BEVS

Scared

Just checked . Am still on 1709 but 1803 is gnashing away asking to be given the go ahead.

What's an image?

I usually back up files and the like

BristolUK

An image is supposed to be a copy of everything on your computer. BuckinghamshirBoy can cover it better than me, I just took it in the event I may need it but that would be another bridge to cross for later
You're probably okay then. I wouldn't worry about it now. From reading up on it, it seems they've got rid of the problems along the way.

I did mine today - 90 mins - works fine. I did my mother in law's this evening. 40 mins for hers. Stepdaughter did hers. No problems.

BuckinghamshireBoy

I think that it's mostly ultra-insurance, and that you will probably be ok.

That said, when the first upgrade attempt went tits-up on me it wiped out my entire "C" drive, so I had nothing to boot from. An image is bootable, and will restore what was, as was, to the point that it was taken.

To take an image, you'll need a BIG external USB drive with nnn GB of space free - mine was about 230GB, OH's more recent machine was about 180GB.

I'll do you detailed steps if required, as it's 'hidden' on Windows 10. As in it's not so obvious as it was in 7 & 8.

BristolUK

I used a 320gb (I think) EHD and the image was just over 60gb.


To me, that's the biggest difference between 7 and 10. Several things are in less obvious places.

Footnote...stepson did his laptop late last night and his upgrade worked fine. So that's all four of us where everything went perfectly.

BuckinghamshireBoy

I've just taken another image, will document it and post it here later.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Can someone vet this please?

BuckinghamshireBoy's guide to taking a System Image on Windows 10.

I haven't tried this via "Settings", I drive it through "Control Panel".

If Control Panel is not immediately visible, you can find it via the "Search" box.



Fire up Control Panel, and pin it somewhere, it will come in useful later, and it's easier than messing with Settings.

From Control Panel, choose File History.



From File History scroll down to bottom left, choose System Image Backup.



Plug in your external USB disk.

From System Image Backup choose Create a System Image.



After a few seconds it will find your external disk and offer that as a target for the backup.



Click Next



Required Disk space will vary.

The standard "Thunderbirds are go" screen, click Start backup.



And we're off. This will update several times, take anywhere 80 -120 minutes, when finished will pop up the optional 'Repair Disk' screen.



Click No, and Close the final screen.

To verify that it's done, File Explorer should display something like this on the External Disk.:




You're all set.

Edit: Sorry for the spidery red bits, I mislaid my proper tool...

BristolUK

That seems exactly as mine went.

For all the criticism of W10 there are an awful lot of things it does that techie types used to use other things for.
That's not me knowing what I'm talking about just an impression I've gained over the last two or three years.

BEVS

Gawd. I love you guys.

I'll sort that out thank you. I do a LOT of work for assorted family trees using my trusty laptop. Anything I can do to mitigate disaster is welcomed.

Previously I've simply back up docs/pics/email and anything else I can remember.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Thank you sir.

Anything coming out of Microsoft could be viewed as a disaster... 1809 will be upon us before we know it.

Depends on how stable - the rate of change - your machine is going through. Backing up docs/pics/email should normally be enough, and just take a system image once in a blue moon when Microsoft throw out a biggie, or if you're about to make a major change.

I'd made some large changes - albeit mostly cosmetic - before 1803 and hadn't safed those up, which is why I got so hacked off

Lesson learned...

BristolUK

or 1812

BuckinghamshireBoy

And I just had the inverse! I use Office, normally fire that up and either select a recent file or "new", just picked an old one (blah.docx) and it opened in Word Pad.

I've had a couple of other oddities since 1803 with Windows messing with my assigned default apps - notably with image viewers/editors.

moneypenny20

Reading this getting very twitchy. Checked the version and its 1803, don't know when it updated but I've had no issues. There is hope out there!

BuckinghamshireBoy

The old mosquito trick, it bit you when you weren't looking!

Good news

BEVS

Thanks guys.

I did the image a few days ago which is just as well as I got updated to 1803 overnight although I don't remember agreeing to that. lol

So far so good. I've not yet come across anything a bit odd.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Way to go, BEVS

Seems that the only ones to have been badly hit here so far are daveincolchester and myself so statistically not too bad.

I was chewing over why some people are experiencing the 'mosquito' effect and it may be down to the version of Win10 that is running. This article from Micosoft might shed some light:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...ows-update-faq

although it does say:

If you’re using Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise, you can choose to temporarily pause updates from being downloaded and installed. This option isn’t available in other versions of Windows 10, including Windows 10 Home.

However, in Win 10 Home, going in through "Settings" rather than "Control Panel", scroll down to "Update and Security", "Advanced options", one of these is to turn on notifications so that hopefully you'll know when you're about to get shafted.​

And if you're still feeing unsure, don't forget this potential lifesaver from chawkins99 https://britishexpats.com/forum/lab-.../#post12503561

Let's be careful out there...