I need to get an external hard drive

[marciliam]

i was told i needed to get an external hard drive because i am running out of room on laptop, i need to know what type of external hard drive to get

[CherylG]

@marciliam

The main issue is you have a 32gb eMMC internal drive which is soldered to the motherboard similiar to smartphones and not upgradeable. You can hook up an external usb hard drive or even use an SD card in the slot for extra storage. Problem is Windows will not use it for much except  allowing you to move pictures, documents and other personal files to it.  If I was going to opt for external storage I would use an SD card which can be left in place and moves with the laptop. Something like Sandisk Extreme cards. If you prefer external hdd- Western Digital Passport is a good one.

Honestly what works best is to do a clean install of Windows which clears everything off the drive and installs fresh copy and frees up a lot of space. Of course, if you have files.photos and things you do need to move them to an SD card or external hdd first because it will delete them. If you think you want to try that post back.

[marciliam]

I do not have a slot for an SD card, so it looks like i would have to use external hdd.  I just bought this laptop refurbished, so i do not know if that makes a difference.  I do know that when my old laptop crashed it held a lot more than this.  It had windows 10.  I really think i am going to do the uninstall and reinstall as long as it can be done on this laptop.  My next question is i also have One Drive so when i set laptop up and signed in my pics and everything else showed up, nothing else except Microsoft Word on laptop, do i still need external hdd?

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

With OneDrive you can store all of your files in the cloud so not really a need for external hdd in my opinion. Completely user choice.

The eMMC drive may eventually run out of space as Windows runs updates and a clean install will be the only thing that frees space but for now as long as updates are successful you can let it go for awhile.

[marciliam]

So just to be sure i can do an uninstall and reinstall without the external hdd, because my stuff is in the cloud?

[CherylG]

@marciliam

Yes. As long as you have OneDrive setup to synchronize all files to the cloud they will be there when you  login at OneDrive online or setup the Onedrive app on laptop and login after clean install. OneDrive is pretty neat feature. For instance even if you were on someone else's machine you could go to OneDrive site and login to see your files.

Of course if you just wanted a second backup you could use an external hdd to keep a copy also. Or a usb flash drive that plugs into usb port. Flash drives are pretty inexpensive now even in 32gb-64gb size.

https://www.amazon.com/PNY-Turbo-32GB-Flash-Drive/dp/B00FDUHD2K/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1526527824&sr...

 Or:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Low-Profile-Drive-SDCZ33-032G-B35/dp/B00812F7O8/ref=sr_1_6?ie=...

[CherylG]

@marciliam

For future reference this is the process I usually post for users wanting to do a clean install.

       Your Windows 10 license key is embedded in BIOS and you can reinstall Windows 10 with the latest update included. You can use another machine with free space to make this installer if you are limited on hdd space

Microsoft provides the free Media Creation Tool to download files and create a Windows 10 usb flash drive. At least 8gb flash drive required:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Select Download tool now, and select Run.
If you agree to the license terms, select Accept.
On the What do you want to do? page, select Create installation media for another PC, and then select Next.
Select the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10
The Guide here will make it less intimidating.Pay attention to Step 5 if you will be using another pc:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2376-create-bootable-usb-flash-drive-install-windows-10-a.html
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When your usb flash is prepared insert it in usb port of the laptop you want to do the clean install on .Power on the laptop and immediately start tapping Esc key. From the menu tap F9 key and use the arrow keys to move to and select usb. Tap Enter key.
After starting the Install and you go through a couple of screens - choose Custom (not upgrade) and delete each partition. Continue with installation.It should pickup the key from BIOS but if it asks at any point just choose "I don't have a key". It will continue and should activate once you are online.

This will not include the original software from HP but most of it can be installed from your Support page