Upgrade to Windows 10

[MattPallina]

Hi,

I want to upgrade my PC to Windows 10, but I'm afraid that Win10 doesn't support my motherboard, MSI MS-7525 (Boston). So if upgrade to win10, will I get some problems?

Kind regards.

[old_geekster]

Matt, welcome to the forum.

I don't believe anyone will be able to tell you that you won't have some problems with a Win 10 installation.  I have installed and uninstalled it three different times.  The fourth install has finally worked.  I am using a new HP Omen Gaming Laptop with the latest, greatest components.  There is no Win 10 software or drivers on HP's website.  If you decide to upgrade, you should run both HP and Windows Updates to assure that the software and drivers are up to date.

You should download and run Win 10 Upgrade Assistant to see if your system is compatible.

Please click the Thumbs up + button if I have helped you and click Accept as Solution if your problem is solved.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

MattPallina

I've upgraded several Win7 PCs to Win10 -- and they all had problems of one kind or another ... so I wrote this to provide advice to folks considering such an upgrade: ...

You need to think about how much work you want to commit to just to run Win10.  Seriously.  Older Win7 machine tend to come in two flavors when it comes to the Win10 upgrade -- really easy, and really hard.  I have an older HP DV6 that falls into the second category -- like your machine.

To Upgrade the really hard machines, you must be prepared to do three things:
1) Make a complete image backup to external drive or large capacity USB stick,
2) Make changes to the reserved system partitioning scheme on your hard drive,
3) Use a very different approach, and maybe more than one, than using Windows Update to do the Upgrade,

4) Prepare for a clean-install.

1: Image Backup.  This is VITAL because the machine is most likely to fail the upgrade, and when it does, you will learn that the Win10 GoBack function is NOT reliable, and that will leave you with a corrupted machine that will require factory reset, and losing everything on it, to get it working again.

You avoid this by making an image backup to an external drive or USB stick using Macrium Reflect (MR) which provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR)
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

2. System Reserved Resizing:  There is a small partition on the hard drive of Win7 preinstalled machines known as System Reserved.  This holds something known as the boot loader code.  It is 100MB in size -- all that is needed for Win7.  But Win10 needs 350MB, and, in some cases, is NOT able to resize this on its own.  IF that happens, you have to manually use a partitioning tool to resize it yourself.

3. Using a different approach:  Windows Update is the easiest, but least reliable, way to do the Win10 Upgrade.  A much better, and more reliable way, is to use the Microsoft Media Creation Tool:  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install?ocid=ms_wol_win10   Choose the Upgrade this PC now option.

After all that, you need to know that MS installs drivers with only the most basic functionality.  Since HP does not have Win10 drivers for your PC, this limited functionality is the best you're going to get.  HP is not actively writing new Win10 drivers for the old Win7 PCs.  To retain full functionality of your PC, your best move is NOT to upgrade to Win10.

4. Prepare for clean-install: You might end up having to do a clean-install of Win10 if the result of the upgrade is really bad and you are DETERMINE to run Win10 on this PC, anyway.  So, BEFORE you do the upgrade, follow these instructions from the community Win10 forums about creating a genuineticket.xml file:  http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/23354-clean-install-windows-10-directly-without-having-upgrade-fi...

You will need this later to activate your Winb10 pc after the clean-install.

Good Luck

I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor do I represent, HP.
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[Jay_101]

Greetings,

Just jumped through many hoops to go from Win 8.1 to Win 7 on an HP system having no drivers for Win 7.

It was worth it.

I like Win 7.

I think it is the best Microsoft OS.

Cheers!

[MattPallina]

Thanks to everyone for the replies,

I understand that I might get problems, so I am going to do a backup and upgrade my PC to Windows 10 and if I don't like it I will restore win 7.

Kind regards.