Upgrade from 1607 Anniversary Update to 1703 Creator's Update

[Trouble]

I realized that I had the Microsoft ISO for 15063 which I acquired recently by accident when they made it available briefly for download.
So with that in mind, I thought ..... why wait, I already have what is likely what we are all going to get come April 11th.
After creating a disk image of my production machine (the one I keep away from the Insider Program), I mounted the ISO and launched Setup.exe from the virtual drive and began the upgrade process with some trepidation and fingers crossed.
Just a rough estimate, approximately 20 minutes everything was done and working great.

I was particularly concerned as I have location pointers for many of my profile folders that have been relocated off of my SSD and onto a second hard drive. They were preserved without issue.
All my programs UWP apps as well as standard Win32 applications are all where they were and work just as they had prior to the upgrade.

I hope this is indicative of what other users will experience, on or about April 11th.
Of course when that date comes and goes and I can actually see what the final ..... final ..... final.... RTM is going to be, then I will perform my typical wipe and clean custom install of the new OS.

I'm posting this inside the Insiders sub-forum, but.....
This machine was not ever an insider machine and is not now and insider machine.

It may or may not be important to note that I do not have any third party security suite installed, except Malwarebytes Premium, which was running during the upgrade, nor do I have any wireless device dongles attached to this machine.

 

[Regedit32]

Sounds promising.

It's always a good idea to temporarily disable third party security software when upgrading the OS.

For some users it's also helpful to temporarily disconnect external devices; although I've never bothered doing that myself and have had no troubles with past build updates.

As a precaution though I always create a Pre upgrade Restore point rather than rely on one being created automatically, and once the upgrade completes successfully I create a post upgrade restore point and assuming nothing obvious goes wrong over the next week or so, I'll rely of the post one should I need one.

 

[Grizzly]

Darn it, I was too late for the download...
Ah well, lets wait till April 11.....

 

[Trouble]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sof...459594)(TnL5HPStwNw-74SihbvLfPoS3k74vDzeMw)()

 

[Grizzly]

I got those coming down already..... Thanks for the link

 

[davehc]

As always, I am the one who throws the spanner in the works.
For the heck of it, I reinstalled the original Anniversary on an identically aged machine. Apart from few things being moved around and minor additions, I cannot, however I try to encourage my own thoughts, see any outstanding differences - not even in performance. Sorry.
FWIW.
Trouble. "Of course when that date comes and goes and I can actually see what the final ..... final ..... final.... RTM is going to be, then I will perform my typical wipe and clean custom install of the new OS."

I know you are aware that, already, MS are now testing the first Redstone 3 update build 15141. The next major updates Redstone 3 and Redstone 4 , as we know, will come later this year and next year respectively. LOL. Life, for the insiders, goes on!

 

[Data]

I have a couple of questions with this upgrade done in this manner.

1. Does the recovery also get updated?
2. I'm sure this will happen but does the old install get backed up to C:\Windows.old folder?
3. Does it preserve settings like group policies, tweaks, etc?

 

[Data]

Answer to 2 is yes.
Answer to 3 is yes.
Answer to 1 untested (no freaking clew), will know tomorrow. If answer is yes, Ill bite bullet, refresh backup and do upgrade.

Anyone know if you can update that recovery partition or trigger an update to it? If Yes how?

 

[Data]

I seem to be talking to myself But OK.

After upgrading my test virtual machine 1607 to 1703 using @troubles method above, and trying to answer my questions about recovery, I went ahead and reset the machine, told it to keep my files and settings out of curiosity.

So far it failed, said

Im trying this again to see what happens, but I think the recovery partition may not have been upgraded from 1607 to 1703 and that would explain why it failed. no idea.

@Regedit32 do you know?

 

[Regedit32]

Hi Data,

I'm not 100% sure I understand your question, so apologies if I spew off a round of pointless words to follow

When I installed Windows 10 Creator, I had a Windows.old folder all ready existing which was created from a previous upgrade to Windows 10, Version 1607.

That folder was overwritten during the upgrade to Windows 10, Version 1703, and thus its content mostly changed.


Having said that, the non-Universal Apps that the original Windows.old folder contained were fully installed and are running now as part of Windows 10 Creator. For example, an old copy of Windows Live Mail which was located in the Windows.old folder, no longer is there; however Windows Live Mail was installed into my upgrade, and all the emails it contained are safe and sound and can be read.

Is this what your concern is re your question about whether the Recovery is saved?

 

[Data]

I mean the recovery partition the 500MB thing that is force created.
I assume resetting Windows will use this recovery partition right....?



The test bed was a virtual machine purpose created,

1. Installed 1607 via ISO (direct download ISO.
   
2. Upgraded to last available 1607 KB4015217 (OS Build 14393.1066 and 14393.1083) via WU
3. Added some files to desktop and changed a few group policy settings for testing after upgrade.
4. Installed a couple of programs.
   
5. Mounted the 1703 ISO and ran setup.exe to upgrade and selected to keep my files and settings
6. Upgraded 1703 via WU to KB4015583 (OS Build 15063.138)
7. Reset Windows

However that fails, which tells me that the recovery partition probably still from 1607?

 

[Regedit32]

Ahh I am understanding now.

Microsoft Installations when upgrading from one OS to another, create a hidden Recovery partition.

So for example in the image you posted, that 100MB partition could be from upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8, and the 450MB partition would be when you upgraded to Windows 10.

Each time you upgrade the former Recovery Partition becomes non useable, so if you wanted to grab some disk space you could delete it.


I assigned a Drive Path to my Windows 10 Recovery partition to take a peek. This was created when I updated to Windows 10 Creator. It appears to have replaced the former Recovery partition when I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and then to Windows 10 Anniversary altogether.

The actual Recovery Partition contains System Volume Information, and the WindowsRE (Windows Recovery Environment). If you deleted this you'd be unable to use Recovery from the computer directly, however, if you create a Windows 10 Recovery DVD, then you would not need that partition at all.

If there is insufficient space in the System Reserved Partition [ the Recovery Partition ]Windows will create a brand new one, which in your image is precisely what happen. You got a 100MB one, which was too small for Windows 10, so ended up with a second Recovery partition that is the 450MB one.

From your image it seems Windows created a EFI partition with no Drive Path assigned. That is what happened on my computer too, hence I had to use Diskpart to unhide it and assign a drive path.

Anyway that is enough babble for now. Hopefully, that helps clarify your question. If not I can always type more

 

[Data]

No. that Image is from a clean install of 1607. and partitions are correct.

450MB = Recovery partition
100MB = EFI
C: drive is OS
The unallocated space is on purpose.

My question though was about the existing recovery partitions which you answered, thx.

Each time you upgrade the former Recovery Partition becomes non usable, so if you wanted to grab some disk space you could delete it.

Does this behaviour seem OK with you? I find it absurd, if that is true, then, some 10 years later at 2 upgrades a year that's 9.765625 lost to nothing. Later you end up with no space in C: drive eventually.

You cant expand partitions backwards so easily and the risk of loosing data is bigger.

I know how to get around that but its simply illogical. But then again this is Microsoft we are talking about.

This still doesn't explain why reset fails. shouldn't fail yet... another useless portion of Windows? Personally, Ill make it my mission in life to stick it to Microsoft and after a few more tests to confirm th recovery partition nonsense, I will just create my own, fully working version ala OEM.

Thank you for clearing that up, really appreciate it, but for me its unacceptable.

 

[Regedit32]

It's certainly no ideal, but from looking at my own system, it seems with Windows 10 they now just overwrite the former Windows 10 Recovery partition, rather than create a new one. in my case it's also been placed after the root path [ albeit an extension of that C drive ], hence using Diskpart to unhide and set a new Drive path.

After than you can use a third party Partition Manager to delete the Recovery partition to leave unallocated space then merge with C path to get the space back.

The Reset option ought to take the System Volume Information from the current relevant Recovery Partition, or a Recovery DVD you make, and use that in order to keep or remove Files and settings; subject to the option you choose when Resetting.

 

[Data]

Yes, overwriting is the way it should be. Given the test was clean installs and nothing really done and it failed resets made me wonder why.

Still after a few tests cant make reset work once upgraded, its should reset, its not anything I would use but nonetheless makes me feel sorry for ppl that will likely find same error and they did nothing to break anything.

thx for follow up

 

[Regedit32]

Well hopefully they read this Forum's articles on in-place upgrades instead.

More efficient and touch wood, so far never caused an issue when choosing to keep files or settings.

 

[Data]

Historically Ive always been extremely efficient at finding issues/bugs, for a few years I beta tested officially for many companies, Acronis, Microsoft, Asus, D-link, Buffalo, Cisco... Unofficially for Opensource projects and my own stuff, now, cut it all back, its not worth it anymore, perks are few or none or not worth it

Ive reported a few to Insiders but dont expect anything done as it seems they need many upvotes for a bug to be worked on?