Windows 10 Home upgrade to Windows 10 Professional

Hi - We have a Windows 10 Home client with very little free disk space (approx 6GB). We would like to upgrade to windows 10 Professional to take advantage of 'BitLocker' drive encryption. I'm aware of the upgrade process but would like clarification on the following before proceeding:

1) How much free disk space is required to carry out the upgrade? I'm not sure if the upgrade only involves enabling additional functionality or does it download/install the additional functionality from the Microsoft Store\DVD?

Any assistance would be appreciated

Regards
LMG09Asked:
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Tom CieslikIT EngineerCommented:
6GB it's not enough
If you will do upgrade from MS Store, then you must download full installation package (around 5GB), then You need 2 GB for temporary installation process and finally old Windows folder will be copied to some Windows Old hidden folder, so I assume Your Windows 7 folder is about 10GB or more in capacity, depends how many software you've installed and how old your Windows 10 Home is.
I think that minimum you need is 20GB to be safe.  

You can use AOMEI backuper (free software) to do Disk Clone to bigger drive first,
https://www.backup-utility.com
then run Windows from new drive and do Upgrade but You going to need to have additional regular or SSD drive and connect it to your computer. I suggest SSD drive and Sata to USB converter cable.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Micro-SATA-to-USB-2-0-for-1-8-HDD-SSD-Cable-Connector-Converter-Wire-Cord/362210554907?hash=item54556e741b:g:ca8AAOSwUn9aGGgl
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JohnBusiness Consultant (Owner)Commented:
When I do Repair Install, just my .OLD folder is sometimes more that 20 GB. So I agree with the above that you should get a larger drive.
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McKnifeCommented:
LMG09, do you have a TPM chip? If so, you would not even need to upgrade to pro, but you might be able to use device encryption (which uses bitlocker technology)
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LMG09Author Commented:
Many thanks for your prompt responses :

McKnife - Whilst the device has a TPM chip, I thought Bitlocker was not supported on Windows 10 Home. Please could you clarify?

Regards
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McKnifeCommented:
I am a bitlocker user, but many people I know, use device encryption, which is available on home following https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compare

D.E. is "bitlocker without options" and it will enable even automatically kf certain conditions are met. Please type "device encryption" into your start menu.

By the way, although win10 home cannot use bitlocker out of the box, you can still enable it using the setup disk if you have a TPM.

1 Boot a Win10 Home Setup
2 Press Shift F10 for command line
3 There, execute: manage-bde -on c: -used -em XTS_AES256
-> Pre-provisioning completed! ->restart
4 Open and run cmd (elevated) in the started Windows
manage-bde -protectors -add -rp c:
-> print / save recoverykey
5 manage-bde -on c:
6 manage-bde -protectors -add -tpm c:

Bingo. Now you have a TPM protected bitlocker on Windows 10 Home.

And now we ask ourselves: is that legal? Why not. Device encryption is nothing else, just that requires instant-go, as well as a MS account.
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Tom CieslikIT EngineerCommented:
McKnife - I agree, but if something will happen with his computer he not going to be able access data on other computer anymore if he will decide transfer hard drive there for recovery data.
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McKnifeCommented:
Tom, that is simply wrong. The recovery key can be used to recover the data anywhere as with any bitlocker/device encryption scenario.
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Tom CieslikIT EngineerCommented:
I didn't know that..
Thank You for information, I'll try this on my backup computer :)
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LMG09Author Commented:
Thank you all for your expert opinions - Your comments are appreciated
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