How can I upgrade a Stream 11 with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update?

[DrHow]

I know Windows Update can't do it.  I think the Media Creation Tool can.  But I would like see an explicit pointer to  instructions which are regarded as complete, effective, and safe by HP.

[WAWood]

DrHow

Wish I had good news for you, but I don't.

LOTS of folks have come here complaining that after Updating their Stream PCs to Win10, they can not do any of the Cumulative Updates.

Evidently, the workarounds for the initial Win10 Upgrade that allowed folks to select extra storage (USB stick or SD card) do NOT work with Windows Update.

For more info, see the post by hugbearaz on page 3 of this thread: Solved: Upgrade Windows 10 on HP Stream 11. - HP Support Forum - 5168621

Good Luck

[kyle_b]

If the Windows 10 Anniversary Update no longer supports pointing to extra storage to complete the upgrade, then the other option is a fresh install of Windows 10 using a USB created by the Media Creation Tool.  You would have to save off your personal data first of course.  There are some instructions in the thread posted above and another guide here.

[DrHow]

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@WAWood wrote:

@DrHow

Wish I had good news for you, but I don't.

LOTS of folks have come here complaining that after Updating their Stream PCs to Win10, they can not do any of the Cumulative Updates.

Evidently, the workarounds for the initial Win10 Upgrade that allowed folks to select extra storage (USB stick or SD card) do NOT work with Windows Update.

For more info, see the post by hugbearaz on page 3 of this thread: Solved: Upgrade Windows 10 on HP Stream 11. - HP Support Forum - 5168621

Good Luck

Why are you referring me to an thread about upgrading from  8.1 to 10?  I did that successfully a long time ago.  Furthermore, regular cumulative updates (the only kind nowadays) have been proceeding normally.  It is my understanding that the Anniversary Update will not install like the regular updates.  Indeed, Windows Update has not even attempted it.

[DrHow]

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@kyle_b wrote:

If the Windows 10 Anniversary Update no longer supports pointing to extra storage to complete the upgrade, then the other option is a fresh install of Windows 10 using a USB created by the Media Creation Tool.  You would have to save off your personal data first of course.  There are some instructions in the thread posted above and another guide here.

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Are you sure that the USB created by Media Creation Tool cannot do an upgrade as opposed to a clean install?  An upgrade is all I want.  Indeed, I was able to achieve just an upgrade when I went from 8.1 to 10.

[kyle_b]

Yes, you can do an upgrade with the USB if you have enough disk space, I did one on my Stream 7 tablet, I already had Windows 10 installed and then upgraded to the Anniversary Edition.  There have been reports here however that it no longer gives the option to point to additional disk space to complete the install so in that case, a fresh install would be the only option.

[DrHow · Accepted solution]

Since I have now successfully done the upgrade, I will follow up by describing my experience for anyone else who is concerned with this and who found this thread.  The short version is that, if you can free up 8GB of storage, the Media Creation Tool can do the upgrade and it does not require any additional storage at all.

I had intended to put it off until I learned more.  However, to my surprise, Windows Update downloaded the 'update' and indicated that it wanted to install it, but was having trouble with respect to disk space.  Contrary to what kyle_b claimed, it did suggest pointing to extra storage, and I pointed it to a 32GB SD card which had plenty of room.  It proceeded to create a 3GB $WINDOWS.~TMP file on it.  After which it tried the installation.  That failed.  When I chased that in Update History all I could find is a statement of the fact that it had failed without any explanation.  I was not surprised, as I had heard that Windows Update can't do it.  What did surprise me was that it ever even undertook to do it in the first place on machine so strapped for disk space that it could not work.

I figured it was too dumb to stop trying and that this was going to be a hassle, and so I had better go ahead and see if I could make it happen with the Media Creation Tool.  I had to fiddle around deleting some stuff and uninstalling some programs to get my unused space up to 8GB.  Then I did some backing up to another computer on my LAN of a few files I could not afford to lose, and I fooled around on that other computer for a while. 

I came back to the laptop, downloaded the Media Creation Tool, and started it.  It balked, saying I did not have enough free storage.  Indeed, I discovered that I no longer had 8GB free!  Windows Update had downloaded the 'update' (about 3GB) for the Anniversary Update again.  Took me a while to find that.  So I just deleted Update's Download folder to get back to at least 8GB free.

I tried the Media Creation Tool again, and everything went well.  Suprisingly, it did not need any extra storage beside the 8GB which were free on the main drive.  (I.e., I never plugged in any USB drive or SD card.)  Also surprisingly, after removing the files required to return to the older version of Windows, my disk space is now up to 10GB.  I.e., I actually gained a little space.  Not what one would expect.  Apparently MS managed to trim some fat.

[pjc123]

I just upgraded to the Anniversary Update using an external hard drive.  The option to use external space was recently added to the Anniversary Update.  See my post here for some caveats:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Notebook-hard-drive-too-small-t...