Free upgrade but don't use it instructions

[mavhc]

You will need: A few spare SSDs, a drive cloner, computers that came with an OEM Pro licence, and 1 easter holiday

 

Step 1: Install blank Win 7 Pro onto ssd, make sure it's OEM activated.

Step 2: Clone SSD

Step 3: Put cloned SSD into a computer

Step 4: Run Win 10 setup.exe from somewhere, let it upgrade to win10, activate.

Step 5: Remove ssd, plug old drive back in with Win 7 on.

Step 6: Goto Step 2

Step 7: In a few years, upgrade to win10 without paying as the motherboard (etc) has already been recorded as being win10 licenced.

 

Run steps 2 to 5 in multiple threads to save time.

[Steve21]

Option 2) Run upgrade, use product to copy product key, re-install original machine to 7 and save key + spare SSD

 

Steve

[mavhc]

Been working mostly, 2 toshiba L630s, suppposedly identical to the others, failed with this issue http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/windows-10-0xc000000f/6f315d06-5964-490b-8058-012366a29476

 

"BIOS update!" I thought, but no.

 

Bad for those who were upgrading machines with data on though. A full install from iso on usb seems to work, doesn't activate of course. Seems like some machines, when using a small partition (I was using 128GB SSD) that's MBR, corrupt the drive when win10 boots during installation. Larger drive worked. Weird that 20 other identical machines were fine.

 

Had 1 HP machine that needed a BIOS update, and 4 Lenovo SFF desktops that required an upgrade, which didn't activate, a restore win7, and another upgrade, to activate, which was weird.

 

Turns out restoring win7 is easier than cloning again. Oddly Win10 upgrade doesn't ask for AC power, but restoring does.