Rollback to Windows 7 - Says files are missing, but everything is there.

My test (home PC) Windows 7 system only had about 5 programs in Add/Remove programs, and the upgrade to Windows 10 RTM went smoothly yesterday.

Unfortunately the key program I use isn't compatible with Windows 10 and I need to go back.  My Boot drive is 120gb, with 75gb free, even after the upgrade.

However, when I try to go back to Windows 7, it says the files are missing.

C:\Windows.old is present, with ProgramData, Program Files (x86), Program Files, and Windows all present underneath.

There isn't much documentation on this, and when I run Sysinternals' Process Monitor, it is not revealing on what's causing this to give the error message so fast, especially since everything is there.

Of course, I could just re-install Windows 7 from DVD, but that's not the point, this is about the *easiest* upgrade you could have.  How can I troubleshoot what's wrong?  There's nothing in the event log, and I have no idea what log files or places to look to find out what is making Windows 10 think that the Windows 7 files are gone.

FYI, I maintain the corporate desktop/server images for a fortune 500 company, so feel free to drop anything very technical.  We are trying to vet out the viability of doing an upgrade vs. a fresh install, but it's not worth a case to Microsoft Support at this point.  Most of the documentation out there is very consumer oriented, so it doesn't leave you with anything technical as a reference.

Thanks!


  • Edited by agressiv Thursday, July 30, 2015 2:33 PM
July 30th, 2015 2:32pm

Hi,

I have tried to rollback my Windows 10 computer to previous version (the Insider preview now), and noticed that there are the setuperr.log and setupact.log under c:\windows.~bt\sources\rollback which record the roll back action on  my computer.

Please find them there and check if there's any detailed information about this error.

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August 2nd, 2015 2:34am

My test (home PC) Windows 7 system only had about 5 programs in Add/Remove programs, and the upgrade to Windows 10 RTM went smoothly yesterday.

Unfortunately the key program I use isn't compatible with Windows 10 and I need to go back.  My Boot drive is 120gb, with 75gb free, even after the upgrade.

However, when I try to go back to Windows 7, it says the files are missing.

C:\Windows.old is present, with ProgramData, Program Files (x86), Program Files, and Windows all present underneath.

There isn't much documentation on this, and when I run Sysinternals' Process Monitor, it is not revealing on what's causing this to give the error message so fast, especially since everything is there.

Of course, I could just re-install Windows 7 from DVD, but that's not the point, this is about the *easiest* upgrade you could have.  How can I troubleshoot what's wrong?  There's nothing in the event log, and I have no idea what log files or places to look to find out what is making Windows 10 think that the Windows 7 files are gone.

FYI, I maintain the corporate desktop/server images for a fortune 500 company, so feel free to drop anything very technical.  We are trying to vet out the viability of doing an upgrade vs. a fresh install, but it's not worth a case to Microsoft Support at this point.  Most of the documentation out there is very consumer oriented, so it doesn't leave you with anything technical as a reference.

Thanks!



   Rollbacks are always dodgy. If I were you I would do a fresh install of Windows 7 rather than waste time trying to get rollback to work.
August 2nd, 2015 3:29am

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