Windows Updates

[#1]

I've had a laptop repaired and now have to set everything up with windows 8.1, there are loads of windows updates to do, so I selected the important ones and started it off, after a couple of hours, nothing had happened that I could see so I cancelled it, only a couple of updates had been installed but it had used 4GB memory, the same has happened when I have tried again.  I can't understand how that much memory (8GB) has been used for nothing. I can do them manually but it will take forever.  Has anyone else had this?

[#2]

I found the same thing (not) happening.... however... best thing to do is to start the update process before you go to bed and leave it running overnight...... you will probably find that they ( most ) will have been done by the time you wake next morning....

[#3]

I had to re-install Windows 7 (SP1) a few days ago.  There were over 200 updates.  The computer tried to install 173 updates whilst shutting down, decided at the end that it could not configure them and so reverted the changes.  The whole process wasted over two hours.  So I installed them manually in batches of 10 to 15 at a time, restarting after each installation (as requested).  I did a disk cleanup at the end of the process and there was a pending error report that was 4GB in size.  This could only pertain to the failed installation.
So I recommend you install only a few updates at a time.  It won't really take forever and it may well be quicker than waiting for a large batch to fail.  You can get on with other things whilst the updates are installing but be prepared for frequent restarts.  If Microsoft had any sense they would offer a means of restricting the number of updates a computer would attempt in a single batch but if this can be done I don't know how.   

[#4]

The trick is to only install the 'cumulative' ones first as they often render some of the individual kb ones obsolete.

[#5]

Thanks for your replies, I think installing them manually is the thing to do.  I did a disk clean up but there was no error report there, maybe it would appear after the failed ones are installed and that would explain all the memory used.

[#6]

You have to start Disk Cleanup using Run as Administrator or start normally then click the Clean up System Files button (see https://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,140831.0.html )

[#7]

Thanks ReedRichards, I'll check that out.