… and if I recall, you bought this beast fairly recently.

Microsoft has, on occasion, made some pitiful decisions after OEM’s came a cryin’, begging them to lower their already low hardware standards. Of course, they complied. Vista on a single core CPU with only 512-MB of RAM was an abomination. Putting Windows on a 32-GB drive is absolute insanity, and shows no forward thinking put into the original decision at all. Microsoft should pay to have 64-GB drive installed to replace the 32-GB one.

Maybe if Windows wasn’t such a bloated beast, 32 GB would be fine. It’s getting bigger and bigger every year. My Windows 10 install takes 23 GB with updates not including installers and package cache. If you include all things MS on my system it’s around 35 GB. Compare that with my Debian xfce install of 4.8 GB that can do all the same office tasks and more.

The problem is mainly from Microsoft’s policy on backward compatibility and updates. It’s great that I can run almost any Windows application from the past 20+ years but it’s also causing all the update headaches and bloat.

The NT kernels life span(1993-now) is longer than that of MS-DOS(1981-2000). MS has stagnated on creating a newer New Technology(NT) but something needs to be done to bring PC computing into the present. They could have the best of both worlds, borrowing from Linux, Chrome OS and OSX to create a fast stable and secure system while leveraging virtualization technology to have backwards compatibility for those who need it. Who knows how many dedicated Windows users they would alienate in the process though.

We seem to be in the middle of the Windows dark ages and I’m looking forward to a time when we can say goodbye to all the headaches that surround our computers.

Susan Bradley wrote:

My infamous Acer 32 gig max hard drive got 1903 offered up to it.  I did not attach an external USB hard drive, rather I left the internal drive and t
[See the full post at: Patch Lady – for those keeping track]

ehhh, message is “clear”:  All consumers must buy new hardware every 12 months.

So I let it go for it… and….. and…. and…

Once again once it kicked a reboot it gave the message that it couldn’t find the mounted drive and would not finish the upgrade to 1903.

Dear Microsoft, you should have trained your AI to check for free space, compatible HW drivers… use installed drivers instead of replacing drivers…

32GB is fine for an android phone or tablet and linux but not Windows 10.

I’m reading posts in forums with folks having the same issue Susan is facing. If the update is next to impossible and it is for a “normal” user, then the people won’t update to another version.

MS only offers support/patches for the flavors of Windows 10 Home and Pro for 18 months. How many unpatched Windows 10 computers will be out there surfing the net?

what is the model number of that Acer computer w/ the 32Gb drive, Susan Bradley?

It’s not only Microsoft’s fault but also Acer’s fault for making such a machine with paltry storage space.

perhaps take up or mention the storage problem in the Acer community forums:
https://community.acer.com/en/

Susan,

I am using this as a means to convey 7/26/19 Master-Patch-List errors as I could find no other way.  (Perhaps a link should be on the Master Patch List – for error reports only, questions and comments to the lounge?)

Under Windows 8.1/Server 2012 R2:  The “Security-only” item has a double error in it.  The listed Patch Number is for a Cumulative IE 11 patch, an alternative to the listed Internet Explorer 11 patch for Win8.1, but the necessary one for Server 2012 R2 – as I understand it.  The link labeled by that Patch Number is to the Monthly Rollup.  The correct Patch Number is 4507457 as in your blog.

Here comes some comment:   (1) This Security-Only patch, as I read it, is not offered by Windows Update, only through the Microsoft Update Catalog.  Is this unusual?  (I hope.)  (2) Both of the two NET Framework patches looked like a can of worms to this untutored eye.  I did not install them and Windows Update, run after all other patches were installed, did not offer them.

I know someone who has a similar (but older) device – a 32 GB eMMC Acer Cloudbook that came with 1507. It’s a cheap laptop that he wanted to use simply to browse the Internet. He used it with 1507 until November 2018 when he had me fix it for him. I managed to use the  the Media Creation Tool and two USB flash drives to get it to upgrade to 1803 at the time. I’m still waiting for him to return it to me so that he can get 1903 installed on it.

Some folks who purchase these devices think they are getting a bargain. Little do they know that they basically purchased a ‘throw-away’ device. Hopefully they have some IT savvy friends who can fix it for them twice a year. I tell those that I know that there is no such thing as a cheap new Windows 10 laptop or tablet. If their budget is $250 or less, they’re better off with something else, such as an Android tablet.

Dear Patch Lady, you have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the OEM of your ASUs is not someone to be trusted with one’s $$$ when it sends it with Windows 10 installed knowing full well that it will be hard or impossible to upgrade it to some future Win 10 version, and that this will be sooner rather than later given the pace of such upgrades.

Having accomplished that, you are now entirely free to use your Acer to the full by installing some flavor of LINUX that will fit in your 32 GB with room to spare and serve your reasonable needs well (as long as you do not use it for CAD design of ultra-modern skyscrapers or playing hyperrealistic 3-D games), and can be used unchanged in both software and hardware as it came from factory until and unless you feel like updating it.

I can’t see buying a Windows PC with anything less then 128Gb storage and 8 Gb RAM. I hope you got a good deal on that laptop Susan because more then likely it will be impossible to upgrade anything on it. I would rather buy a cheap notebook with a slow spin drive and then upgrade it to a SSD. It seems PC makers are rather stingy with these Chromebook killers which are really not that useful.

Because I dual-boot Windows and Linux, I go for at least a 250GB SSD. Only Intel core-ix processors (for Linux compatibility). And 8 to 16GB RAM, which gets used by both Widnows and Linux for caching in large file transfer operations (like archiving extra copies of a backup set).

Not so long ago, ASUS and Acer, among others were selling small-capacity (32GB or even 16GB) devices which ran or booted from a required compressed Windows Image (WIMBoot devices). these could not be converted to Linux due to the required WIM during boot-up.  The WIM was inside a ROM which could be written to about eight times before it would become unwritable.  Upgrading these devices, which were sold as 2-in-1 netbooks, was nearly impossible. They could barely survive a year of CUs. Did I mention they were also 64-bit hardware but tied to a 32-bit WIM and OS? They were running Windows 10.

So things could be worse, Susan, and they have been worse.

Cheap is as cheap does. But if you want to go really cheap, use a free OS — Linux!

(Bonus for kids — they may learn how to write code. Linux is very adaptable if you learn how to do some stuff in the Command Line. Many kids see this as a game, not a chore.)

I just upgraded my Lenovo Ideapad 100s from 1803 to 1903 using Windows Update. I had to run disk cleanup first, which freed about 9.97 GB of space, before I could kick off the in-place upgrade. It took awhile on the eMMC SSD in this thing, but I’m happily typing this message along on 1903 in Firefox.

I don’t know why I had success and you had failure; my system is a similar spec to a Stream (Intel Atom CPU, 32GB eMMC SSD drive, 2GB RAM, microSD slot). I’m counting my blessings that I didn’t have the sorts of issues that you have had with yours.

And if I may (on the Linux suggestion) – the issue I’ve had with that is, these systems (or at least my Ideapad 100s) comes with a 64-bit CPU and a 32-bit UEFI BIOS. After using a 64-bit Ubuntu ISO along with a 32-bit UEFI bios file, I was able to get Ubuntu installed, however sound does not work because the sound drivers are supposedly somehow tied to the CPU and there are no sound drivers that work under Linux. Been there, done that.

mn– wrote:

anonymous wrote:

The problem is mainly from Microsoft’s policy on backward compatibility and updates. It’s great that I can run almost any Windows application from the past 20+ years but it’s also causing all the update headaches and bloat.

It’s not *required* to cause all that much bloat if that were done reasonably.
I’m told Xinuos OpenServer 5 Definitive 2018 can still run MS Xenix applications from way back in the 80s…

Now, optional cross- and backwards-compatibility support as optional virtualization libraries… hm, yeah, I’ve seen that before. All you need is a robust hypervisor and…

Indeed, as someone knowing their way around the Windows inner workings, I find that the biggest sources of bloat are the following (Numbers are from Win8.1)

1. Making Windows Installer cache complete MSI files for uninstall, not just the uninstall scripts (instead of fixing the code that checks the signatures on those MSIs) wastes more space than any other part of the the Windows directory.

2. Keeping almost all files that might be installed (including old versions) under WinSxS wastes about 2 to 3 GB.

3. Dotnet is more than 2 GB.

4. Using an almost complete copy of the 32-bit system32 instead of stubs calling their 64 bit counterparts wastes more than 1 GB

5. Keeping an uncompressed copy of all potentially available drivers wastes hundreds of MB to some GB

6. The Windows update format introduced with NT 6.00 (CBS) forces updates to include a lot of actually unchanged files, thus wasting space in the update-download directories.

7. The cumulative update policy (patchocalypse) caused every monthly update to be the size of a full service pack DVD, instead of just the files changed that month, with rare cumulative service packs.

8. The decision to store the entire install image on the hard drive instead of keeping it on a pristine read-only media.

9. Various things implemented more than once wastes additional space.

don’t have enough room.. cleaned up the C drive… C drive and the SSD drive

couldn’t find the mounted drive

Mounted?
Ok, later in the thread we learn about an SD card,
which presents a mixture of space and mounting issues, which I would like to tease apart.

If someone’s C + SSD were to amount to enough room, would the installation still choke on the presence of an SD card?

Hi, Susan. I’ve had problems with a woefully underprovisioned computer, too.

My granddaughter was given an HP Stream Notebook a few years ago which came with Windows 8 installed. The Stream has a 32GB SSD as its C: drive, two USB ports, and a memory card reader. Quite some time ago I slipped in a 64GB memory card and relocated to it the folders named Pictures, Downloads, Videos, etc.
Over the years I have upgraded it (first to 8.1, then to each version of Windows 10 in turn) until version 1903 came out.
Each time I contemplated upgrading her Notebook I first made sure that I had all the drivers from HP.
Each time I created an image of the current operating system (so I could always restore the image in case anything went “pear shaped”).

Each time I upgraded the system it required more storage than the paltry little 32GB SSD (Windows would ask for extra storage indicating that it needed at least another 10GB). So I would plug in a newly formatted 32GB flash drive each time (and that satisfied its need).
Each attempted upgrade worked but a few times I had to reinstall the Touchpad driver afterward. (When the touchpad didn’t work after upgrading, I simply plugged in a mouse or trackball and managed to reinstall the Notebook’s touchpad driver.)

Then a few months ago I began trying to upgrade the system from version 1809 to 1903. Those attempts failed repeatedly until this week.

Monday night the 1903 upgrade worked! (It worked even though I did nothing differently than the five times it failed over the last two months.)
Her Notebook is now running Windows 10 Home version 1903 (OS Build 18362.267).

Here’s hoping that perhaps you, too, will have success next time you attempt to upgrade to 1903.

rc primak wrote:

Calling it an SSD when it’s soldered in and has the quality of Flash Drive NAND, is a completely misleading misnomer. This type of memory is about as reliable as a camera card, and should never be marketed as storage or internal “memory”. Let alone being marketed as an SSD.

SOLIDly STATionary Device

Hi Susan:

I use a product called SyncBack SE.  It comes from 2brightsparks.com, and is the best backup software I’ve ever come across.  It has a free version, but you get no tech support if you go that way.

SyncBack SE backs up in native file format, which i think is important because you need no extra software to view the backed up files…just File Explorer.  It can do what you want–send a message when the backup fails.  I do have that enabled.  It can also back up over almost any connection type.  I use it locally to back up my data to external drives, and I use it to back up my data off-site through the Win10 VPN.  Works great.  AND lets me know if it fails to run.  It runs from my Admin account, even though I’m logged into the Standard User Account.

And no, I am not related to the company in any way.  But I do like to brag on great software, and this is a great product!