G751-JY - Best way to back up 8.1 before 10 upgrade? - help needed.

[di_Valenti]

Greetings,

I am scheduled for a 10 upgrade on my production PC (the G751-JY) and have test installed about 9 months ago on a G71 windows 10, which was from a 7 Ultimate upgrade path.

I have held off on the G751 until I felt 10 was solid enough to move to on this machine. I would however like to back up my 8.1 completely on my ext. HD if possible so that IF I need to scrap it and go back I can completely wipe the SSD and recover the image that ASUS ships with it as a fallback just in case 10 doesn't work for me.

I have also swapped an HD (SSD removed, HD put in as C) on the G751 to just try running 10 on it a while back and with that I went from another license of Win 7 Ultimate which upgraded it to 10 Pro, and that is activated on the MS servers as such - all the G751 hardware minus the SSD.

I am seeking the best way to do the upgrade as the 8.1 is home, but the 7 is ultimate and I have several retail licenses I bought a while back two of which are now in use, one on the older G71 and one on the alt HD for the G751, I need to now wipe the SSD and probably install 10 pro on a clean install as I believe it should just recognize the system as registered from the previous alt install from 7.... but I want to get that 8.1 backed up, then wipe it and then install 10 as the 10 upgrade would be to home if I did it with a upgrade directly... I could also wipe the drive, put on the 7 ultimate again and then upgrade, which I is the down and dirty option but that would mean a loss of the 8.1 completely I think...

Ok I think I have made it kind of clear what I am seeking - but to recap end goals:
- Have the G751 running 10 Pro when done using the license from 7 Ultimate
- Have a backup of factory 8.1 Asus install for a complete recovery if I have to wipe a disk, and...
- Not have the 8.1 Home replace or displace the 10 Pro I have already registered on the G751

Thank you for the support, if there is another option or better way please feel free to chime in, basically I am looking for a best answer before I do something that I probably can't reverse given my current understanding of backups and images... it's been a few years (like 8+) since I last really did backups and all that on systems and so I am sure I way, way out of the loop on the best way to do it...

Thanks,

Appreciated greatly.

[JustinThyme]

The easiest way IMO is put a cheap HDD in Bay2, clone bay one to it then pull out the original and put it away and upgrade the drive you intend leaving in. Personally I make it a habit to clone the original drive right after getting a machine and pulling out the original and putting it away so I will always have the factory image and should I need to send it in for service its just a matter of swapping drives.

[cdma2k]

1. clone orginal factory image on a usb stick with Asus backtracker
2. clean install win 10
3. install Asus driver/software

[Clintlgm]

Yes Macrium Reflect Free create a disk image save it on a ext. hard drive, Verify the image!! then either upgrade or Clean Install 10 you can do either.

[Gps3dx]

Suggest you read my recommendation for quick clean win10 upgrade ( see my sig for link to "HOW TO (EASILY!) UPGRADE FROM WIN7 WITHOUT GOING THROUGH THE UPGRADE PROCESS ITSELF " ), so no need to go though MS official upgrade process.
Also, it is advisable that you'll format your HDD as GPT and use UEFI to install & boot your windows.( see same above linked thread for more details )

[di_Valenti]

Thanks guys for chiming in here - have or will read all that is posted or linked before I take the action. Wanted to let this kind of simmer for a day or so on the forums so that I could gleam some wisdom. Just logged in so will check out the link in the last post.

My plan is this w/o that additional info.
1. I have backed up all personal data to a ext. HD... so good there
2. I will reset the whole system to Asus 8.1 as a refresh/restore then put the drive that I had the 10 Pro on in the second bay and clone the SSD to the HD directly. This is an older HD and a spare just sitting around from an old Acer Aspire.
3. I will remove that and then put the original HD in also (and might back it on that also as well - maybe not), but then I will...
4. Format the SSD completely - I like KILLDISK eraser for this - does a very nice job for a free program to reset a disk.
5. Get out the 10 media and install 10 Pro from the clean install and see if it activates as it should.
...if not, then...
6. I will repeat the KILLDISK erase and install 7 Ultimate on it and then upgrade to 10 Pro that way, activate and then
7. Do a 10 Pro clean install again and it should be good to go.

Sound like a sound plan? might take the evening but I think it should go smoothly and I end up with 1 or 2 copies of the factory C:\ that way and once it's confirmed working I can put one on the shelf and the other I can reformate to use as a second HD as it was originally.

And then... That ANNOYING update window will go away! 🙂

[JustinThyme]

if you have already installed Win10 pro on that machine you may not have to go through the update process again.
Try to install it first. If it comes up asking for a product key then you will have to do the upgrade process, if it doesn't then you are set and saved some time.

[di_Valenti]

Yep, I just don't know if the SSD to HD swap made any difference to the MS servers for recognition... I would assume it's the CPU or MB but no idea so I figure I would just wing it and see as you say, and then if issues I have everything ready to just wipe and clean as much as I need. Tested it on a USB just to make sure I can initialize the SSD if needed and that worked fine - so looks all good. Will post a post-upgrade sit. rep. on the end results.