Upgrading an Inspiron 5348 to Windows 10

...snip... I browsed Windows 10 introductory videos and it does look pretty good/ easy to use. I wonder what problems there might be using Windows 10 compared with Windows 8.1 Cheers, Paul

I don't see any problem. I'm overjoyed with my upgrade to Win 10. You will need to be as lucky as me, though, to get a near perfect experience, judging from posts others have done. If it isn't perfect from the start, could be you are in deep trouble. Therefore, make those images. Win 10 will have its own built-in revert capability, which usually works - but sometimes that too fails, I read. Make your own! Follow the recommendations in that Dell article I posted to update drivers both before & after the upgrade...

http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN297955#System-Support-Matrix

Windows 10 Upgrade Walkthrough

I went to read posts about it while the upgrade was sitting in Windows Update (or wherever that put it). I had told it to wait - remind me later - fully intending to try, having made two images & a clone of Win 8.1. When I got back, I was a tad queasy over the complaints I'd read. I'm not sure now whether I accidentally clicked something to make it start or it started on its own - but after about 4 automatic reboots over maybe two hours - all was fine. I'm overjoyed!

I've lost no capability or file that I had in Win 8.1, that I can see. Some settings screens are difficult to find, but that was always so. Things are as quick as ever. Possibly McAfee stopped updating its definitions due to the upgrade. I've uninstalled it & put my trust in Windows Defender & Windows Firewall, which both are impressive, especially the firewall. Some very irksome events dropped out of Event Viewer, but new ones are there which some day I shall investigate. But less/nothing is there having me worrying over hardware as in Win 8.1, though that worry was likely false. Event Viewer errors often are bogus. I've got no problem in Win 10 that I didn't have in Win 8.1, which already wasn't much. Both "SFC /Scannow" & DISM continue to report no errors.

In Win 10, one can no longer permanently prevent critical updates to enter through Windows Update. So, I hope your difficulty with that is over. You can prevent driver updates, but it's best when there is no need to. I haven't personally found one.

I'm overjoyed with Win 10, build 10240. I hope that's what you'll be getting, because, last I read, the new one - Threshold 2 or Version 1511- has been withdrawn. It's problematic. I'll go for it only when offered through Windows Update, when I trust the bugs are fixed. I'll have a fresh set of images & a clone at the ready, though.

I followed your instruction and got pretty much the same as you showed above, although I don't have the extra 471MB recovery partition. I browsed Windows 10 introductory videos and it does look pretty good/ easy to use. I wonder what problems there might be using Windows 10 compared with Windows 8.1 Cheers, Paul

You'll have the extra partition after the upgrade to Win 10, & you'll look exactly as I do - except for some reason I lack type "OEM" on my 40 MB Partition 2. The new partition is taken from the end of C: (which gets shortened) & will become your Partition 6. Your current Partition 6 will become Partition 7. Here's my current understanding...

Partition 1: EFI System Partition. Important to boot Windows.

Partition 2: Probably contains tools used by Dell BIOS Diagnostics.

Partition 3: Important to Windows, but mysterious. It possibly isn't actually used, but needs to be there. It appears not to be saved by Windows System Image Backup. Therefore, if used, it might be temporary.

Partition 4: Win 8.1 Recovery Tools partition. Will become inactive after upgrade. Possibly needed to revert the upgrade, when done with Win 10's built-in revert capability. It retains its label: WinReTools.

Partition 5: Win 10 (C:). A normal boot comes here.

Partition 6: Win 10 Recovery Tools Partition. Active. It is unlabeled. (Shift+Restart goes here.)

Partition 7: Dell Factory Image of Win 8.1 & its recovery tools. The tools look a lot like Windows recovery tools. You get here from an option that appears after pressing F12 during boot, (IIRC). You don't really want to get here anymore, after upgrading to Win 10 - though it may be a final resort to revert to Win 8.1 factory install should all else fail. (And hopefully you'll never need to get here while still Win 8.1, either. I was there once, having early on inadvertently locked myself out by password. It worked to do a factory restore, but there was no feedback on button clicks. It required real patience!)

Here is how to see which recovery partitions are active...

See where it mentions both Partitions 6 & 7?

Thank you so much for your replies PCR - fantastic info. I've learned a lot about my computer and doing the upgrade to Windows 10. I've been discussing the upgrade to Windows 10 with my partner and we think we will give it a go soon. Still waiting for the Seagate external drive so I can image the hard-drive as it is right now with Windows 8.1. From the tutorials Windows 10 looks like a great system to me. And from what I've been reading about it, I think it will handle our email better. Our main email is handled through our ISP and its a pop3 email which I couldn't make work with mail on Windows 8.1. I had to install Thunderbird, which is OK but not really what we want. I saw that the "Mail" on Windows 10 can handle pop3 as well as IMAP so I think it will work well for us. Here's a question. I know that after upgrading to WIndows 10 people have a month during which they can go back to Windows 8.1 if they really want to. But if it has been over a month since installing Windows 10 and there is some big problem that I want to restore the computer using the backup image I have on the Seagate drive which was of the old Windows 8.1 system - what happens if I tried to use that? Are people allowed to restore some old version of Windows 8.1 that way? I read about needing a product key, but I don't see where to find that - I only saw the Product ID. Then I read about having to download some program to find the product key. Anyway, I guess few would want to go back to Windows 8.1 and after installing Windows 10 I guess you have made a backup image of Windows 10, is that right? p.s. I looked over this thread and realized that I don't know exactly what computer you have - is it exacty the same as ours, an 23" Inspiron 5348? Touchscreen unaffected by upgrade to Windows 10?

You are welcome. Naturally, one shouldn't actually delete, resize, re-order or otherwise fiddle with those partitions, until one know more about the boot process. Should Threshold 2 - when it becomes safe to take that - add yet another recovery partition to my collection, I will more urgently seek the means to fool with them. But with a 1 TB internal HDD & two 2 TB external drives in hand, I'm not sure how urgent things can get.

Mail works well, but I haven't tried adding Verizon to it since I was Win 8.1, where you know it won't work. I think you are right about the new capability. But I've come to think I want them separate now. Have you seen how to add personal folders? You need to get to ... outlook.live.com ... to do it, but, once there, you've got many additional capabilities, looks like. Then, the new folders show up in Mail, too. (I think you'll be an expert in all that before me.)

That's interesting! Is the Win 8.1 license invalid when Win 10 is validated? Then, a system image cannot be used to revert. (In cases where the update fails before the validation & also fails to automatically rollback, an image is still a must.) I'm still searching, but haven't found an answer: MS has not made the answer easy to come by. And I've looked at their license agreements. Intuitively, I fear the worst. Here is the built-in way to revert (which Andre Da Costa posted before me)...

https://techingiteasy.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/how-to-rollback-to-a-previous-version-of-windows-from-windows-10/

How To: Rollback to a Previous Version of Windows from Windows 10

It may be best to try that method first, knowing it must re-validate the Win 8.1 license, if necessary. Then - if the result is sloppy - use the image (which surely must now work) to overwrite that. Sheesh! I certainly am glad a rollback is unnecessary for me. Good catch, POGSINNZ. Hmm, that article says the procedure must be done within 30 days, "Otherwise, create a backup before upgrading to Windows 10". So, does the article know the answer to your question?

I can say definitively you will not need a product key, if you upgrade through the Windows Update method, which you say is what you downloaded. Also, if you do it with the .iso, you will not need a product key, if you have the .iso do an upgrade - instead of a fresh install. There is more than one way to run the .iso. After an upgrade is done either way, the .iso may be used to do a fresh install. However, you will lose everything Dell that is in your installation, except the BIOS. Here is the .iso...

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Get Windows 10

Mine is...

It's got 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, a DVD, many ports & a touchscreen. The touchscreen works well as ever in Win 10, yeah.

I have one last question before I attempt the Windows 10 upgrade. I noticed in an earlier post you mentioned that you have both images and a clone in case something went wrong. So do you have a clone on the same external drive that you have backup images? Just wondering if I have to have a clone on a drive all by itself or is it OK to have it on the same drive as backup images? Cheers, Paul

Absolutely, keep them separate! The process of cloning is destructive to the destination HDD. You wouldn't want accidental, inadvertent damage to images (or anything) held elsewhere on the media. I made my clone to the 1st half of a 2 TB Seagate external drive, thinking I'll some day partition the empty half for other use - but only after I've needed to install the clone (in place of a crashed HDD).

Note, in the Docs, at...

It says... "For best results, install the target (new) drive where you plan to use it and the source drive in another location, e.g. in an external USB enclosure. This recommendation is especially important for laptops."

So, I'm not sure the clone actually will work on the day I may need it. (I have somewhat more confidence in the images.) Finally, I've read Windows does not like to see two of itself at boot. If you make a clone on an external HDD, do not have it plugged in at boot! I'm even fearful to plug mine in after boot!

Thank you kindly for all your help. I'll try upgrading soon and let you know how it went!

Cheers, Paul