Trouble upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 Ultra

[TrailMyx]

Note: this is a working blog as I try and figure out my woes.

So I have been slowing upgrading my systems across the house to Windows 10.  I first started by upgrading my Windows 8.1 box because 8.1 was so pathetically bad.  From there I was able to make sure most of the things I normally do work OK.  So after that I decided to try a Windows 7 computer that I do my bill paying on.  That computer upgraded easily as well.  Feeling frisky, I felt the next possible candidate was my older work laptop that was also Windows 7.  This was a bit harder because it was behind its patching schedule.  So I patched up and was able to force the update to start.  Finally this computer also worked well.  My last success was my latest laptop (Dell Inspiron 13 7000).  This came with 8.1, so I upgraded to a 500GB SSD and reinstalled the OS to upgrade.  No problems here as well.

So with the success so far, I decided it was time to give my main rig a try.  Because I would cry crocidile tears if it were do die, I decided to try it first on an image of my system drive.  However, this system has quirks.

1) I have split the Programs File installations over 2 drives
2) I have relocated the C:\Users directory onto a RAID0 array external from the boot SSD
3) I haven't patched for a while.

So any one of these issues has caused MAJOR headaches.  So far the problems have been:

1) Impossible to get Windows 7 recovery to acknowledge the cloned system drive
2) Patching Windows 7 all the way fails without solution (need errrors)
3) Impossible to get Windows 7 image to boot after cloning
4) Attempts have been made to upgrade to Windows 10, but always fail with an OS revert back to Windows 7.

So far I have successfully:
1) Gotten the cloned image to boot (from Win10 DVD - CMD prompt - active partition - DISKPART - bootrec /fixboot (cloned with EaseUS) (Win7 boot DVD doesn't recognize partition)
2) Redirected the /Users directory back to C: (needed to enable administrator account - "net user administrator /active:yes"
3) Cleaned system with CCleaner
4) Attempted to fix system with "sfc /scannow"
5) Attempted Windows 10 upgrade using Windows Update
6) Attempted Window 10 upgrade using downloaded DVD + patches

I have to go through the logs carefully (there are ALOT!) but this system still doesn't update.  I'll keep this post updated with information.  Be interested to see how people are faring with the powergaming rigs and upgrades to Windows 10.

In order to get to the point I have, you can only imagine the number of iterations of installations, and retrying by tweaking parameters.  Things like giving up on the Win7 boot disk when I found the Win10 disk actually worked instead for disk maintenance, unplugging RAID drive before boot otherwise the system "clone" wouldn't boot, downloading over and over and over again, installing up to 99% only to revert back to Win7 because of some unknown failure.  This process has significantly slowed down now that I'm making changes to the non-SSD clone.  Bleah.

Thank you Microsoft for the reaffirmation that you waste my time more than any other company!

[TrailMyx]

So I finally got Windows 10 installed on this darn computer.  It's been on for a while though, but I have been otherwise occupied with other things as of late to update.  

Frankly, I have no idea what I did to finally get it so that it would update correctly.  Finally one day in my seemingly endless attempts at doing the upgrade, it finally just got tired of me attempting it and allowed me through.  What a giant waste of time.

Anyhow, once you get into Win10, it's an actually OK experience.  My boot times were terrible at first because I transfered my Win7 image to an older drive so I could upgrade without fear of messing up something.  Once that was done, I transferred the Win10 image to a new 512GB SSD.  Now I get pretty fast boot times - nearly back to what I was getting in Win7.  I managed to get my /Users directory back over to my large 2TB separate drive like i had under Win7.

I'm still not a fan of some of the look/feel.  The start menu is just silly honestly.  But the desktop is back in all its glory and I can have my 1000 icons spread out how I like it.  Microsoft, you will not bend me to conform..  

[gimlet]

lol   

[ErwinEUO]

Sorry didn't get to see this one or I might have been able to help   I think having the users on the external drive would cause issues, since the safe mode install wont recognize the drivers (hence not loading the %userprofile%) until the drive is local.  Glad that you got through it.

I actually love Win10, but the pesky privacy stuff is giving me pause (hehe).  Currently having a whole boatload of issues in my office with Group Policy, McAfee/security nonsense, and VPN.  It's a headache for sure.

[TrailMyx]

Sorry didn't get to see this one or I might have been able to help   I think having the users on the external drive would cause issues, since the safe mode install wont recognize the drivers (hence not loading the %userprofile%) until the drive is local.  Glad that you got through it.

I actually love Win10, but the pesky privacy stuff is giving me pause (hehe).  Currently having a whole boatload of issues in my office with Group Policy, McAfee/security nonsense, and VPN.  It's a headache for sure.

Yes, the Users directory move really does throw Windows 10 for a loop.  I managed to get away with it for quite some time, but every once in a while it would remap my drives and mess up my boot sequence.  Normally I could boot into safe mode prompt and reallocation, but this go around I just never could write back to the actual boot drive registry.  So I was kinda toast at that point. 

But to fix it (the second time) I did have to basically refresh the installation to start conditions.  At least now I can finally patch Windows since it was basically forever broken.  You can move your Users stuff to another drive legitimately by clicking your Desktop/Documents/Download/Music/Pictures and select Properties/Location.  Then you can move them "sort-of".  If it doesn't break my system, I'll live with it.