Windows 10 Creators Upgrade - Not Enough Space and no option to Attach an external storage device

Hi Bernd,

To answer your inquiry about your PC not giving you an option to attach an external storage device for you to update to the new build, kindly refer to the troubleshooting suggestions provided below.

* Check if your PC can detect the USB device that you are plugging in. You may also plug the USB device into the other USB ports on your computer. Use another USB device and see if the same issue will arise.

Alternatively, you may use an installation media to install the Creators build, use the link below to download the Creators update in your installation media.

Download Windows 10.

Please feel free to post the result of your troubleshooting procedure for us to assist you further.

Regards.

.....

* Check if your PC can detect the USB device that you are plugging in. You may also plug the USB device into the other USB ports on your computer. Use another USB device and see if the same issue will arise. ....

Hi Jesrael, the freespace on my detected PC devices is as follows:

• C:   6.51 GB  <== that's the issue
• D:   1.66 TB   internal drive for data and storage
  
• H:   209 GB   external HDD
• I:     29,4 GB   USB disk / stick

I used your Download Windows 10   The Update Assistant downloaded Windows10Upgrade9252.exe however - with the same issue as above.

How do I get the option to use any other (external) storage device than C: - i.e. any of the drives D:, H: or I:?

Thank you for your response. May we know if your file system is in NTFS already? If not, kindly format the files in your USB first to NTFS to be able to be detected by your computer. 

Please update us to be further assisted with this concern.

Regards.

Please refer to the previous post.

Thank you.

Hi Jesrael, sorry for above missleading reply :

....the freespace on my detected PC devices is as ....

The freespace above was detected by my standard windows explorer, not by the window upgrade / setup program.

My issue is that  there is no step 2 available during setup:

How to Upgrade to Windows 10 Creators Update on a Drive with Limited Space  states

<quote>

Before setup starts copying files to the drive, one of the pre-requisite tasks performed is determining how much space is available. Windows 10 Creators Update requires a minimum 10 GB’s of free space. If you don’t have enough, setup will recommend a couple options. ...

Attach an external storage device – if you have an external hard disk or USB thumb drive with a minimum 10 Gbs of free space, you can utilize it to facilitate the installation. ...

<unquote>

I do not see a couple of options (as per step 1 and 2 in the first two screenshots) but only the option to free up space from the c:\

Prior to be concerned with the file system it seems to me that I need a way to click in the list box and then select the attached storage device.

Why am I not able to select my external hard disk H:\ ?  (and / or the internal disk D:\ - if internal is acceptable to setup?) due to the missing step 2 (i.e. list box).

both drives are NTFS formatted

Regards, Bernd

Thank you for your response. We noticed that you have 2 external devices connected at the same time basing on your post, these are: H: 209 GB external HDD and I: 29,4 GB USB disk / stick. You may try to plug only 1 device at the time while the update is running, it is possible that the update is having an issue detecting what external device to prioritize while these two devices are connected at the same time. You may also try to run the update as an administrator in your PC. This is to ensure you are given all access to all drives in your computer system at any given point of time. 

Feel free to post the result so we can help you further.

Regards.

Hi Jesrael, I did try your two solutions - a) have only one external device connected at the same time and b) run the update as an administrator - without any success.

Please note that I managed to free up some 250 MB on my C:\ drive and that resolved the free space requirement of the upgrade.

The download is running right now.

《Update 04/05/2017 : The upgrade ran successfully; thus my initial need was met and Win 10 Creators Upgrade is installed.

BUT the issue (how to use freespace on another drive) is not resolved {for other people having the same problem }》

thx for your help

bernd

I'd really like to know if there is a solution to this, I'm experiencing the same problem. Here's my situation.

Windows Update Assistant is not giving the option to select an external hard drive for the Creators Update. I am using a Lenovo N22 with 32GB internal, I attempted to utilize an External NTFS 1TB hard drive, an External 80 GB NTFS, and a 64 GB NTFS USB. The computer sees and utilizes these external drives easily, but the Windows Update Assistant either refuses to see them or is misconfigured and not looking for additional drives.

I had to use an external to get the anniversary update on this laptop, so I know the Update Assistant has given the option in the past, but this current version doesn't. Please Help.

Hi Cisper,

To address your concern, you may refer to the helpful post provided by Andre Da Costa posted on January 1, 2017.  It will guide you on how to upgrade to Windows 10 Creators Update on a drive with limited space.  This has been found useful by other community members with the same issue as well.

Regards.

Hi Amylove Loy,

this and your recommended post are not helpful to solve the problem:

• Please read my comment on the very end of the post provided by Andre Da Costa posted on January 1, 2017.
• Please see the Resources provided by the post provided by Andre Da Costa posted on January 1, 2017:

Resources:

• ...
• How to Install Windows 10 on Devices with Limited Space

Many pepole seeem to have the same issue as per the 35 comments

best regards