Friday, January 20, 2017
Upgrading to Windows 10 and how an SSD really matters
Upgrading to Windows 10 and how an SSD really matters
Upgrading to Windows 10
Right now I am wondering why I did it. I started an upgrade to Windows 10 last night, and my primary work laptop is stuck in a boot loop. I hadnt even received a notification yet, even though I had "reserved" my upgrade a long time ago. Since I decided I couldnt wait, I searched and found the MediaCreationToolx64.exe from Microsoft at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10.
I know I must be good at finding bugs, or them me. On my first attempt at using the MediaCreationToolx64.exe tool, I didnt choose to upgrade and was just letting it do a download to a USB key. I was busy doing other things at the same time, and one of them required that I reboot my system. The tool was reporting a status of about 50% complete at the time I executed:
shutdown /r /f
After restarting, the MediaCreationToolx64 kept reporting that it wasnt able to start properly, and suggesting rebooting to solve the problem. That recommendation was not helpful, but I was able to use information in this link to fix the problem I created: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wiki/insider_wintp-insider_install/how-to-troubleshoot-common-setup-and-stop-errors/324d5a5f-d658-456c-bb82-b1201f735683.
This was the procedure that was successful for me:
a. Press Windows key + X on the desktop screen of the computer.
b. Select Command Prompt (Admin)
c. On the open Command Prompt window copy and paste the commands (all at once).
net stop wuauserv
net stop cryptSvc
net stop bits
net stop msiserver
ren C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution.old
ren C:WindowsSystem32catroot2 C:WindowsSystem32catroot2.old
net start wuauserv
net start cryptSvc
net start bits
net start msiserver
b. Select Command Prompt (Admin)
c. On the open Command Prompt window copy and paste the commands (all at once).
net stop wuauserv
net stop cryptSvc
net stop bits
net stop msiserver
ren C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution.old
ren C:WindowsSystem32catroot2 C:WindowsSystem32catroot2.old
net start wuauserv
net start cryptSvc
net start bits
net start msiserver
Next, I tried to Upgrade this PC, instead of making a USB disk for installation on another computer. The first stage of the installation went successfully to 100% and then my computer rebooted. I am now stuck with it continually rebooting. There seems to be a phantom entry in the UEFI, as there are two choices to boot the system, one that is still labeled Windows 8.1 and another one without a label. Neither one will boot my system, and none of the choices on the boot menu are helpful either.
As I write, I am now downloading Windows 10 for installation on another computer from my spare laptop. According to the information found at the site of the last link, I should be able to boot the USB to repair the start up of the system. I hope so!
My download just finished. The MediaCreationToolx64 first verified the download, and now it is creating the Windows 10 Media. Creating the media seems to take a long time... about as long as the download! For the first 50% of the time it is preparing the media, and then for the second 50% it writes it out to the USB drive.
No luck using the Windows 10 setup program booting off the USB drive. I was not able to repair the start up of the system, despite that option being available within the Windows 10 setup program. I was also unable to restore any previous system restore points that I had created.
In order to upgrade, the setup program told me that I had to boot that version of Windows, which was still not happening. When I tried to do a fresh install I was told that I was not allowed because the only partition big enough to hold the new Windows was a "reserved OEM partition".
No luck using the Windows 10 setup program booting off the USB drive. I was not able to repair the start up of the system, despite that option being available within the Windows 10 setup program. I was also unable to restore any previous system restore points that I had created.
In order to upgrade, the setup program told me that I had to boot that version of Windows, which was still not happening. When I tried to do a fresh install I was told that I was not allowed because the only partition big enough to hold the new Windows was a "reserved OEM partition".
The Good News
One option that was available in the Windows 10 setup program was helpful. It at least allowed me to open a command prompt. This setup mode of Windows also allowed me to have access to not only the internal hard drive partitions, but also to any external hard drives or USB flash drives.
After connecting my Western Digital "My Passport Ultra" 2 TB external hard drive, it was recognized as the G: drive. Oddly, what was normally my C: drive showed up as the D:. To backup all of my users data, I used the following commands:
mkdir g:users
robocopy /r:0 /w:0 /s d:users g:usersThe /r:0 option is to attempt 0 retries on a failed copy, the /w:0 option is to wait 0 seconds between retries, and the /s option is to make it act recursively on the source directory d:users.
When I saw it was copying a very deep and unwanted directory, I used CTRL-C to stop the copying. I then used the following command to prune a directory and all of its contents:
rmdir /s d:usersKeithDocumentsGithub
The Best News
Since I dont have time to spend backing up other parts of the original drive outside of the "users" directory, I ran out and got a new Toshiba Q Series Pro SSD. Best Buy had a great deal on them for the same price Id pay for it on Amazon, so I jumped on it.
It will be a bit hard to say I suppose whether I get a boost in speed from the new Solid State Drive, from Windows 10 versus Windows 8.1, or by just having a fresh clean install. If it is slower than before, then Id be really surprised.
The setup of Windows 10 was so fast I was really surprised. It was done in less than ten minutes with what it had to do from the USB drive. Then, it took about another 20 minutes of running of the hard drive to set up the apps and the updates.
The best news: My work laptop is now booting Windows 10! It would be better news if it wasnt running Windows, but its my work laptop, so it must!
Update - SSD is a MUST Upgrade
The speed of my system is dramatically improved! There is no way I can attribute the speed increase to more than anything the Toshiba Q Series Pro SSD replacing a 5400 RPM Toshiba traditional hard drive. Applications with exactly the same code that was running a couple of days ago on Windows 8.1 now load so much faster, it is unbelievable to me! If you are a person who swears at your computer for being slow, then you MUST upgrade to a SSD drive!
Available link for download
