Windows 10: Newbie needs advice moving Win8.1 ==> Win10

Hi

I am new here.

I need to update my laptop and my desktop, both of which are running Windows 8.1 Pro x64. On both computers there is quite a lot of software installed and Window 8.1 is quite old and running rather slowly...

A) I should do a clean install ? If so exactly how do I do this?

OR

B) I should I just follow the instructions on the screen about how to upgrade to Window 10?
And if I do this, after I run the upgrade, will I need to find and re-install all licenses for all my software?
And will I lose all my settings if I do this?

I have already taken a copy of my documents and email files onto an external hard disk. But:
- Should I take a copy of all my documents onto a DVD-R for archive too?
- Should I try to take a copy of the whole disk using a freebie such as Macrium Reflect, in case it all goes wrong?

Anything else I need to know?

J

:)

 

Windows 10 free upgrade disaster

Not sure about GeoS68, but I already did this. With my original OS in tatters, that ISO file does not work. That ISO is *not* a full, fresh install. I have also tried my Win7 recovery disc as well as a full, retail copy of Win8.1. I'm not a newbie
at fixing Windows installs, and at this stage I need for the Win7 key I have to be able to validate Win8.1 so I *have* an operating system with which to upgrade to Win10...OR I need a FULL copy of Win10 that will accept my Win7 key. This "free upgrade" shredded
my legitimate, fully-working copy of Win7 and I either need that back or a way to upgrade that will work.

 

upgrade from windows 8.1 home to windows 10 professional

WYSIWYG.

Win8.1 Home upgrades to Win10 Home, Win8.1 Pro upgrades to Win10 Pro, etc.

<EDIT> Once you've upgraded from Win8.1 Home to Win10 Home, you can then purchase an upgrade to Win10 Pro.
</EDIT>

 

A) The method for doing a clean install is given in the tutorials here: Windows 10 Tutorials

B) If you do an upgrade install, your software should continue to work. There is a chance that some of it won't work properly unless it is re-installed, but that is fairly rare. Most settings should be carried over, but a few may not be.

Saving documents: always a good idea.

Imaging the Windows installation before doing an OS upgrade: always a good idea.

I haven't been following the discussion about when the free upgrade expires, but you're perilously close to being out of time, if it isn't already too late. Ah, well, it's only money. (Something over $100US per license, I don't know what MS wants in £.)

 

> Imaging the Windows installation before doing an OS upgrade: always a good idea.
Is that something I would do with Macrium Reflect (or similar) or via Windows 8.1 itself?

I think I have about 1.5 days left...

J

 

The free part expires tomorrow, that hasn't changed since the RTM a year ago. The Anniversary update is set for August 2 [Tuesday] as far as I've ever read/heard.

I did a Win8.1 Upgrade for a client just a couple of days ago, Windows Update did want to get Win8.1 fully up-to-date first. All-in-all I'd allow 2 days to get it done but it depends upon your Internet speed, mine is only 5Mbps. And I had to try twice due to a Registry entry that was preventing auto updates, error 80072EE2, once I deleted the Registry key all went well.

 

In your shoes I would

• Take a backup of the OS drive with Macrium Reflect, as suggested
• Download the ISO and do an Upgrade install (step 7 in this tutorial)

Macrium gives you a way back if the upgrade doesn't work, and I also think that doing an Upgrade install is probably likely to be your quickest route to being activated on Windows 10 by the deadline.

Once activated, you can consider doing a clean install later but without the time pressure.

 

Help! Should I "clone" or "image" my PC's HDD? (It seems to have 2 partitions - I guess one contains Window 8.1...)

J

 

I would image it.
If you have system or recovery partitions (and there will be at least one of these), then include them in the image as well.

 

There's a 5 minute video here on how to back up using Macrium:
https://www.tenforums.com/general-dis...ost355809.html

 

Great - so I have done my imaging of both computers.
I then downloaded the Windows 10 ISO file.

On my Win8.1 laptop when I right-clicked on the ISO file there was no option to "mount" it. So instead I decided to "burn" it onto a DVD. And I am now running setup.exe on the Window 10 DVD. It is checking for updates and has got to 74% (and counting).

BUT on my Win8.1 desktop PC, I could right click on the ISO file and select "Mount", which created a virtual DVD driver. And on this virtual DVD driver I started running setup.exe. My problem is that the popup window called "Windows 10 Setup" has got stuck with the title: "Getting updates" and says "Checking for updates:12%" But it has got stuck! It has said the same thing for nearly 30 minutes.

How long should I give it?!

And how should I best crash out of it?
- Should I close that window?
- Or should I click on the "Get Windows 10" icon on the task bar (at bottom right of screen)?

 

Must admit I would have closed it down after 30 mins. Unless you have a really slow connection it should be faster than that.
You could disconnect your network cable/ switch off WiFi to stop it trying to update itself. It's possible the update contains something which will help your specific install, but most likely you'll be able to update it later.

You could try the Get Windows 10 icon if there's a possibility the downloaded ISO is corrupt, but personally I would try the ISO again.

 

OK here's what I did in the end:
- I attempted to close that window saying "Checking for updates"
- That lead to another window that got stuck too called "cleaning up" or similar.
So after a further 30 minutes I rebooted by brute force, ran CCleaner to remove any stray garbage, rebooted again and then ran the Get Window 10 icon.

This took quite a long time to run (maybe 1.5 hours or so) but it never got stuck in the same way. And here I am in Windows 10. I shall probably do a fresh install at some point, but at least I am now in Window 10 and I have hit the "upgrade by" date.

 

Glad you got it going.

It's worth checking the Activation status (in Settings then Update and Security) to make sure it's activated.

 

Good point - yes, on both my computers Win10 is "Activated".
Thanks for your help everyone. :^)