Updates on a Low Storage Device

[Androy518]

My device has 29.1 GB of storage total and a lot of that storage is being used by the computer and update files that are automatically installed to the computer. I am having difficulty with updates. When I initiated the updates with a 32GB flash drive, they failed because there was not enough storage. Are the updates installed to the notebook first then moved to the external storage? I also want to know if the updates will be successful if I get an external hard drive with 1TB of storage.

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Nothing gets moved anywhere automatically. Downloaded update files seem to take up space perpetually until you find and remove them. Look at this thing I did a while back:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Knowledge-Base/Updating-Windows-10-OS-on-an-HP-Stream-with-3...

I suggest installing the new 1903 Buld version of Windows 10 since it has reserved space that will try to keep enough available for upgrades. Instructions for clean install of a new Build are found in the link I gave you. I am going to try 1903 on the purple Stream pictured there and update the thread sometime next week. 

[Huffer]

As an update I have to say don't install v. 1903. It takes 7 gigs of reserved space and there is no way to release it. I put a clean install of v. 1903 on the purple stream and could not get it configured with decent useable software (Win 10, AV, MS Office) and have more than about 5 gigs available. I went back to v. 1809 and was able to do the same install and have 12 gigs free space, which is enough to make the computer useable.