32gb Acer tablet Windows cannot update because not enough space

Sven62
Sven62 Member Posts: 11

Tinkerer

edited March 18 in 2018 Archives
After basic initial Acer Windows 10 installation there is only 7Gb of space available. Windows 10 needs 8gb to update to the latest. Any ideas? Thinking of Windows Media Creation tool and doing a clean Windows 10 install from a DVD or SD card.
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Answers

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer
    SD card will not work as bootable device, by the way you can use one 16GB or bigger, NTFS formatted to give windows update some extra storage.
    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • Sven62
    Sven62 Member Posts: 11

    Tinkerer

    I have a 128gb in there now. Windows will not update. Says not enough space. Ideas?  Reformat it to NTFS?
  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer
    yes, on file explorer, right click the SD card, click on format and select NTFS as format and do a quick format.
    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • Sven62
    Sven62 Member Posts: 11

    Tinkerer

    I did that. It still says I need more space to do the update. I am thinking of doing a clean install of generic Windows.

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer
    that's strange...go for a clean install.
    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • geekasaurus
    geekasaurus Member Posts: 2 New User
    Sven62 said:
    After basic initial Acer Windows 10 installation there is only 7Gb of space available. Windows 10 needs 8gb to update to the latest. Any ideas? Thinking of Windows Media Creation tool and doing a clean Windows 10 install from a DVD or SD card.
    I have been fighting for days with my Acer over this issue and finally have it settled for now. First and foremost there is no way you can update with the 32gb emmc alone. I had an old 120gb SSD that I installed in the open slot. Secondly, the only software that I know which will properly clone the emmc to an SSD is Marcrium Reflect. You can download a free version on their website. I cloned the emmc to ssd and then you have to go back into Macrium to fix the boot order to make sure it will boot to the bigger drive. It will then boot with a Windows boot manager (I found that the item listed on the bottom is the new drive) Now it doesn't end here... the partitions on the new drive will still be the small drive amount. You have to extend the main C partition. Because they are nonconcurrent due to the restore partition you need to use Partition Wizard by MiniTool to extend the C drive. At this point you should be able to boot to a larger drive. 
    My problems did not end here. My computer was basically bricked after Windows 10 attempted to update. It took hours and it downloaded and installed but on the last reboot it said it was rolling back the updates and would not boot after that. I went through that whole process three times..I am not sure if this will happen to everyone, but it did to me.
    At this point my only option was to roll back Windows 10 as far back as I could by uninstalling the horrible Update Assistant, uninstalling the last update and then turning off the Windows Update service and then removing the 4.8GB of downloaded update files by using Glary Utilities. I am a happy camper now with a large hard drive and updates turned off. Many may freak out hearing I turned off the updates but since it made my laptop unusable, this is the only workaround I have. The laptop would not even do a factory restore before the updates, so there might be some other underlying issue in my case.
  • geekasaurus
    geekasaurus Member Posts: 2 New User
    I would like to add more detail if anyone wants to use Macrium Reflect to clone to a bigger drive..you need to download the Windows PE environment and then make a bootable USB using the Macruim software installed on the computer. The cloning and boot repair is done by booting to that USB drive after you make the bootable USB.
  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    Just as a point of interest, I just completed the latest updates of Win 10. Have Office, Streets and Trips, and A Lot of other apps on my 32 GB W3 tablet. Currently have 12.3 GB free space with about 17.5GB on the SD card.

  • Sven62
    Sven62 Member Posts: 11

    Tinkerer

    edited December 2017
    How did you get it to 12.3 GB FREE??? After a factory reset, I have only 7.something. And it gets worse from there. Right now only 5 GB free.
  • Sven62
    Sven62 Member Posts: 11

    Tinkerer

    edited December 2017
    What can I delete? I have already moved stuff to the 128 GB SD card. Still was below the 8GB needed. Help!
  • Sven62
    Sven62 Member Posts: 11

    Tinkerer

    Geekasaurus, which version of Win 10 did you roll back to?
  • Sven62
    Sven62 Member Posts: 11

    Tinkerer

    edited December 2017
    Apparently. if you set the WiFi network on your laptop to "Metered Connection" it will prevent Windows 10 from trying to update.

    wwwDOTtechadvisorDOTcoDOTuk/how-to/windows/how-stop-windows-10-downloading-updates-3626701/
  • Sven62
    Sven62 Member Posts: 11

    Tinkerer

    And Geekasaurus, how did you add an SSD drive? I was told there was a slot for it, but no connection.
  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder
    Well other than the normal disk cleanup tasks have you tried doing a search on size:gigantic ? This will return all files over 128 MB
  • Sven62
    Sven62 Member Posts: 11

    Tinkerer

    edited December 2017
    There is nothing on this computer except what comes with it. Which isn't much. I deleted McAfee, Office, and a few others. But they were all 300mb, 250mb... they were the biggest apps I could see. I need to get rid of GIGS. Everything left pretty much is Windows. Unless you know a place I should look. What did you delete?
  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder
    Well you can reduce the page file to 500MB and turn off Hibernation that will remove Hiberfil.sys.
  • Spinner
    Spinner Member Posts: 6 New User
    I picked up two Acer Spin 1 machines for my twins for Christmas.  They too are now complaining that there is not enough space to upgrade Windows 10.  I just inserted a 64 GB micro SD card and formatted it to NTFS like Iron Fly suggested.  

    Padgett, would you be willing to provide a step-by-step guide to enlighten us newbies on how to free up space and move program files to the secondary drive?
    You also mentioned reducing the page file and turning off the Hiberfil.sys, etc.  
  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder
    edited January 2018

    Well, it is more an art form than a guide, much depends on which of the built in apps you keep. Also I do not know at what point MS refuses to do anything, just that with 11-12GB free it still wants another 10GB of NTFS space available.

    The other issue is that while the least obtrusive addition is an SD card, on many devices they are limited to USB 2.0 speeds, around 25 MB/s. I have a 128GB SD U3 in the Spin 1 here that normally reads at 75+ MB/s but not in the Spin 1 slot.

    Important thing is to first create a recovery disk and a full system image (NTFS device) so if you make a mistake you can always get back to your starting point.

    Ok get a 64/128/256 GB SD U3 card and install formatted NTFS. It should come up as D : (fershluginner smilies) Go to Settings>Storage>Change where new content is stored and set everything to D :. (At  Settings>Storage you can click on the C : drive and see what is using what)

    Next go to File Explorer and right click on the C : drive. Select Properties then Disk Cleanup. After the first return click on Clean up system files (this will take longer). Can just delete everything that is over a few MB.

    Next go to Settings>Apps and scroll down to the Apps and Features. Uninstall everything that you do not need (I prefer to use Windows Defender to third party apps) and is more than a few MB. Some you may be able to move to the D : drive. Ones that are only a few kb from Microsoft you probably will not be able to remove. This will take a while.

    HIBERFIL.SYS - open CMD.EXE as administrator. Enter powercfg /hibernate off this will turn off hibernation and reclaim the disk space.

    PAGEFIL.SYS - Open File Explorer right click on This PC then Properties>Advanced>Performance Options. Here you can set the size and location of the pagefil.sys If you have 8 GB of memory and are not a heavy gamer you may not need much, with 4GB, 500MB may be enough. Can always increase after update.

    With a recovery disk and system image you really do not need a recovery partition but that is the last thing I would remove. Currently show 13.4 GB free and my recovery partition is still in place.

    And that is just the start of what can be done but have the largest returns.

    You don't want my opinion of selling a 32GB Windows PC loaded with bloatware.

  • Spinner
    Spinner Member Posts: 6 New User
    Padgett,
    Thanks for the info!!
    --I loaded a 64 GB San Disk Ultra PLUS microSDXC UHS-1 card (I don't know what all that means except for the 64 GB).
    --I changed where content is stored (documents, files, etc.)  However, I see that the folders entitled Documents, Music, Pictures, etc. are still listed under the C drive.
    --I ran the Disk Cleanup and the Cleanup system files
    --I uninstalled 1 or 2 programs.  I figured I should keep the MS Office (even though it is at 1 GB).  I moved everything I could to the D drive.  There are a handful of Acer programs totaling just over 100 MB.  I wonder if any of these are worth keeping.  I do not like bloatware either - that was one of about 3 reasons why I chose the Moto 5 for my phone (no bloatware).  I wonder if it is worth keeping the free Norton security?  It takes up about 1 GB.  I personally use Trend Micro on my own computer - for about 10 years now.
    --I have ~800 MB for hiberfil.  I figured out how to run as Administrator and turned it off.  How can I be certain that it is off?  I ask because after a restart, I did not notice a sizeable gain in disk space.
    --I had previously figured out how to turn off the Page File, but I followed your suggestion and turned it on with a minimum of 500 MB (we have only 4 GB of RAM).  I set the min max at: 500 MB - 1000 MB.
    --I have 7.72 GB available.  I noticed that the partition drive is 1 GB.  Maybe I should get rid of it after making a recover disk.
  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder
    edited January 2018

    OK you still have 5 GB going for "something" more than I do. Go to Settings>system>storage and click on the C: drive. This should tell you what is being used. My largest is "System and Reserved" at 12.2GB.

    Next in File Explorer>C: do you have a directory "Windows.old" ? (have to go into View and under Show/hide put a check in "file name extensions" and "hidden items) This is a previous version and can be moved to D : or deleted if over a GB

    BTW under File Explorer>C:>properties (right click) I have checked "Compress this drive". It works very well.

    ps I still have the 1 gb recovery drive since can update now

    pps is up to you but I not longer use any third party AV, just Windows Defender and EMET set "paranoid" (latest update combines WD and EMET). Some AVs are as hard as a virus to remove.