My last PC (gaming rig) needs a reinstall of Windows and rather than faff about, and it is a faff with Asus Z170 mobo's, installing Windows 7 I thought I might use this to first upgrade to Windows 10 for free then use this and do a fresh install of Windows 10? I would rather a straight clean install of Windows 10 and I could buy this which is very reasonable but if I could get it done for free, then why not?
The first option for me. Run the upgrade. Then reformat using a win 10 iso. No product key will be required as you have upgraded previously and the licence is linked to your motherboard. Your right it is a faff.
Recently? As I understood it, you did it once you had a licence. You may be able to just do the fresh Win 10 install if you have upgraded this machine in the past.
I have never ever upgraded this PC to Windows 10, if I had I would, of course, be able to do a fresh install.
Yes, providing you meet the criteria for using assistive technology (although they are quite vague and don't seem too fussy) then you can do either, Kronos.
This ^^. upgrade to get your place on the activation servers, then fresh install using a USB flash drive + the media creation tool found on the MS site.
They don't ask any questions what-so-ever. its just the same as the normal free upgrade process. Did it myself a few days ago. also the latest version has clean install feature built in (can't comment on how effective it is never used it, I opted for a clean install from a USB stick after the upgrade) but it kinda reminds be of the big brands recovery options.
I am so less inclined to upgrade to Windows 10 as I have just had to roll back to an earlier build on my secondary PC as the Anniversary update completely trashed my PC.
I thought that I would install Windows on a separate drive thereby keeping my current windows 7 install protected if it all went wrong. first i installed windows 7 forgetting that of course in Microsoft's insistence that we all move to Windows 10 before the end of July it made updating Windows 7 after a fresh install an absolute nightmare. But I thought I had managed to get enough updates to enable me to upgrade to Windows 10 via https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade but it was having none of it and I was getting Windows update error codes. So I decided on a fresh install but that again threw up a meaningless error message (see image). Thought it was perhaps the HDD which is a 2.5 Sata I took from an unused portable caddy so swapped that for a perfectly adequate 1.5TB drive just taken from a dismantled PC. But still I get the error message. Anyone any thoughts? I might go back to reinstalling Windows 7 and trying to get all the updates on the installation before updating to Windows 7
Windows update for 7 is totally FUBAR and just checks for updates for hours on end was one of my main reasons for upgrading glad I did now tho its alright 10 now. I made the mistake of leaving other drives in while I install windows (haha not for the first time) ended up having to mess round with partitions and rebuilding BCD to get fast boot working don't make the mistake I did .....remove the other drives to be sure all your boot files are in the os drive.
I, of course, disconnected the existing drives but that did not help with my problems. I have decide to buy another USB stick as I did come across several instances where Sandisk has been the problem. I am also buying another SSD as I also discovered that the HDD I was trying to install on was at deaths door. So Will try again once these items arrive.
Was getting this Error "Windows cannot install required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070570." This happens when im trying to do a clean install on a blank ssd - Found this thread from way back. http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=177488 which did not work for me but what has worked was removing 3 sticks of RAM 912Gb) and Windows 7 installed without any issues. Does this mean that my RAM is likely to have a fault?
If you successfully installed after removing some sticks of RAM which you couldn't before does point towards that. Perhaps try this method to test the stability of your RAM
I disagree with the above test methodology, regardless of if Google use it or not to test their servers (a completely different workload to a standard PC). Running a full blown OS to test memory is overkill, and since when did Google become the absolute authority on everything?
It seems a bit of a palaver going Broadwater06's suggestion, grateful though I am for it, I will stay with the windows memory test and Memtest if I ever get this OS up and running. Though of course I can run it when I switch back to my Windows 7 SSD as I am now sticking Windows 10 on the NEW SSD and will play around with it a bit as I am not convinced that I like it.
Strong opinion but that's fair enough Troubleshooting can be a palaver sometimes though like taking out a mobo and inspecting for bent pins and etc and can take time and patience to pinpoint where's the culprit.
I've been hammering the assistive upgrade installer through any and all machines I touch and so far none have refused the upgrade or had problems, so as far as I can tell there are no actual enforced requirements at all, it's just free Windows 10 again
