SOLVED Anniversary Update - Not Enough Room

[Techi Bear]

Hello Folks,
I have a mini computer - PiPo from China - that has a 32 GB mini drive that Windows 10 was pre-installed on. The computer itself is a delight to have and work on, and I use it primarily to watch soccer matches on late at night. I went to install the Anniversary Update on it and found it already doing the update automatically (just as its setup to do). Went to use it the next morning, and found that it hadn't completed the update. A quick trip to the Microsoft update site determined that no update had been installed because there wasn't enough free hard drive space.

Since then I've uninstalled every non-essential program from the C:\ drive, and still no luck updating the computer, with the error message of not enough free hard drive space. According to the Properties page, my 32 GB drive has only Windows 10 installed, taking up 17 GB, with 12 GB free space, while the Update is said to require 16 GB of free space!

I did try to compress the drive to get more free space, but the computer won't compress the C:\ drive - it runs afoul of the swap file being uncompressible. Besides the Anniversary Update, I assume that future updates will also run afoul of this problem, so it needs to be fixed. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Techie Bear

 

[Saltgrass]

Do you have any external storage you could plug in during the install? I believe the upgrade will be able to use that if it is compatible.

I have not used a device such as yours but if you can't get it to install you may be able to download the .iso and install it from an external drive. That would save around 3.5 GBs.

 

[Trouble]

The installation files alone can use 3 gigs of space. Best to download the ISO and create your own installation media on USB device.
The Windows.OLD folder that the upgrade leaves behind can frequently exceed 10 Gigs alone.
Some things that might be consuming disk space that you might be able to free up
Hiberfil.sys ..... turn hibernation off
pagefile.sys / swapfile.sys ....... turn it off
system restore points..... turn it off.
OF course backup all your critical data in advance of going forward and if at all possible create a disk image to external media.

 

[Techi Bear]

Thank you both for your replies. I do have a second drive (D:\) that is a 32 GB MicroSDHC Flash Memory Card directly inserted into a slot on the computer (e.g., a port designed to be used as a D:\ drive); it is pretty much empty.

So now the question becomes, how do I direct PiPo to download the Update to this D:\ drive, with the added instruction(s) to download to D:\, and then install from there to the C:\ drive? I'm assuming it'll take command line switches, I just don't know which switches to add nor where to add them!

Thanks again for your (anticipated) help!
Techie Bear

 

[Trouble]

IF you go here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sof...459594)(TnL5HPStwNw-WaTVja5C7z2Vs7q82apCPg)()
Match your current installation to the ISO you download.....
You can save that ISO anywhere you want, including your SD card. Once you have the ISO that matches your current installation you can simply double click the ISO to mount it and run setup.exe from there to upgrade.
Again..... you may still not have enough disk space on your hard drive to facilitate the upgrade and may still have to take additional steps to free up space.
In addition to the things I mentioned above, if you have already downloaded the installation media to your drive you may see a hidden folder call $WINDOWS.~BT which will likely be somewhere around 3 gigs in size.

 

[Techi Bear]

Many, many thanks. I've been off installing a new printer (on another computer), I'll do as you suggest and will post back here as soon as I'm finished.

Again, many thanks.
Techie Bear

 

[Techi Bear]

Well, we have progress to report. Burned the Windows installer to a DVD, and then copied that to my micro-computer via a flash drive, which it accepted as if nothing had occurred several days ago - especially the part where it says Checking space requirements! And as I type this, PiPo is (re-) installing Windows 10.

I will report back here when all is finished.
With Gratitude,
Techie Bear

 

[Techi Bear]

A complete success! PiPo is now completely (re-) installed with the Anniversary Update (version 1607). I very much appreciate the assistance.

 

[Trouble]

Glad to hear it.
Thanks for the follow-up info
Much appreciated.
How much free space do you have left now?

 

[Techi Bear]

The C:\drive has 5.5 GB free after up-grading to v.1607. And 25.5 GB free on the D:\XTRADRV 32-1 drive. And all my files and programs will now reside on the D:\drive.

Again, many thanks for all your help, I was hoping someone would know where to find it, and you did.

Very Appreciative,
Techie Bear

 

[Trouble]

Presumably C;\ has the Windows.OLD folder which will be gone after 10 days I believe.
IF you took any of the steps regarding page file, hibernation file or system restore files referenced in my previous posts you should probably consider switching them back on at some point soon, free space allowing.

 

[Techi Bear]

Hi,
Yes, the C:\ drive has the windows.old folder, which is taking up a whopping 7.5 GB of space on the C:\ drive! If it doesn't go away on its own, I'll clean it out later on. As to the page file, et al, I didn't change any of those things as I wanted to try installing the Update directly from the D:\drive, which worked without having to get rid of those files (I'll nonetheless kill-off hibernation with a tweaking program from The Windows Club).

Again, My Thanks,
Techie Bear

 

[Trouble]

I'll nonetheless kill-off hibernation with a tweaking program from The Windows Club

Be my guest, but.....
It's a simple command line of
powercfg -h off
and to reverse it
powercfg -h on

 

[Techi Bear]

Thanks, but I use their "Ultimate Windows Tweaker" which covers a multitude of tweaks.

Best Regards,
Techie Bear