many have run into Windows 10 "upgrades" that install bad device drivers that cause system to hang on reboot/boot.
Is there a way, perhaps command line, to attempt to boot the system with 'basic drivers' only, in order to step around the IED..... ???
this is a crazy idea, but think of it: since windows 7 is on the hard drive, but set aside, is there a way to un-quarantine windows 7, quarantine Windows 10, nuke the MBR, build a new Windows 7 MBR, all from command line?
It's the "basic drivers" that are the problem - even the WINPE for Windows 10 setup cannot cut it for some combinations of hardware, and fails at 23%, 32% or some other short figure. That is why the upgrade from 7 may work, but a subsequent clean install fails. If you compare Win10PE and Win8.1PE, the Win 10 uses a lot more resources, even though the full OSs Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 use a very similar amount.
Heaven knows what you mean by quarantine and nuke the MBR!
understandably!
in the case of an upgrade, in this case from a well-running windows 7 to a defective windows 10, the entire Windows directory is intact on the drive, just marked so it is not accessed. I had just been wondering if, via command line interface, one could reverse the relationship, but I can see all sorts of issues; where's the old registry? [there was a restore point, but you must have windows up and running to access the restore point], the UEFI drive arrangement would need to be nixed, windows 7 boot record restored, etc etc.
clean install the only real answer
After ab upgrade, apart from the basic Windows.old folder, there is a WindowsOld.Wim file in $WINDOWS>~BT\Sources
It may be mounted as a virtual drive or unarchived with a program such as 7-zip File manager, and the registry hives will be in the usual place under the Windows folder structure.
I'm pretty sure that when a volume is captured to a Wim image, old restore points are discarded.
appreciate the tip
did some searching on that approach and as you would expect, not much, if any, success.
clean install coming...
since these things do not happen in a controlled corporate environment, MS likely does not track stats much on the cost of such snafus. in this case, an 'innocent' victim of MS relentless upgrade-push will end up shelling out about $400 in technician fees, and about 2 weeks of lost workstation productivity, all to try to rebuild what was a well-running Windows 7 system before "upgrade now".
Quote