hp envy 700-327C fails to upgrade to latest Windows 10

[CalinNB]

 Windows 10 Pro 1809 installed on 2/9/2019  
Windows informs me it needs updating (near end of life for the Windows version I have) .  If I allow it, after the update, the PC will not boot.  After a long power down press it recovers to the old  Windows 10 Pro 1809 version.

Repeated this at least 3 times after checking all drivers are up to date, freeing memory, BIOS check, ....

Thank you for helping

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@CalinNB 

I would suggest the following approach:

1) Do full image backup to external drive or large USB stick

2) Download an ISO file for Windows 10 v1909

3) Create boot media from that ISO file

4) Do a Repair-Install from that boot media

---------------- Full Image Backup --------------

I personally prefer to use third-party Backup solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) 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) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
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

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

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

--------------- Download ISO file ---------------

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-iso-download-tool

Click the Download: Windows-ISO-Download.exe link. This will download that file to your PC. Double-click that file to run it.

Download the tool, run it, and do the following:
1) Select Windows 10 at the upper right
2) Under Select edition, select Windows 10 Home Pro under the version 1909 heading
3) Click the Confirm button
4) Select the product language, click confirm button
6) Select either the 64-bit download
7) Select a folder to save the file -- it's downloading 4GB or so of data, so that will take a while depending on the download speed. The progress bar might not show any progress but when the download is nearly done, a window will pop open indicating the ISO file is being moved from a temporary download directory to the folder you selected. The screen will then say Download Complete.

-------------- Create Boot Media ---------------

Download and install RUFUS and use the option to create a bootable USB stick from the ISO file.

You can get it from here:  https://rufus.akeo.ie/

------------- Do a Repair-Install ---------------

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

[CalinNB]

Thank you for the extensive reply and great links.  While the backup is a daunting task, the instructions and links you have provided makes it so much easier.