Storage issue Acer TravelMate laptop and Windows 10

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MacGraphics

51 posts

Master Geek

#318622 4-Feb-2025 18:27

Hi,

I have a 3 year old Acer TravelMate / B laptop that I use for work. I have to display Powerpoint presentations in person via HDMI to a display and on Zooms. I don't use it for anything else.

The storage is 99% full, but I have deleted all my old stuff, archived everything I don't need day-to-day and deleted everything I can think of. I used Tree Size to identify large files.

When I first bought the laptop I could store about 30+ powerpoints and media files in C:/

I tried to download some updated ppts from my boss and could only fit 4 (of comparable file size to previous ones).

Am I missing something?

Current specs:

Acer TravelMate B118-M

Windows 10 Pro Education

Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) N4020 CPU @ 1.10GHz

Memory: 4GB

Hard Drive: 58.24GB SanDisk DA4064 (EMMC)

I know it's a small HD and memory but I really do only need it to display a presentation, no bells or whistles. Do I need to upgrade?

Thanks for your help

Dynamic

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Uber Geek

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#3339277 4-Feb-2025 19:05

Hi. The eMMC storage will be soldered down and there won't be a cost-effective way to upgrade it. In your shoes I'd probably put an SD card in the slot on the side and run the presentations from the card. It may be a little slower but this is likely not noticeable and is an inexpensive solution.

Something else you could consider is doing a fresh Windows installation to clear out the cobwebs. There will be a good number of files from various Windows and program updates that are surplus to requirements but would be tricky and time consuming to find and remove manually. Page 21 of this manual shows how to do it.

TMB118-M(Virgo_GL)_UM_(20180809)_EN.book

If you do decide to do the fresh installation, give yourself a couple of days before your next presentation to finish getting the machine ready so you have time to resolve any issues that arise before you actually need it.

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wellygary

8261 posts

Uber Geek

#3339337 4-Feb-2025 20:20

Check out what internal backups it’s been marking... restore points etc.....

easiest way out of your bind is an external ssd... put all your documents on it and just load them from there.

the other option is to go the 365 route and run ppx in a browser... then you can delete all the ms applications off the inbuilt storage ...

MacGraphics

51 posts

Master Geek

#3339655 5-Feb-2025 15:45

Thanks for the tips, I've done a complete reset and it's freed up abot 20gb of space, so that shuold do for now.

I've also got a HP 32gb USB drive but it doesn't like it when I download a .ppt from Google Drive (where my team's documents are, I don't have any choice abotu using Google Drive) directly to the USB the file doesn't work. Sometimes when I copy items from the desktop to the USB and backa gain they corrupt. Is this standard or is the USB faulty? I got it new from PB Tech.

Dynamic

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#3339659 5-Feb-2025 15:49

That sounds weird. There should not be any corruption.

Can you use the Chrome browser and just present straight from Google Drive or within Chrome rather than downloading the file?

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MacGraphics

51 posts

Master Geek

#3339661 5-Feb-2025 15:54

Nah, unfortunately not. The powerpoints are between 400-600mb and \I get the error message "this files is too big to preview, download instead?"

Plus I like to add my own notes to see during presentation.

I could try copying the files direct from one of my colleagues rather than downloading them myself I guess?

Dynamic

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#3339715 5-Feb-2025 16:05

Ok. The USB drive option should be reliable 99% of the time. (Or an SD card which will go into the laptop and not stick out like a USB drive.) Like floppy disks of old, these inexpensive options are reliable until they aren't and a failure at the wrong time is very frustrating.

The best solution IMHO would be to keep your customised version of the file in Google Drive, which is tricky with the limited storage.

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