Windows 10 Install on low disk space tablet

1

I have a tablet PC that has come preinstalled with Windows 8.1. The tablet has a 16GB HDD but when formatted with NTFS it has 9.66 GB of usable space. It also has a SD card slot up to 32GB.

I have been trying to upgrade the tablet to Windows 10. I have set the update files to be downloaded to the 32GB SD card and all was fine until I tried to install the upgrade. It says that it requires another 3GB of space. How sad.

I have the install.esd file which is about 2GB in size on the SD card.

Now, my question - Windows 10 requires 16GB of space... is there a way to "trick" it into installing on the 32GB memory card? Are there any other options for getting Windows 10 on this tablet?

Edit: I have also checked out using Junctions, but even with Junctions on all the files the C:\Windows directory takes up too much space. Is it possible to safely use a junction on the Windows directory?

ose

Posted 2015-12-04T10:09:59.570

Reputation: 143

Hi did you see [ 1 ] or [ 2 ] or [ 3 ]? Maybe you can find some hint...

– Hastur – 2015-12-04T10:22:45.430

@Hastur I know how to create a bootable media... I can also create a Windows 8.1 recovery USB drive but this doesn't solve the problem. I want to perform the upgrade to Windows 10. – ose – 2015-12-04T10:34:12.673

Microsoft explained here the upgrade on a 16GB device: https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/The-Defrag-Show/Defrag-Lots-of-Windows-10-Stick-PCs-PST-tips-Zombie-Libraries-and-more#time=0m36s you need 2 USB thumb drives

– magicandre1981 – 2015-12-04T18:18:01.590

NTFS uses a little more overhead than FAT32 or ExFAT but not like only 9.66GB of usable space per 16GB. The overhead is only a few percent. Have a look at how you formatted the drive – phuclv – 2016-07-30T09:07:15.600

@LưuVĩnhPhúc : the tablet probably came up formatted this way (mine did); I guess there might be a hidden recovery partition, in addition to saved system states. After installing / upgrading to Windows 10, I have now 14GB of disk space on 16GB disk. – Jakub Narębski – 2016-07-30T17:31:37.930

@JakubNarębski yes but that case the NTFS partition will be ~10GB and the remaining is for recovery. It's not like formatting the whole 16GB disk and only have 10GB for using – phuclv – 2016-07-31T11:54:38.843

@LưuVĩnhPhúc right, but 9.66 GB of usable space, most taken by the system, is all what Windows 8.1 user sees. Windows 10 offers 14GB to user. – Jakub Narębski – 2016-07-31T14:59:05.723

ah yes that's the free space. The actual volume size is much closer to 16GB – phuclv – 2016-07-31T15:17:01.427

Answers

0

As the tablet is NTFS, you can 'Compress' all files and folders on it, same for the memory card. That might just give you the extra space you need, and if you want, you could uncompress after the installation is successful.

Aganju

Posted 2015-12-04T10:09:59.570

Reputation: 9 103

@asu: were you able to install MS Windows 10 using this method? – Jakub Narębski – 2016-07-28T19:18:09.067

1

I was able to install Windows 10 on similar low disk space tablet (Kiano Intelect 8 3G MS) following instructions in Installing Windows 10 on 16GB tablet article, and some other guides; this assumes that said tablet has support for microSD storage and USB OTG (most do).

You would need:

  • microSD with at least 10GB free space (my tablet supports up to 32GB microSDHC, and you would need one anyway, because 10GB of usable space for whole system, that is around 2GB-4GB for user, is ridiculously low). Note that microSD alone is not enough (because it needs some files on C:, for some reason).

    I have seen the following microSD recommended:

    • SanDisk Extreme 32GB
    • Samsung Evo+ 32GB

  • USB pendrive with at least 3GB space - I think it needs to be completely empty. You would want to either use dual USB/micro-USB pendrive with OTG support, or use ordinary USB pendrive and OTG cable (which you should have got with your tablet).

    I have used

    • Kingston 16GB DataTraveler microDuo

Steps to install/upgrade to Windows 10:

  1. Free disk space on tablet. You can, among others, remove old savepoints using cleanup tool from Windows, selecting Remove system files button.
  2. On a separate computer download Media Creation Tool.

  3. Run this tool (you would need admin rights) to download Windows 10 image to USB pendrive

    • Use second option called Create installation media for another PC
    • Preferred options would be English (United States) - to keep size low as you can download language pack later, Windows 10 Home, 32-bit
    • Select USB flash drive as a place to save the image (the other option is to generate ISO image for DVD

  4. As cheap tablets usually have only one microUSB port, you need to charge tablet to 100%

  5. Connect USB flash drive with MS Windows 10 image to your tablet, and run setup.exe

  6. Choose to not install updates for Windows 10; you can do it later, and it minimizes disk space needed for install

  7. As we're lacking space on such low-end device, software will ask as for some other drive when it can store temp files and Windows Restore files. For that let's choose our microSD card from dropdown list, and hit Refresh

  8. Then you are asked if you want to keep settings and files, keep files (and apps), or do a full reinstall

Jakub Narębski

Posted 2015-12-04T10:09:59.570

Reputation: 463

the OP wants to upgrade, which is far more difficult than simply reinstall – phuclv – 2016-07-30T09:11:09.490

@LưuVĩnhPhúc : actually it is possible to do an upgrade this way; you will be asked if you want to do update in place, or do a full reinstall - a step which I have added to the list. – Jakub Narębski – 2016-07-30T17:29:41.647

Asked: 2015-12-04T10:09:59.570

Viewed: 2 009 times

Active: 2016-09-19T10:57:13.377