Windows 10 will begin reserving 7GB or more for updates

CyberTech

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What just happened? As an early warning to all Windows 10 users, Microsoft has pushed out a feature update notice that additional storage space will be reserved starting with build 1903. Anyone extremely low on disk space may want to free up storage before installing the next major release when it arrives this spring.

When the next major update to Windows 10 arrives, you may notice that a sizable portion of disk space has been eaten up. In fact, Microsoft will be allocating working space for updates, applications, temporary files, and caches to prevent problems from lack of available storage.

Remember all of the issues with the October 2018 Update and user files going missing? This change will ensure that no user files ever need to be relocated in order for updates to be installed.
Currently, when a user fills up all of their available disk space, Windows runs into a problem. Certain applications and services begin to fail in no particular order. Adding a storage reserve eliminates these issues and improves the overall stability of the platform.

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When it is time to install updates, end users should no longer see their disk space used increase during the download process. In the event that that very large updates are pushed out that go beyond the already allocated space, the reserved amount can be increased. If there is no more space available, it will be possible to plug in external storage such as a USB drive or hard drive and continue as normal without deleting files from your local hard drive.

Storage Sense will attempt to keep a hold on the size of the reserved space by removing unneeded temporary files. Even though Microsoft is stating that the reserved portion will begin at 7GB in the next major release, it will vary over time. For the majority of users, losing a little bit of storage space will have no impact on performance, but will help avoid annoyances later down the road.
 

shmu26

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I read in a different article that this new feature will be enabled by default only on new, clean installs of Windows. It will not silently steal the precious storage space of your system after a Windows update, even after a bi-annual feature update.
On the other hand, once storage space has been allocated to this feature, you can't take the space back. So think twice before you manually enable it.
 

jogs

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My boot partition is always nearly full so it will be very problematic for me, there are others like me I know. So, it will be better not to update.
 

shmu26

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My boot partition is always nearly full
This is exactly the issue that is preventing Microsoft from pushing out the feature updates properly. There are millions and perhaps billions of computers like yours.
It's a catch22 situation, because if Microsoft updates your system without making that giant backup, and something goes wrong, you will sue them for loss of data etc. And if Microsoft makes the giant backup, it will crash your system, because there is not enough storage space. So this issue is holding up the train of feature updates.
 

Vasudev

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Last month I cleaned up my relatives laptop worth of 70GB of v1803 upgrade/update cache junk which failed again and again. Cleared everything and was updated to v1803 w/o any issues.
Even with unrestrictive disk space they still fail.
 

TairikuOkami

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I bet, it can be disabled, it is just another nuisance by MS, I never let WU download any updates, I do it myself. An upgrade already requires partition to be ~50GB minimum. Ever since I have decreased the size to 40GB, it will not allow me to upgrade, even with 28GB of free space. :rolleyes:
 

shmu26

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I bet, it can be disabled, it is just another nuisance by MS, I never let WU download any updates, I do it myself. An upgrade already requires partition to be ~50GB minimum. Ever since I have decreased the size to 40GB, it will not allow me to upgrade, even with 28GB of free space. :rolleyes:
So you found the perfect solution to block upgrades :)
 

shmu26

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Last month I cleaned up my relatives laptop worth of 70GB of v1803 upgrade/update cache junk which failed again and again. Cleared everything and was updated to v1803 w/o any issues.
Even with unrestrictive disk space they still fail.
Right. Lack of space is not why they fail, but it is one of the reasons why feature updates don't actually get delivered to everyone's computer.
 

shmu26

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It was being fed repeatedly when the laptop was crying I can't I can't, I can't update!
Admittedly, there is almost nothing more broken in Windows than updates. My number one gripe is bugs having to do with user permissions, but that's another story.
 
L

Local Host

You pretty much need 60GB for the Windows Partition to work perfectly on the long run, even though you can install Windows on smaller partitions you're bound to have issues with Windows Updates.

This is just another move to help casual users.
 
D

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Lol what are you all talking about? Limited space? Really?

Now most modern system has SSD of 128gb minimum, which should only host the OS, and an HDD of 1tb which should contains your datas.
How can you lack of space...
All my systems are around 30gb with full MS Office 2016 installed, unless you install tons of games at same time (which you shouldn't) or tons of heavy apps, lack of space is very improbable.

After every cumulative updates, one must clean his system to free around 1-2gb of junk files (mostly the CU backup files on the Software Distribution folder ) .

7gb reserved by MS isn't big deal if it can avoid crashes and data loss for some. A 1080 full HD movie is around 5-8gb.
Those like me who regularly maintain their system and do clean install won't probably need it, and i hope we can disable this feature.
 

Kuttz

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My SSD is 240 GB and Windows, all the applications are installed in it. Remaining space is used for installing games. All the videos, mp3s, photos, installation files etc will be on my HDD. This is not a big deal if one's OS partition is 120 GB or more but yeah 7 GB is a bit expensive on an SSD drive to stay reserved.
 

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