Clean install Win 10 for Stream 11-13-14-series fails using MS tool, please help

[den458]

I have 3 HP Win 10 notebook computers which are useless except for perpetually trying to solve the insufficient drive space issue. All 3 have SD-cards for personal storage, there is nothing personal on the C: drive, MS updates have used most all available space. From the MS site, I've downloaded mediacreationtool1803.exe & run it on an HP Stream 11, Stream 13 & Stream 14. As there is insufficient local space, I select the option for creating media for a different PC using a USB flash drive, then the software tool stops & tells me it needs 8 GB of free space. No option ever as described by MS to select a blank USB drive as a destination for the needed creation media. Incredibly frustrating. This is happening surely to millions of Win 10 users globally who are using a 32 GB flash-memory computer that out-of-the-box may be capable of running Win 10, but will become useless with MS updates & DEFINITELY NOT BE CAPABLE OF RUNNING WIN 10. Setting aside the bad advice from MS, this affects the HP-brand image. I'm an HP fan obviously. I want to clean install Win 10 on my Stream computers. Can HP give us clearly useful information to remove the existing partitions & do a clean Win 10 install so that these computers remain actually useful, not frustrating BRICKS ? Please do what MS cannot or will not do, please HELP us.

[REO51ST]

@den458

Have you looked here.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4013876/windows-10-freeing-up-space-to-install-latest-updat...

REO

[den458]

NO, that's not a solution for a clean Win 10 install. It appears to be advice on freeing up space for the latest Win 10 update. Freeing space is a band-aid, at best. I think the only hope for true longer-term usefulness is to delete the extra partitions & clean install Win 10. Then it might have a multi-year useful life. A notebook computer should remain useful until obsolete or a catastrophic failure. Instead, the Stream-series with 32-GB has become a consumable, like a jug of milk. The jug is useful until the milk supply is exhausted, then you recycle the useless jug. The Stream series, as-is, is useful only until the available flash memory is exhausted. Are we to treat our Stream-series useful only until updated-to-death? Then recycle them, like a milk jug ? Designed obsolescence by frustration? PLEASE. Can others contribute how to clean install Win 10 on an HP Stream-series computer?

[REO51ST]

@den458

NO it was not meant to be a SOLUTION!!!

I think you can still download W10 here.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Just to let you know.

I was building a W10 image on a Dell laptop 32GB M.2 SSD.

Fresh no add-ons.

I still ran out of space when doing updates.

Installed a 64GB M.2 and everything went great.

Uploaded the image to our server.

Best regards,

REO

[den458]

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@REO51ST wrote:

@den458

I was building a W10 image on a Dell laptop 32GB M.2 SSD.

Fresh no add-ons.  

I still ran out of space when doing updates.

Installed a 64GB M.2 and everything went great.

Uploaded the image to our server.

Best regards, REO

---

Please clarify your last response, as I don't know the "M.2" term.

Are your referencing the resident, user-nonaccessible flash memory? Or what?

You "installed a 64GB M.2 and everything went great".

I'd be excited to know that I too can install a 64GB M.2 in my Streams and everything will go great for me, too.

Can I ?

Respectfully, was your reply relevent & helpful in my goal to install a clean Win 10 on an HP Stream 13 ?

[REO51ST]

@den458

Give me an exact model number of just one.

Let me see what we can find.

Regards,

REO

[kyle_b]

@den458, I have done clean Window 10 installs on my Stream 11, I deleted all the partitions in this screen providing about 29 GB usable space on the eMMC drive and then I let Windows partition it up however it wants.  I usually had about 19 GB available after the installation on the C: drive. Are you saying that no longer works? 

I'm confused when you ask "Can HP give us clearly useful information to remove the existing partitions", isn't that pretty straight forward using the above screen?  Are you not booting from the install USB?

Or are you saying the Media Creation Tool does not have enough room to create the install USB?  If so, you can download an ISO file of the media and burn it to a USB.

Also, there are some guides online where certain SSD drives can be installed in the Stream's Wifi card slot, the downside being you lose your built-in Wifi and have to use USB Wifi.

[CherylG]

@den458

The problem is- you must use another computer with free space to make the  usb flash drive with Windows 10 installation. Then boot the Streams from it.

If you only own Streams perhaps you have a friend or family member with a computer with  free space to make the usb. It would require 4-8gb of free space to download the files and create the flash drive. The space would be freed up after so no worries for the other owner.

The Stream,as you apparently know, has eMMC storage which is not replaceable/upgradeable. As Kyle mentioned above some Stream owners have managed to install an extra storage drive- but it is at the expense of giving up your wireless card.

[den458]

Thanks for all replies so far. I did use another computer to download the Win 10 ISO, & burn it to disk, tweak the BIOS (Legacy enabled, Secure Boot disabled, reorder boot devices) to boot from a USB disk drive, selected CUSTOM install, deleted all partitions, loaded Win 10. True, it appears my "32gb" is just 29.1GB before Win 10 install. Immediately after Win 10 install, I have 17GB free, then with more fresh updates about 13.7GB free. Updated Windows Defender definitons. I next installed a 128GB SD card & was careful to set options for ALL new apps, docs, music & photos to be saved to that SD drive.  Installed Google Chrome browser & Acrobat Reader. Specified SD card install of MS Office University. I've returned this Stream 13 to usefulness, having directed each app that allowed it to the SD card. Didn't yet (& may not) turn-on the Protection option that will consume some user-determined further sacrifice of C: space, & I'm now at 9.02GB free. I wonder how long this new lease on usefulness will last? How soon will Windows impossibly insist on my freeing up some space again? I hope I've bought myself another 2 useful years. But a dark cloud hovers, the idea that I'll again experience Windows updating my laptop to death.

BTW, I'm intrigued with the idea (provided in a previous post) that I might be able to sacrifice internal wi-fi functionality to supplement internal storage, assuming I can offset that wi-fi loss with a USB-connected wi-fi adapter.

Would that new storage supplement the C: drive (positively extending the usefulness) or just be another (marginally useful) drive like the SD? I have Model: 13-c010nr. I'm sure others with the Stream 11-13-14-series are interested as well. Thanks in advance.

[CherylG]

@den458

Happy to hear this solved the immediate problem and can only hope it does buy you an additional couple of years. Microsoft is supposedly working an a version of Win 10 that is much less footprint that will be helpful for Stream and other machines with small internal storage. 

Whether adding a drive in the wifi slot would work any different than the sd card is something I can't answer. My instinct is that it would be the same. If somehow you could get Windows to install on that drive and all programs it would be great- but I have my reservations about the Stream actually booting from that drive. Maybe/hopefully someone will prove me wrong.

I have a tester Stream- courtesy of HP- but have not tried that. Maybe a project for the near future.