Windows 10: Windows 10 Upgrade Installation via DVD without booting into Windows 7

My Dad's laptop running Windows 7 crashed the other day, and after running Startup Repair, it found that compbatt.sys was corrupt. I tried copying over a good version from my pc & recovery partition but that only resulted in a blue screen.

Today, I attempted to do an upgrade installation of Windows 10 in order to preserve his files,etc.
We have a backup, but he's not 100% sure on it's content.

I was able to boot off of the Win 10 DVD and select Upgrade Installation, but then it stops, and a message pops up (paraphrasing here) that I need to boot into Windows 7 for it to proceed.

As I am unable to boot into Windows 7 due to the corrupt system file, I'm asking for a way to force Windows 10 to proceed with the Upgrade Installation WITHOUT having to boot into Windows 7.

I've prepared my Dad for the fact that we may need to do a clean install (7 or 10), and suggested we'd have to pull the HDD from his laptop and use my HDD cradle to scavenge for any files, but his laptop would take full disassembly (remove keyboard/etc) to get to the HDD.

Thanks for any help in allowing us to proceed with the Win 10 Upgrade Installation without having to boot into Win 7 which is corrupt. Googling hasn't given me any clue thus far.

Looking forward to people smarter than me helping me to a path forward without a loss of data and not having to take apart the laptop.

:)

 

error code 0x80190193-0x90017

If you can't download via Windows Update then try an alternate way to get Windows 10.

If you want to see if you can create a .iso for Windows 10 and burn it to DVD, or USB, but without any Windows 10 Product Key you can only use it to upgrade from Windows 8.1, or Windows 7 SP1.

Download Windows 10

Download Windows 10

Start Windows 10 setup by launching it from within Windows 8.1, or 7, click on the Setup.exe. This will ensure that you upgrade Windows 8.1 etc. to Windows 10.

If you boot from DVD via the Windows 10 DVD you will be given the choice of a Custom install, or an Upgrade install. A Custom install will take you down the Clean Install patch which is no good to you (initially) as you don't have a Windows 10 Product Key.

In Windows 8.1 you can convert a .iso to a bootable DVD by right-clicking on it and selecting "Burn to disk".

Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

After performing the Upgrade install from Windows 8.1 etc. to Windows 10, you can later clean install Windows 10 (on the same machine) without any Product Key in any subsequent installs, but you must have upgraded from Windows 8.1, 7, first.

 

Windows 10 Upgrade Failed

If you browse these forums you will see that this is a common problem WITHOUT a solution.

I have been trying to upgrade my Windows 7 computer since July 29th. I have tried every solution.

I tried upgrading via a clean boot using the upgrade app, a USB, a DVD and I even bought a licensed DVD. The installation always stalls while copying files . I even spent many hours on the phone with MS tech support. I have resigned myself to continue using
Windows 7.

 

Did you try just Repair option ?

 

See if this helps

System File Checker - offline

Boot the machine from a system repair disc (or your Windows install media)

Click Repair your computer.

Note the drive letter !!! - you will use it when you enter the SFC command




Select the Windows installation
press Next
Select Command Prompt
Type in the following command

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=D:\ /offwindir=D:\windows

 

If you install without formatting the drive/partition, the current installation will be moved into a C:\Windows.old folder. Once the install is complete you can move the data from C:\Windows.old into the normal C:\ folder structure.

C:\Windows.old\Users\youraccount\Documents, Desktop, Favorites, Pictures, etc.

You will have to reinstall all software, not copy it from Windows.old but at least you won't lose data.

I would strongly recommend you do a full image backup before doing this just in case something goes wrong.
A good way to do this is to use KYHI's Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable PE Rescue Disk to create a bootable DVD or flash drive.

Boot it andrun Macrium Reflect to do the image backup to an external hard drive.

I realize you are backing up a non-working system but it will contain all your dad's data which is the important part.

 

CountMike - I was unable to do a Repair Installation of Win7 because the dvd I have is the original Win7, and Dad's is fully up to data, so not the same version of Win7.

Slarty - I tried SFC, even with those parameters, and it says it can't repair the file.

Ztruker - I can't do the upgrade installation to Win10 as it wants to reboot into Win7 to begin the process. I'll look into the PE Rescue Disk and see if I can make any headway that way, as it sounds like that could save me from laptop disassembly to remove the hdd and use my hdd cradle externally.

Thanks to all for your replies, time, and ideas.

 

I see KYHI's tools are Win10/Win8.1 - will either of those work on Win7 as that is what is currently on the machine, although as I mentioned, I can't boot into it due to the corrupt compbatt.sys.
I'm assuming Macrium Reflect is part of the Rescue Disk?
Thanks again for your assistance.

 

Macrium reflect is part of Kyhi's recovery drive and it will work with Windows 7. Before it does an image, though, it checks the file system for integrity so if the Windows 7 file system is too messed up, it won't make an image from it. But definitely worth a try.

 

Thanks, Navy - I'll get the Win10 KYHI disk and see what happens.

 

I didn't say to do an upgrade. It's a full install without formatting by booting the DVD or flash drive, so the old install gets moved into a C:\Windows.old folder tree. That means all your data will still be there and available once the new install is complete.

Still best to backup what you currently have before doing anything.

 

First things first. You need to deal with hardware now. You need two dvd drives, one that is connected to a computer that does work. First, find a Windows 10 iso. Burn it onto an empty disc. Take the disk, and insert it into the dvd drive of your broken pc. Restart. When it boots, press any letter to boot from dvd or cd. Select language settings, and install Windows 10.