to be windows 10 upgrade horror?

[little_me]

The better question on that would be:
-Assume someone (like me) had vista on old laptop. (and product key)
-used win8 upgrade on it acquired when it was being sold at like 10 or 15$ (yes, this lets you do clean install from USB/DVD but once in windows says "not genuine" unless you do upgrade from earlier OS which I found out after trying the clean install route)

-would upgrade to win10

so.. if things go poop and hd breaks or something...
install vista
upgrade to 8
upgrade to 8.1 to be eglible for upgrade to 10 (This is where I am now, so no big deal unless the poop scenario happens)
upgrade to 10?

or... would there be somekind of shortcut? According to MS, free upgrade is not offered for vista.

 

[blazorthon]

I would recommend buying a backup hard drive and using a free program like partition magic to make a copy of the partition on the backup hard drive. That way if something breaks, all you need to do is run the program again and copy the backup hard drive's partition back over. Here's a link:

http://download.cnet.com/MiniTool-Partition-Wizard-Free/3000-2094_4-10962200.html

If you want help with using it, feel free to ask.

 

[USAFRet]

The better question on that would be:
-Assume someone (like me) had vista on old laptop. (and product key)
-used win8 upgrade on it acquired when it was being sold at like 10 or 15$ (yes, this lets you do clean install from USB/DVD but once in windows says "not genuine" unless you do upgrade from earlier OS which I found out after trying the clean install route)

-would upgrade to win10

so.. if things go poop and hd breaks or something...
install vista
upgrade to 8
upgrade to 8.1 to be eglible for upgrade to 10 (This is where I am now, so no big deal unless the poop scenario happens)
upgrade to 10?

or... would there be somekind of shortcut? According to MS, free upgrade is not offered for vista.

If you have a current valid 8.1, and if you upgrade that to Win 10...
You will be able to obtain an ISO file with which you can burn a DVD or USB install media.
Get this ISO at your earliest opportunity, to ward off any burps later on.
No going all the way back to Vista needed.

From the Win 10 FAQ: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq

Can I reinstall Windows 10 on my computer after upgrading?

Yes. Once you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 using the free upgrade offer, you will be able to reinstall, including a clean install, on the same device. You won’t need to purchase Windows 10 or go back to your prior version of Windows and upgrade again.

You’ll also be able to create your own installation media like a USB drive or DVD, and use that to upgrade your device or reinstall after you’ve upgraded.