System Crash after major updates after system upgrade from Windows 7

Hi Thomasgm,

Regarding your keys
Your W7 is STILL valid, as is your W10 machine key.
W10 licencing is different when you upgraded to it, they (MS) created a machine specific key for you.

Up to you which OS you want,
W7 you can install from your discs or use the MCT tool for W10.
Either way you will need to change the Boot order in your bios, to perform a clean install
have a read of this to get to bios
Troubleshoot Windows 10 failure to boot using Recovery Environment General Tips Tutorials
Do the clean install on your NEW hdd once its up and running you can get your data from the old hdd

MS has been dropping support for older components wthin computers, which is more than likely causing your problem not your HDD

Dear Torchwood,

Thanks for the response. However sorry for the delay. I have downloaded the Media Creation Tool for Windows10 as you asked me to do but my PC just refuses to boot from the USB even with the boot priority set to boot from the USB drive. I want to load Windows 10 on my new hard disk and then copy all the old data back to the new drive. However I am unable to load the files from my MCT on the USB drive inspite of trying it several times. Could you tell mw what could be wrong and why is the system not booting from the USB drive, Any inputs towards solving this problem will be much appreciated.

Thanks to all in advance.

Thomasgm

Hi Thomas,

follow this tutorial,
NOTE i suspect you have legacy Bios, use option 3

Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Roy

Dear Roy,

Thanks again for the prompt response. I have a quick query before I try out what you have suggested.
1. Since I have a 2TB HDD, whats your idea about partitioning the drive. Would 2 partitions of 1TB each do or should it be a single partition. I have seen some systems where there are number of logical partitions made which personally I do not prefer. But for best performance what is it you recommend? I shall do accordingly. BTW this link you have sent explains things more clearly and am excited to try it out soon at the end of the day when I would be free. I shall keep you updated. Another thing is going through the link that you sent it says that I need to enter the Win7 key if I am installing win10 for the first time. I remember you having said that Win10 OS is machine specific and that I wouldnt be needing the Win7 Key, as the digital key of the PC would be taken as the key. Is than right?

Thanks and I really appreciate guys like you who are willing to help. Thanks again

Hi Thomas,

Re the keys, yes thats right, 10 only "needed" the key to perform the upgrade, then its ignored.

As for splitting the 2TB drive, as far as i know there is not a definate answer as to which is better.
In a lot of cases users split >> any << size drive usually 1 for the OS and 1 for data


Excellent tutorial by Kari
User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation - Windows 7 Help Forums
(see pdf link at the bottom)

Roy

Hi Roy,

Thanks once again. I finally managed to clean install W10 and the system is finally running W10 on the new HDD. However I am now getting the message that I need to activate my copy of Windows before I can personalise etc. So I am in a fix as to what to do. Do I go ahead and activate windows with the Win7 key that I have or would it automatically digitally verify my system and then activate it on its own? I am not sure about this though. Also I did connect my old HDD as a secondary slave but the system refuses to accept it and keeps giving me the message that SMART Status of that HDD is set to BAD. So finally after doing a lot of study on the internet I managed to enter the BIOS and there disabled the option Enable SMART HDD Status and then after rebooting the system started and initially I was able to get into the drive and see all my files etc but on subsequent reboot it just refuses to allow me to access the old HDD all the while giving the message that the volume does not contain a recognised file system and asks me whether I would like to format the drive. Could you tell me what should be done next. I am sorry for asking too many questions but I just have no clue how to go about this latest status. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Thomas

Hi AddRAM
Thanks for taking the trouble to help me out.
When I try to personalize the system I keep getting the message that I need to activate windows before I personalize. When I upgraded my system from Win7 Ultimate to WIn10 it upgraded the system automatically and there was no need for me to give the Win7 key at any time during or after the upgrade. It was a smooth transition. Thereafter when the patches were released immediately after updating the system my system crashed. Later after restarting it a number of times eventually got the system back on track. If worked very well for a couple of months thereafter once again during the patch updates my system crashed immediately afterwards and could not be revived afterwards. So I picked up a new HDD and then clean installed the Win10 via USB flash drive using MS Media Creation Tool. But now its asking for activation.
There are no permission popups when accessing the old HDD except that it takes ages to check it and then gives me the message that the media on that drive is not in a recognizable format and asks me whether I would like to format it which I have not done as I want the data on the old HDD. However I am uploading the screen capture of both the Disk Management Page and the Windows activation page. Please let me know what to do under this circumstance.