Unable to Update BIOS on Laptop Due to Lack of Disk Space - Need to Expand Support Partition

[neilhobbs]

I have attempted to update the BIOS on this laptop today - I downloaded the updater, it disabled Boot Locker and then I was greeted with the following message, regarding not enough free disk space.

 

this is not due to lack of free disk space on the C: drive.  But one of the Support Partitions.  I understand from previous conversations, with HP Support is the 'System' Partition that is shown below;

These are all of the Partitions that the Microsoft-provided Windows 11 23H2 Installer creates by default.  At the sizes that they do.  However, the HP BIOS Updaters require more space to execute.  Therefore. I will need to reinstall Windows 11, using the new Windows 11 24H2 Installer, but specify custom sizes for the 'System' partition.

HP Support gave me the information, which included a confirmation on the Partition that is used and the size that it needed to be.  Unfortunately, I have lost this information - during a device failure.

Can someone confirm which Partition or Partitions that need to be sized appropriately?  In addition, what those sizes those Partitions need to be?

Many thanks!!

[tk_srq]

@neilhobbs,

The disk the error message is referring to is the EFI system partition (ESP), and the diskpart screenshot you posted indicates your ESP is 100 MB in size. 

If you clean install W11 24H2, the ESP will be 100 MB again, as that is the default size when Windows is clean installed.

You can increase the size of the ESP using command prompt. There are many how-to videos in YouTube. You can also increase the ESP size fairly easily if you use third-party partition management software pro version, which you have to pay for.

The error message suggests that some files be deleted to free up the space. If your ESP stores some BIOS files, you may be able to safely delete them to create the enough free space for the BIOS update.

See this thread for how to find and delete BIOS files on the ESP.

Solved: BIOS update - HP Support Community - 9351669

[neilhobbs]

@tk_srq

Thank you for the response on this.  The information is very helpful!!

I have had a look at the EFI\HP folder and the subfolders using Notepad and specifying to view all files and I can't find a lot to delete, as this is what I have found;

• the EFI drive is only 96MB in size and it only has 46.7MB of free space
• I have left the 'EFI\Boot' and the 'EFI\Microsoft' folders alone!
• the EFI\HP folder is 15.6MB in size
• the EFI\HP\BIOS contains three (3) subfolders - Current, New and Previous - all of these are empty
• the EFI\HP\BIOSUpdate folder is only 1.84MB in size and contains the following files

This is the contents of the EFI\HP folder;

Therefore, I don't seem to have any old BIOS Updater files on the Partition.

Therefore, I think I may need to go about reinstalling Windows 11 24H2 using the Installer Media USB and specifying a larger and custom size for this Partition.  Are you able to advise on what size I should make this Partition?

Many thanks in advance,

Kind regards,

Neil

[tk_srq · Accepted solution]

One quick thing you can do is to delete the \EFI\HP folder to create enough free space for the BIOS update.

You referred to the thread I linked for how to view the content of EFI partition. See the 2nd reply of the author which says the person deleted the \HP folder and successfully updated the BIOS.

If you hesitate to delete the \HP folder, you can first copy and save the \HP folder in the root directory of the C:\drive then delete the folder. This should hopefully create enough free space. But this is just the temporary solution.

As I said earlier, clean installation of Windows creates the100 MB ESP by default, and there's no option to increase the ESP size during the installation process, unless you know something that I don't know of.

There are many tutorial videos for how to increase the ESP size. This video shows how to create a 1 GB (1024 MB) EFI partition, but I would say 500 MB would be more than enough.

How to Increase EFI System Partition Size | Increase System Partition Size

[neilhobbs]

Thank you.  Yes I read that through that thread.  I will try delete the \EFU\HP folder the next time, I am on power to see how that goes.

I remember having a WhatsApp chat with HP Support who gave me the steps to create custom System Partitions, along with the sizes they recommended, during the install of Windows 11.  Unfortunately, I've lost that chat.

I'll let you know how I get on with the removal of the \EFI\HP folder

[neilhobbs]

I have just deleted the EFI\HP folder and ran the BIOS Updater to F.30 for my HP device and it worked successfully!  So this is a workable, workaround for now.

Upon inspecting the EFI Partition, following the BIOS update - I can see a new EFI\HP folder, which is now 23MB in size and full of BIOS updating files.  So I can confirm that the HP BIOS Updaters no longer clean up after themselves.  I will give it a few days and if there is no changes - I will delete it.

I would also say that Microsoft should be updating their Windows 11 Installer to create a 1GB EFI Partition.

Thank you for your assistance!!

[tk_srq]

Glad that you were able to update the BIOS after deleting the \HP folder.

The HP BIOS update is performed with BIOS update utility whose files are stored in the \EFI\HP\BIOSUpdate folder.

If you delete the HP folder and run a downloaded new BIOS update softpaq and select the 'update' option, it cannot find the BIOS update utility in the EFI partition so it creates the new HP folder and install necessary BIOS utility files to execute the BIOS update.

next time you try to update the BIOS, you may need to delete some stored BIOS files or even the \HP folder again. If you don't mind this extra work, you don't need to increase the ESP size.

If my previous reply that suggested that you delete the \HP folder helped you successfully update the BIOS, please mark the reply as an accepted solution and helpful reply (Thums up). This will help other folks with the same issue easily identify the solution. Thank you.

[neilhobbs]

Yep.  That is what I'm thinking, I'll need to do.  It's not that involved, now that I know what to do