W11 installation issues

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Hi folks, I have a number of issues with installing W11.  I’ve got a pretty old Dell laptop that is suddenly eating up gigabytes somewhere, and not only sending me scary warnings, but makes installing W11 impossible.  The guy at microsoft said it could be a hard drive problem.  They couldn’t find the drain.

Let’s say it’s not and I don’t have to deal with that yet.  Here are some questions around the installation I need help with:

1-If I do a factory reset of the laptop after backing it up, would the space problem conceivably go away?

2-Ditto, and would the “falling asleep after one minute” issue also go away, which is not affected by any setting no matter how many different ways I’ve tried?

3-I was told in order to back up my laptop I would have to have a completely blank formatted usb drive.  Is this true?  My usb drives are storing historical files I’d rather not find another place for unless I have to.

4-I have photoshop on my laptop, with a key, but no other copy.  Will that come back, please?

Thanks for any and all help.

Naomi

 

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WSnaomi wrote:

I’ve got a pretty old Dell laptop that is suddenly eating up gigabytes somewhere

How old ? Which CPU does it have ? If it is older than 6 years it won’t be Windows 11 compatible (Required CPU Intel 8xxx .. )

First locate where that storage is by running free portable WizTree, Treesize.. apps

You can also search ‘Storage settings’ and check which app consumes your storage space.

Factory reset will wipe all Windows updates, software installed by you and data on drive C.

WSnaomi wrote:

I was told in order to back up my laptop I would have to have a completely blank formatted usb drive

You can create as many full image copy backups on your USB drive providing free space on the drive.
Image copies are just files like any other and they don’t erase current data on the drive.

I have photoshop on my laptop, with a key, but no other copy. Will that come back, please?

Reset will erase all software installed by you on drive C.
If you also have a drive D: (partition, separate drive) it won’t be effected.

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What I meant is if Photoshop is on the backup, and I wipe the laptop, will Photoshop reinstall when I restore the backup?

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The backup – assuming it is an image backup – is an exact copy of the files on disk. When you restore it you return to the point at which you made the backup.
In short, YES.

cheers, Paul

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Hi, thanks for the replies.

RE: CPU, mine is Pentium(R) Silver N5000.

RE: Wiztree, this is all kind of foreign to me and it looked like it required a credit card, I’m reluctant to do that. THe assist at Microsoft looked everywhere on my computer (twice) and couldn’t find the storage hog.

So I’m confused about the backup. If I have a back up on an external drive (including Photoshop) and wipe my laptop, wouldn’t the re-install include photoshop? It seems you’re suggesting everything would disappear. I think we just have a confusion of syntax here.

Would restoring the backup restore Windows 10, defeating the purpose?

thanks.

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I’d stick to W10 (you still have a year) until you sort out the space hog / what you are going to do with the old machine.

I use Treesize free and it never requires a CC to download. It has a nice easy sort by size listing.

cheers, Paul

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WSnaomi

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WSnaomi wrote:

RE: CPU, mine is Pentium(R) Silver N5000

It is Windows 11 compatible.

Wiztree portable is free and doesn’t need CC or installation.

WSnaomi wrote:

So I’m confused about the backup. If I have a back up on an external drive (including Photoshop) and wipe my laptop, wouldn’t the re-install include photoshop? It seems you’re suggesting everything would disappear. I think we just have a confusion of syntax here.

You asked about reset which will bring your laptop to the state you bought it which mean everything installed since than will have to be reinstalled.

Image backups are for restoring PC to its former state after a crash, virus, faulty update…

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ps You can try to repair-install Windows 10 that may fix bugs, storage space… while keeping all your software and data.

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/6000015-repair-install-of-windows-10-22h2/

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WizTree Portable Link (FREE) as desired…

https://www.diskanalyzer.com/download

W10 Pro 22H2 / Hm-Stdnt Ofce '16 C2R / Macrium Pd vX / GP=2 + FtrU=Semi-Annual + Feature Defer = 1 + QU = 0

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Hi Craig,  I was able to download wiztree (thank you) but the files were nothing I would know to delete.  They’re all programming files.  I have almost nothing of my own on this laptop.  Corrupt hard drive? Bloatware?  This space issue is new.  The snip attached shows the very largest files.

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Click on the + signs of Program files and Program data to open the list.

WSnaomi wrote:

I have almost nothing of my own on this laptop

Your Program data and Program files contain your own software and software data.
Both are too big.

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You do not have a software issue, your hard disk is too small for much beyond a basic Windows installation.

As you still have over 20GB free you can either live with the minor issues, or install a shiny new SSD. 
I’d install a new SSD and leave the machine on W10 – you still have over 18 months to decide what to do with W10.

WSnaomi wrote:

“falling asleep after one minute” issue

See this thread: https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/annoying-logoff-after-one-minute/

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

As you still have over 20GB free

900MB (0.8%) free.

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b

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Don’t know where I got 20GB from?!
Still needs a new disk.

cheers, Paul

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Alex5723

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WSnaomi,
I’d also advise sticking with W10 for now. As W10 isn’t getting any more ‘Fcreature updates’ beyond 22H2, consider disabling ‘Reserved Storage’ to free up circa 7Gb on a x64 based OS.

Right click Powershell shortcut in your start menu and click run as admin (input admin password) then copy&paste commandlet 1 within the code field.

1. To Disable Reserved Storage:

Dism /Online /Set-ReservedStorageState /State:Disabled

After inputting commandlet 1, allow HDD activity to calm down, it may take a while on a HDD, then restart device.

See how much space you have regained after a restart.

UNDO:
If you wish to revert back to system defaults for any reason, run the commandlet 2 below within PS (as admin)

2. To re-enable the default

DISM /Online /Set-ReservedStorageState /State:Enabled

There are more avenues to claw back storage space by deprovisioning unused apps, clearing winsxs redundancy from the componentstore etc…without affecting the system integrity.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Paul T

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Microfix: awesome!!! I was able to get back 10GB turning off the reserved storage state. Thanks for posting and I was just now able to give it a try. Really appreciate that.

Naomi

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Which model of laptop is it?

The N5000 is a low end CPU that was often used in affordable Chromebooks, which were also sold by their OEMs as cheap Windows PCs with a firmware change. These often came with eMMC onboard storage, usually quite limited in size, and these were not swappable. Some units, like my Acer Swift 1 (SF113-31-P5CK) had an additional M.2 slot internally that was unpopulated by default, but if not, the internal storage is not upgradeable.

My Acer Swift 1 had an N4200. I bought the unit on closeout, and its replacement model, the SF114, had the N5000 (and a 14 inch display in the same externally-sized case). It was actually a decent little laptop for its cost. Not fast, but it was very thrifty with power. I liked it… I wished it had more RAM (not upgradeable), but otherwise, quite decent. My experience with the Swift 1 is partly why I bought the Swift Go (which I am using now to type this message) in my .sig below.

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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Ascaris: Yup, its an N5000 and can’t upgrade the RAM. Thanks for the additional details!

Naomi

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Run cleanmgr (Win + R cleanmgr) and click ‘Clean system files’. Look at what is taking up most space and get rid of it.

As for the ‘falling asleep’ thing, it’s probably caused by a Power setting, so you should check those settings.

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Thanks Simon, I’ve run through the clean manger before. I think I just have a small disk, although it never complained before. I’m running with a bare minimum of programs.

As far as the screen sleeping issue, that was thankfully resolved by going into the the display settings, rather than power settings.

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