Windows 10: Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

Originally Posted by

I can't get Edge or any apps that connect vie Edge to recognise that I'm connected to a network yet I can use IE 11 no probs.
The media creation tool starts installing right out of the gate without any option to "create" an ISO or USB. Will this repair install fix my problem do you think?

Well the "Repair Install" did squat to fix connectivity. I Chatted online with an MS rep and they said they're working on it . I guess we'll see on that one!
I'm now using IE 11 or Chrome and I can handle that for now but this should have been tested on W7 upgrades that develop this problem. I know for sure that I'm not alone in this dilemma.

 

Edge connects immediately here while I still made another browser default as well as pinning IE to the Start and task bar. It's still very much in a beta form of it's own at this time and needs quite a bit of work to come in order to see as any type of replacement for IE!

Here I have some programs I still have to keep going on the present W7 side of the dual boot or simply plan on buying them new for each clean install! Despite paying for the full retail product key you can only reinstall after first uninstalling only a few times while connected online to preserve the activation status. If you do that more then a couple of times unlike simply calling into MS you lose out entirely and need to buy it all over again and again!

Yet the time will come for the older version to see a fresh install go on. During this type of in place to repair type install there I would still expect to lose those while I can understand why someone who just bought for 10 with that type of situation to want to preserve things as long as possible. The software companies get you over a barrel at times!

 

My first "mistake" was using a local account to sign in originally. Now even creating a new MS account sign in and deeming it an admin account does not get the apps to work. My only recourse now is to clean install and start with an MS account. I don't really want to lose this configuration (wife's PC) so I'm living without the apps. I don't think the wife really cares so I won't either.

 

I ended with two MS accounts and then simply kept the local account set until needing to sign in with either of the two. That eliminates the need to keep entering a password simply when booting back and forth between 10 and 7 I have running as well.

Fortunately I am now getting close to having 10 set up very closely to how things are on 7 as far as the important things go. Having a discontinued tuner card now working by simply running the app for another model still in production was a work around to see that from being left for 7 only! You gradually have to tweak things over time to get them to work for you.

 

Just knowing the way I am with wanting my PC functioning in "optimal" mode I'll probably eventually tweak this machine up when I have a bit more time on my hands but I have to make sure it's user friendly for the main user. There will be quite a few workarounds for some of the apps on here as the original versions were from XP and have already been slightly altered to work on W7. *Wink

 

Well that's the important thing there! In fact I still have a few 9x-ME-XP compatible titles that simply went right on without any fuss not running into any type of compatibility issues while some of the important stuff like the life time license for the av program here required a newer version from 2014?!

The repair install using this option on the initial upgrade on the main machine here first saw the 2016 beta version I looked for that one go on until finally seeing the clean install take place a week later and ending up with the 2015 for the present time. Sometimes software headaches can become a bit more troublesome then debugging any OS problems that come up!

As seen in one report lately 10 is the first version since XP that actually supports any inplace repair install while doing a better job at preserving things then XP ever did! This should be more encouraging for those trying to preserve their existing software environment by delaying the eventual need to see a clean install take place especially where there's need to avoid repurchasing softwares with one time or two time install limitations.

The first thing I generally advise people to consider however before simply rushing blindly into any newer version is to see a dual boot or VM install first to see if this is what they will be staying with before investing in software upgrades to go with the newer version in case they decide to bail out entirely. If they did invest and something goofs up in 10 at least they have this option available while not every program can be preserved as some will end up needing to be reinstalled all over again while the original program folders and even user configurations however can still be found intact.

 

I hear you on the VM install but in my case I had W10 running on 4 other machines with no sign in issues because I used MS accounts for each one of those so like I said "that was my first mistake" and like you said "dual boot or VM install first"! Live and learn.

 

It can help! Generally with any newer version I would take a look having it isolated on a second drive rather then seeing the existing OS drive split up. That automatically avoids trashing the present version already in use. With 10 however I got the first look on a VM but only until the end of July had the change to see a physical drive type install being the initial upgrade here that needed a fast repair when coming out buggy!

When mentioning the second upgrade used to repair the first Shawn apparently realized it was time to make sure the guide here was posted as many will still continue to end up seeing bad upgrades where this option provides an immediate fix until someone is able to perform a clean install if they have too much invested in an existing install. Of course this is also the option for someone who simply doesn't have the time available to start from scratch being a busy schedule or doesn't have much on the system to start with and simply wants a "quick fix" option.

For me besides the fast repair option I also needed to see if the Repair Install type option would work on 10 as it has in the past and with good news it fares better then seen with previous versions apparently. The word on the web is favorable.

 

Hi Brink, thanks for your post. New guy here. I fell for the Windows 10 upgrade to serve as some sort of ginny pig apparently. It worked fine for a few weeks, but now system will not boot. It gets to the swirly dots and reads please wait, then the monitor goes into sleep mode. Sometimes the monitor will wake up, but it will eventually go back to sleep again. When I started to see this a few days ago, I ran a video card test, all passed. So it wouldn't seem that it is a faulty card (GTX 480). So after reading this post of yours, I downloaded the Windows 10 ISO on a USB Flash drive. I would like to know, that by following your process above, will I get to keep ALL my installed software, and data? Also, if I go into bios and select the usb as the priority boot, (which has the Windows 10 ISO on it), will this work as per your post? I have seen hundreds of 10 users having identical problems, such as mine, but nobody really has conveyed a fix yet. Your post seems promising, and well laid out, but I wanted to touch base with you first to see if this process will allow me to keep my programs and data.

One last thing, I am now installing another hard drive, and I thought that in doing so, I could sneak in through the back door and access the drive that has windows 10 on it. The new drive will be 7 professional, so do you think this would be possible to peek into my non-bootable windows 10 drive? Many thanks

 

As long as the drive is sound you can access the files on it from the Windows 7 drive just fine.

 

Colarguns, I would also suggest if you are going to clean install Windows 7, disconnect all drives you are not installing to. After the install is complete, shut down and reconnect the drives. As far as the repair install, there will be 3 options you can select. The Refresh Option will keep all of your personal files, user accounts and most settings. You will have to reinstall the windows apps you installed. I would take a system image and back up the user files first, just in case. As @Cbarnhorst said, you will be able to access all of your Windows 10 files from the Windows 7 installation.

 

Thank you very much. I was under the impression from this post, that you could maintain your apps with this installation method. My bad. Been a long day, and there's a flying pig that just went by my door. *Eek Have a good night. Crossing fingers this darn thing will boot tonight.

 

You should be able to keep some of them and your user files, account and most settings. You will have to reinstall some apps, but if you know that before, just download your installers to a USB drive and it should be pretty quick. If you run into problems, just let us know.

 

Thanks Essenbe. Mighty nice of you and others to assist. Good old fashioned service, love it. I will mark this on my favorites.

 

I repaired the initial bugged up upgrade to see a working copy of 10 during that first week. You would still need to unplug the other drives if not planning a dual boot and have another previous version on already. The 10 upgrade can simply be what gets replaced with a clean install if you had wanted to keep running 10.

Here 10 won't do the one thing it needs to on a second desktop while that upgrade that had been seen there was the "1 out of 3" that came out working normally! The laptop that followed however was another mess where you wouldn't want to repair that upgrade! No Thanks! Drive wiped clean twice and then repartitioned for the third final clean install to go on!

After moving from the 32bit pre-install of 7 to the 32bit 10 I went for broke with the 64bit 10 since that one came with 3gb of memory and won't be running much. Had to find a free dvd player to download sunday however! Once you see a clean install you lose the free Windows DVD Player option MS throws at the upgrades but charges for separately if you should end not being able to repair the upgrade install. *Rolleyes