hdd to small for update from win 7 to 10

Personally because drives are really quite cheap now I would be cloning the original drive to a new one and use at least a 120GB SSD (preferably a 250GB SSD) or cheaper still a 500GB spinner. If you continue using the same drive it is going to fill up very quickly.

I use Macrium reflect for that and then you just need to swap in the new drive. But it depends I guess on your budget. Macrium Reflect Free a lengthy download but handy tool.

Yep either of mine or Roy's suggestions and probably the best way would be Roy's. I have just clean installed my main home laptop preferring not to use the upgrade path and yes sign up to the other forum too then it comes from the horses mouth .

see this Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums oh and yes mate a new drive would be far and away the best bet.
John:)

To be honest in my opinion their is only one cure to a drive that is to small. Everything else is a patch or work around.

Get a bigger drive, preferably a SSD, that meets or exceeds your needs.

KJO mate I am assuming that your budget is pretty limited if you cannot get a new drive but really mate it is the only real option.

Have you tried looking at even a spinner as they are really quite cheap though not as good (speed wise) as the SSDs.

Now I don't know where you live except that it is on the North American continent so could be anywhere form Canada to Panama. But if you look at something like this Seagate ST500LM021 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Laptop Thin Hard Drive - Newegg.com it is only $44 US and is a decent spin rate. I would strongly advise you if you can get one and clean install the 10 onto it Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums you can use the generic code to activate it to see what it is like. Well I am assuming that is what you can do because I did it on my machines.

Hmm you sure it got to 17GB as the OS itself is only around 4-5GB max plus updates should only add another 1-1GB at most??