Can I add an external USB Hard Drive to an All-in-one PC to free up space on C/: DRIVE

[steven100]

My PC is an All-in-one and not big specs,  it's only has 57GB on the C/: drive. 

Windows has been trying to download 22H2 update for months now with failed every time due to no space,  and I believe this is 23GB update. 

I did buy a 32GB USB and try but my WiFi is not strong enough and it failed during download.

 

I want to free up or add more space as my PC virtual memory error keeps showing up and my PC crashes alot.

Can I buy an external USB hard drive and transfer all windows files onto that.  ?

Will that free up C/: DRIVE space and therefore increase RAM substantially.  ?

 

 

[Mickeymaus]

Why don't you buy a bigger internal harddrive? Just be careful - it depends on the BIOS version if it can handle discs bigger than 2TB.

[KannikaP]

Get something like Glary Utilities to get rid of all the 5hit and unused/unwanted stuff on C Drive. What size is the original C Drive?

You do not need WiFi to clean up your drives.

[Salerno]

12 minutes ago, steven100 said:

Can I buy an external USB hard drive and transfer all windows files onto that.  ?

No, but you can transfer all non system/application files.

 

13 minutes ago, steven100 said:

Will that free up C/: DRIVE space and therefore increase RAM substantially.  ?

Not really, you will have a set amount of virtual memory, which is likely unable to be utilised currently due to running out of space. As @Mickeymaus suggested, perhaps look into swapping out the harddrive and possibly adding more physical RAM. If you can't add physical RAM, perhaps bump the size of your virtual memory using the extra space (as a result of an external or replacement harddrive) if it still causes problems.

[Salerno]

3 minutes ago, Salerno said:

Not really, you will have a set amount of virtual memory, which is likely unable to be utilised currently due to running out of space.

Meant to say, you can obviously change how much is set, see https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-virtual-memory-size-windows-10 (assuming you're running Win10).

[steven100]

19 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

What size is the original C Drive?

I looked it up in command prompt ... shows  62GB

[Stocky]

 

 

37 minutes ago, steven100 said:

Windows has been trying to download 22H2 update for months now with failed every time due to no space,  and I believe this is 23GB update. 

You can download Windows updates and install from an external drive, Google "Update Windows offline"

[steven100]

11 minutes ago, Salerno said:

Meant to say, you can obviously change how much is set, see https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-virtual-memory-size-windows-10 (assuming you're running Win10).

so your saying,  buy an external USB hard drive ... transfer all non-system files, photos, videos, my stuff  over to the external to free up some 40GB or whatever and then increase the Virtual memory value setting. ??   thanks

[NextG]

37 minutes ago, steven100 said:

 

My PC is an All-in-one and not big specs,  it's only has 57GB on the C/: drive. 

Windows has been trying to download 22H2 update for months now with failed every time due to no space,  and I believe this is 23GB update. 

I did buy a 32GB USB and try but my WiFi is not strong enough and it failed during download.

 

I want to free up or add more space as my PC virtual memory error keeps showing up and my PC crashes alot.

Can I buy an external USB hard drive and transfer all windows files onto that.  ?

Will that free up C/: DRIVE space and therefore increase RAM substantially.  ?

 

If there is only a 57GB C partition, there is likely a much bigger D partition. You can either move stuff from C to D or just extend the C partition. A bit ridiculous to have such a small C partition. What is the full model number of your PC?

[NextG]

3 minutes ago, Stocky said:

 

 

You can download Windows updates and install from an external drive, Google "Update Windows offline"

He already tried with a 32GB Flash drive

[steven100]

2 minutes ago, Stocky said:

 

 

You can download Windows updates and install from an external drive, Google "Update Windows offline"

so I should have the external 512GB USB Hard drive then do the update using that ... ?

[NextG]

1 minute ago, steven100 said:

so your saying,  buy an external USB hard drive ... transfer all non-system files, photos, videos, my stuff  over to the external to free up some 40GB or whatever and then increase the Virtual memory value setting. ??   thanks

No…

[steven100]

2 minutes ago, NextG said:

If there is only a 57GB C partition, there is likely a much bigger D partition. You can either move stuff from C to D or just extend the C partition. A bit ridiculous to have such a small C partition. What is the full model number of your PC?

I'm not sure that it has alternative D partition ... I think it's NFTS format.  ?

 

[NextG]

Just now, steven100 said:

I'm not sure that it has alternative D partition ... I think it's NFTS format.  ?

 

Model number if you please. 

[steven100]

5 minutes ago, NextG said:

If there is only a 57GB C partition, there is likely a much bigger D partition. You can either move stuff from C to D or just extend the C partition. A bit ridiculous to have such a small C partition. What is the full model number of your PC?

[OneMoreFarang]

In theory you can add an external drive and keep some data on that drive.

But the problem with things like that is that maybe one day that external connection is not good anymore. Or maybe the device is unplugged. And then best case you just don't see some of your data and maybe just reconnect the drive and all is fine.

But depending on what you have on that external drive things can get a lot more complicated. I.e. maybe you have a Quicken file for your accounting on that external drive. And then maybe you open Quicken once without that drive connected. Quicken will show you a message and then it will be so "smart" and use a new file or an old backup or such things. And then, when you later successfully reconnect that external device, Quicken will just ignore it. And that is probably not what you expected.

And behavior like that is normal for many programs. 

Summary: To make your own life not more complicated than necessary avoid external drives for daily work. 

[Salerno]

1 minute ago, steven100 said:

so your saying,  buy an external USB hard drive ... transfer all non-system files, photos, videos, my stuff  over to the external to free up some 40GB or whatever and then increase the Virtual memory value setting. ??   thanks

Yes, no, maybe - it depends if you need it. If you are getting a virtual memory error as mentioned in your initial post it is likely due to you running out of space, with space freed up it is likely you will not hit by the error anymore. Virtual memory is not a fix for not enough RAM (it can actually slow your computer down depending on what you are doing) but if push comes to shove it can be increased.

[steven100]

8 minutes ago, NextG said:

Model number if you please. 

[NextG]

4 minutes ago, steven100 said:

 

This one?

[steven100]

8 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

In theory you can add an external drive and keep some data on that drive.

But the problem with things like that is that maybe one day that external connection is not good anymore. Or maybe the device is unplugged. And then best case you just don't see some of your data and maybe just reconnect the drive and all is fine.

But depending on what you have on that external drive things can get a lot more complicated. I.e. maybe you have a Quicken file for your accounting on that external drive. And then maybe you open Quicken once without that drive connected. Quicken will show you a message and then it will be so "smart" and use a new file or an old backup or such things. And then, when you later successfully reconnect that external device, Quicken will just ignore it. And that is probably not what you expected.

And behavior like that is normal for many programs. 

Summary: To make your own life not more complicated than necessary avoid external drives for daily work. 

Take the PC to a shop who has worked on this brand ( storm all-in-one ) and have him increase RAM and bigger C/: drive install if possible.   ?

[MJCM]

As an Admin

 

run:

 

%windir%\system32\compmgmt.msc /s

 

Go to Storage - Disk Management and make a Screenshot of that, I can't hardly believe that your System only comes with 57GiB HDD, but it doesn't surprise me either.

 

Edit: Ooh it has indeed max size is 64GiB according to the screenshot @NextG

 

You can move your Documents Folders quite easily but if YOU only have a 57 GiB drive then you would have to attach a Large USB drive and leave it attached when starting your system.

Edited January 31, 2023 by MJCM

[steven100]

1 minute ago, NextG said:

 

This one?

it's not the same .... 

[steven100]

3 minutes ago, NextG said:

 

This one?

Let me check the box to see if model number is same ..

[steven100]

21 minutes ago, NextG said:

Model number if you please. 

STORM AIO    ....   Model SA1801

 

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by steven100

[MJCM]

This one?

 

https://shopee.co.th/คอมพิวเตอร์ตั้งโต๊ะ-STORM-ALL-IN-ONE-i.65352664.4656677686

[NextG]

If so, you’ll need to upgrade using an 8GB or more USB Flash drive, creating installation media on that and running the upgrade from there. 
But first you need to clear some more space just so the PC can do it’s job. 
 

Go back to Windows C Properties as you have shown a few posts above and click on Disk Cleanup. Once you have clicked on that you will see a new option of Clean Up System Files… click on that. 
It will tell you how much potential space you may regain. Now place a tick in the box of Windows Update Clean-up and then click on OK. 

[KannikaP]

38 minutes ago, steven100 said:

I looked it up in command prompt ... shows  62GB

I was meaning it's original empty size, before anything is installed. Look it up by simply right-clicking on the My PC icon on your desktop.

 

Oh yes, I see in the specs on the Shopee ad. 64GB!!!!!

That's what W11 needs to run, no room for any apps or data, although your screenshot earlier said you had W10.

Edited January 31, 2023 by KannikaP

[NextG]

2 minutes ago, steven100 said:

STORM AIO  model :  KBM180

 

 

Follow my guide to do the clean up in the first instance. You can do it now, you won’t lose anything. 

[MJCM]

Just now, KannikaP said:

I was meaning it's original empty size, before anything is installed. Look it up by simply right-clicking on the My PC icon on your desktop.

My guess that is indeed the total size of his HDD, see the OP's screenshot later on

[KannikaP]

Just now, MJCM said:

My guess that is indeed the total size of his HDD, see the OP's screenshot later on

According to the Shoppee specs, it doesn't have a HDD, just 64GB of flash memory.