Windows 10 upgrade, help please

spvrtan said:

Finally decided that i want to upgrade to windows 10, clicked the upgrade now button and the window just closed after about a second, tried this many times and nothing happened. Ran windows update, clicked the upgrade now button again and it just sticks on starting download..
Tried to uninstall KB2952664 and re-install but the standalone installer also just sticks on 'searching for updates for this computer' can anyone help me please? I'm using windows 7 home premium x64
The $WINDOWS.~BT folder that windows 10 supposedly downloads to is also not growing in size, still 24kb

Hi.
There is some prep work required before you upgrade, to make sure it runs smoothly:

Uninstall any 3rd-party anti-virus
Run sfc /scannow to make sure all system files are intact
back up your files, or make a system image
make sure your BIOS is latest version
If you have moved your user files to another drive, move them back


Grab the ISO from MS TechBench, (see option #1), and mount it from within W7, and run setup.exe
(In W7: Extract the files from the ISO and select upgrade, keeping apps and files, begin at step 5)


Alternately, you could backup your data files, write down your W7 key, and clean install using the ISO downloaded from MSTechBench, typing in your W7 key when asked - it will now activate that way, and you can skip the upgrade process altogether.

If you don't know your W7 key, you can get it using this tool:
Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

spvrtan said:

After some time trying many different things i've finally got it working through windows update, it downloaded fully, the only problem now is that it's stuck on preparing for installation, is it normal to take this long?

It can take quite a lot of time compared to what most folks expect. You might want to just go find something else to do for awhile and come back in an hour and see what's up. If it hangs "permanently", you're then probably better off following one of simrick's two suggestions in full.

spvrtan said:

I got windows 10 installed but when I shut down it began to continuously reboot and give the error 'your pc ran into a problem and needs to restart, we're just collecting some information and your pc will restart for you' and gives me an error code 0xc000021a,

When W10 gets into a problem and can't boot, after 3 tries it will take you to the Advanced Menu with options for resetting/repairing, etc. Did it never get to that point? or, did you not let it try to boot more than three times?

spvrtan said:

I've tried to boot and reinstall my windows 7 os with the disc but that won't work either, my pc is basically completely useless at this point, any help please?

What is not working? It won't boot from the W7 disk? It won't read the disk as a W7 OS?

Perhaps you should grab the TechBench ISO and just do a clean install at this point. If you have your W7 key, you can enter it during installation, or any time later to activate the OS. (See my post #2). Also, a little more detail in your system specs (in your profile) would be helpful.