Don’t be a heel.
For the past year or so I have been having a storage issue with my laptop. The hard drive is only a 28Gb SSD, and for some reason the available memory has been hovering between just under 1 Gb to 2.5 Gb, which means I keep getting low memory warnings. I have run disc cleanup and deleted programs I don’t use, but nothing seems to help. Among other problems, this low memory issue occasionally interferes with installing updates.
So yesterday I finally decided to run restore in hopes that this would resolve things. I was told that I needed additional available memory in order to run restore. So I gutted my system, including deleting FireFox. Of course, before doing so I carefully followed the instructions for backing up my bookmarks and profile. Then, after verifying that I had the necessary memory to run restore, I tried again. After chugging along for a bit, I was told that it wasn’t possible to restore my system, with no explanation why. After a spell of cursing and mumbling, I decided to call it a night and try again today.
After once again being told restoration wasn’t possible. I decided to reinstall FireFox and live with the situation. So of course after FireFox was reinstalled it wouldn’t let me replace my profile. Fortunately, I was able to update my bookmarks, but of course all of my saved login info is gone.
I really don’t want to buy a new laptop, particularly because it would meaning having to deal with Windows 11. Plus, I’m going on a trip in two weeks, and having to shop for and then deal with a new laptop is not high on my list of things I want to be doing during that time.
I highly recommend Windows Classic Shell. I was just a bit away from literally tearing out my hair in frustration before I installed it on this laptop.
http://classicshell.net/ NOTE I am in no way affiliated with this product or company. I just think it’s terrific!
Just remember that storage and memory are separate things. You might be getting warnings about running out of drive space, but low memory warnings are a different matter. Memory is a kind of storage, but a temporary one where active programs exist as they are in use. Think of memory as a workbench and storage as a closet. You pull thing out of the closets and put them on the workbench when you are fiddling with them, and put them back in the closet when you are done with them. (I’m really simplifying things here of course.)
On some mobile devices, like smart phones, memory and storage are interchangeable terms, but not on your typical computer.
What I’m getting on File Explorer under Devices and Drives in OS (C:) is 1.2 GB free of 28 GB, which I’m taking to mean that my hard drive is nearly full.
Yes. That’s not memory, that’s drive space. 28 GB is extremely small for most modern operating systems. I have an inherited laptop with a hard drive around that size, and so I connected a very low profile flash drive to use for extra storage (I put all documents and programs I can do that) and I still struggle with it.
I don’t use that computer for much, though. I get by, just barely. And I can’t install any more upgrades to it either. Eventually it will become useless and I’ll toss it.
28 GB is indeed really tiny for a modern OS. You can get a new SSD of around 250 GB pretty cheap these days, although you should research the maximum size drive that your motherboard and BIOS will support. A replacement SSD should be a snap to put in, and you can use free cloning/backup software like Macrium Reflect to image and restore the drive. Remember to create bootable rescue media on a CD or USB flash drive first (which Macrium can do). I’ve used it to do system drive replacements on multiple computers with no issue.
For awhile I was getting solicitation texts from someone at the DNC with the same name as a close friend of mine. That was a bit confusing.
For some laptops, such as the one I have, you can’t install a drive at all. The drive that’s there is soldered in and can’t be safely removed or replaced.
I’m not doubting you, but are you sure that it’s not just one of the M.2 form-factor SSDs that plug into a PCI Express slot on the motherboard? You have to get into the guts of the laptop to replace it, much like replacing a memory stick (which is sort of what they look like) but it’s no big deal. Why on earth would it be “soldered in”?
Yup. Keep in mind I’ve been a professional computer technician for 22 years, so I’ve been in a laptop a couple of times. 
The particular model I have (an extremely cheap Dell my wife had bought a number of years back) does have a place where you can install an SSD in some variants. In the system I have, there is literally nothing there but an empty space.
Here is a discussion forum where a person is asking how to upgrade his hard drive. He has the exact same model I do.
Basically, even though there is a space for an HDD/SDD in the laptop (I can literally see the space marked HDD when I take the bottom cover off), there is simply no way to connect a HDD/SDD to the laptop. It has eMMC. Looks like I’m pretty much out of luck, eh?
That’s what this one looks like. There is no socket for a drive. It’s an extremely cheap computer (that’s why my wife was able to afford it) with the caveat that you have to live with the storage space.
As I said, I added external storage (a tiny flash drive) so I have plenty of space there, but there are some files you just can’t put on an external drive.
This may not be the same situation @LurkMeister is in, but it could be. I’m just reminding people that this situation is possible, so don’t go promising someone how easy it is to upgrade a hard drive before you know what system they have. 
I guess that my monthly mini rant is with Harriet Hageman, the candidate from Wyoming whom Rump has installed.
They say she looks like this…
But I Swear that I remember her from years ago… when she looked like this…
.♫ In the not too distant future (la-la-la)
♫ Next Sunday on TV
♫ Harriet Hageman is going to ‘Meet the Press’
♫ ( …She’ll make you all laugh until you pee…!)
♫ She studied at Wyoming U,
♫ Just a red cap lawyer filing suits.
♫ She made the coffee & she wore a dress,
♫ (But her bosses didn’t like her,
So They Shipped Her to Congress…! )
♫ "We’ll send her cheesy sound bites,
♫ The worst we can find…(la! la! la!)
♫ And she’ll have to stand & say them all,
♫ Then we’ll monitor her mind… ~guitar riff~ "
I’m sure Pearl Forrester would be a lot better.
In honor of Pearl Forrester…
I believe you, but news to me! It appears that eMMC (embedded multimedia card) is cheaper not particularly because it’s embedded in the motherboard (which it is) but because it’s a technique that allows the memory card itself to be cheaper, albeit slower.
M.2 cards are, in fact, sometimes mistaken for eMMC, though. A while back my son had an SSD failure on a relatively new but high-priced laptop, and was pretty despondent because he had been told by someone that “the SSD couldn’t be replaced”. Long story short, we replaced it. But it was a standardized plug-in M.2 card.
What I have is an ASUS E203M Notebook; I seem to remember looking into possibly replacing the hard drive a few years ago and finding out that it was not an option. I know that adding RAM was also not an option. I have a 14 GB Sim card which I use as a backup drive, but haven’t been able to figure out how to effectively move anything from the hard drive,
I’d like to go on record that my wife did not ask me before making the purchase. 
Before I was a technician I was a salesman, so I have experience both ways. Oh well. I’m trying to get what I can out of it.
She’s now using a pretty nice laptop I bought her, which is ten times better than this old Etch-A-Sketch.
Yes, that model has “eMMC Flash Storage” and won’t support a traditional hard drive. Just like mine.
Fedex can officially suck it! It’s currently wedesday. On monday, a package was supposed to be delivered to my work. No delivery, I go online and see that they “tried” to deliver at 5:30. To a business. Same thing tuesday. So today I waited around the shop to wait for it. At 5:23 I get a message saying that they tried to deliver it at 5:26 and there was no one there. I was looking out the window the entire time. No fucking truck came into my parking lot…