly clean install of the "Feature Update" from the downloaded ISO proves to be successful (unless of course there is a hardware/driver incompatibility underlying). Of course this is/can be a PITA as all non default apps and programs would then need to be reinstalled but, then again, unless the device was an early on model of a tablet or such and there is no upgrade possible, the device manufacturer would love to sell you an upgrade to a 64GB, 128GB or whatever upgraded storage capacity. (This was probably even given or listed as choice when the device was initially purchased).

I truly wish that I had a better answer for you here other than the last resort of a fresh clean install anew (however, a truly clean install is the best by far (much better than a factory install). For quite a bit more info accordingly you can check out the link below:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-windows_install/clean-install-windows-10/1c426bdf-79b1-4d42-be93-17378d93e587

Good luck and do let us know how it goes.

-Richard

HI Richard,

Here's where we got to yesterday. I managed to download the Win 10 ISO to the SD drive after downloading an extension which makes Firefox fool the website into thinking that's it's running on Linux, which avoided being redirected to the page for the media creation tool.

I then uninstalled every application that I had previously installed (except the stuff that came with the PC) and made sure that I ran the disk cleanup tool (and checked just about every option on in that dialog). 

On running the install, it warned me that the 8.08GB that I had free wasn't enough but, this time, I was given the option of using external storage. Unfortunately, the SD card, which is visible in Windows explorer (formatted NTFS?) wasn't presented as an option in the pull-down combo box. Luckily, I had some external hard drives lying around so I connected one of those was able to use that instead. 

On continuing, the computer rebooted and I was informed that Windows 10 was installing. Then, around 25% I got the smiley face blue screen (90001 x2000D, or something like that). I looked up the error and it says it's possibly something to do with either drivers or lack of space (I suspect the latter!). The computer then rebooted to another error screen to say that there was no reset image available and that I would need to insert some alternative installation media. I took this to mean that a restore to the previous state wasn't possible. I was kind of worried at this point so I pressed and held the power button for more than 5 seconds (turned it off and on again, basically!) and it rebooted into the old instance of windows, as it was before. I have no idea why the restore failed; I'm guessing we must have wiped the factory-installed restore image that's on the hidden 500MB partition somehow (visible in diskmanager).

 I'm at the point now where I think my next steps are going to be to buy a big enough USB stick and try to boot/install from that, along with formatting the internal drive and performing a clean install. It doesn't look like it's possible to boot from the USB external hard drive or the mounted SD.

Speaking of the SD - we bought that to deal with this issue but the PC doesn't seem to acknowledge it and accept it as a boot option for the install media. Any ideas how to get that working?

I'm busy at work at the moment so it's likely that I won't get chance to give it another go until next weekend, unfortunately. 

Andy

Hi AndyDavies1,

Best to just insert the MicroSD card and go into Control Panel and do a manual Windows Update.  This way the update will offer the extra storage space.

Otherwise the Auto-update software currently will not offer up the additional space.

Yes, for example, either one of these two seem to be a popular choice these days, depending on what one is looking for.

USB 2.0

https://www.amazon.com/Adaptor-Charging-Adapter-Raspberry-Android/dp/B00LTHBCNM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1518246800&sr=8-3&keywords=usb+otg+charger&dpID=41OEKvnIk6L&preST=SY300_QL70&dpSrc=srch

USB 3.0

https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Adapter-Android-Macbook-Ultrabook/dp/B00Q2ONMKI/ref=pd_sbs_107_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00Q2ONMKI&pd_rd_r=RSXTS90CYZ1GJWHDZFG3&pd_rd_w=us4mV&pd_rd_wg=KxDNr&psc=1&refRID=RSXTS90CYZ1GJWHDZFG3

-Richard

Yes if a tablet only has one Micro USB port... which is both for charging and external drives, then that is an issue.

But if you have an OTG cable adapter for that port then you can connect a flashdrive and maintain charging at the same time.