Windows 10: Rolling Back From Windows 10 To Your Older OS Appears Problematic

I prefer 10 over 8.1 and even 7, so it likely will never become any issue, but this still temps me to use something else just to spite Microsoft on this. It sure seems MS made it a point to make people believe they'd be able to roll back at any point.

 

@Wenda

Don't panic. I know why the images didn't work. It because Windows 10 adds a system reserve partition to the computer, which messes up the image restore. I don't know how you have you hard disk setup. Hopefully, you have your images on a usb drive or another hard drive. Boot up using the Windows install disk hit Shift F10 when you see the Install windows to bring up the command prompt or use windows 7 repair disk to do the same thing (Ignore any messages to repair startup/bootup issues). In the command prompt, select type diskpart, hit enter.

Type list disk
Type select disk * (that the operating system is on.)
Type clean (This will delete all partition on that drive. Don't use clean all, or it will clean all drives and take a long time.)
Now, type Select Disk *
type create partition primary
type select partition 1
type active
type format fs=ntfs quick
type assign letter C

exit, reboot with image restore recover media and try again.


replace * with the number your operating system is/was on. It is usually 0

 

Thanks for that, Groze. I'll try it later.

Currently attempting a Win 10 240 system image to see if it works.

I only created it last night before attempting to go back, so...


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Your PC sounds screwed up.

Did you try:

• Formatting the OS partition (e.g. using a Live Linux CD/DVD/USB)?
• Applying your backup image?

If you have a complete system backup image, "nuke the whole HDD/SSD" and the restore your backup.

 

I use Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12, and create full disk images with all partitions. I did a couple of times went back to 8.1 while trying to get a decent upgrade without errors / weirdness. Restoring the whole disk nullified the partition changes from the upgrade (I have separate system and data disks).

 

Actually, this thread has to do with using Win10's in-built roll-back mechanism to your previous OS...it has nothing whatever to do with trying to restore a system image made when running your previous OS.

Many people make an "OS roll-back" impossible for themselves (of the type this thread discusses) because after they've installed to Win10 they use "Disk Cleanup" to remove the files (Windows.old, etc.) that must remain on the disk in order for a roll-back to work. Before deleting those files, however, Windows 10 does pop up a warning about losing the ability to roll-back the OS...

Basically, you aren't happy mainly because you are trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole, and your case is much different...*Wink

If you have an 8.1 image that you want to restore, it will no doubt work best when you have reinstalled your basic 8.1 system from which you can then restore your 8.1 image backup. So...

1) Reinstall 8.1
2) Use 8.1 to restore your system from your backed up 8.1 images and whatever repair tools you're talking about (8.1?) should work fine

If you correctly executed an 8.1 system back up then you should be able to restore it from an 8.1 installation. Trying to run Windows 10 to restore an 8.1 image is--square peg in round hole--the tools weren't made to operate in the way that you are trying to use them. If they "worked fine" under 10162 for you to reinstall an 8.1 system image on the same machine/partition, then I'd say you were either very lucky or very unlucky--depending on the number of system errors that were introduced during the process, even though it may have appeared to you that the restore executed properly.

Some people write about running sfc /scannow after an upgrade from 7 or 8.1 and seeing all kinds of errors, but their problem was that they should have run sfc /scannow *before* they attempted the upgrade to Win10, which would have revealed the errors were present before the upgrade to Win10 took place (I've done several 8.1/7 upgrades to Win10 and the process has always completed without any sfc errors detectable after the upgrade--because I had none before the upgrade process was begun.) IMO, 90% of people's computer problems come from misunderstanding the proper procedure for doing various things, and trying to "put square pegs into round holes" and/or from taking bad advice from people who know even less than they do...*Wink

A good rule of thumb when trying to solve frustrating computer problems that develop after you have performed what you believe are the proper procedures, is to consider whether or not you have understood the instructions correctly. Many people also make all kinds of assumptions about many things that have to do with their computer environments that are simply *wrong.* I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors and would like to assure you that no one is trying to pull the wool over your eyes on these issues...*Wink Thinking that you have been "tricked or lied to" is most likely going to be an assumption that will always be wrong--most likely you have simply misunderstood something you've read or heard--it's that simple. Once you learn the ins and outs of making system backups and restoring them (within the correct OS versions!) you will find the problems you complain about here are simply no longer relevant in your experience.

 

I also believe providing alternate solutions may help future upgraders. One solution is to have a previous system image in a hard disk accessible by a recovery DVD.

 

You have completely misunderstood my problem, my intent, my skill-level and experience, and my method and reason for wanting to go back to 8.1

I don't appreciate being patronised.

And yes, I did solve the problem, which had NOTHING to do with what I was trying to do, it was due to an image failure which then screwed the pooch for any further attempts.

Fortunately I DO keep more than one image, and everything else was backed-up anyway.

Now that's sorted, I've got an up-to-date RECOVERABLE 8.1 which I can now upgrade directly to 240 if and when desired.

Which was the whole objective of the exercise.


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Hi there

It's always good to have MORE than one Backup image --images can (and do) fail for all sorts of reasons although it's a rarer occurrence than most people think.

My advice is still after you've taken a Backup to run a VERIFY image straight away.

If your backup program doesn't allow Verify image then it's worth looking at another application -- even a Paid version.

Cheers
jimbo

 

@waltc

Sorry those instructions won't work. That why I gave @Wenda diskpart instruction. I installed windows 10 previews and upgrade windows 10 previews several time so I came across the issue, it is even worse if your system already has a system reserve partition. Windows 10 always creates (My experience) a new system reserve partition unless you have 4 primary partition or 3 primary partitions and logical partition(S).

Some partition boot tools can't delete the OEM or System partitions. That is another reason to use diskpart.

 

I used the roll-back to 8.1 option in recovery & it rolled back fine. I then restored the backup I made with macrium just before the upgrade to windows 10 to be on the safe side.

 

I spent all weekend trying to figure out Windows 10...I couldn't access my mail without changing to outlook, my printer wouldn't print etc. etc.......I went back to Windows 7 easlily....it only took about 5 minutes and I'm back !!!!

 

Windows 10, installing as an upgrade, does what so many upgrades have done over the years.....
It wipes out many things that I've done to make Windows XX work faster, easier and better.
Things I have to reset manually on every Win-10 upgrade (I'm doing #4 right now) include:

Re-activating Windows Mail
Re-installing "Grant Admin Full Control" (I call that 'Take Ownership' on steroids)
Re-telling Windows how many cores I want it to use in my CPU chip.
Turning ON System Restore, which the upgrade turns OFF.
Sometimes, re-setting the 'Classic Shell'.

But the tweaks I do to the Registry, to greatly improve performance are not being wiped out.
That's a relief.

Also, as with most OS upgrades, a HUGE "Windows.old" folder is created. I don't like that, and
I went looking for something like a Script to delete that Elephant in the Room.
But, I found out that Window's own "Disk Cleanup" will do the job if properly set up. It's easier
than some of the other methods that I found.
Too bad someone has not written a VBScript to do the job in one quick operation. Hint! Hint!

Cheers Mates (I need to get back to my upgrades)

*Cool

 

I rolled back two computers to previous versions and had little or no problems. One was my laptop with windows 7 on it. I lost nothing and 100% restored. On my desktop with 8.1 on it, I used for 3 days and decided to roll it back. I had one issue with it, it lost my account picture which was easily restored. Everything else was very well executed!

 

I upgraded Win 7 PRO to 10 PRO. No problems at all. The one thing it didn't do was find Win 7 on a separate hard drive. So I now boot into Win 7 and use easybcd, works well now.
Of course I don't do any fancy stuff, never play any games and being a skinflint still using Office 2003 (God(anybodies) knows how many times I have installed Office 2003) and FrontPage, suits me. I have always stuck with Win 7, skipped Vista and Eight. Win 10 is now like Win 7 to use so will continue to use it. I don't see problems where there aren't any.
I did update from 7 to 10 on another PC but neither Nvidia or 10 could not find my graphics card so rolled back to 7. Quite painless really.