[Question] Win 10 Upgrade Reboots at ~60%; 47% Installing Features...

OS: Windows 8.1*
*This is an upgrade of Windows 8, which was a fresh install after authenticating on a Windows 7 machine

So I finally figured enough time had gone by that the upgrade bugs had been solved....guess not!

I ran the upgrade option from the nag box and let it download the last bits (lol pun) of the Windows 10 upgrade, which I assumed would contain any of the fixes that solved the myriad issues people have been having during the upgrade process.

Everything had passed, there were zero incompatibilities detected

The machine reboots and enters in the rather nicely done upgrade screen and proceeds to copy files; 100% there.

Next it goes on to Installing Features and Drivers, and proceeds up to around 47%, when the machine reboots. I didn't catch any errors as the screen blanked and caught my attention in time to look up and see the POST screen.

However...I was not greeted by the login screen or another screen for continuing the setup (ie picking Express or Custom setup). Instead I was greeted with the 'Automatic Repair Screen', saying that Windows had encountered issues on boot up. I pretty sure I picked Shutdown, thinking it might fix it if I did a cold start. -- I was pretty disheartened. I keep a clean machine....why me

So the machine rebooted and, again, returned me to the 'Automatic Repair Screen'. I'm again pretty sure I picked Advanced Options. Either way the second time of seeing this screen Windows began the process of reverting to the previous version of Windows. -- In this case Windows 8.1

After combing through the Internet (and this forum's search) and seeing people only get about 10% into Installing Features and Drivers before issues came up. I turn to the blog, where I can better explain what happened and hopefully find a solution.


PS: Not sure if this should be in Bugs or here. I mean I was in the middle of Installation and Setup. But it was also a bug/error.

Did you have anything connected to USB ports other than mouse and keyboard? Only the bare minimum hardware should be connected to the computer before starting the upgrade - that means even disconnecting extra hard drives, if you have more than one.

I didn't think about disconnection peripherals. But I did think about disconnecting drives. Then realized I can't because parts of the User and OS are on other drives.

My Documents, My Videos, My Pictures, and Downloads are spread across two Hard drives, while the OS resides on a 120GB Intel SSD.

While TMP and TEMP reside on a small 750GB WD Black. All of this was done to either extend the life of the SSD or because there simply wasn't enough room on the SSD; I do have something like 9 TB of data :P

I'm also not sure if the backup hard drive, File History hard drive, and Video game installs would affect the upgrade. -- I'll assume no since the system boots fine if those drives are unplugged. Window's Action Center just throws a fit when it tries to run File History. And Acronis when it tries to do the daily backup. And obviously games won't launch and their shortcuts 'go white'.

I'll attempt it again this weekend when I can afford to stay up late.

I can 99% guarantee that is your problem. ^^^^^

I know what I would do - find an old hard drive, install that as the only hard drive, put a Windows 7 or 8/8.1 on it that you can activate with a product key. Upgrade that to Windows 10 and make sure that is activated. That gets your computer established on the Microsoft activation server. Then I would put the 120GB SSD in, do whatever it takes to secure erase it, or whatever they call it. Do a clean install of Windows 10 to it, which should activate based on the temp upgrade you did first. Then set everything else back up.

I can 99% guarantee that is your problem. ^^^^^

I know what I would do - find an old hard drive, install that as the only hard drive, put a Windows 7 or 8/8.1 on it that you can activate with a product key. Upgrade that to Windows 10 and make sure that is activated. That gets your computer established on the Microsoft activation server. Then I would put the 120GB SSD in, do whatever it takes to secure erase it, or whatever they call it. Do a clean install of Windows 10 to it, which should activate based on the temp upgrade you did first. Then set everything else back up.

And yet the upgrade tool said I was good to go...Damn it Upgrade Tool, you had one job! :P

I'll give it another try with all the USB crap disconnected.

After all, it might be the SYBA USB audio "card" or the Anker 3.0 USB hubs...or the CyberPower UPS.

((If that doesn't work....I'll probably just use it as the last string holding me back from buying components to make a new build (I desperately need to build a new rig). -- Then refresh and upgrade the old rig and make it a media server.))

Man, can't wait till the weekend!;D