Windows 10 Upgrade an ASUS Laptop (32G storage)

Hint: Do not use auto update when in this situation. You must download the ISO file to the SD drive in the first place, read through this entire thread as well as follow the complete instructions from my previous post and you should find that some combination of should work out for you too. AS a side note: any one that is POed that this has become an issue in the first place should turn their attention to the device manufacturer for promoting and selling a device with an inadequate sized main drive for the known application requirement of the OS they chose to preinstall and market as fully viable as such. (MS branded products included) without pre-disclosure of the ....

For what it's worth,

-Richard

Thanks for the tutorial.  I'm going to try this on my Win 10 tablet.

But c'mon Microsoft.  Is it really that difficult to add an option to download windows updates to a drive  (USB drive, SD card, etc.) other than the system drive??

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!

Hi Stephen,

There is a way, you will find the info at the link below.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install-winpc/how-to-upgrade-to-the-latest-windows-10-feature/d7cdba8b-c59b-4a23-86e2-6635a7e44489

(Note that you may need to format the SD card to the NTFS format).

Let us know how it goes,

-Richard

Hi Stephen,

The instructions that I supplied should have worked, perhaps I should have been more clear as to the exact intricacies of the procedure. I'll post them here again with some additions and bold print to highlight the most important parts to achieve success. I hope that this helps;

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 the ISO file to use to perform the upgrade later (be sure to select the correct Edition and architecture (32bit or 64bit) for your device. (To do this, follow the instructions for Creating media to install on a different PC).
4. Save the ISO to the SD card (or USB stick) (formatted in NTFS, you must reformat the SD card or the USB drive that you will be using to the NTSF format before beginning the download) (a 32GB or above quality brand name SD card or USB drive is recommended).
5. Once the ISO file download is completed to the SD card (or USB drive) go to the resulting SD/USB folder and right click on the ISO file.
6. Then, 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 new folder in the same SD card/USB drive.

7. Then, open the resultant new folder and right click on the setup.exe file and select the "run as administrator" option.
8. Then, choose the Upgrade Now option, the program will then proceed to upgrade (feature update) the installation of Windows 10 in your computer. When prompted, choose to keep your apps and files if/as that is your choice.
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).

This has worked for thousands of people that are using devises with tiny and/or space restricted SSD's.

If your still having problems after using this exact procedure, let us know, and include as much detailed information as you can concerning, we'll be glad to continue to help you further in resolving the issue.

Good Luck!

-Richard

Hi Richard,

I followed all the instructions, but unfortunately it doesn't work. At a certain stage during the procedure, you have to choose whether you take option A (use of internal memory) or option B( extrenal memory, USB stick). When you take option B indeed some 5GB is assigned to the USB stick (of the 32GB available) but the system still asks for additional space in the internal memory. Even after deleting all personal files and uninstalling all software (office, antivirus etc) it still asks for some 260 MB extra on the internal memory. Not much, but it is simply not available as everything that could be uninstalled, is already uninstalled... I tried it a number of times, with deletion if all unnecessary files.

Very frustrating.

Don't understand how it is possible that windows 10, installed by the manufacturer on the asus 32 GB machine, and therefore apparently on a machine that meets the requirements, is unable to install one of its first updates on the machine.  The Asus was bought only three weeks ago, brandnew in a sealed box.

If you know any other method to deal with the problem, I certainly would appreciate it !