Windows 10: Windows 7 x86 upgrade hangs on FIRST BOOT with spinning icon

Yes, I've been working from backups.

Meanwhile, I've created a Win 7 install from which I'm progressively deleting more and more, including uninstallation of all software and removal of all user profiles. It still hands on the FIRST_BOOT of the upgrade.

 

I think in the long run in order to get a working form of Windows going again you will need to nuke at least the primary if more then one partition is present. That will clear off the mbr information as well from whatever is the hold up.

To move into 10 finally the better move to consider would simply be skipping the upgrade over 7 part and run with the clean install of 10. You will first need to find out what if any 8.1 if not 10 drivers are to be found for the hardwares. The 10 installer will generally find some for 7 and even make them work at times while the newer the better.

One good example I could mention here was watching 10 look up the driver(Vista not 7) for an old discontinued PCI type tv tuner/vcr/video capture card. The old XP/Vista software for it that worked well on the 64bit 7 wasn't going to work on 10 however only the device driver. Went to the company's support site and looked up the newer PCI Express models ironically using the same or close in nature chip and tried the software package for the PCIe card(W8.1 package). All went well suggesting the chip on the newer card was actually the same but now seen in PCIe format.

Sometimes you have to "put blinders on" the OS in order to get it to take when not having newer stuff to work with. 10 has a fare amount of backward compatibility but as most versions mainly to the immediate predecessor 8.1 not even 8 while those tend to share the same. 7 is still in the old Vista/7 ball park there for support while a good number of 7 drivers will still run on 10 depending on the type of device usually. The same for 7 when working with older XP driven wares where you have to tweak things at times or like you are saying the boot is hanging on you suggesting Windows is unable to load some driver or run with some startup. You can try working with it in Safe Mode to select the MSConfig tool's Selective Startup as far as 7 goes to try and isolate the hangup if nothing in the mbr/boot configuration is off.

 

I've tried everything commonly suggested, to no avail. With regards to giving up, I've put in too much time: I really want to find out what's causing the hang.

 

Well it might be time now to consider looking over each of the hardwares including the drive(s), cable(s) in use. PIDE, Sata I, II, 3 even? The battery if one is present on the board wearing down will have an effect on the CMOS and settings there. Remember just how old is the system itself?

A flaky drive cable can cause unsuspected problems especially if the old ide ribbon type which harden up over time and lose their conductivity to the larger extent. Despite what some might think sata cables can become shaky as well at times and need replacement. Working with multiple builds at times as well as building for others where all seems well at first have ended needing to replace a number of those at times mainly due to the "who made them so cheap" factor and had to look on the web for better made! While board manufacturers generally ship adequate quality you still can run into a few bad at times. Perhaps a port or ribbon connector on the board is now toast if not simply loaded up with dust and other fine particles of dirt and debris and needs a good cleaning?! A layer of dust on board can cause any number of issues.

PCs are a lot like cars at times where maintaining things is a must have to keep things going smooth as possible. Bad sectors on an older worn drive won't help any either. So the best tip anyone can pass along here would be to look at everything in case something was missed. The description you have provided so far however suggests you are reimaging the drive after several deductions of apps rather then seeing to a full clean install on a fresh primary. The Windows installer will generally tend to work around bad sectors while a drive is still useable in order to get the OS working well.

 

This is definitely a software problem, because the upgrade succeeds if "do not migrate programs and data" is selected. It fails if "do not migrate programs but keep data" or "migrate programs and data" is selected.

The machine is a brand new ASRock 1150 mini-ITX, and the storage device, a brand new 850 series mSATA, doesn't even have sectors. *Smile

Having deleted all the original users and their data, and uninstalled all the old programs, I am really curious where this problem is. I am wondering if I can dump the Registry to a text file and compare it to a dump of a clean Windows 7 install.

 

So you are taking an image from an older machine to run on this one? If that is the case you have to start looking at the comparison of the source machine to the much newer destination machine and why a full clean install of Windows would be the first recommendation in order to OS a much newer machine.

The second item of interest is looking over some information about the newer Asrock board itself which might just explain why 7 is having such a great problem.

That was the only thing about OSs on the newegg product information found at: ASRock Z87E-ITX LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel I217V Lan 802.11ac WiFi Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

They are generally good on providing accurate information there while a trip to Asrock's own support pages was a key note. Instead of 8 their information does however show 7 is supported. ASRock > Z87E-ITX

And that brings us back to the most likely need to see only a full clean install for 7 or newer to even run on the machine there. Restoring images generally requires identical hardwares for the most part unless able to tweak things a bit due to a different video card, memory config, brand, size but mainly not difference in type of drive in order to see the best working results. If you are trying to take this from an old mechanical spinner and reimage things on an SSD type this is what you are running into an incompatible situation. In fact many had fun simply trying to get 7 as well as other versions on fresh when SSDs were first being seen and seems to indicate a degree of stubborness when things don't meet certain criteria.

In your situation I still have to recommend following the guide for seeing a totally fresh install of 7 go on in order to see working results. When everything is new this is how to proceed. I am forced to agree with Fafhrd's statement earlier about this being far newer when you mention a relative passing when? back in 2007 or so being 10yrs. ago.

You are trying to put things on a 2012 made system from what? How old and what type of hardware configuration did the source machine have? Old Legacy upgraded to 2K, XP perhaps from 9x? I'm surprised you haven't seen any BSODs yet since there is an apparent major contrast in hardwares to look at if this is the case. If you are trying to preserve things from some old pc this is the reason for why Windows is hanging. You would now need to start off Windows fresh due to the large clash between systems.

 

Yes, but I have done this with images from many older machines, and the only ones that would not upgrade to Ten were originally created for Windows 95. I have corrected one difference (changed the cluster size to 4096), but the upgrades will still not boot.

The upgrade hangs on any machine I've tried it on.

The board is an ASRock B85M-ITX 1150 with 256gb mSATA, but different boards with old-fashioned spindle drives have the same problem with these upgrades.

The install upgrades fine to 7, but I can't upgrade to 10 from 7.

I have installed all the missing drivers for 7 and removed all nonpresent devices in Device Manager.

Yep, but I was able to in-place upgrade an XP install created in 2003 or 2004 to Ten. The difference is this install was originally created for 95, then upgraded to 98 and then 2000 before it was upgraded to XP. The successful XP upgrade was a fresh install of XP on a 32-bit Athlon, and it has since been in-place upgraded to Ten on a variety of modern architectures.

Its final 2007 configuration was an nForce chipset board with Duron CPU. I removed all that hardware from Device Manager after the successful upgrade to 7.

Perhaps the hang is due to non-plug 'n' play hardware? There is an FS_REC device that is nonpresent and which I cannot uninstall. I notice in Ten that there are no non-plug-'n'-play devices listed in Device Manager.

 

In the DM you have to check off the "Show Hidden Devices" option in the view in order to have the DM display all of the not seen items for each category. As for it hanging on the upgrade over 7 to 10 that may require a visit to the Asrock support to download drivers there either for 10 or not found some for 8.1 being the closest compatibility wise if some startup item is found to be at fault. 10 has a nasty habit of slapping drivers on it looks up for previous version and then finding you have to manually look up the updated form of software to go with the driver update if one newer is to be found.

As for the inplace upgrade from XP to 10? That wasn't what you saw but rather the 10 installer simply nuke the old XP installation in favor of the fresh 10 install since there isn't any upgrade path even from Vista to 10. 7 is the oldest version to allow for that being 3 versions back. Refer to the upgrade guide about what is supported. I'll quote the minimum requirements here for you. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...on.html?filter

Despite the time frame when the early 10 upgrades were first seen compared to the progress since I think you find that trying to upgrade from 7 to 10 rather then going with a full clean install is where you are running into a hidden problem as well as upgrades from 3 versions back with any version of Windows does tend to run into any number of issues. Upgrades do tend to be buggy! With 10 over 10 for the most however the WU updates essentially being 10 upgrades of one newer build over an older one generally go far smoother since there isn't any OS conflicts coming up. 8.1 to 10 upgrades will obviously go smoother being the immediate predecessor version with the closest compatibility overall as well as 8, 8.1, 10 all sharing one common item. Secure Boot.

Upgrading over a restored image from a previous version would only seem to be a source of further complication and is most likely the probable cause for why the present upgrade attempt you have going is running into a major snag. The possibility of some serious outdated hardware on a 2012 made board isn't as likely since I have seen the 10 installer look up a driver for an XP with Vista updates only discontinued tv tuner/capture card find the driver while the original app? fails! So it wouldn't likely be anything board related causing the snag.

Another important factor that stands out however is your mention of...?

Simply editing the System Reg won't smooth talk the 10 installer to work on a completely new set of hardwares! The updated security factor incorporated into 10 won't see the restored image of 7 as a valid copy of Windows. A bit of MS intentional sabotage to prevent piracy requiring the upgrade take place over a genuine activated clean install of the previous version if not a 10 over update to take place first. In other words the clean install of 7 with transfer of 7 license over to the newer machine followed by no longer having the free upgrade offer available of seeing a new 10 license applied. Otherwise things will continue to FLOP!

Your mention of restoring images from one machine to the next isn't good and why a fresh clean install has to be advised! That will provide the proper environment. Restoration of images has to take place while often on a new replacement drive the exact same system in order to remain valid! Even with the few failed initial upgrades on a few different machines here from 7 to 10 they didn't hang at post time but simply ran too rough for comfort with errors and after those initial activations saw clean installs take place. The upgrades otherwise worked simply from 7 already having seen clean installs with each install activated to that set of hardwares providing the means. In your case however something is in conflict!

 

I did that. What I can't get rid of is the FS_REC driver, but all the nonpresent plug-'n'-play devices have been eliminated.

If I choose not to migrate over the data, the upgrade proceeds without issue. I sincerely doubt this is a driver issue.

The upgrade was XP SP2 to SP3 to Vista Business to 7 Professional to SP1 before attempting to upgrade to 10.

I am pretty sure it is something pre-XP that is causing the snag.

If it's activated, it should upgrade. In a worst-case scenario, it will refuse to activate and demand a new key. I've seen that.

Apart from refusing to upgrade to 10, the 7 SP1 runs very smoothly. I am intensely curious as to what is causing the hang.

 

And that would seem to suggest one upgrade to the version to the next and on to the next without any break in between for a nice clean install of Windows on a freshly formatted or reformatted drive took place? I highly doubt there's anything Legacy left to even find having gone from FAT to NTFS which would have been at least reformat whether or not that was seen with XP it would have been mandatory for Vista as well any newer version. The transition from FAT to NTFS would have also seen one complete fresh install of the newer version replace the older unless XP first saw the transition by clean install from either Legacy(9x) or a conversion from FAT to NTFS which generally would require knocking out the existing copy of Windows.

For most with custom builds the immediate move from one version to the next generally dictates a fresh clean install of Windows to get familiar with the new version after having made an image than can be restored from the previous in case of want to revert back. With 10 however this was the first time MS mandated the upgrade path but only during the first year's free upgrade promotion. Once the upgrade was seen most then went on to see a second clean install take place and numerous clean instals if in the Insider Preview program.

In your situation you have run out of upgrade paths since the drive is obviously loaded up with too much excess baggage? that simply needs to go! There's no longer any room for tweaking the registry but now requires the latest version's installer to see a fresh detection of all present hardwares to make up it's own original profile. The gap between 7 and 10 is also 3 versions newer compared to Vista being XP's successor and 7 succeeding Vista in the chain of progression. While upgrades can end up being buggy in too many instances the larger gap and the initial MS Free upgrade offer forcing upgrade not allowing for first time clean installs caused a great number of similar problems to what you have there. "Clean Install Time" is the word now!

If you were simply moving up from 7 to 10 direct by upgrade you might still have a fare chance for seeing a working install take place. But with past clutter and not having seen a clean install of 7 as mentioned earlier the drive is simply too cluttered up with stuff only a complete wipe can take care of! Sorry but the versions later upgrade path is shaky under the best of circumstances! And at this late date there wouldn't be more then a 1,000th of a 1% chance some old Legacy doc file let alone and device driver was still to be found on the drive. The move from FAT to NTFS would have seen to that being gone for good.

 

The wipe is not necessary: select "do not migrate programs or data" and the upgrade succeeds. For that matter, select "do not migrate programs" and the upgrade fails. It's something in the "data," whatever that is, but I've deleted all the original users and their data and the upgrade still hangs.

Oh, but there is! There's stuff dating back to 1994 on that drive.

 

You seem to be missing the point even more so. Having clutter lingering going back to th 90s is a clear indication that the check box option for not keeping data is only for files inside certain system file areas and not clutter on the drive in general as well as a likely corrupted volume. As a general rule most will either see a reformat if not a complete wipe and new primary put to use when any initial upgrade or even clean install falters.

Any files from the 90s however were either backed up to floppy back then for later retrieval or some older app that was later tried out on XP after the FAT to NTFS migration was seen for any to be remaining. 98SE and ME were the two Legacy OSs that could support any direct upgrade path to XP leaving 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98 1st left to total wipe when XP installer simply removes those from the drive as far as the Windows folders go. But the migration from XP forward if FAT lingered would have to mean a reformat to NTFS.

At the present time however regardless of how that went the drive's volume containing 20+yrs. old files is a clean indication of the need for planning a full clean install by starting off by dumping the image trying to be restored onto the SSD you have there in order to see a completely fresh everything. The Windows installer prepares the boot sectors on Static drives a little bit differently then what is seen with mechanical drives to start with and why restoring an image from a spinner is hanging on you it would seem.

 

Volume is fine.

This was upgraded from 95 to 98 SE to 2000 to XP when it was in daily use, and then to Vista to 7 as part of the 10 migration. The old files survived.

Recently, I managed to image over a Win 10 Pro x64 install from one SSD to another and had to work those issues out. Unfortunately, I encountered the problem again: an old Win2K install upgraded to XP to Vista to 7 will not upgrade to 10, hanging on the FIRST_BOOT.

I have studied this guide and have learned to read the setup logs for the appropriate stages. All three of these failing installs are passing the SAFEOS stage (2), serializing a list of commands for the First Boot phase, but the images are, for some reason, hanging on boot.

My next step is to prep a machine with Ubuntu, on which I will install Beyond Compare 4 Pro. I will then make a clean install of Win 7 Pro x86 on one external storage device and use BC to compare it to one of the three failing to upgrade. Hopefully that will allow me to determine what is different and incrementally remove the differences until I get a successful upgrade.