Windows 10 upgrade not working

[NCDnick]

I am trying to upgrade Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro, with little success.

I have spoken to Microsoft and they have advised that my computer (purchased in August 2012) may not have been tested by HP to be compatible with Windows 10. As the computer is out of warranty, I am finding it difficult to contact anyone at HP to check on it's suitability for the upgrade.

Can you advise me on what my next steps should be?

• Model:  HP EliteBook 8760W

• Operating system:  Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, SP1

• 24 GB RAM
• 1 Tb SSD
• Purchased:  12 August 2012

Many thanks in advance

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

NCDnick

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

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.

The really hard to upgrade PCs fall into two categories: (1) those that are upgradeable to Win10 and will work OK, (2) those that are not.

HP laptops, especially the older Win7 machines, often came with two different graphics chips -- and Intel and then, either an AMD or Nvidia.  This was known as Switchable Graphics or Hybrid Graphics.  You ran using the Intel chip most of the time, but when you needed extra graphics power, like in Gaming, the PC automatically switched over to using the AMD or Nvidia graphics chip.

Problem is, this requires special graphics drivers to work, and while those came preinstalled on the Win7 laptops, those drivers simply do not exist for Win10.  Those drivers are not available from Intel, AMD, or Nvidia.  A way to tell if your PC has two different graphics chips is to look in Device Manager under Display Adapters.  If there are two different adapters listed, one Intel and one AMD/Nividia, then you have this problem -- and if you force an upgrade to Win10, you will have serious graphics problems and your machine will not work.

However, if you do not have this problem, to CAN upgrade to Win10, but you must be prepared to do four 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 different approach, and maybe more than one, than Windows Update to do the Upgrade,
4) Prepare for a clean-install.

---------------------------------
1: Image Backup:  
This is VITAL because the machine is likely to fail the upgrade, and when it does, you will learn that the Win10 GoBack function is NOT reliable, and that can 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: Use a different Upgrade 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:
If you do all this, and after the upgrade, your PC is only partially functioning, that means that the Upgrade did not go well and stuff is still there from the prior OS corrupting the functionality of Win10.

You MIGHT be able to fix this by doing a clean-install of Win10. Problem is that a clean-install often does not recognize the prior activation, even though it should. 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 Win10 pc after the clean-install.

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Good Luck
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I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor do I represent, HP.
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If my posts helped you, please click the Thumbs-Up symbol to say thanks.
If my posts solved your problem please click "Accept As Solution".
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[NCDnick]

Thank you so much for your comprehensive reply.

I have checked my display adaptor(s) and only one item is shown, an NVIDIA Quadro 300M. No other adapters appear.

The computer was a slightly special build, designed for Video Editing and other high end graphics use, but supplied by HP.

Following your highly helpful message, I have reverted to my original Windows 7 settings, before I tried to install Windows 10, using a backup created with Macrium Reflect.

[Malish]

my pc has switchable ghrapic and i have tried the upgrade several times but all have fail. i risked a windows 10 clean install again it failed. my pc is pavilion dv6-3240ca windows 7 ultimate 64bit. 4GB Ram. any idea

[WAWood]

If you go back and read what I wrote -- the section beginning with "problem is ..." you will see that I said, in advance, that if you have switchable graphics the Upgrade will not work.

For that to work, it requires special drivers that only HP supplied, and HP does not supply those drivers for Win10.

So basically, if you want full functionality, you should NOT have upgraded to Win10 and need to revert back to Win7.

Good Luck
========================================================================
I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor do I represent, HP.
---------------------------------------------------------------
If my posts helped you, please click the Thumbs-Up symbol on my post to say thanks.
If my posts solved your problem please click "Accept As Solution".
========================================================================