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4-Feb-23 6:08

I have a fairly beefy laptop (16GB ram, Ryzen R7) but only 256 GB m2 drive.
I only have 18GB disk space left.
MS is offering Win11 to me and it says "download & install" and I'm wondering if :
1. the download for upgrade is going to fit?
2. once it upgrades, if I'll still have about as much space left (or if win11 takes a lot more space)?

Any hints, suggestions, comments or warnings?
Thanks Thumbs Up | :thumbsup:

UPDATE tl;dr
After reading over the numerous comments, I've decided to ignore the upgrade to win11 on this laptop.
Thanks for all the help. Win10, I'm here to stay.

modified 4-Feb-23 13:51pm.

Slacker0074-Feb-23 6:27

Slacker007

4-Feb-23 6:27

I personally would not upgrade anything to windows 11. If you have win 10, keep it at win 10.

if you are not too poor to get a new laptop, then get a new laptop with win 11 already installed.

that is my 2 cents.

raddevus4-Feb-23 7:10

4-Feb-23 7:10

Very interesting. Why are you saying it is better to buy a new laptop with win11 than upgrade to it?

As I said, my laptop is fairly new and quite beefy.

Thanks very much for taking your time to comment. Thumbs Up | :thumbsup:

Slacker0074-Feb-23 7:23

Slacker007

4-Feb-23 7:23

I have heard and read success stories and horror stories of upgrading win 10 to 11. I, personally have not had good luck with upgrades in the past.
I think there were some threads on this about a month ago.

Griff had recommended in that previous post and most agree that if you are going to upgrade do a full backup of the important stuff, etc.

I have a brand new computer with Windows 11 installed and I had a real headache getting one of the big win 11 updates to work correctly, and that was win 11 to win 11.

those are my thoughts, you asked. Smile | :)

raddevus4-Feb-23 7:44

4-Feb-23 7:44

Appreciate the input. I'm going to hold off on upgrading this laptop to win11.

When I do upgrade it, I will probably go to Ubuntu -- like my desktop. Smile | :)

That's a true upgrade anyways. Roll eyes | :rolleyes:

thanks again,

OriginalGriff4-Feb-23 6:34

4-Feb-23 6:34

No, afraid not: Windows 11 requirements - What's new in Windows | Microsoft Learn[^] says:

Quote:
Hardware requirements
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with two or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or system on a chip (SoC).
RAM: 4 gigabytes (GB) or greater.
Storage: 64 GB* or greater available storage is required to install Windows 11.

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raddevus4-Feb-23 7:12

4-Feb-23 7:12

Oh wait! it's going to take 64 GB just to install the dang thing!!!!

Holy crap!! My desktop is a Ubuntu 22.04 and I installed it from an 8GB flash drive.

I honestly cannot believe i need 64GB of free space. Sheesh.

Thanks for commenting and helping. Thumbs Up | :thumbsup:

OriginalGriff4-Feb-23 9:34

4-Feb-23 9:34

You're welcome!

OriginalGriff4-Feb-23 19:53

4-Feb-23 19:53

If you think about it, it's not that bad - it needs space to hold the installer data, then space to hold the original OS so it can rewind if there is a problem, then probably the same or more to actually do the install, plus some spare space for temporary stuff / driver packages, etc.. Once cleaned up, it can be a lot smaller (hopefully).

raddevus5-Feb-23 13:29

5-Feb-23 13:29

Yeah, I guess it isn't that bad. I'm just cheap and my m.2 drive isn't large enough so I have to blame someone else. Laugh | :laugh:

OriginalGriff4-Feb-23 6:41

4-Feb-23 6:41

I'd suggest that getting a bigger SSD sooner rather than later would be a good idea - clone the existing one over and then upgrade. That way if you have problems the old SSD is sitting there as a backup ready to run in minutes.

18GB isn't a lot of free space nowadays ... AOMEI Backupper has a clone feature that works pretty well.

Daniel Pfeffer4-Feb-23 7:11

Daniel Pfeffer

4-Feb-23 7:11

As others have said, the best way to handle the upgrade is not to perform it. If you have to upgrade to Win11, I would perform a clean upgrade:

Make a backup of everything on your computer, including the O/S
Validate the backup - ensure that it is readable by your backup software
Install Win11
Install any required additional software
restore your data

Personally, I intend to wait with Win11 until (a) Win10 goes out of extended support or (b) I have reason to buy a computer that comes with it. I am quite happy with Win10 at the moment, and don't see any need for the bells and whistles that come with Win11.

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raddevus4-Feb-23 7:15

4-Feb-23 7:15

Thanks very much for taking your time to comment.

What everyone has said has helped me a lot.
I'm going to ignore the upgrade to win11 until I cannot ignore it any longer.

At that time, I'll probably upgrade my Win10 to ubuntu -- just like I did my main desktop.

Windows has less and less draw for me all the time. The only reason I really ever still wanted it was for WinForms development. But that is a dead technology now. (Been developing WinForms since win3.1)

Thanks again.

trønderen4-Feb-23 8:02

trønderen

4-Feb-23 8:02

You forgot point 2.5: Replace that 256 GB M.2 disk with a 1 TB M.2 disk.

AndyChisholm4-Feb-23 8:03

AndyChisholm

4-Feb-23 8:03

The main issue especially with laptops is that they are built for a given version of Windows. The drivers tend to get frozen in time and you can find that the configuration doesn't run optimally on a newer operating system.

For example, I bought a laptop with 8.1 and upgraded later to 10. The driver for a radio switch inside the box wasn't available for 10 and I lost that function.

Andy

trønderen4-Feb-23 8:14

trønderen

4-Feb-23 8:14

You may have similar experiences with desktop (/tower cabinet) PCs. In the Windows 9x days, I had an SPDIF interface card, card and drivers delivered by a single company. The company decided to close down their hardware development, specializing in driver software. This did not include drivers for their own cards! So when Win XP came along, I saw the company thriving on making 32 bit drivers for lots of other hardware, but not for their old card that I had bought a few years earlier.

The obvious difference from a laptop is that with a tower cabinet, I can throw out that old, now useless, SPDIF card. The problem at the time was that there were no other vendors of similar cards. So I was without SPDIF until I replaced my mainboard with one that provided SPDIF. Replacing the mainboard isn't that different from buying a new laptop.

Gerry Schmitz4-Feb-23 7:48

Gerry Schmitz

4-Feb-23 7:48

I've gone through all my bigger "installed" apps, and "moved" them to another drive when the option was available. Also, deleted all "old" Windows SDK's that get superceded but not deleted with newer releases. Has kept my C: drive going.

"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I

OriginalGriff4-Feb-23 20:14

4-Feb-23 20:14

THis may be interesting: Compact custom version of Windows 11 released | TechSpot[^]

Nelek5-Feb-23 11:44

Nelek

5-Feb-23 11:44

Kent has another possibility: Tiny11 is out—a lightweight and debloated Windows 11 for less powerful computers Pin[^]

M.D.V.

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raddevus5-Feb-23 13:31

5-Feb-23 13:31

Nelek wrote:
for less powerful computers

How dare you!!

Laugh | :laugh: