After spending 24 hours trying to upgrade to Win10, I gave up

[JimmiG]

July 29, 7 pm:
Home from work, I fire up the PC and check Windows Update. There's no magical "Windows 10 is available" popup, but I do find several "failed" attempts at installing Windows 10 in the log. I download a bunch of smaller updates for Win7 that were waiting. It actually said "Downloading and Installing Windows 10" while downloading them, even though they were just a bunch of "KB" updates for Win7.
After rebooting, I go online and see that you can delete a bunch of files and run a command to re-trigger the download. Still nothing. I go to bed and figure the magical popup will appear tomorrow.


July 30, 10 am. I perform a full backup of my C: drive, just in case.

12:30 p.m. With no magical popup in sight, I get the manual download tool from Microsoft. I launch it and choose the option to update my PC now.
It downloads about 4GB of data, but then doesn't give me the option to keep my apps. Apparently it's trying to install the Swedish version of Win 10, while I have the English version of Win 7. I like to use the English version of Windows for compatibility and speedy updates, and it's easier to google for error messages in English.

1:30 p.m.
I choose to manually create media and burn it to a DVD. Now I'm given the option for US English. It's downloading another 4GB. Excellent.

2:00 p.m.
The installation starts from the DVD and seems to be doing alright. It spends forever checking for updates and "Making sure you're ready to install", but it eventually reboots and starts to install properly. Better safe than sorry.

3:30 p.m.
The installer is now "Restoring your previous version of Windows". There was no error message and I certainly didn't tell it to do that. Maybe if it had spent another hour or two "Making sure you're ready to install", it would have worked out?

4 p.m.
"Nothing happened". I'm back at my Windows 7 desktop. Apparently the installation failed in FIRST_BOOT during MIGRATE_DATA which is only slightly more useful than the "Something happened" error.

4:15 p.m.
I try to create USB flash drive in order to reinstall. It downloads another 4GB, but then "Something happened".

4:30 p.m.
I change my regional settings to USA, because that's apparently what you have to do when "something happened". I download the 4GB of data again and this time it manages to create a USB install drive. I start the install from the USB drive. Back to making sure I'm ready.

5:30 p.m.
After re-running setup from the flash drive, same result. The first part of the installation goes fine, then a problem at the migrate phase.

6 p.m.
I hunt around the net for solutions to the error, that involve running various scripts or disconnecting every single peripheral except the keyboard. Eventually I decide to try a clean installation instead (the Keep Nothing option).

7:30 p.m. The installation actually works this time, and after 24 hours of work, I'm finally greeted by the Windows 10 desktop in all its non-native resolution stretched, pixelated glory.

7:45 p.m. Since it's a clean install now, it won't take my Win7 key. I'm stuck with a non-activated version of Win10 unless I purchase a key. Not gonna happen, the update was supposed to be free. Time to restore.

10 p.m. I'm back at my beloved Windows 7 desktop, just how I left it 12 hours earlier.

So after more than 24 hours and countless downloads of the same 4GB of data over and over, I've given up for now. Maybe I will purchase a retail copy of Win10 in a few months, once the dust has settled. For now, Windows 7 lets me actually *use* my computer, which is all I really need.

 

[will889]

Just install Windows 7 again and update it completely. Wait until you get the W10 icon again but be very sure you don't start that process again while doing anything else -- no other upates at the same time. For a clean install to work you need to have successfully done the "upgrade" installation and the activation on that, then you can later do a clean install. I have done it now on 2 different PC's successfully and they key is do not get impatient take your time. Even after you do the W10 upgrade and activation play around with it for half a day or 1 day before trying a clean install it needs to sync your hardware config. to the MS servers to get the proper generic hash with your hardware setup allowing a clean install without ever having to enter keys. Trying to enter your W7 key with a W10 install was a mistake in the 1st place. That can only be used with Windows 7 and not Windows 10. Good luck. Start from square one again.

 

[DustinBrowder]

Wait until its automatically ready for you? Like seriously, you decided to push the issue and ended up with a lot of errors.

If you want win10 so much, just fresh install windows7 and then upgrade from there. Use their tool with a USB and install from the windows. Don't boot from usb or DVD, just enter into the usb or dvd and run "setup"

 

[v-600]

I'd second that sentiment. I've got a surface pro and an old (slightly abused and starting to fail) laptop that it replaced. The SP3 flashed up the ready to update message, did everything automatically and was working perfectly with everything in place within 45 minutes.

The laptop still on win7 has had far more problems. How much of that is due to a potentially failing HD, 3 years of cruft, an inplace upgrade or my forcing the issue isn't known, but on any other machines I'd recommend waiting for the automatic installer to pop up.

 

[Sabrewings]

I'd second that sentiment. I've got a surface pro and an old (slightly abused and starting to fail) laptop that it replaced. The SP3 flashed up the ready to update message, did everything automatically and was working perfectly with everything in place within 45 minutes.

The laptop still on win7 has had far more problems. How much of that is due to a potentially failing HD, 3 years of cruft, an inplace upgrade or my forcing the issue isn't known, but on any other machines I'd recommend waiting for the automatic installer to pop up.

I'm having serious issues with a 2 month old Win 7 installation on my rig below. Terrible updater software. I despise the lack of a verbose status updates. Instead, just "copying files." What files? From where to where?