I have two Windows based laptops running Windows 10. Recently the older PC crashed at a morning boot up and the repair portion could not fix the problem. Luckily I had recently created a Recovery Drive on a new flash drive. I used it to do a full recovery. I was shocked to find that it had recovered to Windows 8. This PC came with Windows 7. I had upgraded it to 8, and later to 10. My second 10 PC was about one week old. In theory I hoped that a recovery drive from the new PC might be usable to recover the older laptop. I did some research on using a substitute recovery drive. The answers I found varied widely from no, yes, you need special software, to you have to buy a copy of Windows 10. My question is can this be done and how? Tnx
Recovery drive PC compatibility
- Thread starter c1sanford
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Hi,
does this help you at all?:
https://www.windows10forums.com/articles/reset-windows-10-when-windows-wont-boot.14/
does this help you at all?:
https://www.windows10forums.com/articles/reset-windows-10-when-windows-wont-boot.14/
I'm not sure your hint is applicable. I don't recall that the recovery drive offered a choice to pick between Windows 8 or Windows. I0. I will have to go back and run the full recovery again to find out. It looked to me that it was a case of what you see is what you get, and I got Windows 8 instead of 10.
I believe it does. I know of no reason it would not. Don't know how to verify it, It seems probable that it has Windows 8 in it. Just don't know.Hi,
does your PC have a normal recovery partition and is it filled with a Windows 8 image?, this may be the reason why your system restored (defaulted) to W8?.
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If you open Computer Manager > Disk Management, you might be able to read something from there:
The other alternative is to create a bootable USB stick/DVD and wipe the entire drive and put a fresh copy of W10 on your PC, that would erase any W8 image in the recovery partition. W10 is digitally signed so you won't need to enter a key when installing!.
Click on the following link to download the Media Creation Tool (This link will download version 1803 and not ver 1809 which is/should be the current version!):
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209
I hope it helps.
See also:
https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-upgrade-windows-10-to-the-latest-version.13015/
The other alternative is to create a bootable USB stick/DVD and wipe the entire drive and put a fresh copy of W10 on your PC, that would erase any W8 image in the recovery partition. W10 is digitally signed so you won't need to enter a key when installing!.
Click on the following link to download the Media Creation Tool (This link will download version 1803 and not ver 1809 which is/should be the current version!):
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209
I hope it helps.
See also:
https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-upgrade-windows-10-to-the-latest-version.13015/
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I followed up on your question about the images files. The system reported that it could not find any image files in the system 32 folder. It next reported that the PC had a problem with a driver used in conjunction with the USB ports. The next morning it could not boot up in Windows 8. I have concluded that we have reached the end of any available solution to the problems. I conclude that the only remaining solution is to find a Windows 10 Home program on disc.
I followed up on your question about the images files. The system reported that it could not find any image files in the system 32 folder. It next reported that the PC had a problem with a driver used in conjunction with the USB ports. The next morning it could not boot up in Windows 8. I have concluded that we have reached the end of any available solution to the problems. I conclude that the only remaining solution is to find a Windows 10 Home program on disc.
I am assuming that I cannot use a USB recovery drive from the other laptop. And there is no way to reload the reported missing USB driver. Still shopping for a W10 disc. They seem to be hard to get. I'll try to keep you updated. TnxHi c1sanford,
let us know how you get on please.
Thank You for your inquiry. I discovered the existence of software to clone W10 from a different PC. It sounds intriguing. It's called EASUS. I awaiting details on how and if t can help. The HP tablet that I am using for this reply could be a donor PC. If not it will be back to finding a new W10 disc. Tnx
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Maybe a few points. The OEM recovery options will usually not work after you have moved to Win 10. Possibly the way your system failed allowed it to return to 8.1. You are not specific as to how you made your recovery drive.
If you have made a Win 10 recovery drive, it would have brought the system back since it creates a Win 10 image on the fly, although it does not save some or any of your personal stuff.
You can download Win 10 if you look for "Media Creation tool" and download the correct bit version as an .iso, even for another computer, or let it make a USB drive. Once a Win 10 machine is activated, you no longer need any special media or license key, as was mentioned.
If you have made a Win 10 recovery drive, it would have brought the system back since it creates a Win 10 image on the fly, although it does not save some or any of your personal stuff.
You can download Win 10 if you look for "Media Creation tool" and download the correct bit version as an .iso, even for another computer, or let it make a USB drive. Once a Win 10 machine is activated, you no longer need any special media or license key, as was mentioned.