Clean Install

Cheech said:

Hello:

I am having the same problem. Win 10 was installed by MS over the top of Win 7 (3x now) with the promise of a fix. Various applications go into a not-responding situation and each time the disk light is on solid. It appeared to be Defender causing the problem so I installed a different one where I could control the schedule of the scans, and disabled defender. While it seems better the disk light comes on solid and nothing works until it goes off. I must have contacted MS at least 10 times on this issue and still not be able to get it fixed. I checked the disk for errors and for viruses (using 2 different AVs) to no avail.

All of the available maintenance has been applied. The system is about 6 y/o and the vendor, HP, has not certified it ( a laptop) for Win 10 and there are no drivers that are specific to Win 10 available. The Bios is up to date. I've attempt to find out what service is causing all of the IO through the process explorer, but still have not found the culprit.

Anyone have any suggestions? MS wants me to up-date my 8.1 Pro system to W10 which I refuse to do.

thanks

Hi Cheech and welcome to Tenforums.

I can tell you that a clean install of W10 will most likely solve all your problems, as long as your hard drive is not failing. Of course, that means installing all your programs again, and backing up your data first. W8 upgrades tend not to have as many problems as W7 upgrades (so I've seen).

Cheech said:

Thanks Simrick:

I was afraid you were going to tell me that. If I knew it was going to be this much of a problem I would have stayed on Win 7. W10 has been nothing but a headache for me since I had it installed. It seems like every time MS releases a new version of Windows it gets worse instead of better.

I wish the applications I used ran on something other than Windows. I'd drop it and never look back. I'm sitting here typing this response on my Win 8 system and the disk light is on almost solid on the W10 system and there is nothing running.

Have you tried a clean boot?
I can tell you, W7 to W10 upgrades carry a lot of baggage, which a clean install fixes every time. And, it's an awfully good OS, once it's running well! Seriously, you can back up your data, clean install W10, and install your programs as you need them. It's really worth it in the end - and I am speaking from experience!

Cheech said:

OK simric, you convinced me to do a clean install. Given that I had MS do that I presume I wil have to have them do it again seeing that I do not have an install disk. I know there are a lot of W10 versions running around out there so do you have a suggestion on which one I should request they (MS) install?

Or should I do it myself and if so where can I get a installation file?

thanks

Oh yeah, you can do this yourself! Give me a few minutes and I'll post some info for you.

@Cheech,
I've asked a mod to move you to a new thread, to keep things focused on your issue, so it doesn't get confusing in the other thread.

First, let's do a little prep work:

Please provide your system specs as completely as possible:
System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums - Windows 10 Forums
You say the BIOS is up-to-date, and that HP have not certified this model for W10? Do you have the link to the HP website where I could have a look at the specs?

Next, please perform a clean boot, as I think this may help get you a bit of control over your system:
Clean Boot - Perform in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts - Windows 10 Forums

Assuming you can do some work on the system by using a clean boot, please run Ccleaner Free, and save a text file of your installed programs. Print this out for reference later.

At this point, if you want to upload the installed programs list, I could have a look at it, to see if anything stands out as problematic for you. If not, we'll continue on.

Please download and run RKILL and post the log. Just need to be sure we don't have anything "lurking" on the system.

See if your system is running any better at this point, while I put together information for the clean install.

No rush Cheech. Whatever is easiest for you.

You'll need at least one flash drive (8GB) for W10, and one external hard drive to backup your data.

Write down any software keys needed for paid software.

I would use Macrium Reflect Free to make an image+verification of your entire hard drive, to an external drive. If you're not familiar with Macrium Reflect and system imaging, let me know and I will give you details on that. If you're still having problems using the system, you can make the image by booting into the Macrium Rescue Media, and make the image that way (outside of the operating system). This Rescue Media will require a flash drive or CD-R (whichever you prefer to boot your system with).

Please post a screenshot of your partition structure from within the Macrium program (use snipping tool).

Again, if you're not familiar with, or have any questions regarding the instructions I give, please just ask. I should be around most of the day tomorrow.


This is for when we're ready to clean install, but don't do it just yet:

Download Windows 10 to a flash drive:
Windows 10
Select Download Tool Now
You should be able to select to create media for another computer (and you can do this on your W8 machine!); select the version/bitness/language, etc., and eventually tell it to save to a flash drive. The flash drive must be empty. I would suggest an 8GB flash drive.


Perform clean install:
Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums
Boot the system from the newly-created W10 flash drive. I would choose Custom Install, and there you have the option to delete all partitions, selecting them one by one, so you can install to a completely unallocated drive (see pic in tutorial). This will allow W10 to create the necessary partitions it requires. It will also delete your HP Recovery Partition.

When you're up and running, the first thing to be installed is Macrium. Then, we create a base system image. Next, we mount the backup image we first made, browse to your data, and copy it all over to the new install. Programs get installed as you need them, so it's not a major pain. More on this later...

That's it for now. :)