Toshiba P300 won't upgrade

imaddicted2u said:

Ok, thanks again. If she decides to proceed I'll back things up as you suggested but since her W7 is an upgrade from Vista, she doesn't have the W7 key. I used Belarc Advisor to display the Windows 7 key. Can I be sure this is the right key and can I enter it as the W7 key in a fresh W10 install to activate Windows, I thought you had to do the upgrade, then you can clean install W10 anytime? In which case I would clean install W7 home premium, then upgrade to W10 home.
I've already attempted many installs with no AV.
Something I forgot to mention was this error that displays after the failed W10 install is restored to W7:
0xc1900101-0c30018
The installation failed in FIRST_BOOT with an error during SYSPREP.

Have a read of this thread, paying attention especially from post #30 on. You'll see that everything failing before the first boot was a driver issue.
Solved Windows 10 Error code 0xc1900101-0x30018 - Windows 10 Forums
There are a few ideas in there can you might want to try as well. One person went into Device Manager and manually checked for updates to drivers for everything listed. And, make sure you have the latest BIOS on the system.

Most everyone who succeeded, ended up doing an upgrade in which they chose "keep nothing" (a clean install).

A really easy way to test if the system will run W10, and verify the W7 key will activate the system, is to throw a different hard drive in there and clean install to that, and see if it works. Your W7 key can be verified using this tool:
Showkey - Windows 10 Forums

The ISO from Media Creation Tool or TechBench is the latest version, which activates by inputting a valid W7/W8.x key, so the upgrade is no longer a necessary step.

imaddicted2u said:

Thanks, I'll have a look. Good idea installing to a different drive to test it.

Let us know how you make out. :)

imaddicted2u said:

Maybe I'm missing something. I downloaded the iso from TechBench. Followed the instructions provided for creating a USB key. When I tried to boot the laptop from it, I got OS not found. I double checked via multiboot that it is the USB key that is selected as the boot drive. The TechBench script puts the W10 Installation files in a folder called TechBench. It doesn't appear that a bootable USB key is created through their process, just a folder to run setup from on an existing Windows installation. The HDD I'm trying to use is blank.

Hi.
The ISO can be mounted in a W8 system and then just copied to the USB drive (nothing else can be on it). I know you're working with a W7 machine, and that's a little more complicated, so I'll look up the instructions on how to do that (I have it here somewhere).

EDIT: Here it is. Just copy the extracted files to the empty USB drive. Yeah, you can't have the files in a folder called TechBench...
ISO - Disk Image File : Extract to the Desktop - Windows 7 Help Forums

imaddicted2u said:

Tried using the W7 key in the W10 install made from the media creation tool, I didn't think it would take it, it didn't.

It wouldn't accept the W7 key? So, you got the OS installed but wouldn't activate? I am just wondering - is the W7 key an "upgrade only" key, and maybe that's why? In that case, an upgrade would be required. So, can you use your blank hard drive to get the original OS, then W7 upgrade on there (just a bare install that's activated), and then try upgrading using the TechBench ISO, by running setup.exe from within the W7 OS?

imaddicted2u said:

On to plan X. I'm making a bootable (I hope) USB of the TechBench ISO using the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool.
Earlier today I uninstalled all the Toshiba bundled software and updated all device drivers. The only thing that took an upgrade was the Microsoft virtual wan miniport adapter. I tried the install again, same problem, stuck at 32% (5% of installing features and drivers.

Tried the install with the Media Creation Tool?

imaddicted2u said:

Yes, was via the media creation tool. I'm going to try again on the original HDD using the ISO from Tech Bench.
The good news is, On a bare HDD the W7 key in Tech Bench USB ISO install = Windows 10 is activated.

YAY! I knew it!

imaddicted2u said:

So this laptop can indeed run Windows 10 and the Tech Bench ISO can be used to clean install the Win 10 OS.

Now that W10 is activated on that machine, it's not necessary to input a key anymore, ever, for any future installs.

imaddicted2u said:

Only 1 exclamation mark in Device Manager on a Mass storage controller. I'll be looking for a driver for hardware id PCI\VEN_1217&DEV_7130&REV_01

Is it "unknown"? Can you right-click and select update, and let windows install?

Worst case, make a list of your devices in W10, then throw the old HDD back in and do a compare to figure out what it is. You can use Driver Magician Lite to grab the driver from the W7 system, and install it in the W10 system. Keep in mind it may not be a hardware driver, but something like Toshiba HotKeys, which doesn't work in W10.