SOLVED Upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1

[askerist]

Hello,

Three questions regarding upgrading to Windows 10 from brand new Windows 8.1 machine:

I have just started on Windows 8.1 and am still installing programs and I have all sorts of things including web development environments to do. Also Ubuntu as a side OS.

1. If I upgrade directly, will it wipe everything and I have to start all over installing all the files and programs? Will it at least keep all the existing documents files intact?

2. Will it wipe any partition I might create?

3. Will it still allow partitioning and another OS?

Thank you!

 

[davidhk129]

the RE : 1. If I upgrade directly, will it wipe everything and I have to start all over installing all the files and programs? Will it at least keep all the existing documents files intact?

In order to have a FREE Windows 10 RTM installed in your qualifying OS, it has to be done by " upgrade install" via Windows Update. Not by clean install.
Upgrade install will allow you to keep everything.
By July 29th, same time when Win 10 RTM is released, the ISO file is expected to be released as well.
You can then download the ISO and do a clean Install AFTER you have done upgrade install.

RE :2. Will it wipe any partition I might create?

Assuming you are dual booting Win 8.1 and Ubuntu.
No, it will not wipe out you Ubuntu partition.
You will be upgrading onto the Win 8.1 partition. It has nothing to do with the Ubuntu partition.

RE :3. Will it still allow partitioning and another OS?

Yes. If your machine can handle multi boot.

 

[knight72]

i have windows 7 on one drive and windows 8 on the other. from what i have read here i can upgrade my windows 7 to windows 10 it wont mess up my windows 8 on the other drive. what if i need to reinstall windows 10 later on sometime would it mess up windows 8?

 

[davidhk129]

What you do in one partition has no effect to the other partition.
After you have upgraded your Win 7 to Win 10 RTM, you can reinstall anytime you want and it has nothing to do with the Win 8 partition.

By the way, in order to receive a free upgrade to Win 10 RTM, you need to have either Win 7 SP1 or Win 8.1 updated.

 

[knight72]

ok thanks. i did mess up my windows 8 when i installed 7 on the other drive it messed up 8 so it wouldn't load i had to reinstall it. i wasn't thinking i have to install 7 first on one drive then 8 on the other drive . but anyways i have 10 upgrade reserved on 7 so im all set with that.

 

[Trouble]

i did mess up my windows 8 when i installed 7 on the other drive it messed up 8

It's probably important to note, that in a true dual boot scenario you likely only have one "System Reserved Partion" which is likely marked as "active" in Disk Manager.
When you installed the older Win7 OS with the newer Win8 OS present, that is what likely messed up your boot configuration settings.
Upgrading to Windows 10 from either OS should not do that as it is newer than either.
NOTE: Using a good Disk Imaging software is always a good idea when contemplating such upgrades. It would allow you to return to a previous configuration should something unforeseen happen.

 

[knight72]

It's probably important to note, that in a true dual boot scenario you likely only have one "System Reserved Partion" which is likely marked as "active" in Disk Manager.
When you installed the older Win7 OS with the newer Win8 OS present, that is what likely messed up your boot configuration settings.
Upgrading to Windows 10 from either OS should not do that as it is newer than either.
NOTE: Using a good Disk Imaging software is always a good idea when contemplating such upgrades. It would allow you to return to a previous configuration should something unforeseen happen.

thanks for the info. the Disk imaging does that work like windows restore? or is it like a backup of your hard drive to a Disk that i can say reinstall windows then use the Disk to put windows back to the way i had it?

 

[Trouble]

Disk Imaging Software, like Acronis (my personal favorite) or some of the free stuff like AOEMI BackUpper http://www.backup-utility.com/
EaseUS ToDo http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm
Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
ARE software product that produce a Disk / Volume image, with which (with their respective Rescue Media / Bootable CD or USB stick) you can return your system to a specific point in time, exactly the way it was when you produced the disk image.

 

[Trouble]

Was just now reading this article, which fits in quite nicely with what we've been discussing, and......
Probably, something everyone should consider in the next coming few days.
http://www.howtogeek.com/223139/how-to-create-an-image-of-your-pc-before-upgrading-to-windows-10/

 

[knight72]

Disk Imaging Software, like Acronis (my personal favorite) or some of the free stuff like AOEMI BackUpper http://www.backup-utility.com/
EaseUS ToDo http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm
Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
ARE software product that produce a Disk / Volume image, with which (with their respective Rescue Media / Bootable CD or USB stick) you can return your system to a specific point in time, exactly the way it was when you produced the disk image.

is their a way to use Acronis do a full system backup save it to a external drive? then say i upgrade 7 to 10 something goes wrong could i undo everything with that backup instead of having to burn a image to a Disk? or would i have to make a bootable Disk?

 

[Trouble]

The concept is to make a System / Disk Image. You can perform a file and folder backup as well with Acronis and the others but that is not something that would get your system up and running again, to a point in time prior to some catasthropic event.
AND
The software itself supports creating the bootable (rescue) media to a CD or USB ThumbDrive from which you can boot your PC, browse to the disk image and restore it (to the same hard drive or a replacement drive of equal or larger capacity), in the event of a hard drive failure.)
That is what system / disk imaging is all about.

 

[knight72]

The concept is to make a System / Disk Image. You can perform a file and folder backup as well with Acronis and the others but that is not something that would get your system up and running again, to a point in time prior to some catasthropic event.
AND
The software itself supports creating the bootable (rescue) media to a CD or USB ThumbDrive from which you can boot your PC, browse to the disk image and restore it (to the same hard drive or a replacement drive of equal or larger capacity), in the event of a hard drive failure.)
That is what system / disk imaging is all about.

guess i'll have to get some DVD's all i have is 700mb CD's they would be useless for this. thanks for all the help.

 

[Trouble]

Typically I use an external USB 1 Terabyte drive, on which I can keep multiple Disk Images, there's usually a 2:1 compression ration by default unless you change it so the images is usually about 50% in size of the actual used space on the disk being imaged. You could also use a second internal drive if one is available on your system and I believe in most cases a network location but..... that's a lot of data usually, to be transmitted over one's network.

The rescue media (bootable CD) only requires a single CD or a small USB ThumbDrive to boot your system so you can browse to the external media hosting the image file.

 

[knight72]

Typically I use an external USB 1 Terabyte drive, on which I can keep multiple Disk Images, there's usually a 2:1 compression ration by default unless you change it so the images is usually about 50% in size of the actual used space on the disk being imaged. You could also use a second internal drive if one is available on your system and I believe in most cases a network location but..... that's a lot of data usually, to be transmitted over one's network.

The rescue media (bootable CD) only requires a single CD or a small USB ThumbDrive to boot your system so you can browse to the external media hosting the image file.

i'm a little confused about the last part. are you saying i can make a Disk image save it to external drive, then if something happens upgrading to 10 i can just put the Bootable CD in and browse to the image on my external drive it will install it?

 

[Trouble]

are you saying

Practically, exactly what I said.

The software will allow you to create a CD which is called various things, fundamentally it is bootable rescue media.

That CD, runs a version of the actual program and will allow you to select a "Restore" or "Recovery" option (different terms in different software, but basically the same thing) You can also use the CD to create another image but that is not the actual point here.

When you choose to recover your disk, you will then be offered a common browse button.
Click that and browse to the .TIB (true image backup) file which is your image.
Then you'd be offered an opportunity to select the location where you want to recover the image to.
That's pretty much it in a nutshell.
Source -> Destination -> Proceed

 

[knight72]

Practically, exactly what I said.

The software will allow you to create a CD which is called various things, fundamentally it is bootable rescue media.

That CD, runs a version of the actual program and will allow you to select a "Restore" or "Recovery" option (different terms in different software, but basically the same thing) You can also use the CD to create another image but that is not the actual point here.

When you choose to recover your disk, you will then be offered a common browse button.
Click that and browse to the .TIB (true image backup) file which is your image.
Then you'd be offered an opportunity to select the location where you want to recover the image to.
That's pretty much it in a nutshell.
Source -> Destination -> Proceed

i found a place on Acronis site tells you how to create bootable media and tells you how to use it and i also watched a video on youtube how to use it. i'm all set now