Re: You can update system with small SSD by using a external drive during update.
Was it plugged into a USB3 port with the "Superspeed" gubbins, as it worked fine for me on some Linx tablets (To me they are proper bottom of the barrell machines).
Only issue I had with updates was a 4 year old Dell laptop, that was because Intel stopped supporting the chipset a year before W10 was released (Hugely annoying when a 14 year old Dell machine was still supported and although ran like a dog updated perfectly fine every time) and Arcsoft Totalmedia Extreme causing my machine to BSOD over 1/2 the time it booted (Probably doesn't help I have performed a clean install since the days of Windows 7 Home, but then I will be lazy if it works).