Getting familiar with the Win 10 GUI before upgrading from 7

I give · 30 Dec 2019

Thanks. I need to do some reading...how to clone a drive, set up a virtual machine, create a boot disk, create an ISO image (How large is it? My SSD is used for backup, and has only about 200GB free.).

Which leads me to another question: Would you suggest installing Win 10 on an external SSD for speed and reliability?

Thanks

AK6DN · 30 Dec 2019

I give said:

Hello all. I'm preparing for the upgrade, and would like to get familiar with the Win 10 GUI before upgrading. Can anyone recommend a place to learn the basics? Thanks.

Install OpenShell (new name for ClassicShell) from Open Shell 4.4.142 Download - TechSpot
and you can make Win10 look and feel like you are using Win7.

I give · 30 Dec 2019

AK6DN said:

Install OpenShell (new name for ClassicShell) from Open Shell 4.4.142 Download - TechSpot
and you can make Win10 look and feel like you are using Win7.

Thanks. BTW, I've been QRT since 1993. 73!

dalchina · 30 Dec 2019

I give said:

Would you suggest installing Win 10 on an external SSD for speed and reliability?

The most obvious difference when using a SSD is the much reduced boot time. Otherwise you probably wouldn't gain much in performance except with disk intensive operations.
Why would you consider installing to an external disk?

I give · 30 Dec 2019

dalchina said:

The most obvious difference when using a SSD is the much reduced boot time. Otherwise you probably wouldn't gain much in performance except with disk intensive operations.
Why would you consider installing to an external disk?

I hear it's faster overall (access, search, copy...) Is a SSD more reliable than an HDD?

swarfega · 30 Dec 2019

Windows 10 is much nicer with SSDs than hard drives.

dalchina · 31 Dec 2019

I hear it's faster overall (access, search, copy...)

Not noticeably in my experience as I said.

If your search is indexed it's fast anyway; non-indexed search can be very slow. Using either Windows indexed search or 3rd party indexing tools in particular makes search almost 'find-as-you-type'.

It still takes noticeable time to load Firefox from a SSD.

(I noticed one recent post (which I don't understand) where a user had two slots for GPU cards, and put a SSD into one of them and got significantly better performance).

Reliability? Well, they tend to fail suddenly rather than progressively- clearly more robust in mobile devices.
SSD vs HDD: Which One is More Reliable? - The Revisionist

I give · 31 Dec 2019

Thanks. Since SSDs tend to have a higher bit error rate than HDDs, do you know if there's a way to repair them so they're readable?

dalchina · 31 Dec 2019

Try:
Fixing SSD Performance Degradation, Part 1
Fixing SSD Performance Degradation, Part 2

- but 2010 articles

5 Warning Signs Your SSD Is About to Break Down and Fail

https://blog.elcomsoft.com/2019/01/w...-deal-with-it/

Megahertz · 31 Dec 2019

This is the procedure to clone and "upgrade"
- Go to Macrium Reflect 7 Free Edition, select Home use, skip entering email and download. Run the downloaded to Install Macrium Reflect 7.
- Shut down and attach the new drive (SSD or HDD) to a SATA port.
- Back to win 7, run Macrium Reflect and clone the Win 7 drive into the new drive. When finished shutdown.
- Detach the current Win 7 drive (SATA or Power cable) and boot from the cloned drive. It's very important or you may end with the boot loader in one disk and the OS in the other.
- From the cloned Win 7 drive (the original remains detached) download the Win 10 iso. With 7zip extract all files and folders from the Win 10 iso to a folder.
- Run the Setup.exe of the extracted folder. You will end with Win 10 on the drive.
- Attach the original Win 7 drive.
Now you can boot from the Win 7 or the Win10 drive.
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