Precautions that should be taken while upgrading to windows 10

nihal mazhar · 06 Jan 2017

Can someone tell me what all precautions should I take while upgrading to windows 10 from windows 7.What sort of imaging will be better like full disk image .My computer manufacturer is not providing support for windows 10 on this model but the windows upgrade assistant says that it is all right to install windows 10 .Will it cause any issue with the drivers .The manufacturer provides support for windows 8 but not windows 10

Bastet · 06 Jan 2017

I'd remove any non essential usb devices especially external hard drives, once everything is working fine & updated then you can create an image. I use Macrium reflect free which is excellent; tbh I'd create an image before upgrading too just in case.

NavyLCDR · 06 Jan 2017

If you use Macrium Reflect Free to create an image of what you have on the hard drive now, and create the Macrium Rescue disk and make sure the computer boots from it, there isn't much that can go wrong with the upgrade that you won't be able to fix. Of course you need a storage location like a second hard drive (either internal or external) to hold the image and it has to have about 80% of the used space of your current drive free.

After the upgrade, I would suggest you export the drivers using the DISM command, then do a clean install of Windows 10, but let's get the initial upgrade done first!

alphanumeric · 06 Jan 2017

I have several PC's that have no Windows 10 drivers listed on their respective OEM support pages. They all work just fine in Windows 10. As already mentioned, disconnect/unplug any external devices before doing the upgrade to lessen the chance of issues cropping up. All you need is a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, plus Internet. Don't be surprised if you end up with a low resolution screen and or no sound right after you upgrade. Just take a break and let Windows update do its thing. On a clean install I end up with no sound and Standard Graphics adapter. If I sit back and wait about 5 minutes my screen flickers as Windows update updates my Video drivers and sound drivers. Then after a reboot everything works just fine. If you do have issues, you will have a roll back option that is good for 30 10 days.

storageman · 06 Jan 2017

I took a different approach. I had a 1.5 year old laptop in Win 8.1. There was some bizarre software installed, but nothing really bad (ie: pre 2010). It upgraded with no issues. I also had a 7 year old desktop with Win 7 that had every possible piece of software installed for 8 years. I said it would probably not survive a WIN 10 upgrade. Fortunately it died (MB Failure) 9 months later and has been re-born in a new case + mb and with a new WIN10 pro system installed it has no problems.

I think your mileage will vary depending on how old your system is !

Bree · 06 Jan 2017

alphanumeric said:

If you do have issues, you will have a roll back option that is good for 30 days.

It was reduced to ten days with the release of the Anniversary Update.

According to a Microsoft spokesperson, it was a data driven decision to change this rollback timeframe from 30 to just 10 days:"Based on our user research, we noticed most users who choose to go back to a previous version of Windows do it within the first several days. As such, we changed the setting to 10 days to free storage space used by previous copies."

Windows 10 | Users previousl yhad 30 days to rollback an update to Windows 10 | Windows 10 content from SuperSite for Windows

@nihal mazhar - my laptop is on Toshiba's 'not supported for Windows 10' list, but has been running Windows 10 since it was first released without a problem. As @Bastet suggests, I made a system image of the original HDD before I upgraded. In fact I went one step further. I took out the HDD, replaced it with a spare one and made sure I could restore the image to that before upgrading. I now have two disks I can put in my machine, one with Windows 10 and a spare with the original OEM Windows 7.

Steve C · 07 Jan 2017

nihal mazhar said:

Can someone tell me what all precautions should I take while upgrading to windows 10 from windows 7.What sort of imaging will be better like full disk image .My computer manufacturer is not providing support for windows 10 on this model but the windows upgrade assistant says that it is all right to install windows 10 .Will it cause any issue with the drivers .The manufacturer provides support for windows 8 but not windows 10

I enclose my guide on the Windows 10 update procedure which you may find helpful.
Attachment 116131

nihal mazhar · 07 Jan 2017

Thanks for all your replies.Looking forward to do an upgrade soon