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.
- 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.
- Oddly, I never terminated Install Assistant in this process.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- I check the version and voila, 23H2.
- 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.
- 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]
