Not enough space for anniversary update (1607)

Hello, I am the owner of a small laptop, an Acer Switch 10, which only have 32GB of SSD memory inside. I also have a microSD *always* in of 128GB, and a normal 500GB HDD on the keyboard, if plugged, of course.

The internal memory has 6GB free right now, and I can't free anymore as windows folder has over 12GB and total usable space is about 19-21GB.

When I try to launch 1607 update with the upgrade tools, it tells me that I need 16GB free, and doesn't give me the option to choose any other device to store the installation.

If I use media download tool it tells me that it needs 8GB and also doesn't give me the option to select another storage.

Is there a way to install this update? Is it impossible? Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance!

Hello, whilst you can manually download an iso and create a bootable medium from it (mounting it would not be a viable option for you given your constraints) bear in mind a copy of much of your Windows folder will be created as Windows.old on your disk.. for possible rollback recovery. That will be there unless you delete it manually for 10 days from the upgrade.

Now people with 100s of Gb spare on C are also getting this message. One possibility is that (I believe) some 450Mb of unallocated space is needed on the disk. I had a quick read around on this and causes seem obscure 'MS is working on it'

However you are tightly constrained.. and one thing you don't want happening is partitions which are part of the Windows environment being created on a different physical disk.

The iso is about 3.08Gb if I recall.

So
a. Manually download an iso and create a bootable medium
b. Research space issues
c. Create a disk image of your working PC for security (Macrium Reflect (free) + its boot medium + external storage
d. Attempt the upgrade.

Note that for 64 bits, MS states 2GbRam + 20Gb hard disk min. Well, my C: is just over 40Gb, no Windows.old, and I have programs installed on D: not C: and data mostly NOT on C: so 20Gb seems very optimistic.

So, In other words, I cannot do anything right? xD

Why doesn't Windows use the sd card or something?!?

You can manually download the ISO file to your Micro SD card and mount it, dalchina was mistaken about that. Then I recommend doing a full cleanup before running setup.exe from the mounted ISO file using option 2 in the second link below.

http://www.windowssh blog.com/tutorials/9230-windows-10-iso-download.html#option1

http://www.windowssh blog.com/tutorials/3012-disk-cleanup-open-use-windows-10-a.html#option2

I have made the cleanup several times, there's no more space to gain

I have made the cleanup several times, there's no more space to gain

Same here. Is making an installation medium working for this update?

Well, I ended up giving up the installation, but the other day, the anniversary update appeared on windows updated. It started downloading, and when I finished, it rebooted and gave error. Then it offered me to select a secondary HDD or whatever with more free space. The installation failed for some reason but that's something.

Then I discovered how to compress system files with compact.exe and I did that. Also, I went to disk properties and selected to compress all files on it. That gave me nearly 8GB free. I removed some files and programs and went ahead with the standalone installer, that claims to need at least 8GB.

And finally the update worked!!

Hope I solved it for you

Hi,
I did the update also in a such a small capacity Storage.
1) Download ISO and save it to external media, then Mount it or open with File Explorer and run.
2) Using Disk Clean-up, cleaning System Files option and other options, cleaned a lot.
3) Remove all Store Apps, I do not use them: Apps - Uninstall in Windows 10 - Windows 10 blog[1]=Programs%20Features
4) Clean-up System Components frees alot of space :
- Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore
- Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /startcomponentcleanup [/resetbase]

We just did an entire thread on this over at Seven blog, are you sure your 32 GB ssd isn`t just a cache drive to speed up your 500 GB hard drive ?? Or is the 500 GB an external drive ?

I can`t believe any company would install a tiny 32 GB drive. If that indeed is the case, then why not get a Samsung 850 Evo 250 GB SSD ??

Please post a snip of Disk Management.

I can`t believe any company would install a tiny 32 GB drive. If that indeed is the case, then why not get a Samsung 850 Evo 250 GB SSD ??

My Dell Venue 8 tablet came with a 32GB drive which was fine for Win8.1 then I Upgraded to Win10, still okay but the later Upgrades needed a bit more room so I added a 64GB MicroSDXC card to the provided slot and whenever prompted in the need for more room pointed it to the added card, has worked fine.