F.23 BIOS update can't be done due to EFI GPT System Partition almost full

[delavega79]

Hello all, I've already done in past Bios updates (Ami) on this product and all was OK with the very same Windows 11 Home, which was allowing in the past to update my HP Bios smoothly till rel F.22. No Issue as I'm still running now F22. Some days ago HP released Bios upgrade F.23 and I want to update it. It's a must, as I wanna keep my hardware always up-to-date to the latest Bios. I was than attempting to run the update in W11 from F.22 to F.23 and it failed to initiate the Bios update because it returned the error: "there is not enough free disk space to complete the System BIOS and Device Firmware update operation. Delete some files to free disk space than retry again." -- I've checked the EFI GPT System Partition (hidden) and it shows me only 20 MB of free disk space. I believe this is exactly the issue. My question to you is : How can i access to this EFI GPT partition by Command Prompt in W11 to delete some unnecessary file in there and allowing the Bios Update to be done?

I'm expecting to delete some unimportant files like the .ttf True Type Fonts files or things like this.. 

Thank you, regards, DG

[tk_srq · Accepted solution]

@delavega79,

You can use the mountvol command to assign a drive letter to the EFI system partition (ESP) and then run notepad.exe in command prompt to view the contents of the ESP in GUI mode (graphic mode). 

I believe you cannot find many files on ESP that you can safely remove, but your ESP may contain previous and/or current BIOS files (BIOS.bin file and signature file), and you may be able to remove them to make more free space in ESP. Modern HP BIOS.bin file is 16 MB in size so if you remove one or two .bin files, you may be able to perform the BIOS update. You can take the following steps:

1. Open command prompt as administrator from inside the Windows. You can use any unused drive letter to mount the ESP but here B is used. Run the following command lines (click the Enter key after each line).

                 mountvol B: /s

                 B:

                 notepad

2. Click the File tab in the notepad that opens and click Open. This will open the File Explorer. Click This PC on the left pane and click Local Disk (B:). You should see EFI. Click Text Documents (*.txt) on the lower right corner of the screen and click All Files in the dropdown window.

3. You can now view all the files in \EFI\HP folder. Stay away from the EFI\Boot and \Microsoft folders, as they contain critical boot system files. You can navigate to the \EFI\HP\BIOS\previous and \current folders to see any .bin files and .sig files there. 

4. If you see BIOS files in the \previous folder, you can save and delete them and exit out of command prompt and try the bios update. If the error is still displayed, go back to command prompt and save and delete BIOS files in the \current folder. This screenshot may be of help.

If I remember correctly, I deleted BIOS files in the \previous folder and was able to run the bios update, but I think my ESP had more free space than yours before deleting bios files.   Let us know how it goes.

[delavega79]

Hello tk_srq I’ve solved the issue, thank you so much for your support and detailed instructions provided.  I’ve deleted the whole HP folder and also another folder with Ttf files (as mentioned in a Microsoft support page) After such operations I confirm you that I had 80 MB free and this allowed the new Bios Update F23 to run smoothly as expected. Thanks you. 

[tk_srq]

You are welcome. Glad to know you were able to update the BIOS.

You didn't see any bios.bin files stored in the EFI\HP\BIOS folder? Is that the reason you deleted the entire HP folder?

I was wondering how you updated the bios after deleting the HP folder. Did you run the F23 update file and flash the bios from the Update option (first option), or a bios update usb drive (2nd option)? Your information may help other folks who are in the same situation. 

[delavega79]

You didn't see any bios.bin files stored in the EFI\HP\BIOS folder?  Yes i saw all the contents that I was expecting 

 Is that the reason you deleted the entire HP folder? No, I deleted it all, intentionally, knowing what I was doing

I was wondering how you updated the bios after deleting the HP folder -- Let me be more clear and transparent, I've solved the issue by myself before that you posted your answer to my message (to which I'm still thankful) - 

I've simply done these steps to solve completely:

- I've opened command prompt with Administrative rights

- I've used the command "mountvol y: /s" to mount the EFI System partition (hidden)

- I've used the command "Dir" to inspect the content of such volume and I've found the HP folder

- I've intentionally deleted the whole folder HP with all its content by "rd xxx /s"  - Y to confirm it 

- I've downloaded the HP package "sp155079.exe"

- I've executed it by Windows of the same PC (running F22 bios)

- I've restarted the PC when requested (and I didn't had anymore the error about no-space-to...)

- the new Bios F23 got deployed smoothly without any issue 

- End...  ME, HAPPY! 

i do believe that in the past updates (like F22 or earlier) probably the script of the HP Ami update was also taking care about emptying out the EFI partition once done the bios update. Otherwise I should have found the same error/issue even in the past.. while... instead I had it only this time. 

Let me know if you have any other queries or doubts, 

Regards,

DG