Windows 10 no room on C drive

[Gersech]

Greetings. I wish to update my X205TA to Windows 10, but during download, error message says needs 8.5 GB to install. My notebook has 20GB max, but it is showing less than 7 GB room on it. I used Disk Cleanup feature, removed unwanted apps. I have Office 2013 no pictures, no video on the HDD. How else can I make room to install Windows 10? Thank you in advance.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Do you mean that you only have a 20 GB drive? You may not be able to update at all, if that's the case.

You can try putting the Windows 10 distribution on a DVD or a USB device instead of downloading it to your C: drive; that will save about 3.8 GB of the space needed. But a Win10 upgrade is a big thing.

 

[Gersech]

Thanks for your reply, WyomingKnott. A few things I don't understand: Why do you think there is so much used space on my C drive, when I really haven't downloaded hardly anything, and, I'm not sure how downloading the Win10 on a USB is going to run on this device? Would I always have to have the USB plugged in just to run the OS? Sorry, I don't have much experience in these matters.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

[WyomingKnott]

If you schedule an upgrade, it downloads 3.9 GB to two folders on your C drive with names that begin with $Windows. If you download the software, you can specify storing it on another drive (or USB stick if you don't have another hard drive) and build a bootable USB stick or DVD, saving that space on the C drive. Although I have heard whispers that installing from a DVD creates those directories anyway.

Can you answer my question? What is the total capacity of your C: drive? Is it really 20 GB? In that case, I'm not surprised that you're out of space. It's really too small. Or did you mean that you usually have 20 GB free?

As to what else could be on your drive, Windows takes up a lot of space. Windows 7 especially, with its solution to "DLL Hell" that involves saving every version of a DLL that was ever installed. There is a lovely tool named Windirstat that will scan the drive and show you where the space is being used, so you can decide if it's real or all stuff in the temp folder (or somewhere in-between).

Are you aware that all of My Documents and My Pictures and My Everything Else is on the C drive by default?

 

[Gersech]

If you schedule an upgrade, it downloads 3.9 GB to two folders on your C drive with names that begin with $Windows. If you download the software, you can specify storing it on another drive (or USB stick if you don't have another hard drive) and build a bootable USB stick or DVD, saving that space on the C drive. Although I have heard whispers that installing from a DVD creates those directories anyway.

Can you answer my question? What is the total capacity of your C: drive? Is it really 20 GB? In that case, I'm not surprised that you're out of space. It's really too small. Or did you mean that you usually have 20 GB free?

As to what else could be on your drive, Windows takes up a lot of space. Windows 7 especially, with its solution to "DLL Hell" that involves saving every version of a DLL that was ever installed. There is a lovely tool named Windirstat that will scan the drive and show you where the space is being used, so you can decide if it's real or all stuff in the temp folder (or somewhere in-between).

Are you aware that all of My Documents and My Pictures and My Everything Else is on the C drive by default?

Greetings. Yes, the max capacity of my C drive is 20 GB. So should I download Win 10 on a zip drive? What is build a bootable zip drive ? Do I need to run the zip drive on the PC to boot it up? Thank you.

 

[Gersech]

In plain English, which could resolve many miscommunications in the tech world, I am downloading the Win 10 update to my zip drive,which has plenty of room to do this. And now the update is continuing as normal. Thank you WyomingKnott for your help. Now I'm going back to my simple life of shearing sheep.

 

[WyomingKnott]

I will be amazed if you can upgrade Win7 in-place to Win10 on a 20 GB drive. Ever consider trading a few fleeces for a larger drive?