Windows 7 - free/cheap upgrade to Windows 10?

DIYhelp76

Hello Everywhere, hope you are about..!

Firstly, post above made me chuckle :rotfl:

Since my message of yesterday it's been a very long, painful and drawn out 24 hours with a creaking and groaning laptop, but I finally now have laptop running Windows 7 Professional (thank you!).

As I type I am downloading Windows 10 to the flash drive - extremely slow, may take a few hours, so will have to complete next bit tomorrow.

Pls can you remind me what is next?

You mentioned taking a "snapshot" of something and using a gatherosstate or something. Sorry to ask you to repeat this info but I've scanned this thread and can't see - plus a step by step would be really helpful so I'm sure I don't mess things up!

I have the MX500 Crucial 500GB drive - obviously not yet installed. Have decided to leave the RAM for now and see what difference just the new SSD makes.

Thanks a million! Will return here tomorrow hopefully.

EveryWhere

Let me know when you have successfully created the Windows 10 installation media on the USB Flash drive.

DIYhelp76

Hi Everywhere,

I think the Windows 10 installation is now on the flash drive - not sure how I can check if it's okay - but it seemed to go through all the right motions on screen, no error messages.

Can I just plug it in and use Windows Explorer to see what is on it or if I plug it in will it start installing straight away:eek:

AFAIK it is safely there...and I'm ready to take the next steps...:eek:

Aidanmc

Please read this tutorial carefully.....it contains all the information to do this job, although not the part where you have to physically fit the new SSD.



https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/23354-clean-install-windows-10-directly-without-having-upgrade-first.html

DIYhelp76

Hi Aidanmc

many thanks. I've had a quick read - it's foxing me to be honest. Will have to leave it till I have more time to try to understand.

It says stage one to open the "sources" folder on the USB (the one I created the Windows installation on).

Is it safe to just put this USB back in the laptop or will it start to auto run? Sorry if this is a daft question...

To copy to desktop, do I just Control+C to copy and then actually go to my desktop screen and Control+V it there?

My plan is to change the existing hard drive to a new SSD one, so I'm unclear if I need to be doing something different to the instructions you've sent?

Many thx

poppellerant

What you have said is right. Browse to the Sources folder on the USB that you created the Windows installer on. Next find the file gatherosstate.exe, right click it and choose Copy (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C). Then go back to your desktop and right click on an empty area of the desktop and choose Paste (or Ctrl + V if you wish).

Now right click gatherosstate.exe on your desktop and choose Run as Administrator - if a small window appears asking you to press Yes or No, choose Yes. After a second or two a file called GenuineTicket.xml will be created on your desktop. This is the file you should transfer to a USB stick for safekeeping, as you will need it once Windows 10 has installed.

DIYhelp76

Hi Poppellerant

Many thanks for your helpful message.

I understand these steps.

Excuse my utter dimness - but at what stage am I "installing" Windows 10 when I do this?

My plan is to install Windows 10 to my new SDD drive and this drive is not yet inside the laptop.

Should I take the steps you've outlined first and then I switch the drives?

If so, once the new SDD drive is inside the laptop, how do I actually install Windows 10, presumably from the USB. When I plug the USB in will it just autorun and install or do I need to take some steps?

Again, thanks and apologies for dimness...

EveryWhere

No, plugging the USB drive into the laptop will not begin the installation. Don't worry about that.

Can you confirm that it is actually a USB Flash drive and not an SD Card or any other thing that you have decided to utilise?

You can follow poppellerant's instruction. You can actually store the GenuineTicket.xml file on the same USB Flash drive. But if you have another Flash drive you can pop it on there for the time being.

Once you have done that, we can tackle the installation instructions. No need to overload you with detail.

Unlike Windows 7, Windows 10 will automatically install most of the Drivers needed. So no need to worry about the applications that you listed earlier.

DIYhelp76

Hello Everywhere,

Many thanks.

I will try to take the steps above, so that stage of the procedure is ready.

The laptop is a "Hewlett Packard HP G72 Notebook PC".

It was running Windows 7 Home, but now has Windows 7 Professional;).

My new drive is the Crucial MX500 per your recommendation.

You previously sent me the video for how to change the drives over and I think this is clear.

I'm just unclear at what stage I should do things re the installation...

Many thx for your help.

DIYhelp76

Oh sorry, I missed one point: Yes it is a 64gb USB plug in drive (not an SD card).