Windows 10

[Streetbike]

I upgraded from Windows 8.1 to 10 two nights ago. It was painless and did not take very long - I didn't time it but upgrade was well less than an hour. Anyway, upshot isI preferred my 8.1 and Microsoft give you a month from upgrading to revert back. So I did and now happily back on 8.1.

 

[Grey Beard]

Win8.1 backup prior to Win10 Install

Hi all

I am ready to jump to Win10, but I am unable to make a Microsoft System Image Backup of Win8.1. There are a lot of comments on the Internet (mounted backup volume is inaccessible), which suggest that NAS Servers running Linux, etc. are not accepted by Win8.1. Possibly also issues with share permissions on the backup drive. However, I am trying to backup to a USB external 3TB Hard Disk Drive.

I could talk to MS assist, but the guy I spoke to earlier about a TrackPad problem was completely clueless and wanted me to pay €110 before he could remotely control my PC. Bit of a cheek when the machine is new and the problem is likely Microsoft's crappy software!

I have backed up my data, but not the system data.

Does the upgrade process to Win10 create its own backup or are people using some third party software to perform a system image backup? (I could download ISOs of the Win8.1, Office 13 from Microsoft and McAfee, but then I would have to spend hours configuring the software all over again).

Any help appreciated!

Grey Beard

 

[wessie]

Yes, you can roll back to Win8.1 any time in the first 30 days - this back-up took up 20GB on my hard disk. It will be automatically deleted after 30 days as MS assume you are happy with the new version.

If you want to create a permanent copy of your C drive before the upgrade then R-Drive image worked for me - I cloned my C: drive to a new SSD. My old SSD serves as a back-up and I now have 100GB of new SSD to fill as a D: drive. You could clone your C Drive to any device with enough space.

 

[Dansin]

I understand the delete from the HDD after 30 days, but is there anything to stop you reinstalling from disk or ISO if you also still have the product key?

 

[Grey Beard]

Yes, you can roll back to Win8.1 any time in the first 30 days - this back-up took up 20GB on my hard disk. It will be automatically deleted after 30 days as MS assume you are happy with the new version.

If you want to create a permanent copy of your C drive before the upgrade then R-Drive image worked for me - I cloned my C: drive to a new SSD. My old SSD serves as a back-up and I now have 100GB of new SSD to fill as a D: drive. You could clone your C Drive to any device with enough space.

Thanks Wessie

I am going to try another chat session with Microsoft shortly and ask about the System Image backup, but I am beginning to think that is a lost cause. Win8.1 does appear to be as bad as everyone had said

The laptop only has a 250GB SSD in it at present, but I have a 1TB Samsung SSD, so will likely use Samsung Magician to clone the 250GB SSD to the 1TB SSD drive. Hopefully the move to Win 10 will go OK. Unfortunately, if I just put the 1TB drive in the laptop now, it will void my 12 month warranty.

I may also look at another third party system backup software.

Grey Beard

 

[wessie]

If you have an image of the Win 8.1 install, you won't need the product key as it will be embedded in the ISO which will overwrite the Win 10 install. If you decide to over-write the Win 10 install with a copy of Win 8 from a disk then that will be fine too. You won't be breaking the product key terms as long as the install is on a single machine. The Win 8 install will then update itself to Win 8.1 and, if you are still within the free upgrade period, offer you an upgrade to Win 10, which you can ignore.

 

[wessie]

Thanks Wessie

I am going to try another chat session with Microsoft shortly and ask about the System Image backup, but I am beginning to think that is a lost cause. Win8.1 does appear to be as bad as everyone had said

The laptop only has a 250GB SSD in it at present, but I have a 1TB Samsung SSD, so will likely use Samsung Magician to clone the 250GB SSD to the 1TB SSD drive. Hopefully the move to Win 10 will go OK. Unfortunately, if I just put the 1TB drive in the laptop now, it will void my 12 month warranty.

I may also look at another third party system backup software.

Grey Beard

I bought a caddy for my new mSATA SSD and used R copy to make the clone. The caddy cost about £7 on Ebay. The clone took up about 100GB on the 256GB drive. I then made the unused part of the drive a separate data partition using a standard utility in Windows.

If you don't want to put the 1TB SSD in the laptop yet, why not get a caddy, clone the current Win 8.1 C drive to big drive. That will give you a perfect copy of Win 8.1 to go back to if desired. Then, you can treat the data on the laptop's current SSD as disposable. Upgrade the system to Win 10, decide if you like. If you do, after the warranty expires, clone the Win10 to the bigger drive and swap the 2 drives. You will then have a laptop with a 1TB drive plus a 250GB drive as a backup device in the caddy.

 

[Grey Beard]

I bought a caddy for my new mSATA SSD and used R copy to make the clone. The caddy cost about £7 on Ebay. The clone took up about 100GB on the 256GB drive. I then made the unused part of the drive a separate data partition using a standard utility in Windows.

If you don't want to put the 1TB SSD in the laptop yet, why not get a caddy, clone the current Win 8.1 C drive to big drive. That will give you a perfect copy of Win 8.1 to go back to if desired. Then, you can treat the data on the laptop's current SSD as disposable. Upgrade the system to Win 10, decide if you like. If you do, after the warranty expires, clone the Win10 to the bigger drive and swap the 2 drives. You will then have a laptop with a 1TB drive plus a 250GB drive as a backup device in the caddy.

Yes, I have the caddy already for use with the 1TB SSD, but haven't used it yet.

It's a Dell computer so the warranty would be invalidated if I swap SSD's. Their on-line software seems to periodically check the health status of the PC and will of course pick up a change in the SSD. Once I am happy with the PC and Win10, I may install the 1TB drive anyway. PC's are normally pretty reliable if you don't abuse them.

At present the TrackPad doesn't work and there is a ton of comments on the forums about this TrackPad. Mixed views whether it is a driver problem or a hardware issue. Hope to resolve that with another driver, otherwise the machine will have to go back to Dell for 7-10 days which will be a PITA.

Having a number of issues with this machine, mainly because Dell would only sell me a machine from Germany and the default language is of course German. Office13 should have been switchable, but refused to accept English. So with Microsoft's help, I deleted the Office and reinstalled in English.

But these irritating software problems with simple things like System Image Backup are real time wasters and sound like Microsoft is out of touch with at least a section of it's users.

I hope Win10 is better. I never had any real software problems with Win7 on my older Dell Laptop, even though it was a refurbished machine. That one now has to have a new GPU due to overheating, but it served me well.

I think the Dell Inspiration machine has the Win operating product code built into one of the Motherboard chips (or perhaps the BIOS), so it's just a case of loading the appropriate software and it should be recognised.

Grey Beard

 

[Grey Beard]

Was looking at the ISOs on the Dell and Microsoft Websites and for Win8.1 64bit and there are a number of variations, even for the Home & Student Edition. The N version seems to be for Europe (with the Media player removed at the request of the EU Competition Politicos). There is also a K version for Korea apparently.

I am guessing European suppliers will be loading the N version, though it doesn't show that 'N' in the PC system details - but I have no Media Centre/Player.

Grey Beard

 

[g.s.john]

Just downloaded 10 everything migrated across OK wouldn't load my home page at first turned everything off including the router back on all working fine just got to find my way with the new set up.

 

[Rob Farmer]

I've just bought a new PC and couldn't be bothered to wait in the queue for the download. I followed this and its currently sitting there downloading 10 http://venturebeat.com/2015/07/28/h...tart-downloading-the-windows-10-update-files/

 

[Grey Beard]

Finally upgraded to Win10 from Win8.1 64Bit. Went fairly smoothly and had to download Win10 updates a couple of times afterwards to be fully up to date.

My PC is a Dell Inspiration 7548 and the Track Pad doesn't work (but didn't work with Win8.1 either). Have to search Dell website for Win10 drivers, though the Win8.1 drivers are probably compatible with Win10. PC may have to return to Dell for a hardware fault in the Track Pad.

Nice to see FLAC files supported in Media Player. Groove Music sounds Gawd awful. Like some degraded MP3 file!!

Still cannot get the PC to make a System Image Backup. That looks like it came from Win8.1 and I had no success with that either.

Win10 also seems to have freed up about 21 GB of Hard Disk space, unless it has deleted something I haven't spotted yet.

Major problem was that because Dell would not sell me a PC from the UK (as I am in Germany), the PC was bought from Dell Germany. So the Win8.1 and Office 13 were German versions. OK, I have loaded an English language pack and deinstalled Office13. Reinstalled with a English version. But the upgrade process is not intelligent enough to give me a dialogue in English. Because Win10 is Spyware Central, I did a custom install rather than the Express Installation, so there were lots of security questions about sharing, etc. etc.

Overall, looks OK so will not return to Win8.1.

Grey Beard

 

[Rob Farmer]

I'm having major headaches with Visual Studio on Windows 10. Looking at the forums it would appear im not alone.

Programming arduino and raspberry pi 2 straight from Visual studio is pretty good though and opens up a whole world of interesting possibilities.

 

[Grey Beard]

An update on my upgrade to Win10.

Still OK. Had to log into Skype again and reregister & sign into Adobe Photoshop Elements, but no serious problems.

Samsung Data Migration for cloning SSD cards has a recognised fault in the software under Win10, which Samsung are working on at present. Basically, in Windows Explorer, I can see the contents of the 1TB SSD card from a previous clone action, but when I try to clone again, the software reports that the SSD card has been disconnected. Not a big worry since Samsung should fix this is a few days.

Grey Beard

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

Only problems I have has are daft things. Laptop waking up in the middle of the night to check/install updates and it not going to sleep again. Immediately restarting the machine as soon as it has installed updates instead of asking to schedule. Both fixed in settings. Only other thing is a test laptop at work that isn't very keen to move between wifi networks. Nothing 99 percent of people would be bothered about. Everything else is pretty good.

 

[richie]

So is it still preferable to make a boot up USB drive, if I buy an SSD drive and have a USB drive can I remove old Win7 hard drive, install SSD and work away with my old product key. Would leave me the possibility to go back if my main program (Lightworks) did not work properly ?

 

[Grey Beard]

So is it still preferable to make a boot up USB drive, if I buy an SSD drive and have a USB drive can I remove old Win7 hard drive, install SSD and work away with my old product key. Would leave me the possibility to go back if my main program (Lightworks) did not work properly ?

I would make a clone of your existing Win7 Hard Disk onto the new SSD Card and then just swap them over. I don't know if you will have to ask Microsoft to reactivate your Product Code, since you are changing part of the system. But that shouldn't be a big problem.

Be sure your copy of Win7 is eligible for the free upgrade. Home & Student Premium is OK and I guess Win7 Professional. But Enterprise edition is not eligible for a free upgrade, though the Enterprise version would only be legally available to volume users like large companies.

Is there not a forum for Lightworks, where you can see what other Lightworks users experiences have been with Win10 ?

Grey Beard

 

[richie]

I would make a clone of your existing Win7 Hard Disk onto the new SSD Card and then just swap them over. I don't know if you will have to ask Microsoft to reactivate your Product Code, since you are changing part of the system. But that shouldn't be a big problem.

Be sure your copy of Win7 is eligible for the free upgrade. Home & Student Premium is OK and I guess Win7 Professional. But Enterprise edition is not eligible for a free upgrade, though the Enterprise version would only be legally available to volume users like large companies.

Is there not a forum for Lightworks, where you can see what other Lightworks users experiences have been with Win10 ?

Grey Beard

Yes they do have a forum. However I like the idea of a clean install without all the legacy of left over crap from before... I will order a 256 GB SSD drive and see what happens. I know they are cheap now but I don't keep data on my laptop once a job is finished it is stored on two other devices. So 256 GB is enough, my drive is never over 100GB

 

[adventurous]

It seems that Windows 10 wants to know ALL about you!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/microsoft/windows/11782807/windows-10-privacy.html

Hi Cook1e,

Thanks for pointing that out, Windows 10 does access a lot more data than the previous versions did. You probably already know about this but I found some tips and tricks to prevent them from doing that:

http://windows.wonderhowto.com/how-to/everything-you-need-disable-windows-10-0163552/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3f38ed/guide_how_to_disable_data_logging_in_w10

Especially the first one is really good.

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

As you set the upgrade up simply don't choose express setup. If you choose the custom setup it asks you very clearly what you do and don't want to be installed and what information you want to give them.