Please.... for your own peace of mind!

[Tonya]

Image your disk, this good advice come a bit late for me. All I've read about the upgrade reassured me all would be easy and may take a few moments. I may be stuck guys and I need your help. The day before 10 was available, I deleted Carbonite with the reassurance Google Drive would do the same thing free. Now I read the words Image your disk and fear enters.
I proceeded with the 10 upgrade and 7 hours later my computer seems to be "stuck" at 87% progress. Im uncertain what should be done.
will running constant harm my computer?
will turning off computer wipe out Win 8.1(current) or delete win 10

 

[Diablo2122]

it shouldn't as long as you keep your computer cool and I don't know if what will happen I wish I did I will do some research for you and figure it out and let you know

 

[Diablo2122]

here Idk if this will help since its for earlier versions but it might help
http://johnhaller.com/blog/2014-10-01--how-to-cancel-windows-10-technical-preview-installation

 

[Windowsfree]

I use REDO
http://redobackup.org/

 

[MyloTcat]

Image your disk, this good advice come a bit late for me. All I've read about the upgrade reassured me all would be easy and may take a few moments. I may be stuck guys and I need your help. The day before 10 was available, I deleted Carbonite with the reassurance Google Drive would do the same thing free. Now I read the words Image your disk and fear enters.
I proceeded with the 10 upgrade and 7 hours later my computer seems to be "stuck" at 87% progress. Im uncertain what should be done.
will running constant harm my computer?
will turning off computer wipe out Win 8.1(current) or delete win 10

If the PC has been running for 7+ hours "stuck" at 87%, it's likely "frozen" and won't do anything more without human intervention. Since the PC will likely never "unfreeze" itself, you may have no option other than to hold down the PC power button to shut down the machine. Then power it back up to see what condition it's in. The Win10 install may just pick up where it left and continue the installation. Or, the boot process may give you the screen indicating that Windows was shut down abnormally and give you options for how you would like to boot up, e.g. normally, safe mode, or safe mode with networking. If you get that option I would try safe mood just to see if I get a desktop. Then I would do a restart to get your previous version of Windows running normally. Again, this assumes that the Win10 install aborts and the PC "reverts" to your previous version. Otherwise, the Win10 install may continue and complete normally. There is always that hope. In any event, you'll likely have to shut the PC down manually in order to determine where you stand.

If, while running your previous version of Windows, you used the Windows feature to periodically create "restore point," then it might be possible to restore your system files to a previous state of as a known date, specifically, the date the most recent restore point was created. If after power cycling your PC you get your previous version of Windows back, you may not need to use a restore point to get your system operating files back to where they were as of a given date.

Also, if all goes badly, you could reinstall your previous version of Windows from your DVD install disk or restore media (if you created them). And since you had a subscription with Carbonite, you might call them and explain your situation. They will likely have a backup of your backup (sound redundant...) on file and would let you reinstate your subscription so that you could access your backup files. Hope that helps.

 

[Toni]

Image your disk prior to the upcoming Windows 10 release.
With any number of options.... most providing at least a limited free trial version.

There is no good excuse for not being able to safely and reliably recover in the event of a catastrophic event or if you decide you simply don't like or want Windows 10.

Which did you use? Do the trial versions work ?

 

[Trouble]

I use and have used Acronis True Image since early version 6, long before they started naming them by the year. I purchase the commercial version but yes I believe the trial version does work but the trial is no longer 30 days I think it is only a couple weeks now.
I've always found it to be highly reliable and reasonably simple to use.
I would not be without it.
I am currently using 2014 on Windows 10 even though I own and have purchased the upgrade to 2015, I like a few of the smaller features in 2014 version better and personally I think they've over simplified the 2015 version in an attempt to make it Muppet Proof.

 

[jmccleary50]

Speaking of system images I just got of a major jam thanks to an image I made just a day ago. I have no idea what happened but suddenly I had only 4 items in programs. I floundered around for the better part of a day before finally getting to advanced startup troubleshooting where one of the options is system image. After running that everything was right back to normal. I am now an absolute believer in system image and will always have one no more than a week old.

 

[jmccleary50]

Here I am again this time on a W7 laptop. Just making sure things are still working. I made it a point to leave W7 untouched since I always liked it. My experience with 8.1 was very limited but I wouldn't say it was anywhere near as bad as what little I know about basic 8. That was an abomination. No wonder everybody hated it. When in doubt run a system image!

 

[Roddie]

Maybe I am wrong but I went to 8.1 from 7 when it came out. I had a image on usb which worked with 8. Went to do a clean install of 7 before doing 10 and it stated files missing. Tried the image that Dell had on pc to bring back to factory stated files missing. Microsoft had this listed on there 8.1 page. Here is a quote from that page. " After you install Windows 8.1, you won't be able to use the recovery partition on your PC to go back to your previous version of Windows." Even on 10 there website state 30 days to revert back after that no going back. I had a Windows 8 disc which stated wrong disc when trying to go back. This was at start up with disc or with start up with USB. USB stated files missing, Dvd stated wrong operating system. The only way I know to go back is with new hard drive. Maybe I missed something but I tried numerous times over last couple of months.

 

[Ron]

I think that this thread could use some optimism, I've upgraded from MS-DOS to "3.0" to "3.1" to "95" to "98" to "Vista" to "XP" (or was XP before VISTA?) to "7" and now "10". Ten seems to be rather slow in loading - there was plenty of "scary" waiting, no indication of progress and no messages. I just left the room. Eventually, and in much less time than other versions, I was able to search every glitch that I ran into and solve it. In one day I am running 10 on my three computers and have to admit that it truly is fun! I understood how being forced to use the Metro "tile" scheme in 8 and 8.1 was frustrating but in 10 it is an interesting option - really fun to see what they can do without needing a learning curve. And it seems very intuitive - nearly anything that I want to do is on a nearby menu or, optionally, by using a right click! I'm already very comfortable with it - Microsoft may have found their saviour!

 

[jmccleary50]

I'll buy into that optimism. I had 8.1 for a whopping 27 days and it wasn't bad. I updated to 10 and it's even better. I installed classic shell as a start menu which eliminated the right-click pop up on the start button. I miss that but I am satisfied with the way things are. I just downloaded a later version of Acronis by Seagate which is my 500GB external drive. After a system image got me out of a jam i'm a believer.

 

[Roddie]

My Windows. Windows 3.1 (Yea I got PC) Windows 95, XP Pro, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10. Even had the privilege of solving some problems with Windows ME. All had there share of problems. ME, Vista was worse with 8 being biggest learning curve. I had no problems with 8.1 but I decided to go for another free upgrade. Not to bad to get 2 system upgrades for free. So far Windows 10 problems have been minor in nature after a clean install and is a system that is set for the public use and friendliness.

 

[SglGrma]

You can use the CD's...but remember, you will need to go through all the "updates" that have come out since that CD was made. It can be tedious and time consuming but I have done it a few times. Plus any programs you added etc. Imaging, with say an external hard drive plugged in, can put you back where you left off when the change to Windows 10 occurred. It's a snapshot in a sense of what you had at that time. I am sure one of the moderators can give you some recommendations.

I don't mind using the cds. brings me back to factory when i need to...
but thank you for letting me know i can... I don't expect to go back to windows 7 when i finally get to windows 10... but who knows

 

[jmccleary50]

Watch out for that "back to factory" business. I did that on a Dell laptop and wound up needing no less than 96 updates which took over an hour to run. That's why I now preach about system images.

 

[davehc]

I have had a need , on one of my Dells, to return to factory settings. It is natural, I would suggest, that reinstalling the basic OS would result in having to then load a number of updates. It would, of course, vary according to which OS is built in to the Computer. nevertheless, it has sorted me out a couple of times.
I don't see it, really, as something to "watch out for". Just understand where you are going with it.

 

[SglGrma]

Watch out for that "back to factory" business. I did that on a Dell laptop and wound up needing no less than 96 updates which took over an hour to run. That's why I now preach about system images.

oh trust me, I know all about factory resets and how long it would take if i decided to go that route.. I prefer them to the image restores due to the fact that I have my son using this laptop as well, and if he happens to download a virus before I can find it and I do an image of my drive, I am bringing that virus with me.. rather not worry about it..

yes i have anti virus software, however, they don't catch all of the ones out there right at that moment...

FYI: Until I decided to change my field of knowledge (right before windows 7 came out) I was in the computer field, troubleshooting, building, networking, etc...

My question was based on the fact that I wanted to know since windows 10 was a free download, i wanted to make sure that I would still be able to use my windows 7 cds to revert back .. as one does not always know everything... just wanted to make sure I was right with my thoughts about my cds.. is all I was meaning...

Thank you so much for your input ...

 

[bj33813]

OK, I wanted to "save" a version of Win7 as a just-in-case, so I used EASE US Todo Backup and cloned my C drive to D drive. Now when trying to boot into it, I get "this copy of Win7 is not genuine build 7601"
Do I have any other way to save 7 or just uninstall 10 and start all over with my Win7 dvd? Would like to have both, but if MS makes me decide on only one OS , I'll take 7, thank you very much. And that was my only saved copy btw, other than my original dvd of 7.

 

[Trouble]

Not sure exactly what's going on although you should be able to activate it from the system property page.
IF it was genuine to begin with, then it is still genuine.
I don't have any experience with ToDo, I use Acronis True Image exclusively.
AND
I never clone, there is no way to avoid bad sectors so you get the good with the bad. I create disk images and restore disk images.

 

[bj33813]

yes it was/is genuine. I will try activating again if it lets me that far. thx