Rolling Back From Windows 10 To Your Older OS Appears Problematic

I'm like a "few" others. I made the upgrade to Windows 10 on the 29th. Only taken about one hour to make the switch. However, after a couple days trying to understand all the changes and whatnots, and having troubles with items that didn't show up from Windows 7 Home. So, decided to retreat my steps and go back to Seven. I was expecting a lot of errors, and what ever would come my way. but, with the instructions I found on the Internet....as it is here. " Return To Windows 7 Home".... On Windows 10... click the start menu, select settings. Click the "Update and Security" icon and select "Recovery". You should see a "Go Back To Windows 7" menu. Click the Get Started Button To Get Rid Of Your Windows 10 Install and Restore Your Previous Windows Install. Microsoft will ask you if you want to go back...Click Yes.
WOW: It only took 5 minutes to switch back to Windows 7 and all is well... I know, I'm using this computer that was upgraded to Windows 10 and now back to Windows 7. Go For It.

I'll wait a few months for Microsoft to iron out the "bugs" in the Windows 10, and just might upgrade to 10 later....

I prefer 10 over 8.1 and even 7, so it likely will never become any issue, but this still temps me to use something else just to spite Microsoft on this. It sure seems MS made it a point to make people believe they'd be able to roll back at any point.

And apparently a complete waste of time.

NONE of my 8.1 images will work, nor will they allow the repair tools to work.

They worked fine 3 weeks ago when I needed to reinstall 10162. But not now.

Can anyone say 'tricked'??? Because that's what I reckon we've been...

NOT happy AT ALL!!!


Wenda.

@Wenda

Don't panic. I know why the images didn't work. It because Windows 10 adds a system reserve partition to the computer, which messes up the image restore. I don't know how you have you hard disk setup. Hopefully, you have your images on a usb drive or another hard drive. Boot up using the Windows install disk hit Shift F10 when you see the Install windows to bring up the command prompt or use windows 7 repair disk to do the same thing (Ignore any messages to repair startup/bootup issues). In the command prompt, select type diskpart, hit enter.

Type list disk
Type select disk * (that the operating system is on.)
Type clean (This will delete all partition on that drive. Don't use clean all, or it will clean all drives and take a long time.)
Now, type Select Disk *
type create partition primary
type select partition 1
type active
type format fs=ntfs quick
type assign letter C

exit, reboot with image restore recover media and try again.


replace * with the number your operating system is/was on. It is usually 0

groze said:

@Wenda

Don't panic. I know why the images didn't work. It because Windows 10 adds a system reserve partition to the computer, which messes up the image restore. I don't know how you have you hard disk setup. Hopefully, you have your images on a usb drive or another hard drive. Boot up using the Windows install disk hit Shift F10 when you see the Install windows to bring up the command prompt or use windows 7 repair disk to do the same thing (Ignore any messages to repair startup/bootup issues). In the command prompt, select type diskpart, hit enter.

Type list disk
Type select disk * (that the operating system is on.)
Type clean (This will delete all partition on that drive. Don't use clean all, or it will clean all drives and take a long time.)
Now, type Select Disk *
type create partition primary
type select partition 1
type active
type format fs=ntfs quick
type assign letter C

exit, reboot with image restore recover media and try again.


replace * with the number your operating system is/was on. It is usually 0

I use Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12, and create full disk images with all partitions. I did a couple of times went back to 8.1 while trying to get a decent upgrade without errors / weirdness. Restoring the whole disk nullified the partition changes from the upgrade (I have separate system and data disks).

Wenda said:

And apparently a complete waste of time.

NONE of my 8.1 images will work, nor will they allow the repair tools to work.

They worked fine 3 weeks ago when I needed to reinstall 10162. But not now.

Can anyone say 'tricked'??? Because that's what I reckon we've been...

NOT happy AT ALL!!!


Wenda.

Actually, this thread has to do with using Win10's in-built roll-back mechanism to your previous OS...it has nothing whatever to do with trying to restore a system image made when running your previous OS.

Many people make an "OS roll-back" impossible for themselves (of the type this thread discusses) because after they've installed to Win10 they use "Disk Cleanup" to remove the files (Windows.old, etc.) that must remain on the disk in order for a roll-back to work. Before deleting those files, however, Windows 10 does pop up a warning about losing the ability to roll-back the OS...

Basically, you aren't happy mainly because you are trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole, and your case is much different...

If you have an 8.1 image that you want to restore, it will no doubt work best when you have reinstalled your basic 8.1 system from which you can then restore your 8.1 image backup. So...

1) Reinstall 8.1
2) Use 8.1 to restore your system from your backed up 8.1 images and whatever repair tools you're talking about (8.1?) should work fine

If you correctly executed an 8.1 system back up then you should be able to restore it from an 8.1 installation. Trying to run Windows 10 to restore an 8.1 image is--square peg in round hole--the tools weren't made to operate in the way that you are trying to use them. If they "worked fine" under 10162 for you to reinstall an 8.1 system image on the same machine/partition, then I'd say you were either very lucky or very unlucky--depending on the number of system errors that were introduced during the process, even though it may have appeared to you that the restore executed properly.

Some people write about running sfc /scannow after an upgrade from 7 or 8.1 and seeing all kinds of errors, but their problem was that they should have run sfc /scannow *before* they attempted the upgrade to Win10, which would have revealed the errors were present before the upgrade to Win10 took place (I've done several 8.1/7 upgrades to Win10 and the process has always completed without any sfc errors detectable after the upgrade--because I had none before the upgrade process was begun.) IMO, 90% of people's computer problems come from misunderstanding the proper procedure for doing various things, and trying to "put square pegs into round holes" and/or from taking bad advice from people who know even less than they do...

A good rule of thumb when trying to solve frustrating computer problems that develop after you have performed what you believe are the proper procedures, is to consider whether or not you have understood the instructions correctly. Many people also make all kinds of assumptions about many things that have to do with their computer environments that are simply *wrong.* I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors and would like to assure you that no one is trying to pull the wool over your eyes on these issues... Thinking that you have been "tricked or lied to" is most likely going to be an assumption that will always be wrong--most likely you have simply misunderstood something you've read or heard--it's that simple. Once you learn the ins and outs of making system backups and restoring them (within the correct OS versions!) you will find the problems you complain about here are simply no longer relevant in your experience.

I also believe providing alternate solutions may help future upgraders. One solution is to have a previous system image in a hard disk accessible by a recovery DVD.