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#1
insufficient disk space on brand new win10 laptop to do initial update
i have only had this new laptop less than a month but kept getting notices right away that windows was unable to do updates due to lack of disk space. this mystified me because i had not added a thing to the c drive and for awhile i couldnt even find the c drive to take a look at it (because it is now in "this pc")... anyhow, was amazed to see that program files alone took up something like 29 of the 32 gigs on the system.
i mean, is it possible that this brand new win10 system was engineered with not enough margin of space to do a stinkin update? the answer is YES. unbelievable.
the messages said to clear out unneeded files or use an external drive of minimum 10 gigs. i did disk cleanup (recommended) but of course there was nothing to clean up so that did not help. so i was stumped until a very nice tech person from audible dot com went a bit off the beaten path to counsel me and poke around my system in the course of fixing an audible issue...
i ended up using a 32 gb thumb drive to attempt the update, which did work, but left unanswered my question, being, is the 10 gigs needed just to facilitate the update, or is it then going to be essential for actually running the win10 system after the update?? i decided to just take a chance because i was sick of knowing i needed updates, but couldnt do them. what's with ms these days? or is acer to blame?
so anyhoo, after about 5+ hours of the update running, the system booted and seems to run normally, but i noticed that initially, at least, the thumb drive flashes from time to time, but is totally off more than half the time. can't tell for sure if the thumb drive is being used?? there is but one file on the thumb drive, it is "somethingupdatesomething.squiggletmp. (i am on my chromebook now, that is why i am not more specific.)
i believe (hope) i can just dump that file and put the thumb drive away for another day with no ill effects? the c drive now seems to have approximately or exactly the same ratio of used to free as was there before the update - a measly 3 gigs or a bit under, left free.
there is a slot on the laptop for a sd card... but mainly one is supposed to use the cloud for everything, which i do anyway.
what do any of you more knowledgeable folks think about the stupidness (or just cheapness) of a system set up with not enough disk space to run an update? it just amazes me. i mean i do love me all the cheap-but-ok stuff i can get my hands on, but isn't that cutting it just too close so as to be almost unusable? nowhere did it say, in the user guide or stuff, that it would be necessary to keep thumb drives on hand in order to do normal maintenance. and with all the hootin/hollerin about the wonderfulness of windows10, even tho i am a jaded old lady(computer-wise), (25 yr retired ibm vet; i worked on the very first personal computers that came on the market), i am still amazed that this deep corner cutting, if that is what it is, is going on. i myself would gladly pay a buck extra for a few more gigs, not to have to go thru this aggravation i just wasted most of my day on.
and by the way, i'm thinking that due to it taking so long to run the update, it was much more than the usual security patches, etc, they always send down. but here again, why would brand spanking new, wonderful, magical, shiny windows 10 system need a total takedown/replace on day #1 of a new computer? did they throw a sloppy job together and fling it on the market... or what.
i used to believe ms really had their show together. they wouldnt put out shoddy work, they had too much reputation at risk for that. there used to be a sort of competition going on between ms and ibm where one did not want to risk the embarrassment of BUGS unexpectedly showing up after release of new stuff. one would point and laugh at the other, etc. and it was hard to live down. scores were kept...
i apologize for being so long winded. i will curtail future posts to a more human length...
so, can i delete the file on the thumb drive and not have to use it to run the system? kinda funky if i have to keep that thing in a LAPTOP!