What to Do before Upgrade to Windows 10: Essential Tips

What do I need to prepare or pay attention to before upgrading Windows 10?

1. Check/repair system or hard disk errors

When the system has been used for a long time, even if no problems are noticed during use, the operating system should be scanned and checked before upgrading the Windows 10 system. If there are potential problems, the system upgrade may fail. It is recommended to use the System File Checker utility to scan the system. The System File Checker (SFC) is a tool in the Windows system that scans all protected system files and checks the integrity of the system files. Replace the abnormal, damaged or missing version with the correct version of the Microsoft program. Click here to view more introductions to SFC commands. Here are the specific steps:

Step 1: Run the computer, click the Start menu, enter CMD, right-click Command Prompt from the result, and select Run as administrator. For Windows 8 users, you can press Windows and X, select Command Prompt (Admin).

Step 2: At the command prompt, type sfc /scannow and press Enter. This will check the integrity of the system files.

Step 3: Please restart the computer after completion

In addition to the SFC command, you can also use the Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth command to scan system files and system image files, but the process is more complicated. Click here to view the graphic version of the explanation.

When the hard disk in the computer fails, it will also affect the system upgrade. It is recommended to check and repair it through the following steps (take Windows 7 system as an example).

Step 1: Open This PC. Right-click the target disk, select Properties.

Step 2: In the new window, switch to the Tools tab and click Check.

Step 3: Select Automatically fix file system errors, or check Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors, and then click Start. If it prompts “Unable to check the disk in use”, please click Schedule Disk Check, then exit all programs and restart the computer, the program will scan automatically. If you are a Windows 8 user, you can click here to see specific disk error checking steps.

2. Use Renee Becca to back up the system or important files in advance

Before upgrading Windows 10, it is recommended to back up the original system or important files, so that when the system upgrade fails or there is a problem with the new system version, the system backup can also be used to restore the system version that can be used normally, and important files will not lost. The following is a specific introduction.

Renee Becca is a tool specially used for system/hard disk data backup and restoration. It can help you back up and restore important data in your computer, such as programs, system configuration, emails, photos, videos, documents, bookmarks, etc. It adopts the leading incremental/differential backup technology, which can save you more time and disk space. In addition to supporting system backup, it also supports partition backup, hard disk backup, file backup, and disk cloning to meet your needs. need. In addition, the software also supports the establishment of automatic backup plans, saving time and trouble.

Step 1: Download, install and run Renee Becca on the computer, and select the System Backup option in the main interface Backup column.

Step 2: Next, select the source file device and the destination. The program selects the system partition by default, and the destination can choose the location where you want to save the system backup. If regular backup is required, it is recommended to select a suitable backup plan mode according to individual needs in Backup scheme. Renee Becca has 5 backup plans to choose from, namely, version chain mode, single version mode, full mode, incremental mode and difference model. In addition, in schedule, you can also set a daily/weekly/monthly automatic backup plan and the time to start the backup, click OK to enable the automatic backup function.

Step 3: After all settings are completed, click Backup, and you can check the backup progress in the taskbar. If you need to restore the system, please check the steps in the tutorial of system recovery.

Step 1: Download, install and run Renee Becca on the computer, and select the (File Backup) option in the main interface (Backup) column.

Step 2: Next, select all the files that need to be backed up in source file device, and select the hard disk partition to store the backup data in destination. In addition, if regular backup is required, you can make a daily/weekly/monthly automatic backup plan in Schedule, and select a backup plan. Finally, click the Backup button to start executing the backup file command according to your settings.

Step 3: You can see the progress of all backup tasks on the taskbar. After the backup is complete, you can click the Recovery button to restore the files to the specified hard disk when necessary.

3. Make sure the account has administrator privileges

When your account type is a standard user instead of an administrator, it may not have permission to write installation files to the hard disk, which will cause the upgrade to fail. You can confirm or change account permissions through the following steps.

Step 1: Press Windows and R, type control userpasswords in the run window, and press the Enter key on your keyboard.

Step 2: If your account type is a standard user, click Change the account type, and make sure your account permission is set to Administrator.

4. Prepare some necessary drivers

The system upgrade may destroy the hardware driver, or if the hardware driver is incompatible with the new system version, please check the instructions of the computer hardware manufacturer for the hardware driver, and you can download some related drivers in advance, such as chipset, Audio, video, network (Ethernet, WLAN), keyboard, mouse, etc.

Some laptops may encounter the problem that the keyboard cannot work when upgrading Windows 10. To solve this problem, you can prepare an external USB keyboard and mouse in advance for upgrade or subsequent settings.

5. Disconnect multiple hard drives

If there are multiple hard drives installed in your computer, please disconnect all other hard drives except the target hard drive where Windows 10 will be installed. Disable the RAID controller if you have a RAID configuration, and also disable the SD card reader if it is connected. Because the upgrade is performed with multiple storage devices connected, it may interfere with the upgrade. You can open Computer Management – Device Manager – Disk Drives, right-click the disk to be disconnected, and select Uninstall device.

The above are the precautions before upgrading Windows 10. If you want to know how to upgrade Windows 10, you can click here to view.