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Can't complte Win 7 to Win 8 upgrade...

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I ran the Windows 8 assessment tool against my Win 7 Professional environment and it found only one app that it said would need updating -- and it also said an update was available -- and then I purchased and downloaded the Win 8 Pro upgrade.

After going through the upgrade process and restarting a few time it finally get to a screen saying that the devices are being set up. After the progress hit 54% it stopped and said something to the effect that it had encountered an issue with my machine and couldn't continue. It then restarted and restored back to the Win 7 environment.

It did not tell me what issue it encountered nor have I been able to find anything that looks like a log file that might contain more information about the issue.

Does anyone know where the installation/upgrade log file is kept? Or is there a better way to find out what the issue is?

Thanks in advance,

Howard

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I assume you're running the 64-bit version, yes? Try these three things and see how the install goes. It seems to solve most people's problems.

1) Install this: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id...
2) Disable any anti-virus programs.
3) Download and run this: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/What-is-the...

There's quite a long and extensive thread over here on the topic that you might find useful: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/window...

Hope this helps!

Thanks. Your #1 and #3 bring up the same thing - the update readiness tool. Was one of them supposed to bring up something different?

Installed this: System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB947821) [September 2012]

No change...

Howard
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If you are running from Windows 7 when you perform the upgrade make sure that you are in safe mode. Run "CHKDSK /F" before doing the upgrade.
The only hardware incompatibility issue that might cause this problem is the graphics card, try fitting another graphics card temporarily while performing the upgrade.

I ran the Chkdsk /f/r earlier and it found no errors.

I tried running in Safe mode but after it ran for a while -- doing nothing that I could tell -- it asked me to reboot in Normal mode with the ultimate result being the same.

I'll try a different graphics card now and let you know the results.

on a sidenote... one of my upgrades failed because I had to much data in the mydocuments folder (you need to have more free space on your harddrive then used space plus 20GB extra)... during the upgrade it makes a copy of these folders.
Moving the content of my documents to another drive for the install solved this for me. Later I just moved them back.

trial and error... I figured the upgrade path will make a copy of all your settings and (personal) files and figured I'd move those of the system drive and it worked... also, since it didn't have to copy all those files the upgrade went way faster as well..

Maybe shifting files (temporarely) out of the users and windows folders will do the trick already... programs are not copied so that shouldn't be the problem. For me it was pictures (lots of them) and videos in the 'mypictures' and 'myvideos' folder.

Hope this works for you, keep us up to date.

I read the MS description of the setup process and the differences between Win 7 and Win 8. One of the differences is that Win 7 relocates all of the user files [taking time and space] and Win 8 just uses a hard link for them. Theoretically the size of your app space and user files shouldn't matter.

"Microsoft has streamlined the Windows upgrade install process since Windows 7: during an upgrade, most of the users' applications and files are moved to an unused portion of the disk, Windows is installed, and then the files are moved back. In Windows 7, these files were actually moved on the disk, and the more files a user had that needed to be moved, the longer the process would take. In Windows 8, the Setup program uses hard links to those files, which changes where the operating system thinks the files are, but doesn't change where the files are physically stored on the disk. The result is a reduced upgrade install time versus Windows 7, which is especially apparent on machines with many files and apps."

As for me, something that should be so fundamental to a new product that is so unreliable and unfathomable by the MS techs is not ready for prime time. I called in this morning and canceled my order and got a refund processed.

Thanks all for trying to help me.

Maybe later...

SR-71 Blackbird said:
I have performed two in place upgrades to 8 from 7 and really smooth process.


Thanks. I have no doubt that lots of folks have had the same experience as you. That's not the case with me or lots of other folks.

I actually wasn't surprised that there might be some issues given the newness of the product. My issue was the lack of diagnostic info available to the MS techs, or at least that they could find, and the shotgun approach being taken to resolve the problem.

Three days with them unable to even say why it wasn't working, much less having some idea as to how it might be resolved, was enough. I might try again later on but for now I'm surrendoring.

Regards

Best solution

sorry that it didn't work for you... did you try moving the files though or did you just rely on the beautiful words of MS about streamlining the upgrade process? I just had a look in my windows.old folder and it has the programfiles folder in it apart from the users folder and the complete windows folder (that one alone is 18,5GB). So since there is a copy of the users folder in there I am almost certain that copies are made, no matter what MS is writing in that statement.

Ah well... maybe another time or when you clone the content of the drive to a 2 TB drive..
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