• Connection problem with the Win10 upgrade

    Here’s an interesting question from SA:

    I know most Win10 upgrade posts are concerned with preventing Win10 from installing but suppose you want to install Win10 – at least to try it out – before the free offer ends? Are any of the “bad” updates actually helpful in getting Win10 to download and install?

    I ask because I tried to upgrade my Win7 Pro machine. It has only security updates installed per Belarc Advisor. Nothing Win10 related, good or bad. Everything seemed to go OK. I was told my computer was compatible with Win10 and the download started. It took about 4-1/2 hours to reach the 100% indication and then the download indicator went back to zero and apparently started all over again.

    Due to a data cap and time limit I could only go up to 3.5GB or 5 hours, whichever came first. Obviously the “second attempt” couldn’t continue and my connection terminated at the 5 hour point and the upgrade window displayed a 0x80072ee7 error.

    Among the files that were placed on my computer was an “upgrader_defaultlog” with a line that said “Can’t find usable ESD from the $Windows.~BT folder” and shortly after that the retry started.

    It seems that something was either missing or corrupted. Since my Internet connectivity isn’t particularly fast or cheap I may get only one more try and I can’t just let the upgrader keep endlessly downloading. I’m surprised that MS doesn’t have a more reliable upgrade method than revert to zero and do the whole thing again and then check for missing bits.

    Anyway, I just thought I’d ask if you or your readers had any advice or suggestions.

    It does sound like a corrupt file, and I would guess that everything would go well on a second try.

    You might try going to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and downloading the installation file onto a USB drive. Not sure if that’ll improve your chances of a good download.

    Any other suggestions?