23H2 on my TravelMate Spin B311R-32? Yes! how to "force" and upgrade

bluepen61

I waited patiently for Windows to recognize my laptop for the 23H2 update. It never came.

And through reading various articles how to "force" and upgrade, I determined that in my case, a safe route would be to use Microsoft's Windows Install Assistant. This didn't seem intuitive for an update, but what the heck, I didn't want to trash my system, so I tried it.

1. I downloaded, installed and started the Assistant. It said I didn't have enough space, as I it was about 4 GB free. It suggested two or three things to try, one was to run Disk Cleanup. I ran DC a couple of times and verified available space. I achieved about 12 GB free. So I clicked the <Retry> button in Install Assistant, and it continued it's mission.
2. Oddly, I never terminated Install Assistant in this process.
3. It chugged along for a time, downloaded something, I think. Whatever it was doing, it found errors in my system files and suggested running a couple of programs to fix them. One suggestion was running sfc /scannow from a command prompt. I have used sfc (system file checker) before on other pc's and felt comfortable with it. Running it repaired the system files enough for Install Assistant.
4. Okay, Install Assistant ran many processes unknown to me, and I was worried that the laptop might overheat. It didn't, to my surprise. But, it did begin to install Win 11 (and hopefully 23H2) and stopped again. I ran out of space. I couldn't run Disk Cleanup because I already did that. It suggested cleaning out unnecessary personal files. I noted that my accounting program accumulated about 8 GB of backups so I trashed them. After that I hit the <Retry> button to restart the install process.
5. It has seemed like hours to do this. At some point in time, the TravelMate booted to the Win 11 login screen, and I was back in business. Logged-in. And discovered one more issue: context menus in File Explorer didn't respond. This was fixed by rebooting.
6. I check the version and voila, 23H2.
7. A side note, the Install Assistant/Windows 11 install, did a reasonable job of cleaning and removing the install files. I had 18 GB available.
8. I love my TravelMate Spin B311R-32.

As a side note, I never have felt confident installing/reinstalling/upgrading Windows installs. But this one? Wow! The programmers worked overtime to get this right. It ran smoothly, took an extremely long time, and achieved a successful result.

Caution: Although my experience was successful, yours may not be. So do lots of reading, and get comfortable with your system, programs, and data. My system has a tiny SSD soldered to a printed circuit board, and a 256 GB screaming fast micro SD card for additional data memory. The system only has only a few chips and a large battery and a small touch screen. Be patient and have a plan "B" if things fail.

Regardless, I hope this helps you in updating to Win 11 23H2.

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/695434/23h2-on-my-travelmate-spin-b311r-32-yes

Did you also get Edge Version 119.0.2151.72 with Copilot integrated? Latest W11 23H2 build is 22631.2715.

bluepen61

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1243237#Comment_1243237

Edge reports version 119.0.2151.72; and in Win 11 Settings, About reports 23H2, build 22631.2715. I don't use Copilot or Edge, but Copilot (Preview) button appears on the taskbar. I don't know the extent it is integrated with/into Edge.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1243644#Comment_1243644

It is, your system is up to date, but after each update run these 2 commands (in that order), open the Command Prompt as administrator: Dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth that should complete successful. Then type this in the same Command Prompt window: SFC /scannow that may repair some system files, rerun SFC till you see" …….found no integrity violations" Also open Storage Sense and get rid of all old update remnants like OldDos by clicking on the Temporary bin at the bottom left and click on "Remove".😉

bluepen61

Thank you for these tips. These three processes seem to do the job of releasing more space on the ssd.

I have my uSD card, SDXC (D:) set to look like a hard drive in Windows so it can accommodate Google Drive and Dropbox. Apparently, Win 11 maps drive D: as a folder in drive C: as it shows as uSD Card folder in C: Pretty slick. Drive D: still appears and is used as normal except for recognition using Google Drive and Dropbox.

I understand that I can now install Windows programs in uSD Card folder, though I have not tried that yet.