SOLVED Directory assistance please!

[Bif]

Greetings all!
As an earlier post described my garage sale purchase of this little beauty of a DELL laptop running 10 pro..
Well being the carefree and somewhat reckless at times gent I am decided to manually upgrade to Creators from my current 1607 (14393.1066) which should not have been an issue according to prior attempts and according to MS themselves.
Clicking on the "Upgrade Now" icon on the MS page it went through all the motions and seemed to install properly and reboot.. although I'm still showing the aforementioned build#.
I know!..I should have known Murphy's law would come into play at some point!..any ideas as to what my next step should be to get this to install?
I value ALL of your opinions!
Should I run disc cleanup?..Ccleaner?.. I'm at a loss.
Also when I run Windows Update..it said I was up to date even prior to trying this install!..
I may twist a bottle of single malt soon!

Thanks everyone!

 

[Bif]

Just finished a Scannow and this is what it came up with..
This is now officially WAY over my head..

(And apparently multiple photo posts is a direct result!)

 

[Trouble]

IDK but....
IF it was me, after I armed myself with the single malt, I'd go get the latest ISO from Microsoft https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Avoiding the Update Now button and download it to a folder on my computer, after which I would then double click it to mount it and then from the virtual drive that is created from mounting the ISO, I would run
Setup.exe
From there to perform the inplace upgrade
I would also disconnect it from any network connection, uncheck the box to download updates during the install and choose "not at this time" when prompted to do it anyway and see if that might accidently complete the upgrade process successfully.
IF not....
Pour more scotch.

 

[Bif]

Thanks Trouble!.. should have done this to begin with, downloading as I type and will post back with future results iether way..
In the meantime, there's the Scotch!..

Cheers again!

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Bif,

upgrading is not updating per se so see also:

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-upgrade-windows-10-to-the-latest-version.13015/

 

[Bif]

Update


As per Troubles and Wolfies detailed advice/instructions I downloaded, mounted and performed an in place upgrade but to no avail I'm afraid.
It appeared to be going as planned and almost too smoothly until at about 8% in the laptop spontaneously rebooted back to my original build...oh well.(all peripherals disconnected)
I'm cool with defeat and content with what MS imposes on me as my up to date build. Likely saving myself a migraine and much angst.

Too early for the spirits!

Much thanks again all!

 

[Trouble]

Well that's certainly disappointing, not to mention frustrating
I'm starting to wonder if we're going to see more of this, where at a certain point a users is just not going to be able to upgrade to the latest version / build of Windows 10 on certain, older hardware.
One would think that if the computer would install and run 1607 then it would install and run 1703 but evidently not.

I know it's probably just me but I wouldn't give up until I exhausted all avenues of beating the thing into submission.
The fact that the present install is showing some issues in the native System File Checker as indicated in your above post, may be impacting the attempts to upgrade

I'd use my trusty Acronis rescue media to boot the system and create a complete disk image of the hard drive's current state and configuration (all partitions).
Then I'd use DiskPart to completely wipe the drive (Clean) and boot from the latest installation media and attempt a custom clean install to the unallocated space on the wiped drive.
But then..... I'm just stubborn like that.

As an example.... Yesterday a friend dropped off a pretty nice Dell Laptop, which when booted would only produce a black screen with a mouse cursor.
He insisted that he had a virus.
After doing my usual troubleshooting booting from the installation media with nothing positive to show for it, I informed him that it was more serious than either of us thought.

Booted from my Acronis rescue media I attempted to image the drive. After a few minutes and a couple errors which I chose to "ignore" the software jumped from minutes to complete the image to hours and then to days.
I knew what this meant.
I pulled the drive and attached it to my system and attempted to run ChkDsk, long story short, after multiple attempts and failures.....
I installed a new hard drive, installed Windows 10 and he was on his way with a working laptop.

I mentioned all that because you just can't assume anything.
His hard disk was toast.
It looked like it might be a possible corrupted install, or a possible virus or even maybe a bad or corrupt driver perhaps, but....
It wasn't any of those things, it was a physical problem with his hard disk.
When attached to my system it would bog down my computer, delay displaying the drive in File Explorer, completely render Disk Management useless and if it would appear, when I would try accessing it to back up files it would promptly stall for a minute or two and disappear like I had disconnected it.
I don't believe it was a mechanical issue with the platters or read / write heads but rather an issue with the interface board.

 

[Bif]

@Trouble
I admire your fortitude on such matters, but I was the type of guy that would go to change a lightbulb and end up re-wiring the house... I have since learned that sometimes leaving things as they are often works to my advantage.
Cheers again for all the great suggestions, but it's working flawlessly as is, so don't want to rock the boat.

 

[Trouble]

OK.... understood.
Sometimes "good enough" is good enough.
I on the other hand subscribe to the.....
"IF you can't make it better, make it worse and start from there" sort of like "IF it ain't broke, you're not trying hard enough".

 

[clifford_cooley]

If it were me, I would have attempted a clean install on day one.

 

[Bif]

If it were me, I would have attempted a clean install on day one.

Got the laptop 4 days ago from a garage sale..

 

[Wolfie]

If it were me, I would have attempted a clean install on day one.

Hi Bif,

quoting Cliffords post, did you fully format the HDD before starting the install process?, as a garage sale object; it would be the first thing to do as you don't know what was on the drive prior to you owning it?.

An excellent free partitioning tool here:

http://gparted.org/download.php

 

[Bif]

@Trouble @clifford_cooley @Wolfie
I've figured out the problem!..
It's required that you download the ISO mount and run it to install and THEN go cut the grass and trim and forget about it!!
Worked like a charm second time around!..for whatever reason.
Creators installed fine albeit twas a lengthy process!..we have a large yard.
Thanks a million again for all the suggestions!
Just about Scotch O'clock!

 

[clifford_cooley]

Congrats!

 

[Trouble]

Thanks goodness you have a big yard

 

[Norton]

Oxford dictionary definition of "Windows 10"
A test of patience and determination.
Well dun Biff!

 

[Bif]

Oxford dictionary definition of "Windows 10"
A test of patience and determination.
Well dun Biff!

Trouble is rubbing off on me!..

 

[Trouble]

Trouble is rubbing off on me!..

You may want to seek professional help. There's probably a prescription for that.
Personally I'd prescribe "more scotch". My wife doesn't seem to have any trouble at all, totally ignoring anything I have to say.

Seriously though.....
I'd be interested if running another SFC /scannow still produces any indication of file corruption?

 

[Bif]

You may want to seek professional help. There's probably a prescription for that.
Personally I'd prescribe "more scotch". My wife doesn't seem to have any trouble at all, totally ignoring anything I have to say.

Seriously though.....
I'd be interested if running another SFC /scannow still produces any indication of file corruption?

Our wives must know each other!
All jocularity aside, I've learned so much since coming on to this forum thanks to you and so many others...very grateful for that!..

single malt neat!
Cheers!
As for the SFC /scannow...
Survey says!
ALL CLEAR!!...

 

[Norton]

Grrreat! Bottoms Up!