Windows 10 Upgrade an ASUS Laptop (32G storage)

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

Hi Richard, 

I figured out that with these ASUS systems it automatically diverts you from the ISO page to the normal Windows download page - and so removes the options you then go on to suggest. I think this is the main reason why people have had difficulties following this.

bw

Dan

I can tell you that there's probably an extra step that the IT guys didn't tell you about as well... When you choose the clean format option, yes it does reinstall a new version of Windows and you lose everything, including all the utilities that ASUS bundled with, as they said.. 

However, i discovered that the media creation tool detects existing versions of windows on the drive and copies them into a new folder called "Winsows.old" in case something goes wrong during the installation or the user wishes to revert back. This folder was 8GB in size on my ASUS so, even though i only had Windows installed and nothing else, the install world fail every single time, even with the clean install. I bet this is why it won't start the installation unless there is 8GB free. Will there was more thant8GB fee on mine when i started bit it still failed every time.

The only way i managed to do it was at some point after selecting stage 4 in your instructions there was an option to select the drive to install on. On that screen i needed to also choose to completely format the drive i wanted to install onto before continuing with the clean install. So yes, i had to completely wipe the drive to the point it wouldn't boot before installing from the stick.

To my surprise, the computer did update but itiworked for 30 mins before we got a blue screen. It looks like the update itself doesn't leave enough free space for Windows to run nicely. The laptop crashes to blue screen every 30 mins or so now so it's pretty much umusable. When we look up the error it says it's down to lack of m we memory, and it has access to a 64GB card.

It's actually my wife's laptop. She wanted something that was light and could fit into a handbag that she could run Word on and browse the web. I figured this Asus thing would be ok as we could add the extra sd card for storage. Waste of money. I'm going to try putting Windows XP or windows 7 on it out of interest,  see if they run any better. If it still blue screens it's going in the bin.

Here I am on PAGE 4 of this forum trying to figure this nonsense out. After all this reading and signing in to write this reply I'm thinking back to the first page I came to when I first started on this "Windows 10 update" saga where it stated "You don’t have to be a computer whiz to follow these instructions." What a joke. I've gone through this multiple times now. During one such update it gave me the option to use an external storage device and it worked. A couple of days later a new update showed up but the option to use an external device wasn't offered. It's easy for people to say delete this, reformat that, rename this, offload programs here and there but I think back to the first page that states you don't have to be a whiz. Here's the deal, I'm pretty tech savvy but that's not the issue. It's TIME. Yes TIME people. Who in the heck has time for all of this? Do you? Maybe you don't have kids and responsibilities in life. I can't help but think of all the older folks out there that bought their laptops from Best Buy that thought they were getting a great deal on a laptop (this is my case as I'm working on my father's laptop that he bought specifically to use for their church). Now here I am roped into figuring this out for him. How many other people just like him are out there wondering what in the world they're supposed to do. I'm sure one or more of the solutions mentioned on this forum might work but seriously how many average Joe's can follow the steps? Microsoft, I get it, it's not your fault ASUS sells these laptops but please help the hundreds of thousands of people out there struggling with this issue and create a CONSISTENT PLUG AND PLAY wizard that allows using a USB, SD or external hard drive. This is enough to make my next purchase be an Apple (I know they're way more expensive than this budget laptop BUT its for "user friendly" reputation they have). When I have time I'll try all the many steps mentioned on here. In the meantime here's my rant. 

I'm not a total idiot when it comes to computers but I too fell for the "keeping all your files in the 'cloud' and using online apps is the way forward, you don't need a large hard drive"  so I bought a nice, lightweight, ASUS 32BGB laptop for my wife - mistake!!! 

I tried following all of the hints and tips and idiots guides to install the Creators Update but failed every time owing to lack of storage space! I too don't have the time to experiment and to be honest, couldn't take any more of my wife's complaints about her laptop not working properly. In the end, I bit the bullet and took it to our local IT shop and told them to just DO IT!

A week later and £50 lighter, I picked up the laptop and it was sorted. Even they had a few problems with the re-install saying that it almost got there but 'hung' a few times. Obviously, I had to ask how they did it:

1. Use Media Creation Tool on a different laptop to download the update to a USB stick.
2. Change the BIOS settings of the ASUS to boot from an external device (F2 which booting up I think).
3. Plug in the USB stick and restart the computer.
4. Elect to carry out a clean installation, which purges the old Windows and installs fresh from the USB stick.
5. Install yet more MS updates...
6. Revert BIOS back to the original boot settings.

Okay, so you lose the ASUS goodie but they weren't that great anyway and there's better freeware available. In retrospect, the solution was obvious but having read the suggestions on the forum, you kind of get locked into a train of thought.

As for whose fault all this is, 'six of one, half a dozen of the other' as they say! Given the volume of updates and bug fixes that spew out of Microsoft day after day, you'd have thought it possible to give us an incremental update rather than a complete platform replacement, but what do I know - ASUS certainly didn't expect it! And now I hear that Microsoft is going to do exactly the same thing again with a Spring update, gee thanks! Hopefully, I will now be able to carry out the update myself this time!

I just posted a rant on here that would've made Bill Gates himself find my IP and send a virus to my computer that would prevent me from ever using a microsoft product again but it crashed while it was waiting to post, haha! Maybe its for the best especially since you all don't have to take the time to read it. But in a nutshell I said this. The first page of troubleshooting page for Windows 10 updates states that "you don't have to be a whiz." What a joke. I'm made it to page 4 of this forum and I've seen all the many many many steps recommended but the bottom line is this... TIME. Who the heck has the time. I'm a father, this isn't even my laptop, it's my father's. It's not microsoft's fault ASUS makes budget laptops but they should make their wizard user friendly. On one such update the wizard prompted me to use an external device so I did and it worked. But this time the option to use an external device isn't offered... why? Who knows. Seems simple enough, especially since it worked before. Why go through all the weird steps of downloading to a USB, SD or external, renaming, reformatting and all that jive when it worked just fine before. What changed? I have a life, I work, I have kids, a wife; who has time for this nonsense for a brand new laptop? I suppose when I have time I'll go through all these steps in an attempt to resolve this.

Here I am on PAGE 4 of this forum trying to figure this nonsense out. After all this reading and signing in to write this reply I'm thinking back to the first page I came to when I first started on this "Windows 10 update" saga where it stated "You don’t have to be a computer whiz to follow these instructions." What a joke. I've gone through this multiple times now. During one such update it gave me the option to use an external storage device and it worked. A couple of days later a new update showed up but the option to use an external device wasn't offered. It's easy for people to say delete this, reformat that, rename this, offload programs here and there but I think back to the first page that states you don't have to be a whiz. Here's the deal, I'm pretty tech savvy but that's not the issue. It's TIME. Yes TIME people. Who in the heck has time for all of this? Do you? Maybe you don't have kids and responsibilities in life. I can't help but think of all the older folks out there that bought their laptops from Best Buy that thought they were getting a great deal on a laptop (this is my case as I'm working on my father's laptop that he bought specifically to use for their church). Now here I am roped into figuring this out for him. How many other people just like him are out there wondering what in the world they're supposed to do. I'm sure one or more of the solutions mentioned on this forum might work but seriously how many average Joe's can follow the steps? Microsoft, I get it, it's not your fault ASUS sells these laptops but please help the hundreds of thousands of people out there struggling with this issue and create a CONSISTENT PLUG AND PLAY wizard that allows using a USB, SD or external hard drive. This is enough to make my next purchase be an Apple (I know they're way more expensive than this budget laptop BUT its for "user friendly" reputation they have). When I have time I'll try all the many steps mentioned on here. In the meantime here's my rant.