I'm pleased to find this thread. I'm going to try upgrading my 2004 AMD Socket 939 CPU based PC - see Windows 10 on 2004 PC?
I'll report back once I've finished doing the basic Windows 7 configuration and Reflect backup. Is it better to upgrade an old PC in place via the Media Creation Tool or via DVD / USB stick?
Using the Media Creation Tools may work, but then you have no Windows 10 ISO in case it fails and you need to start again. I prefer to always use a DVD-ROM or USB Flash drive, so I can resume or start over if something goes wrong. In some old systems DVD may be worn out and has many chances to get stuck somewhere and interrupt the process. Also during setup Windows may lose USB drivers (during hardware detection/setup) and installing from USB Flash drive is risky too. So unless I do a clean installation using a USB Flash drive, I prefer to copy all Windows 10 files from the ISO to a folder, such as C:\W10SETUP and start setup from there (to upgrade older Windows versions to 10). This will make sure the files are always available and readable and will minimize the risk of something going wrong. Also make sure you disable antivirus and other non-critical applications and any non-important device (such as audio card, modem, etc) to avoid a BSOD because of a faulty driver. I strongly recommend to disconnect any external device such as your printer. Once the update from 7 or 8 to Windows 10 is complete you can reconnect your devices, enable the disabled devices in Device Manager, install drivers, and then enable your applications if you need some of them running at startup. If your antivirus is old I recommend to upgrade it or uninstall it before upgrade to 10. Once upgrade is complete you can reinstall it.
PS: By the way if you have a Realtek AC'97 audio card (the old one, not the HD), earlier builds of Windows 10 gave a BSOD when Windows Update tried to install the audio driver, or you tried to install the latest Vista driver. I noticed that latest Windows 10 Fall Creator's Update version v1709 solved this issue (see respective thread)! So all you have to do is uninstall any Realtek driver before upgrading to Windows 10, then upgrade using the ISO from latest version v1709 and let Windows Update find the audio driver automatically. Once it is working, leave it alone, do not attempt to install the Realtek (OEM) driver! To be on the safe side, I would disable the audio card in BIOS, upgrade to Windows 10 and then enable it again.
For older computers that cannot boot from USB drives, there is a special utility, Plop Boot Manager. It is a small ISO that you can burn to a CD-ROM and boot form there. Then you see a boot loader that lets you boot from any available device, including a USB Flash drive. All you have to do is to connect the USB Flash drive, switch on the computer and boot from this CD. Then select to boot from USB device, and ta-da! Don't forget to remove the CD so your computer boots from the hard disk and resumes Windows Setup after first restart.
You can start an upgrade from within the existing Windows by running the Setup you'll find on the USB. Only the first phase of the upgrade needs the USB. Once it has copied the files from it the next step is the first reboot, from then on it's only using the files it has copied across. The subsequent steps are by far the longest part of the upgrade, so the speed of USB2 is not a significant factor in the total time taken.
Download Winrar, during setup check box to handle ISO files. Open the .iso on your pc with winrar and double click on setup.exe it will uncompress the files and start the setup without using a usb drive or mounting the .iso
In case this helps, there was a tutorial added quite recently on how to clean-install without an external bootable drive:
Clean Install Windows 10 without DVD or USB Flash Drive
Thanks Kari for the Tutorial. I'll use it next time I have to install Windows 10 to a tablet. Some advice though, I strongly recommend downloading all drivers from manufacturer's site when installing Windows 10 on a tablet. Avoid by all means any automatic driver utilities such as Snappy Driver Installer and Driver Pack. If you use them there are 99% chances that the touch feature and screen rotation will not work. You can see the drivers are installed in Device Manager but the devices do not work since they require specific drivers, not universal drivers for all the device family. It is almost impossible to make the devices work afterwards, even if you have the proper drivers and manually install them from Device Manager, I learned it the hard way. So to avoid having to format and reinstall Windows again, always install official drivers from manufacturer's site first, and then run Windows Update (if necessary). Spending some minutes finding and downloading the official drivers will save you hours trying to make the tablet work if something (most likely) goes wrong. And since most drivers depend on chipset, you should install that first and then everything else. Excuse me for this off-topic comment, but I'm trying to help.
PS: Kari, do you have any idea of how to upgrade from one build of Windows 10 to the next or from Windows 8 to 10 when the tablet's storage is full and you cannot free space on C: ? Any trick to force Windows files on an SD card so there is no space limit while updating? Of course the final goal is to have Windows 10 on the internal storage, C: , not the SD card. The card would only be used to store temporary files during upgrade. Please point me to the appropriate thread. I already know about the use of a USB Flash drive with at least 10GB but in some tablets with only 16GB you need at least 7GB free on the internal storage as well. That's the case I need help for. What can I do when C: has at best 5GB free and Setup won't proceed even with a USB Flash drive? Any workaround? Thanks!
Last edited by spapakons; 28 Oct 2017 at 08:13.
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