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I have this very nice abomination: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/series/aspireswitch10v and being fed up with constant problems with available space I devised a solution. I want to map an SD Card to c:\Users folder, effectively tripling the available space without too much work and not impacting Windows stability.

Through blind luck I can boot to windows installer from USB and said installer detects the internal storage. Yay. Major obstacle for users of that model passed without issues.

The problem that I have is that for me to go through with the plan I basically have to either fresh install (FI) or factory reset (FR) Windows. FR works very well and obviously all is working afterwards. Unfortunately, it's also removing junction that is the linchpin of the plan. I haven't found a way to work around that yet. But for it to work I need to boot to troubleshooting after C drive is wiped, but before recovery can occur.

On the other hand FI would allow me to do it (I think), but when booting from USB the SD card is not detected by the system at all. I think it's due to lack of drivers, so i think I can remedy that (maybe), but it will still require a lot of hacking around.

SO two questions:

  1. Is Windows for such tablets customised in a way so that it's better to stick with FR?
  2. Is there another way to move users folder to a separate drive without impacting Windows stability?

I am aware of the option to move some user folders to another drive, but this does not solve the issue - W10 forces updates so at some point they have to be installed. Issue is that it requires 8GB of free space in the system (so one workaround is to attach empty usb stick and then go with updates, but with frequency, scope and hardware this is becoming almost constant issue and takes forever. And it's not a good idea to move around with something rather fragile sticking out on the side. So simplest way is to increase storage in the exact spot it pops up so frequently.

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    My advice : Don't do it. This setup can break horribly when installing the next major Windows update. Move your own documents - they don't absolutely need to reside in C:\Users.
    – harrymc
    Jul 25, 2019 at 13:54
  • @harrymc - I see. Is there a resource where I can look into it closer? As for documents - the point I'm making is that when I install Chrome, Whatsapp and Skype, set up mail etc the total available space on this tablet is about 1.2GB, which breaks update which can't be stopped. And when you want to install that update tablet is unusable for about 2 hours, then it crashes and after reboot it wants to update again. Oh, and moving documents only nets me 65MB.
    – AcePL
    Jul 25, 2019 at 14:22
  • Use portable apps for everything you can and install them onto the SD card.
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Jul 25, 2019 at 16:10
  • @DavidPostill - Most apps that are required on that laptop do not have portable official versions. Not really concerned with security - as tablet is literally just net browser and commo device - but keeping them up to date will be a nightmare for anyone who ends up owning it. But it is an iteresting idea. Will investigate, thank you.
    – AcePL
    Jul 25, 2019 at 16:43
  • @AcePL Check portableapps.com and liberkey.com/en.html. You might be surprised just how many apps are available.
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Jul 25, 2019 at 16:51

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Ideas for making space:

  • Go into Programs and Features and uninstall any product you don't need
  • Do the same with Turn Windows features on or off
  • Run Disk Cleanup
  • Check C:\Windows\Temp and C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp for left-overs that Disk Cleanup missed
  • Disable hibernation by running in an elevated CMD the command powercfg.exe /hibernate off, to remove the substantial file C:\hiberfil.sys
  • Reduce pagefile.sys (leaving enough space) in Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > Advanced tab, and click Change... under Virtual Memory, then uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives".
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  • 1. Done. 2. Done. 3. Done; there is a bug in w10 so cleanup is basically useless. 4. Done. 5. Done; this is LTE ver, so it works like phone. 6. Cant be done as update complains about insufficient memory. 2GB is not enough for current W10 vers. Side note - this is very common issue with w10 tablets. Not sure which genius thought it's a good idea to put 32GB total storage in w10 tablet, but there it is. Also, another windows bug (?) Causes SD card to not be recognized as drive... IOW: fun...
    – AcePL
    Jul 25, 2019 at 20:22
  • Agreed, with 32 GB a Windows tablet is just a toy with limited functionality. On mine I disabled Windows Update to avoid problems.
    – harrymc
    Jul 25, 2019 at 20:27
  • Not just yet. ;-) In terms of helpfulness your first comment was much better. I did all you suggested in answer some time ago, so in general it is a good one, but unfortumately mot helpful in my situation. Those hacks had been tried and it failed. BTW. updates on w10 can only be postponed. Or disabled for metered connections only, which is of limited utility only, as it will also disable some network functionalities
    – AcePL
    Jul 25, 2019 at 21:47
  • You could disable the pagefile totally. This would mean that applications wouldn't be able to swap and a Windows crash wouldn't be saved, which might be acceptable.
    – harrymc
    Jul 26, 2019 at 5:39
  • I ended up installing fresh Windows version and breaking things, only after that I found out that USB stick WILL BE recognized by Windows Update and will use it for cache, so I unfortunately can't accept the answer. "SD can't but USB can" is the answer.
    – AcePL
    Feb 19 at 15:20
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Windows Update can use USB sticks as a temporary cache. I don't know since when, but it's even in a on-screen message or somewhere in description of new WU version. It WILL NOT use SD card for that purpose, which to me is inexplainable.

So my solution was to plug a 64 GB USB stick and just run Windows Update, which took a long time, but it did succeed.

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