Using External Drive For Updates

Jim9guitars · 16 Jun 2019

I have a small HP laptop (30GB) that I use for home and work use, but nothing too heavy. It has run out of hard drive space purely from Windows 10 updates so I bought a 1 Terabyte USB drive. The problem is the updates won't recognize the new drive, even though it has over 90 GB free the updates want me to clear more space on my C drive. Is there some way I can get this to work, I bought this device because it appeared to be telling me to. Thanks for reading this.

dalchina · 17 Jun 2019

Hi, I think you have a PC with emmc storage - soldered onto your motherboard.
Please complete your specs including laptop type (see mine for comparison).

Embedded Multimedia Card (eMMC) Storage

Embedded Multimedia Card or eMMC is more affordable and slower Flash-based storage than solid state drives. eMMC is usually found in smartphones and other consumer electronics devices, but it’s used in personal computers, too. In everyday use, performance of eMMC storage is somewhere between speed of HDDs and SSDs. In the PC segment, you can find eMMC soldered onto motherboards of some budget-class notebooks, tablet PCs, and 2-in-1 computers.

eMMC capacity provided by these PCs is either 32GB or 64GB, rarely 128GB. These are quite limited capacities by today’s standards. To make things easier, most of the eMMC-equipped laptops have a memory card slot in which you can insert a memory card (SD or microSD) to expand internal storage capacity.

Simply attaching an external disk will not solve your Windows update problem with so little storage. It's simply a data disk.

Here are some ways you can start to save space on your C: drive:
Turn On or Off Storage Sense Automatically Free Up Space in Windows 10
Free Up Drive Space in Windows 10
Free Up Disk Space Now with Storage Sense in Windows 10

Hopefully your OS is already compressed:
Compress or Uncompress Windows 10 with Compact OS

An easy read- from the Guardian!
What is the best way to deal with Windows 10 updates on a 32GB machine? | Technology | The Guardian

As regards applying updates- if they are very large and you're really pushed, you can download the update manually to an external drive, then install it.

The News section here has a thread per update per build with download links.

This could be especially relevant for build upgrades (feature updates) and the typically large first update following the release of a build.

After a feature update (new build) Windows.old is created, taking a lot of space. This is retained for 10 days by default, allowing you to 'go back to the previous build'. You can manually delete this if confident (tutorial available).

Jim9guitars · 17 Jun 2019

Thanks for your post, here are the specs I found online. I am feeling a little out of touch as I'm not familiar with this type of computer. I will keep sifting through the info and I'm hopeful I can use your advice to download updates to my external drive. I have nothing but the basics left on this computer which had about 6 GB of free space when I bought it new. As I mentioned, the updates have it filled to capacity now.

Category. Description.
Product Name. HP Stream Laptop PC.
Processor. Intel Celeron® N3060 (1.6 GHz, turbo up to 2.48 GHz), 1600 MHz/2 MB L2 cache), dual core, 4 W.
Chipset. Integrated SoC.
Internal graphics. Intel HD Graphics 400 (N3060 processor)
16:9 ultra-wide aspect ratio. ...
Memory.

Just as I was finishing this post another "low space warning" overtook my screen.

Try3 · 17 Jun 2019

In dalchina's excellent list of links, Free Up Drive Space in Windows 10 item 13 [disk cleanup] is probably the one to use first to cope with that low space warning.
MS's own version of this tutorial is at Free up drive space in Windows 10 - Windows Help

On the subject of updates, I agree that downloading them directly from the Microsoft update catalog onto your external drive is the way to go. There is also some provision for small OS drives made by MS in the case of the twice-yearly feature updates - see Free up space to install the latest Windows 10 feature update - Windows Help

Denis

Jim9guitars · 18 Jun 2019

I have now tried all of the above, and searched google for advice to no avail. I did find a link in my google search to a similar post as mine that had archived 100 responses to a similar question only to conclude there is no way to download windows updates to an external drive and then install them from there. I am resigning myself to ignoring all the "free up space" and "your HD is running low on space" etc...... I now have a 1 terabyte external drive I guess I'll find some use for someday.

NavyLCDR · 18 Jun 2019

I believe that the option to use an external drive for the extra space required by Windows Update applies on to USB flash drives. You might to purchase a cheap 32GB "thumb drive" and try that.

Try3 · 18 Jun 2019

Jim9guitars said:

... conclude there is no way to download windows updates to an external drive and then install them from there...

The Windows update utility cannot download them to an external drive but you can. You can use a utility such as WUMgr to identify the updates you need and you can then download them to wherever you want, including your external drive, and install them from there.
Toolkit Item Introducing Windows Update Manager - Win10Guru
WUMgr Review - gHacks Tech News
How to download specific Windows 10 updates - AddictiveTips

You will need to disable automatic updating by the normal Windows update utility in order to take advantage of this method. I do so and so do many others. When a feature update such as ver 1903 is released, I also download that onto my larger drives and install it from there.

Where I mentioned, "There is also some provision for small OS drives made by MS in the case of the twice-yearly feature updates - see Free up space to install the latest Windows 10 feature update - Windows Help", you will find in that link an explanation about how the actual process of installing a feature update can be eased by use of a USB stick to cope with having little spare disk space on your OS drive.

Denis

Jim9guitars · 18 Jun 2019

Thanks all for the informative replies, over the course of the next week or so I'll explore more of these options, I'm pressed for time for the next few days but I'll update with any breakthroughs.

dalchina · 18 Jun 2019

. I did find a link in my google search to a similar post as mine that had archived 100 responses to a similar question only to conclude there is no way to download windows updates to an external drive and then install them from there.

The News section here has a thread per update per build with download links.

I did say this in post #2

Example:
Cumulative Update KB4503293 Windows 10 v1903 build 18362.175 - June 11

Using External Drive For Updates-snap-2019-06-19-05.23.55.png

Click a link and you download a file- to wheresoever you wish - including an external drive or an SD card.

However using the WUMT (Now renamed 'Sledgehammer') would be better as Try3 suggests.
Download Sledgehammer (formerly WUMT Wrapper Script) - MajorGeeks

mngerhold · 22 Jun 2019

Those 30GB devices are a pain to update, but you might at least look to see where the space has gone - try Treesize (free) or wiztree (which shows hidden folders more readily, I believe). I don't know if MS avoids cluttering small machines with the cr@p to be found in "Windows\Infused apps" & "Program Files\Windows Apps", but they can be removed with some difficulty using PowerShell. Simply uninstalling (when available) does not necessarily remove the files. My desktop C:-drive is currently using only 22GB, with a full Office install and many other programs, so it is possible to keep things slimmed down.