Recent Win10 Upgrade installers (1909, 2004), 'Cloudbook' PC too slow to update? SOLVED, I guess.

[VirtualLarry]

No matter how I try to do the update, it only gets to 0% completed, or 1% completed (one time), and then after 3 hours, reboots and unrolls the upgrade. I've tried the Upgrade Advisor (2004), a USB stick prepared with MCT (2004), and Windows Update (tried 1909). Nothing works. It prompts to add storage, so I've been plugging in a new Adata 16GB USB3.0 drive. I've tried that in USB3.0 port (one available), or a USB2.0 port (two available). USB stick is seen inside Windows 10 on those ports. Tried with a USB MCT stick, in the USB3.0 port, in the 2.0 port (that time I got to 1%).

Onboard 32GB eMMC had 6.23GB free at the start of this process.

Edit: FINALLY, got it to work, it took nearly 6-7 hours to upgrade from 1809 to 2004.

I ended up using the "Upgrade Advisor" tool, which then prompted me to clear space on the drive (it having a 32GB microSD in the slot, as well as a 16/14.5GB USB3.0 Adata USB flash drive in a USB2.0 port, which I quick-formatted for good luck just before proceeding with the upgrade procedure), and I had it clear out 6.8GB of "Update Cleanup", of which I'm not sure how much it actually cleaned up, but it seemed like it was enough.

When it was all done, the SD card contained the Win10 upgrade ESD files (two of them, identical file sizes of 3.7GB), and the USB flash drive contained a Windows~.TMP folder, and the primary eMMC only had 4GB free.

After un-installing the Windows Upgrade Advisor using Control Panel, the SD card was cleared, as was the desktop icon for W.U.A.. After using System File Cleanup to clean up "Previous Windows Versions", the USB stick was empty too, and the primary eMMC had 8GB free. Firefox was still installed, as was Malwarebytes.

Overall, it was a pretty grueling upgrade. It sat at the blue update screen (second phase) at 0% for like nearly two hours, then finally started creeping up to 2%, and after another hour or so, up to 18%, then it sat there for another hour or so, then went to 28%, rebooted, then more quickly counted up to 48%, 71%, 85%, 99%, 100%, reboot, and voila, new Windows 10 2004 64-bit, finally installed. Bleh. And people wonder why Chromebooks caught on so well.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Sorry I did not see this before you solved it. It is a good info for searchers. I did this for clients, always used a USB stick. Selling little expletives that lack the space necessary for a version upgrade. Who made THAT call I ask rhetorically. I guess I should not complain, it creates business/revenue.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yes, I agree. "Cloudbooks" (Chromebooks, with Windows 10, instead of ChromeOS), really should come with better specs. The more recent ones that I have, as well as a Lenovo edu model that I picked up cheap for my mom, both had AMD A4-series Stoney Ridge APUs (not the greatest, but they work in a pinch), and 64MB eMMC, and 4GB of RAM. Those are, thankfully, at least semi-usable, AND with 64GB eMMC, have very little trouble thus far with Windows Upgrades (unless you fill them with silly stuff, but they have an SD card slot that IMHO you should use for user data, and leave the eMMC for Windows and Programs).

In fact, the "eMatic" laptops that I picked up from Walmart.com, of all places, for $110 ea., (+tax), actually have an M.2 access panel where you can add a REAL SSD to the device, AMAZING! (*and I was complaining a few years ago about laptops with eMMC, and NO SSD slot, becoming e-waste when the eMMC wore out.) Well, these laptops DONT have that problem! Thank you Walmart!

It's still a bit of a PITA to get Win10 installed to that SSD, since you lose access to the eMMC once you install it, essentially, because the eMMC used in these devices isn't directly recognized by Win10 out-of-the-box, and requires a storage driver to access, and all of the drivers are in the \Windows\System\DriverStore directory on the eMMC. So either boot those systems out of the box, before adding the SSD, and copy that DriverStore directory to a USB flash drive, and THEN install Win10 onto the SSD, with the DriverStore directory copied to the Win10 USB install stick, so it can find the drivers, or dance around with the multiple "Windows Bootloader" entries in the BIOS, to alternatively boot the eMMC installation (Factory) and the SSD installation, and copy the drivers back and forth. If you just want to use the SSD bay for Linux, or a data drive, that's actually much easier, and they do run GREAT with Linux Mint 19.3, and probably 20.0 or 20.1, whatever they're up to.

But those 32GB eMMC cloudbooks, with like 4-6GB free on the eMMC on a fresh new system, yeah, those are to be avoided if possible, and are a PITA to do a Windows Upgrade.