Windows 10: Storage Space Issue

Edit: Ignore this - see KYHI's comment on single instancing below.

You might also try using Advanced Startup to boot to a command prompt and delete it from there.
Option Two in this
Command Prompt at Boot - Open in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

then
Code: del C:\Recovery\Customizations\usmt.ppkg exit[/quote]

 

Trying safe mode - either booting to safe mode with or without networking or the command prompt I am greeted by a login screen. When I type in my usual login password I am informed it is incorrect. I have done this several times with the same result. Is there a weird generic password used for safe mode or something?

I'm aware I have been wandering around in this thread - further away from the initial topic of drive space. I have managed to salvage 9 GB of space following the suggestions above. I have the windows update service disabled until I get this all sorted because it was chewing through my metered bandwidth (even though it was set to metered) continuously downloading and then failing - stupid unintelligent Win 10. When I return home (I am still on the road) I will update. I would still like to delete this pesky package file, however.

 

CREATE a recovery Drive....

 

I forgot about this.

From here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...=vs.85%29.aspx

So if this had been applied by the OEM, it would mean that the usmt.ppkg file (the 'provisioning package') would contain the only copy of some applications, with Program Files folders only containing pointers to the usmt file. This would also explain why Windows won't let you delete the usmt.ppkg file easily, and I think deleting it could be a bad idea.

 

I see. Okay, I'd better leave it where it is.
Thanks all for your tips. I now have about 9 GB to play around with and a recovery USB drive in case anything goes horribly wrong.





This should be enough space to do the update when I arrive home. Curiously, usmt.ppkg doesn't show up under the 'other' category now.

 

Ok now the question is - what is on the drive that you wish to keep ??
Files - programs - etc ??

Also is this a touch device ???

The reason I ask is now that you have the recovery drive - you can re-apply recovery without the customizations package (ppkg)
By simply renaming the "Recovery" Folder to "Recovery.old"

you can now also do a clean install - insert the recovery USB and double-click the .ppkg to install the customizations..

Now that you have the recovery drive as a fallback you can play around with the PC..

 

Okay folks. I have stopped my travels and for the past week have been trying to update to Windows 10 Home, version 1511, 10586. If you've followed the story thus far, I did manage to reclaim about 10 GB of space in readiness for my upgrade, thinking that should be sufficient. Now here's the thing. The 2.658 GB update file has been downloaded, I would say 8 times now, and each time I have had to delete it and begin again because I get trapped in this illogical loop from which there is no out. According to Einstein, I am insane:





But let me explain myself to see if you draw the same conclusion.
The download proceeds normally and at what seems like the end I am greeted with this window:





So I click the 'Fix issues' button and what seems like an eternity later this Window appears:





Now my computer drive is as lean as possible, I've even uninstalled all of the applications I installed after purchasing this little beast 4 weeks ago (including Norton AV) not to mention a whole lot of junk software that came preloaded with this laptop. I've compressed, deleted, uninstalled, transferred, you name it. So Disk Cleanup provides no useful avenue for me, which leaves only the option to try another drive. When I attach another drive, and click the second option, I get this screen:





In other words, no external drive shows up in the drop down list apart from my SD card, which I permanently leave inserted. So, it doesn't matter whether I attach another drive or not because I cannot use it for the update (This mightn't seem important at this stage but it becomes so, please read on.) Okay, so I use my SD card, after all it's got plenty of space. And away it goes downloading the update yet again.

Now I don't have the fastest internet connection so about 3 hours in all seems to be going well and I am asked to restart manually (because I turned off the automatic restart). Upon restarting I am greeted by a little window that I would love to show you but alas I cannot take a screen shot because my system hasn't yet loaded. So, here's what it says:

Error
Please insert the external storage media and press ok.

There's two buttons - "Ok" and 'Cancel'. The Ok option keeps returning this same error message and cancel starts the computer normally leaving a massive installation file at C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\ and one on my SD card that both need to be deleted.

I can truthfully say I am a little more than frustrated.

My current build is 10240 and I'm trying to get to 10586. I fail to see why 10+ GB is required in order to install an update. It makes no sense to me and moreover the process seems flawed for people with tiny drives. Can I download this update on my Win 7 pro desktop and somehow transfer it to my laptop because as sure as hell I cannot use Windows update?

 

When it asks you if you want to download latest updates say no.

If you say yes it downloads all updates and sticks them in a temp folder which you don't have space for.

If you say no then you'll get the updates after the upgrade through windows update (when you'll have run disk cleanup already presumably).

 

I imagine it's because windows is trying to make a backup of your old installation, so it can offer you the option to rollback within 30 days. Not that this helps you I'm afraid. *Sad

Yes you can:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/9...-download.html

 

It is worse than that. If your Windows installation is compressed it likes to make an uncompressed backup.

Typically for 64 bit your Windows will be about 5GB if compressed and then it wants space to make an uncompressed backup (windows.old) of 8GB (plus some other stuff).

In theory you can put this on an external drive but at the moment it doesn't work.

Just bad design I'm afraid when it comes to small disks. All you can do is get rid of as much as you can in the hope it will let you or do a clean install.

 

If you have removed your programs... Copy any needed files to your SDCard, for a file backup...

Download the windows setup media ISO and create USB Media... > http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softw...load/techbench

Boot from the USB media and clean install windows 10 - 10586

Reinstall your programs - restore your files from SDCard - Install Factory Customizations ppkg from Recovery drive (if wanted)

because,
Your drive does not have enough space for the > Setup Media (upgrade) and the Windows.old 10240 Backup and the new version of windows 10586

 

For a clean install from a bootable USB, wouldn't I need a product Key? I don't have one.

Also, at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softw...load/techbench, under Select Edition, what's the diff between Win 10, Win 10 KN, Win 10 N, and Win 10 Single Language. Apologies if it's obvious.

 

No. If you are re-installing just follow the instructions and click on "I don't have a key" or "do it later". It will activate automatically.

N is for (some) Europeans, KN is for Koreans, Single Language is for (mostly) China and also some cheap tablets..

Look at your key with Showkey - Windows 10 Forums and download the same as you already have.

Basically all the other editions leave out various bits of software to decode video (to be cheap). It doesn't matter as you can add them back but you need to reinstall with the same version.

For example if you have "N" version of you couldn't clean install a "KN" ISO and expect it to activate.

 

Thanks for that.
ShowKeyPlus reports Windows 10 Home. It gives me a Product ID, Installed Key, OEM Key (same as Installed Key) and OEM Edition. The OEM Edition is:

Win 10 RTM Core OEM*BiggrinM

(Edit: How do I turn off smileys?! Please replace the smileys with : and D.)

This doesn't correspond neatly with any of the options at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/techbench.

My laptop was 'cheap' so I initially thought Win 10 Single Language might be the way to go but then I read this:

https://www.tenforums.com/installatio...one-wrong.html

The Pro User there suggests the Windows 10 edition for Win 10 RTM Core OEM*BiggrinM, at least in this user's case.

Stepping through the options for downloading the ISO, after selecting the Windows 10 Edition, there are two product languages - English and English International. I live in Australia, does it matter which I select?

I tried English, then selected 64-bit Download. Now I have a wait of about 4 hours for the download to complete.

 

You are going to download "Windows 10"
either x86 or x64 depending..

The ISO is multi-edition (Home/Core and Pro)

The media will find your Key and install accordingly

English=US
English International=UK, GB