Windows 10 laptops with only 32gb ssd drives enough space?

[Davidb2002]

I'm looking for a new Windows 10 laptop under £200 for my 10 year old. It's primarily going to be used for web browsing, YouTube and playing mine craft and Roblox with a chance that she might also dabble in some web programming.

I noticed that most laptops in the price range only have a 32gb hard drive leaving me to question id this is going to be enough to run Windows and a few programs. Obviously, personal files can be stored on an external usb drive, so I'm not concerned with that aspect of storage.

Is 32gb enough to run Windows 10 and a few programs? I don't expect many programs to be installed and hopefully not to many that require a lot of data. I simply don't want to come a year down the road and find that 32gb isn't enough to run Windows 10 and some simple games.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[USAFRet]

I'm looking for a new Windows 10 laptop under £200 for my 10 year old. It's primarily going to be used for web browsing, YouTube and playing mine craft and Roblox with a chance that she might also dabble in some web programming.

I noticed that most laptops in the price range only have a 32gb hard drive leaving me to question id this is going to be enough to run Windows and a few programs. Obviously, personal files can be stored on an external usb drive, so I'm not concerned with that aspect of storage.

Is 32gb enough to run Windows 10 and a few programs? I don't expect many programs to be installed and hopefully not to many that require a lot of data. I simply don't want to come a year down the road and find that 32gb isn't enough to run Windows 10 and some simple games.

Thanks for any advice!

I have an Asus Transformer with a EMMC drive of that size.
It can be done just barely, but you REALLY have to pay attention to the drive space. It takes a lot more hands on to keep the drive from filling up.

Some things just fail because of the limited drive size. For instance, the Anniversary update back in August simply would not run, due to not enough free space on the drive.

Get a 64or 128GB USB stick, and redirect all the Doc/Music/Video libraries to that second drive.
Here: http/www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834397/ssd-redirecting-static-files.html
Win 8.1 & 10: http/www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2024314/windows-redirecting-folders-drives.html

Have games and other applications installed to that USB drive as well.

If you can, hold out for a laptop with a 64GB drive rather than the 32GB. Life will be much easier.

 

[AppleGwava]

you are referring to the 32 gb EMMC right?Most of the time they have a sd card slot so you can easily pop a 1 -138 gb sd card to upgrade the storage.You can save even more space by messing around and shrinking partitions and stuff but i wouldnt recommend it.Definitely enough for windows though sometimes during massive updates you will need to clear space as it needs some space to store the file before updating .

 

[USAFRet]

I'm looking for a new Windows 10 laptop under £200 for my 10 year old. It's primarily going to be used for web browsing, YouTube and playing mine craft and Roblox with a chance that she might also dabble in some web programming.

I noticed that most laptops in the price range only have a 32gb hard drive leaving me to question id this is going to be enough to run Windows and a few programs. Obviously, personal files can be stored on an external usb drive, so I'm not concerned with that aspect of storage.

Is 32gb enough to run Windows 10 and a few programs? I don't expect many programs to be installed and hopefully not to many that require a lot of data. I simply don't want to come a year down the road and find that 32gb isn't enough to run Windows 10 and some simple games.

Thanks for any advice!

I have an Asus Transformer with a EMMC drive of that size.
It can be done just barely, but you REALLY have to pay attention to the drive space. It takes a lot more hands on to keep the drive from filling up.

Some things just fail because of the limited drive size. For instance, the Anniversary update back in August simply would not run, due to not enough free space on the drive.

Get a 64or 128GB USB stick, and redirect all the Doc/Music/Video libraries to that second drive.
Here: http/www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834397/ssd-redirecting-static-files.html
Win 8.1 & 10: http/www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2024314/windows-redirecting-folders-drives.html

Have games and other applications installed to that USB drive as well.

If you can, hold out for a laptop with a 64GB drive rather than the 32GB. Life will be much easier.

 

[GreyCatz]

I'm looking for a new Windows 10 laptop under £200 for my 10 year old. It's primarily going to be used for web browsing, YouTube and playing mine craft and Roblox with a chance that she might also dabble in some web programming.

I noticed that most laptops in the price range only have a 32gb hard drive leaving me to question id this is going to be enough to run Windows and a few programs. Obviously, personal files can be stored on an external usb drive, so I'm not concerned with that aspect of storage.

Is 32gb enough to run Windows 10 and a few programs? I don't expect many programs to be installed and hopefully not to many that require a lot of data. I simply don't want to come a year down the road and find that 32gb isn't enough to run Windows 10 and some simple games.

Thanks for any advice!

Greetings, David:

Here are 2 mainstream laptops/notebooks under $200 to consider:

Lenovo 11.6"
https/www.amazon.com/Lenovo-N22-11-6-inch-Performance-Water-Resistant/dp/B01K9HS4Q0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1476887411&sr=1-9&refinements=p_72:1248880011,p_n_operating_system_browse-bin:12035945011,p_85:2470955011,p_n_condition-type:2224371011,p_36:15000-20000&linkCode=ll1&tag=checklaptop-20&linkId=66aad1d29e9129c29304d0416a1f8f44
HP 14"
https/www.amazon.com/HP-14-an013nr-14-Inch-Notebook-Drive/dp/B01F4ZG68A/ref=as_li_ss_tl?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1474151943&sr=1-1&refinements=p_72:1248880011,p_n_operating_system_browse-bin:12035945011,p_85:2470955011,p_n_condition-type:2224371011,p_6:ATVPDKIKX0DER,p_36:10000-24000&linkCode=ll1&tag=budgetlaptop-20&linkId=f71b18d568b8f5155ef5a20da345b670

It's always going to be a compromise between price and functionality. As some posters have pointed out, 32GBs of storage doesn't have to be a problem - add your own external storage drive - but it is a high-maintenance proposition, and it adds to the price. The Lenovo offers 64GBs of built-in storage, but its Intel Celeron CPU is so-so and an 11.6" screen, although a segment standard, is going to feel very cramped for programming. The HP has a quad-core AMD CPU, a 14"-inch screen but only 32GBs of storage. This means added costs for external storage and active storage management.

Also, check your router's WiFi specs: The HP uses 802.11 a/c, the Lenovo uses 802.11 b/g/n.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

***Edit: I just realized that I missed the £ sign. However, it doesn't seem to make any major difference.

 

[JeffDaemon]

Also on those systems the os initially takes up about 16gb of storage. It uses a special Windows install where all the system files are accessed from the compressed backup files for as long as they don't get updated.