Windows 7 > Upgrade to Windows 10 - How?

Hi,

I came here to leave an update when I saw your answer. Thank you.

I went here: Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

I guess it's the same site. I chose to create a USB stick. I inserted the USB stick while Windows 7 was running, navigated to the USB stick and choose the setup tool and ran that.

I saw no complaints thus far, it's at 16% complete. I will post again to let you know how it went.

Windows Activation was not required.

I just want to confirm that the link I pasted above worked. After preparing the USB, I connected the USB stick to the DELL Optiplex 3020 from within windows 7 and ran the setup tool from the USB stick. Worked flawlessly. Windows 10 and the Dell are happy campers.

Alex - I also upgraded an old 3020 from Win 7 Pro 64-bit to Win 10 Pro 64-bit, it worked, and in fact the machine retained its apps and files, so that was lovely.  (Like you, I am not a techy, but I've been keeping old, junky, used Optiplexes alive for some time, especially for my wife's business, sio I've learned a few things.)

But in my case, there was one more step - changing from MBR (normal BIOS) to GPT (UEFI).  Are you still MBR?  If yes, there is an app for that conversion, published by Microsoft, called MBR2GPT.exe.  Before you run it, you should do your normal reading first, including on TenForums.   And, of course, do a backup of your entire drive before running it.

In my case, MBR2GPT.exe worked, but, at the very end, the conversion cmd screen showed a glitch, which turned out to be nothing -- all i had to do was reboot.  But it was helpful to have a second computer in the room so I could Google about that glitch.  (I might have posted about that on TenForums or even here.  On TenForums my name is glnz.)

Since we are tangentially on the topic, from the BIOS, I opted to enable secure boot and turned off, Enable Legacy Option ROMs. I think this will add more security.

System Information
BIOS Mode = UEFI
Secure Boot State = On

Circling back to the reagentc noted in my last reply. I restarted and entered the following in the command prompt

reagentc /disable

followed by

reagentc /enable

Both operations succeeded. I am not sure what the point of this error was, it seems to have cleared itself.

Thanks again!!

Thank you for posting such a invaluable reply. I began researching this. Opening up 'System Information' I found that 'BIOS Mode' is currently set to Legacy.

1 Read https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000137854/converting-your-hard-drive-from-mbr-to-gpt

2 visit for steps on MBR2GPT.EXE https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/mbr-to-gpthttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/mbr-to-gpt

I ran the mbr2gtp /convert /allowFullOS

My drive is now GUID Partition Map

I got an error after the command: Failed to update ReAgent.xml, please try to manually disable and enable WinRE.

I tried reagents /disable and then reagent /enable but no luck

I tried reagent /setreimage /path C:\ but I don't know the path to include after the C:\

I have to research this bit further

I managed to get the system to boot via UEFI.

This is all very reminiscent of the Mac's disk structure which is also GUID Partition Map. Although, on the Mac it is not this complicated. Having installed Windows 7 first and then upgrading to Windows 10 may have introduced this gotcha but I am so very grateful that you pointed this out, I would have never discovered this on my own.

Thank you VERY much!

Yes - same - allowFullOS and then had the same odd experience with reagentc.  But on reboot it all was good.  Congrats.