The process fails to restore Windows to version 8.1 on Windows 10.
The process fails to restore Windows to version 8.1 on Windows 10.
I have been using Win10 since it's launch last year, but when the anniversary update rolled out, my dell laptop was not able to upgrade it properly and thus the windows got corrupted. After the dell logo there is just a blank screen and nothing else. This happened a couple of weeks ago. At that time I just reset my laptop back to factory default (Win8.1). Now fast forward a couple days ago, I tried to upgrade back to Win 10 and again it got stuck at about 23% during installation. The laptop restarted and again after the dell logo there was nothing but a black screen. Now that I am trying to reset it I'm getting the message that this PC cannot be reset. I tried using the restore media that I created when I initially purchased the laptop, but there is no option to restore it through DVD or a flash drive. The only option it is giving me is through OnBoard NIC (IPv4/IPv6). How can I reset it back to windows 8.1 or even remove the existing OS completely?
It's too late to fix the issue. The backup for Windows 8.1 vanished after a while, and the rollback option was only valid for one year since the release.
Acquire another computer. Obtain a Windows 8.1 installation media and place it on a USB flash drive (I usually use Rufus for this). Many systems are configured to start from a USB drive when no boot device is found. If not, you may need to adjust your BIOS settings to allow booting from the disk. This process might also work with a Windows 10 setup, though I haven't tried it before.
I previously made system image backups whenever I upgraded, starting with Windows 7 on my laptop and then creating a backup of Windows 10. After switching from Windows 7 to Windows 10, I could revert to Windows 7 for the first 30 days, but if you choose not to keep the backup, the Windows 7 files would be deleted. You might want to remove the drive and reinstall it in another system to wipe it clean, or experiment with using Ubuntu from a flash drive to format your HDD within Ubuntu.
The rollback option was only accessible within a 30-day window following the upgrade.
Multiple tries were needed for the Win10 setup on my older machine, often getting stuck at 22%. Eventually, leaving it overnight resolved the issue. The process is quite unpredictable—strongly recommend making a system image on another external HDD before upgrading OS. It’s been over a year now, and I can still restore to the previous version using the system image just in case. Can you tell me what Dell laptop you’re using? I’m considering upgrading from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro on my other laptop (a Latitude E6430).
I verified that I moved to Win7, faced several driver problems, returned to Win7 within a week (before the 30-day window), set up a system image backup on my Win7 setup, and after two months I still had the upgrade option open. I repeated the process multiple times, eventually switching back to Win7 and resolving most of the old driver issues.
I was really upset at first, but luck seemed to smile on me. Among all the poor brands out there, Gateway’s old site was still online. I managed to get the original drivers for my laptop models, and upgrading Windows 10 turned out to be a messy process—I had to start fresh with a clean install from the control panel before anything else functioned properly.