Reloading - retrieving my installed WIN 10 PRO

Hi,

I need help in reloading/retrieving my installed WIN 10 Pro.

HISTORY

Last July I took advantage of the Microsoft offer of the free upgrade to WIN 10. I upgraded from Win 7 PRO to WIN 10 PRO with no problems or error messages ( I had to upgrade a couple of programs WIN 10 said were not compatible with WIN 10). I have been using, and getting familiar with, WIN 10 for the last 2 months with no error messages. Until about a week ago!

I shut down my computer, (a desktop) as usual, by using the “power, shutdown” sequence. No errors were listed before the shut down finished. The next day when I powered ON, I received a message screen that Windows could not boot. There were several suggestions on what to do to solve the problem. None worked and I did not choose to do a clean install -- did not want to have to re-install all of programs upgraded from the previous WIN 7.

The option to get a command prompt did work, ie. I could get a command prompt. To make a long story short, I was able to see the partitions and folders on my hard drives. I was unable to find any references/files related to WIN 10. I was able to see the WIN 7 folders.

I was finally able to boot the “OLD WIN 7 Pro” using the UEFI. I can get the WIN 7 boot screen with the choices boot WIN 7 “normally”, or “last known good” or the three safe boot modes ( safe boot, safe boot with command prompt or safe mode with internet). Any choice ends up in safe mode, but safe mode seems to work, with in the limits of safe mode.

I mention all of the above to show the state of the computer and show that as far as I can tell Win 10 does not reside on my computer. Of course, I may not have looked in all the right places for WIN 10. Is it possible Windows started to install the Anniversary update and something went wrong? I had no indication or screen messages about Windows trying to install an update. Any suggestions are appreciated.

WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO DO -- IF POSSIBLE

Before I did the WIN 10 upgrade, I made a complete disk image of my WIN 7 PRO system. I have the image available and can bring the system back to the WIN 7 PRO state immediately before the WIN.

My question: If I bring the system back to the WIN 7 PRO state, is it possible to do the “Free WIN 7 to WIN 10 upgrade” a second time? I do not remember receiving an WIN 10 product key or any information from Microsoft that verifies my WIN 7 PRO upgrade to WIN 10 PRO. The information I can find indicates the WIN10 PRO upgrade is some how linked to my WIN 7 PRO product key.
So, is there a way to,in effect, re do the “Free WIN 7 to WIN 10” upgrade. I use the word “Free” to identify the path I took to install WIN10. I would expect Microsoft has a way to do what I would like to do; I just need to know the correct procedure. Any suggestions, links or Microsoft pages would be appreciated.

Thanks for your support.

First, I would try a disc of Kyhi's recovery tools:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Boot the computer from that. Run Macrium Reflect. Under the restore menu will be a utility to fix Windows startup problems. Try that utility to see if that restores booting to Windows 10.

If that doesn't, then restore your Windows 7. Download a Windows 10 ISO file:
Windows 10 ISO

Use WinISO to mount the ISO file in Windows 7:
How do I mount iso image file in Windows 7?

Run setup.exe from the virtual DVD drive that appears. That should upgrade your Windows 7 to Windows 10 again and it should activate based upon your previously activated upgrade.

(If you made a Windows 10 DVD or USB flash drive previously, you can insert that and run setup.exe from it instead of downloading a new ISO file.)

Thanks for the quick and detail response. Just to make sure I understand your procedure, here are the steps I will do:

1. Download Win10586PESE-x64 v16.07.07 (new) ISO and burn to a DVD.
   
   
   
2. Place DVD in computer and power ON boot from DVD
3. Run Macrium Reflect. Under the restore menu will be a utility to fix Windows startup problems. Try that utility to see if that restores booting to Windows 10
4. When Windows startup utility finishes, remove DVD and power OFF computer
5. Power ON and see if WIN 10 boots.
6. If WIN 10 boots, check for normal operation, etc.
7. If WIN 10 does not boot; re-install full WIN 7 disk image.
8. Download and save Windows 10 ISO file tofolder on C:\ drive
9. Down load and save:WinISO file on C:\ drive.
10. Run and install WinISO according to http://www.winiso.com/support/tutori...-windows7.html
11. Run WinISO, open the Windows 10 ISO file stored on C:\. I assume there will be some type of BROWSE menu so you can select the Windows 10 ISO file?
12. Click "Mount" and a file menu of the files in the Windows 10 ISO file will appear.
13. Double click to Run setup.exe.from the WINDOWS 10 ISO file menu
14. This should upgrade your Windows 7 to Windows 10 - This same procedure as the “Free” upgrade from WIN 7 PRO to WIN 10 PRO. When finished WIN 10 PRO will be installed and ALL WIN 7 PRO program files, drivers, printers and data files from WIN 7 PRO will be available for use. To be explicit this is an install of WIN 10 PRO and a “TRANSFER/ UPGRADE of WIN 7 PRO program files, drivers, printers and data files. This is NOT a CLEAN INSTALL of WIN 10 PRO

JUST WANT TO MAKE MAKE SURE I UNDERSTAND THE EXPECTED RESULTS

1. The newly created WIN 10 PRO install should activate based upon your previously activated upgrade. I assume the setup program will access some Microsoft data base and find my previous activation?

Please excuse the long list, but I find it better to ask questions now, rather than try to unwind some misunderstanding later.

I do appreciate your time and support!

Thanks

That is correct. I was assuming that you have a Windows 7 Pro backup image with installed programs which you would want to upgrade from again. If you want a completely clean, new install of Windows 10 you can also boot the computer for a Windows 10 installation DVD made from the Windows 10 ISO file and do a clean install that way. Just click the option for "I don't have a product key" when it asks for one. Then pick Windows 10 Pro, then the clean install option. You will be given a list of hard drives and partitions. On the hard drive you want Windows installed to (probably drive 0), you will select each partition on that drive and delete it until nothing is left but unallocated space. Then pick the unallocated space and click next to let Windows setup partition the hard drive and set up Windows 10 fresh and clean.

Either way - another upgrade from Windows 7 or a clean install of the same version of Windows 10 on the same computer will activate based upon the activation that was previously saved for that computer on Microsoft servers when you did the first upgrade. The saved activation is matched to the unique Hardware ID of the computer, not a product key.

When you are making DVD's from ISO files make sure you are burning them from the image contained in the ISO file and not just copying the ISO file over to the DVD. If you burn the image correctly you should see files and folders on the DVD. If you see the ISO file itself on the DVD then you have made a mistake a just copied the ISO file over and you can't boot the computer from that.

NavyLCDR
Thanks for the confirmation. I do have a Windows 7 Pro backup image with installed programs which I will re-image the computer, Then perform the upgrade from from WIN 7 PRO to WIN 10 Pro using the upgrade procedure you described.
Looks like it will be a busy weekend. will keep you informed.

Thanks again for your support.

I down loaded the Windows 10 Bootable Rescue Disk ISO (Win10586PESE_x64 ISO v160707, 1.1GB ) and burned it to a DVD ( using ImgBurn program). I tried to boot using the DVD but was unable to boot. The screen would do a series of flashes showing random letters and numbers and then would freeze. I attached the DVD disk directory. I did not see the Macrium Reflect of the restore menu you mentioned. Does the attached DVD menu have some missing or hidden files? Suggestions on what might be the problem?

Thanks

The disk directory looks correct. Macrium Reflect would be inside the boot.wim file in the sources directory.

I would look at burning another DVD to see if the first one might have errors and also look at your RAM modules.