Complete re install of 7 and then update to 10

[Dottonedan]

I happen to have a friend here visiting and staying at my house for a few days. He's a pastor of an orphanage in India.  He was going to shut down the lap top and it said do not shut down. 187 updates need to be completed. So he let it update.

Now is will not start.   We took it to another friend of ours who supposedly got it back to a point where we can do a complete re install. We have os 7 to update with and have the key# that goes with that.

Then we were to download an offline file of os10 free update. We have that saved to a jump drive.
We were told to start the windows 7 install, and then let the 10 start after.

Currently tho, we cannt get the lap top open enough to start any process of install. It's an Acer. It just says it did not start correctly and re clicked on re start. It just spins and spins doing nothing.

Thoughts or correct process?

[Dottonedan]

Is someone has a few min, my number is 407-922-0664

[Squeegie]

A friend that got it back to a place to do a complete reinstall? Some friend...

Should be at a place to do a reinstall at any point as long as it powers on.

I would have used the Win 7 install disk to attempt a start up repair. If that didn't work there are other tools on the disk that you can try to resolve the issue.

Also, I recommend staying away from 10 for a little longer.

[Frog]

A friend that got it back to a place to do a complete reinstall? Some friend...

Should be at a place to do a reinstall at any point as long as it powers on.

I would have used the Win 7 install disk to attempt a start up repair. If that didn't work there are other tools on the disk that you can try to resolve the issue.

Also, I recommend staying away from 10 for a little longer.

Dan, what disk does he have with him? I wonder if folks ever carry the original disks with them when they travel with their portable computers.
I seem to remember laptops not always having the actual Widows Disk, but do have their own disk with both the OS and recovery tools.
DFrom the initial post, you mention the key#. Is that the extent of what he has from the specific machine?

[Dottonedan]

Squeegee,  that's the thing. It was not starting up at all.  Not able to boot into using the CD drive as the top priority.

Ha!   Sorry, I fell asleep while typing that up. Lol. Not feeling well. Anyhoo, it wasn't able to boot at all into safe mode or any mode. Just kept spinning and spinning. My friend (an hour before leaving for camping with his family) got us to the point of being able to get it turned on and switch to CD DRIVE to load.

Now, our issue is that the os 7 I have does not have the right drivers and has 5 partitions yet we are supposed to have only one.  My CD does not work.

We called Acer tech support since its 1 month old and We need to call bavk Monday because it was purchased overseas so we must call their international support (supposedly).

More than likely, we need to download a specific os7 with the right drivers and somehow set up the correct numbers of partitions.  Currently, all partitions are under 300mb and I'm told we should have one large one.

[Squeegie]

The number of partitions is not related to any drivers.
The only thing that will determine the partitioning is the recovery image set up by the manufacturer.

By default, a new install of Win 7 should have an approx 100 MB system partition and the remaining hard drive space as the C: partition.

Anything different than that needs to be determined by the user doing the install of the OS.

Without seeing the system I would guess there is a recovery partition.  Even if you cant get it to boot you should be able to get to the recovery/management tools.

I would also recommend not introducing another vein of variables by trying to install Win10 until he is sure the system is back to where he needs it.  Even then, I suggest waiting on 10 for a little while longer.

[Frog]

These usually come with their own recovery disk (often also contains the OS rather than an actual Microsoft disk)
That notwithstanding, Acer includes all of this living on the machine.
Check this out
http://acer--uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3068/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNDQ4MzgyMTczL3NpZC94WW9VZmpDbQ%3D%3D

Even if this doesn't help, they seem to have a lot of other info on their site

[Sbrem]

These usually come with their own recovery disk (often also contains the OS rather than an actual Microsoft disk)
That notwithstanding, Acer includes all of this living on the machine.
Check this out
http://acer--uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3068/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNDQ4MzgyMTczL3NpZC94WW9VZmpDbQ%3D%3D

Even if this doesn't help, they seem to have a lot of other info on their site

My accountant, an avowed PC user, is buying a Mac because of Windows 10, she says she hates what MS is doing, she feels they are doing things to her computer she would not normally let them do, for instance, removed her security and replaced it with their own. Our office machine is running 8 and we keep getting the update notices, but are afraid to upgrade until it settles down... I'll keep seeing what youse guys write...

Steve

[Frog]

I just got a laptop for my son for Christmas. It was running 8.1, and he immediately took the plunge to 10 and loves it!
On the negative side, he said that it took quite a while, and some internal Microsoft component thingie buggered up his newest version of itunes.
He has since worked that out, and says he loves it!
As described, it seems to me a blend of the best of 7 and 8.1. And, with a touchscreen on his computer, I guess it is even cooler since that's the way folks play on their pads.

[Gilligan]

I think 10 will be better than 8 but will be hard to get most of those content with 7 to switch.

Ain't broke, don't fix.

[ScreenFoo]

FWIW, you should be able to install 10 with a win7 key.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/next-big-windows-10-release-will-ease-activation-hassles/

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I'm not interested in 10 at all. Or 8 for that matter. I'm on board with Gilligan on the whole "if it ain't broke" idea.

I am an Armslist user for gun sales/trades and they've implemented a new interface. ITS. JUST. AWFUL. I imagine an unassailable, self assured 20-something egghead who convinced the ownership his new whizbang interface would have folks flocking to Armslist with their ad monies. But users are leaving in droves, me included.

I've finally just gotten comfortable with 7 after a long time love affair with XP. We still have one workstation on XP (my wife's) and am DREADING having to upgrade that one when the time comes.

My server is just a 7 box with a hardware managed Raid (raid 1, I think [two mirrored drives]) and updates are turned on. So it is constantly pestering me to upgrade to 10. Most of my other boxes have updates turned OFF.

I'd like to see an update from Dan on his current opinion on 10 though. If there was another thread, I missed it.

I've got some expensive legacy software that does most things okay in 7, but one particular process often crashes the program. If it worked okay in 10, I might add a 10 bootdisk on my workstation, which is multi-boot.

[Gilligan]

I have an 8 laptop (strictly for the sake of having an 8 machine since I need to know how to work all these things) and I'm thinking about updating it to 10 since I need to "learn" 10 better and plus I hate that laptop with such a passion and the OS is a huge influence in that hate.

[UltraSeps]

For what its worth, I bought 2 laptops somewhat recently.  One a lower-end Asus and another slightly pricier Toshiba.  One had 8.1 and I upgraded to 10 (big mistake).  The other had 10 preinstalled.  Annoying and similar issues with both.

Problems such as all desktop items disappearing which required restarts (sometimes multiple restarts), Chrome refusing to launch, difficulty connecting to all networked devices, BSOD when connecting an external monitor or simply not recognizing it, along with other mishaps.

Both systems needed to be rebuilt from scratch.  Since then, I've had only minor problems such as some icons changing to generic white boxes and I continue to have network device connectivity issues on and off.  Once rebuilt and all apps back to a functional status, created a restore point and backed up both.

The most stable Windows system I own is an old Dell tower running Vista (believe-it-or-not) which I turned off all updates after the initial service pack install.  Oh, that and a very old Dell tower running XP.  Can't kill that thing.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

<snip>  The most stable Windows system I own is an old Dell tower running Vista (believe-it-or-not) which I turned off all updates after the initial service pack install.  Oh, that and a very old Dell tower running XP.  Can't kill that thing.

Steve, that doesn't surprise me much. (Well...maybe Vista)  I just don't see the need to upgrade my stuff as long as everything works like I want. And with Windo$e "updates" running, it seems to me, that stuff gets broken everytime I do one. YMMV, and I don't recommend turning them off, but I usually do.