This still works, it is my only method of interaction with Teams

Software Updater is an application, maybe you can turn it off with ADB.

nevermind. the cache part of HDD won’t appear in task manager, it is transparent to the OS. But this HDD has only 8MB of cache, not really useful. Still it is very good if the HDD can stay responsive.

cough S Mode cough Windows RT cough

nope

Some HDDs are “hybrid”: they have a sizable amount (~8-16 GB) of SSD storage that the drive firmware stores the most often accessed blocks, rest is accessed from usual spining rust. You may have that kind of HDD.

An SSD will make a huge difference

Why does it have more RAM than storage?