Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First  

Hello Shawn mate my recent clean install of 10 to my main laptop looks to be going south. I have posted other threads to see if I can come up with any answers as an sfc and a chkdsk both have reported corrupt files that cannot be fixed.

I have issues with it crashing/freezing and generally operating in odd ways. So I downloaded a fresh ISO this afternoon and burnt a disk at a very slow burn rate(1x ImgBurn) to make sure that files were not burnt as to be corrupted by trying to get it done too quick.

I am now wondering if there is some way I can repair the install as I have bitten the bullet and loaded all my favourite and most used programs and data.

Any ideas please before I go ahead and clean install onto a cleaned drive again

Hello John, :)

If you haven't already, you could try doing a repair install from within your Windows 10 to see if that may fix everything without losing anything.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

Hello Shawn The original install was just a straight clean install onto a blank drive and I used the 7 Pro code to activate it and it went to a Pro version instead of a Home one.

I have installed it from the new ISO all over again and that code for that machine is being rejected as non valid now and the version which never had a choice to have Pro - I remember the install steps being different to those in the tutorial. So I am left with a n original drive with 10 that is activated by the 7 Pro code and one install on the seconf=d drive which cannot be activated by that code.

All in all I think I am now stuck with just 10 on the old Toshiba as I really don't know after many hours of downloading and installing to find that I have two choices - namely that I install 7 Pro again on the Asus and activate it - then upgrade it to 10 or leave it in 7 which it came installed with. Such a bummer as I was really getting used to using the 10 and after putting in a fair bit of time and effort - not to mention hardware.

Hey John,

Yeah, a W7 Pro key can only activate a W10 Pro.

If you want Windows 10 Home, you'll need to have a W7 home key or W10 Home retail key to activate with. It would be best to install using a "Windows 10 Home single language" ISO from the MCT Tool.

Ok mate the machine came as a downgrade from 8 Pro to 7 Pro - the seller I harassed for the code and I went on to install a new SSD as the original drive was a 5200 spinner and then I used the 7 Pro ISO I had saved from when Heidoc was still in business and it activated with the code those people gave me and I have kept it until almost last of my machines with 7 Pro running. It has run with no problems at all since I bought it and swapped in that SSD with the 7 Pro clean install.

Now I eventually decided to go with 10 and put in a new SSD and clean installed it with the techbench ISO (got from the tutorial on downloading the ISO) and used this tutorial to install. When it finally installed I found it was the Home version but after activating it with the 7 Pro code the version went to a 10 Pro version. All well and good but I was getting issues with freezing/crashing and found that I was getting messages from a sfc and chkdsk that there were corrupt files that could not be fixed. I did ask if someone could read the CBS and system info files but those who looked at them aid they were extensive and could not offer me any further advice

Once more I put in another new SSD and have done the same thing but am now stuck with the Home version and getting that message to say that the code was invalid.

I think I shall have to swap back in the SSD with the faulty but activated 10 system or the activated 7 Pro SSD or clone the 7 Pro and upgrade it - as I said I am now out of ideas, hardware, time and frankly am getting a tad tired of the effort.

I haven't read through all your other threads, but have you already tried resetting the W10 Pro?

What errors is chkdsk reporting?

I suppose in the worse case you could clean install W7 Pro, activate it, then upgrade to the free W10 Pro.

Good idea. In addition: Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro

Ok Shawn and Navy thanks for the advice - if you get another longer message the broadband out here is atrocious right now so don't be surprised.

Look both machines started life as Windows 8 ones that were bought with a 7 Pro downgrade. The sfc and chkdsk are beyond me except that I do get a corrupted files that cannot be fixed message.

I might just have to do a bare bones clean install of 7 Pro and activate it and then do the upgrade after all the hoo ha has died down.

Appreciate your time and patience but between the issue and the broadband it has been a terribly frustrating three days. My concern is I am running out of time for the upgrade and for doing it as we are off tripping in a months time after the offer finishes.

Just one thing if I can only get Home version what will I be missing out on as the explanations really mean not a great deal to me.