Tiny Laptop Problems

[Keel M.]

A few months ago, you may remember, I was in the market for and purchased an HP Stream Notebook style computer. I am very pleased with the the computer so far, but I'm constantly afraid of running out of space for Windows Updates. I purchased an SD card where most information is saved - like files, pics, as well as programs - but there have been a few programs which would not work if I installed them on the SD card drive. The most recent installation which quit functioning when I tried to relocate it to the SD drive was MS Office 2016.  I have removed all programs which I've found (through internet search and this forum) to be bloatware.

What would be my next step for drive space?

[UncommonSence]

First suggestion is to utilize as much cloud storage as possible for non-sensitive documents, pictures and just about anything else that can be uploaded! (I think that you already have access to dropbox with your microsoft account, Google Drive if you have a gmail address)

Next, it's not that great for privacy, but use as many online services instead of installing apps on the computer. 

In the internet settings, you can limit the size if the cashe.  This can eliminate LOTS of unnecessary storage!

Make sure that the default save location for the programs that you use is set to the SD card. 

On a side note ... You cannot move installed programs.  they have to be installed to a location.  this is where Windows expects to find them, and it will get very confused when the program suddenly disappears! (as if Windows is not confused enough as is!)

There is probably more things that you can do to conserve space, but that is all I can think of at the moment.  Hope this helps!

[eugenonegin]

I use Treesize Free: http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

[ExpandMyMind]

Replace the SSD with an HDD. Up to 320GB I think you can get into the notebooks. I hate that these little laptops only come with like 32GB of storage. I don't care if it's SSD, 32GB of storage is next to useless. A laptop isn't a phone.

[Keel M.]

3 hours ago, UncommonSence said:

First suggestion is to utilize as much cloud storage as possible for non-sensitive documents, pictures and just about anything else that can be uploaded! (I think that you already have access to dropbox with your microsoft account, Google Drive if you have a gmail address)

Next, it's not that great for privacy, but use as many online services instead of installing apps on the computer. 

In the internet settings, you can limit the size if the cashe.  This can eliminate LOTS of unnecessary storage!

Make sure that the default save location for the programs that you use is set to the SD card. 

On a side note ... You cannot move installed programs.  they have to be installed to a location.  this is where Windows expects to find them, and it will get very confused when the program suddenly disappears! (as if Windows is not confused enough as is!)

There is probably more things that you can do to conserve space, but that is all I can think of at the moment.  Hope this helps!

All of my photos are saved in multiple cloud places. I have the default save location to the SD card. Did that right off.

I thought that when I installed MS Office it would ask where I wanted to save it, but it didn't. It just started saving automatically to the main drive. I'd really feel better if I could move just that, but while I have the Product Key, I might have problems since I got it from my friend who is in college. She already has the program on her laptop and didn't need what the university had to offer so I took this one to her and she logged into the system and downloaded MS Office Student version. I'm totally okay with using that, but if I try to get it again, will the product key still work?

[Keel M.]

2 hours ago, eugeneonegin said:

I use Treesize Free: http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

Thank you!

[Keel M.]

One other question I forgot to ask: do I need the OneDrive app installed on my computer in order to upload documents to my OneDrive account? Can't I just use my browser to upload stuff?

[UncommonSence]

If you just moved the office folder to the SD card, try to move it back to where it was originally installed. That may do the trick, if not go through the control panel and repair the install.  And, yes, you can upload files through the dropbox website, including making folders and organizing everything. 

[Keel M.]

I did move the MS Office stuff back to the main drive and it works fine. I thought I might move it by uninstalling and trying to reinstall and see if there's a way to direct it to be installed on the SD card.

I don't have a Dropbox account. I have a OneDrive account. 

[Only_]

10 hours ago, ExpandMyMind said:

Replace the SSD with an HDD. Up to 320GB I think you can get into the notebooks. I hate that these little laptops only come with like 32GB of storage. I don't care if it's SSD, 32GB of storage is next to useless. A laptop isn't a phone.

The HP Stream was designed to be a fast-booting, cloud-powered device to browse the web. The SSD makes a lot of sense here. It has literally the same hardware as a chromebook. A typical HDD would slow the machine down and pretty much defeat the purpose. I suggest going for an external HDD if storage is an issue. In that way, you don't loose the speed of the SSD while still drastically expanding it's capacity.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Be.cause

[ExpandMyMind]

4 hours ago, Be.cause said:

The HP Stream was designed to be a fast-booting, cloud-powered device to browse the web. The SSD makes a lot of sense here. It has literally the same hardware as a chromebook. A typical HDD would slow the machine down and pretty much defeat the purpose. I suggest going for an external HDD if storage is an issue. In that way, you don't loose the speed of the SSD while still drastically expanding it's capacity.

I've had one of those netbooks, albeit a different manufacturer. Actually, I've had a couple of them since 2012 and one thing I would never use to describe them is 'fast'. Even with the SSD, which by the way doesn't make all that much of a difference to speed when using Windows 10, they are normally very sluggish, especially when using resource-heavy browsers. That's just my experience though.

[Only_]

12 hours ago, ExpandMyMind said:

I've had one of those netbooks, albeit a different manufacturer. Actually, I've had a couple of them since 2012 and one thing I would never use to describe them is 'fast'. Even with the SSD, which by the way doesn't make all that much of a difference to speed when using Windows 10, they are normally very sluggish, especially when using resource-heavy browsers. That's just my experience though.

Windows 10 can get easily bloated.

I've had one of those HP chromebook (which had the exact same hardware as the HP Stream) and it was very fast and responsive.

In that case, the OS makes all the difference.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Be.cause

[skookum]

12 hours ago, ExpandMyMind said:

I've had one of those netbooks, albeit a different manufacturer. Actually, I've had a couple of them since 2012 and one thing I would never use to describe them is 'fast'. Even with the SSD, which by the way doesn't make all that much of a difference to speed when using Windows 10, they are normally very sluggish, especially when using resource-heavy browsers. That's just my experience though.

Go for a Hybrid drive.  It is a good compromise. 

[ExpandMyMind]

17 minutes ago, Be.cause said:

Windows 10 can get easily bloated.

I've had one of those HP chromebook (which had the exact same hardware as the HP Stream) and it was very fast and responsive.

In that case, the OS makes all the difference.

Indeed a Chromebook would be a totally different experience. That OS was designed specifically with these types of low hardware devices in mind. I've heard lots of good things about them being fast machines. 

[eugenonegin]

On ‎14‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 6:59 PM, skookum said:

Go for a Hybrid drive.  It is a good compromise. 

I have heard these are slow.

[Keel M.]

On 8/14/2017 at 1:13 PM, ExpandMyMind said:

Indeed a Chromebook would be a totally different experience. That OS was designed specifically with these types of low hardware devices in mind. I've heard lots of good things about them being fast machines. 

I don't like Google that much. I want to use MS Office and Google's piddly wanna-be office suite cannot handle what I intend to do on my laptop.

[ExpandMyMind]

3 minutes ago, Nonentity said:

I don't like Google that much. I want to use MS Office and Google's piddly wanna-be office suite cannot handle what I intend to do on my laptop.

There are some open source alternatives to MS Office. Apache and Libre Office.

[Keel M.]

I thought a Chromebook forced you to use all of Google's products only.

[Sir Smoke aLot]

Interesting device, especially eMMC part. As i see it, you have to 'play' with options about update and try to turn off everything, especially peer-2-peer update transfer as it might make problems with space by holding all downloaded data somewhere locally.