As the end of the year approaches and support for the venerable Windows 7 comes to an end, I am tasked with making sure everyone in our enterprise is using Windows 10 by either upgrade or new machine. My process has been to take a new or upgraded machine, do a complete fresh install of Windows 10 in it's latest iteration (currently 1909), install an office 365 license, malware/anti-virus endpoint protection, a few utilities for remote maintenance and the appropriate shortcuts to our ERP servers, depending on the users need for access. I then restore their files and configs from the previous night's backup. From that point it's a simple 5 minute swap out to get them on the new machine.
If their old machine is viable to run Windows 10, I will clone the boot disk to an SSD, swap out the hard drive and run the Windows 10 upgrade on the SSD. Once the upgrade succeeds, I verify Windows is activated with a digital license and proceed to completely wipe the SSD and do a fresh install of Windows 10 in preparation for the next swap. The original untouched HDD gets labeled by user and decommission date and put on a shelf in the data center in case anything needs to be retrieved later on.
I am relating all this to make a point that I am diligent when it comes to user data and uptime.
So there I sit, watching the Windows update process complete several updates on what should be the final PC in my retiring Windows 7 project and I think that I haven't update feature versions in my own PC in a while. While I do apply all security and bug patches, new features aren't a high priority. I think, "what the heck" let's bring my PC up to 1909 since it was currently only running 1803 and I start the update process. I've done it over and over again with a 100% success rate, so what's the risk? (famous last words).
When it gets to the first reboot, i get a "no OS found" error. Hmmm. I unplug everything except power, monitor and the boot SSD and reboot. This time it starts the Windows update process but hangs up. No problem, Windows has been pretty reliable at fixing itself in situations like this, even if it has to roll back to previous versions. No soap. Completely borked.
I end up having to reinstall a fresh version of Windows 10 directly to 1909, reinstall my applications and settings, etc. but when I plug in the 2 TB disk I use for file storage, it can't find the drive, not even in the BIOS. Upon closer examination, I see where my problems started. Disk hardware. Apparently the upgrade process stressed the hardware just enough to generate enough heat to make a connection fail on the ICB. The solder joint on the right failed and in removing the hard disk from the case I pulled off the resitor and part of the copper circuit path.
While I did have all of the important files backed up, there were some old installations that would surely be a pain in the data bus to track down and recopy. Unfortunately all I had at work was a little battery powered soldering iron that couldn't give me a hot enough or fine enough tip to resolder the component.
I channeled my inner McGyver and took a spare RJ-45 connector and a heavy rubber band and did the following "fix" to get the disk to spin up long enough for me to get the files off of it. The old mechanical disk is now replaced with a pair of Samsung 1 TB SSD's.
The plastic jack put just enough pressure on the part to hold the connection until I was finished.
If their old machine is viable to run Windows 10, I will clone the boot disk to an SSD, swap out the hard drive and run the Windows 10 upgrade on the SSD. Once the upgrade succeeds, I verify Windows is activated with a digital license and proceed to completely wipe the SSD and do a fresh install of Windows 10 in preparation for the next swap. The original untouched HDD gets labeled by user and decommission date and put on a shelf in the data center in case anything needs to be retrieved later on.
I am relating all this to make a point that I am diligent when it comes to user data and uptime.
So there I sit, watching the Windows update process complete several updates on what should be the final PC in my retiring Windows 7 project and I think that I haven't update feature versions in my own PC in a while. While I do apply all security and bug patches, new features aren't a high priority. I think, "what the heck" let's bring my PC up to 1909 since it was currently only running 1803 and I start the update process. I've done it over and over again with a 100% success rate, so what's the risk? (famous last words).
When it gets to the first reboot, i get a "no OS found" error. Hmmm. I unplug everything except power, monitor and the boot SSD and reboot. This time it starts the Windows update process but hangs up. No problem, Windows has been pretty reliable at fixing itself in situations like this, even if it has to roll back to previous versions. No soap. Completely borked.
I end up having to reinstall a fresh version of Windows 10 directly to 1909, reinstall my applications and settings, etc. but when I plug in the 2 TB disk I use for file storage, it can't find the drive, not even in the BIOS. Upon closer examination, I see where my problems started. Disk hardware. Apparently the upgrade process stressed the hardware just enough to generate enough heat to make a connection fail on the ICB. The solder joint on the right failed and in removing the hard disk from the case I pulled off the resitor and part of the copper circuit path.
While I did have all of the important files backed up, there were some old installations that would surely be a pain in the data bus to track down and recopy. Unfortunately all I had at work was a little battery powered soldering iron that couldn't give me a hot enough or fine enough tip to resolder the component.
I channeled my inner McGyver and took a spare RJ-45 connector and a heavy rubber band and did the following "fix" to get the disk to spin up long enough for me to get the files off of it. The old mechanical disk is now replaced with a pair of Samsung 1 TB SSD's.
The plastic jack put just enough pressure on the part to hold the connection until I was finished.
