Monday, July 22, 2019

Windows 10 Upgrade Day

The malware and related crap has become just too annoying.  I understand Windows 10 is better on security (always one step ahead of these creeps).  I am not waiting for the DVDs to arrive.  I am doing full backups of both our PCs then install the upgrade.

Windows 10 will not install on a Lenovo x140e.  Not yet supported.  I had no idea Lenovo was too obscure a brand.  As usual Microsoft wants us to upgrade, but cannot support a quadcore laptop with a 1TB disk.

The problem is that an upgrade from Windows 7 to 10 is too big a leap for install in place.  Microsoft had me write to a DVD and install from there.

The fun never stops: Windows 10 cannot read from the DVD drive from which it is installing (the setup to install seems to run under Windows 7, but after restarting Windows 10 has no idea how to read it).  LG has no Windows 10 drivers.  So I am doing this from a USB drive next.  No drivers needed.

Next discovery: Rufus uses a different set of defaults (should be MBR and BIOS or UEFI) than Windows 10 wants.  I have written the USB drive, but one more step:  Because I will likely have to reinstall most of my applications, I am making sure all the installers are separate from the Download directory.  In the past I have intentionally moved installers into a separate directory, but some recnt additions I had not, so I am doing that now.

If anyone at Microsoft wonders why people are sticking to Windows 7, it is because after a couple of weeks of trying to upgrade, most consumers put on the shelf. 
I am not the average PC user.  I spent 38 years as a software engineer writing in assembler language, writing device drivers, debugging BIOS problems, and writing file systems.  I have still not successfully installed Windows 10 as an upgrade, after most of eight hours of effort.
I am very close to just living with end of support on Windows 7.

An hour later: It took a couple tries and very careful parsing of the instructions, but it seems to be installing Windows 10.

No, same error message:
Any final suggestions before I just give up?  No version of Linux actually installs, even in VMWare (which at least installs Windows 10).

  1. You’re running a Windows-10 based computer that has either the April 2018 Update (Windows 10, version 1803) or the October 2018 Update (Windows 10, version 1809) installed.
  1. An external USB device or SD memory card is attached to the computer.
  1. You try to upgrade the computer to the May 2019 Update, or you have automatic updates turned on in the Windows Update settings.
According to Microsoft, this message will appear on eligible computers that are plugged with an external USB device or an SD memory card. Due to these reasons, the May 2019 update is currently blocked on eligible machines.
Maybe use the earliest ISO first.

8 comments:

  1. I have 2 X140e laptops that are running Windows10.

    I have 2 other computers that I have installed it on.

    I had to use different ISOs to create the USB installer for different license keys/machines.

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  2. Why would you buy a Lenovo? They have a history of designing their computers for spying on the owners/users. It's a totally Chinese business, and might actually be owned by the Chinese government or military.
    They used to be a US product, but got sold to the Chinese. The US military kept on buying them after the sale, until they discovered the built-in problem.

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  3. Hi Clayton, The Lenovo x140e is probably too old since it was windows 7-Windows 8. It might install with a clean hard drive but then you would see the device where windows 10 has to use a generic driver. Probably a video driver. There was a time when the video drivers changed and there are only older drivers for Win7/8 and none for Win10. Since it is analyzing the components, the Win10 upgrade finds no replacement driver and will not upgrade. With a blank hard drive install it would possibly install a generic driver and you would only get several resolutions so the image might be stretched but it would be viewable. The other advantage of doing a blank HD install is that if you don't like it you can swap back to the old hard drive.

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  4. Huh. That's a rather low-spec and kind of old laptop. I get keeping stuff as long as it works, but have you considered just getting a new one? Check (just as an example) this out: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-spin-5-2-in-1-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-steel-gray/6359971.p?skuId=6359971

    It's got a quad-core 8-thread i5, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, 13.3" 1080p display, for $799, and it's a 2-in-one with a 360 degree hinge so you can use it as a tablet or fold it like a tent and use the touch screen. I have a variant of that I got a year or two ago. It's not a desktop replacement, but it's pretty powerful for everyday stuff, and you can certainly even use stuff like Eclipse on it, although it's not super-fast when doing heavy-duty stuff.

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  5. The Lenovo should run Windows 10 and buying new computers (one for each of us) so $1600 for something that clearly runs Windows 10 since Billy above is doing so. There are no secrets on my PC worth stealing. If anything they might subvert a Chinese spy. A 256GB hard disk is way too small.

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  6. Have you checked at Costco? I bought an HP 15.6" laptop more than a year ago for about $500, IIRC. 8th gen i5, 1TB HD, 12GB RAM, Win10.
    Just now unboxing it, sigh...

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  7. Billy: When did you do this? What ISO date?

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  8. Will: https://www.costco.com/Dell-Inspiron-15-3000-Laptop---Intel-Core-i7.product.100488465.html is the most reasonable option. It is still $549, sp two of them is about $1100. I am not a Costco member.

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