Why not just buy an external hard drive-rather inexpensive these days-so that you can make a complete "clone" copy of your present setup to return to that if you wish. You cannot use the recovery disks to re-install Win 7 after you have upgraded to Win 10.

I also understand that MS will allow you a month to do a roll back to Windows 7 after you have installed Windows 10, if you so wish.

I'm not really sure about doing what you wish to do, if I understand correctly what you have written.

If I'm understanding you correctly, you want to go from Windows 7 to Windows 10 but what to have exit strategy should you not be happy with 10.

Imaging the drive would give you an exact, working copy of your computer's hard drive as it stands at that moment in time. The only drawback is that over the years Windows tends to get a lot of cobwebs, so to speak, that a fresh install cleans out, generally improving the performance of the machine. Obviously a fresh install takes many, many more hours to do than restoring an image. I'm not up to date on the latest, greatest imaging software but I believe that some allows you to extract individual files from the image so you don't have to do a full recovery.

I don't know what types of media image software allows you to use so you'll want to read the user manual before purchasing anything. An external hard drive would provide greater flexibility and allow you to continue backups after your upgrade.

Have you tried saving the image to your Flash drive?

I've never used Windows built-in system image tool but if it's anything like Acronis Trueimage, it might compress 75 gigs enough to fit a 64 gig Flash drive. Even if it does say it will use up to 75 gigs.

If it were me, I'd probably give it a try. All it would cost would be a little time to find out.

Thanks all, seems my bloviated post got the essence of my questions across.

Why would I buy a hard drive when a brand name Flash Drive 64 GB can be had for $29, a 128 GB fore $30?

Does the Micro Soft offer provide an off line image? If so the installation of W10 must first take out the existing W7 image ... what about security/privacy of personal data? Right, I don't yet make use of any "cloud storage".

I may as a test ask W7 to make an image to my 64GB Flash. while watching the news.

No need back up needed, W10 will leave everything in your PC you had before, and you can roll back to W7 if needed. but W10 is awesome! so you will no doubt keep it. I do save my pics.files etc. to flash drives, and online free storage

Thanks, that's good news, and My HDD has the space if W10 is only 20 GB or so... have more than that free...

That's how MS handles, nice.. but think I'll make a backup in any case. I have piece-wise backup but never a full backup. Error in my earlier post, make the 64 GB $20, not $29. At that price I can't afford not to back up. My problem program is an old Palm Desk Top I use to keep notes and sometimes use the calendar. I no longer carry the Palm PDA, have a smart phone and a dumb operator ; (

But, if W10 doesn't give me better performance, I should do a recovery W7 to clean it up and .. what 2 or 3 hours later have a clean W7 with all my applications and data back... of course I'd then want to erase W10, suppose MS provides for than when one pulls the trigger on revert back.

I have a Laptop with W8.1 and like it fine, suppose W10 will look somewhat familiar. My Smartphone is also W8.1... land a wonderful touch screen, but I'm not now up to the purchase of a touch screen tablet. Noting, as I purchased a Dell desktop 7 or so years back, I still get their sales emails, and this morning saw a tablet like (screen can be separated from keyboard) touch screen W10 for under $300... may need to look back that still sounds too low. Well suppose Dell is made in China too, no more Richardson TX (or thereabouts, haven't been down that way in years but do remember Dell being a big employer in that area).

W10 is 3 GB's big deal!

My W7 Toshiba candidate has 4 GB RAM and 222 GB HDD, with about 50 GB HDD still free.

The Dell I mentioned is indeed offered at $300, has 3 GB RAM and 500 GB HDD, is has a Dual Core, not the best, but at $300 and a touch screen tablet format is attractive looking to me.

But Still waiting the MS W10 handout to see what I think of it before buying anymore hardware. My touch screen smartphone has made touch screen a big attraction.

If you have Microsoft Security Essentials installed on Windows 7 you
need to uninstall it before upgrading to Windows 10. Once you upgrade,
it doesn't work but can't be uninstalled.

Just in case anyone is interested, I just made two images of my newly upgraded Windows 10.

Imaging my C drive with 80.0 GiB used space.

I made the first image with Windows built-in system image tool, the resulting folder of files taking up 78.6 GiB. Little if any compression.

I then installed the free Western Digital edition of Acronis True Image and made a second image, the resulting image taking up 53.6 GiB. Much better.

So at least in my case, it would have fit on a 64 GB flash drive using True Image but not using the built-in image tool.

Great, I'll look for the WD image maker, free? Maybe if one buys their storage device.. of which I am thinking.

Does this work?

Buy a 1T WD USP 3.0 (be using 2.0 for existing computers).

Use WD to back up three computers, one each: XP, W7 W8.1... maybe also image, the memory cost is very low.

Also use the WD 1T to load a Linux (Xubuntu) installation package to run on my XP machine. This will allow me to continue to use the XP Dell Desk Top and its data (also backed up on WD) using Xubuntu for he OS, hope it runs a lot better than the very old XP.

Here, not far off subject, I assume the WD storage device has more HDD like ability to handle processing read/write cycles without blowing memory locations. I understand the Flash Drive sticks should no be used for other than storage and occasional access of larger files. Hey, example of how little I know, maybe the WD 1T is a rotating hard disk drive, powered by the USB... could that be the case? I feel real comfortable with that idea.

So with this mix on one storage device I must have a back up program that simple looks for space, makes its own folder/files and co-exists with other such folders, each with a functional name of my choice.

That's part way home, if the WD 1T USB can handle a Ubuntu (Linux) installation, what partition?" I can simply plug the WD into the subject XP machine set up to choose the USB as it first boot device.

The Ubuntu (all flavors) will then ask if I want to install or try, I'll just try for now and in that case the USB WD will be used to upload required RAM OS software to the XP machine to establish ownership of the machine. Not sure how much the "try" version puts on the Computer HDD, but I understand it will erase/release whatever resources it is using, due to it operating as a "try" not an installation. Thus all dynamic, such as created documents, down loads and the like will be stored by Ubuntu on the USB storage, I believe. This I can easily verify once I decide what USB device to use... seems the Flash Drive is fine for back up, image, but if I buy a 1T I can satisfy all my needs with that storage device. To complete my thinking circle, I believe a Flash Drive used in the Ubuntu application my fail (in months, years?) due to the heavy read/write demands put on it to support a running Ubuntu OS.

Interesting idea. I'm awaiting some feedback from your post.

Jane

Still just in the study mode but have learned that the WD high capacity USB storage is of the same type used inside the computer, i.e., it should hold up fine to frequent read/write (not flashing, whatever that means). I have also found confirmation that one can use the common USB (either my moving the USB around or using a network) high capacity storage to backup several different PCs, including different versions of OS.

I used the link provide to access the WD backup application, it was a free download. I have not installed it anywhere yet, but may do so on the XP machine. I think the Windows backup in W7 is much better than older versions.

I will try to remember to post any concrete learning as I go forward. This is an interesting, but low priority project of me... I may order the WD Passport 1.5T just to be sure I have space to backup three systems, Image two (the W7 and the W8.1) and run one or more Ubuntu in OS operation mode. This last one my be the tricky one, but if I have only one "folder" that is bootable (and has and ISO Xubuntu in it) it should work. May have already stated Ubuntu has less than sterling performance in a dual boot configuration (it replaces the Windows boot loader so one can switch between Windows and Ubuntu).

jerry, I tried a few linux distros on a boot PNY 64 GB USB stick and it's almost useless -- way too slow. Maybe if the linux could be configured to run on a ramdisk? So sticks IMO are good for storage, backup/restore and testing, but not for running distros yet.

Thanks, I understand the word "Flash" does not mean "fast"... ha ! It describes how the data is written, and is slow enough that even a USB 3.0 may not solve the problem of too slow to run an OS from.

I am now advised MS is ready to upgrade my W7 machine to W10, so I decided to use a 64 GB Flash Drive to do a Windows Back Up... I figured even though my W7 HD has about 70 GB on it, the back up would easily fit. Seems I over estimated what W7 Backup stores. The process took some time, I mean enough that I left to do other things and the size ended up being under 8 GB (compressed some I think). Trying to examine what W7 copied I found the file manger was confronted with a strange storage strategy that looks nothing like the file structure on the HDD. Looking folder by folder I couldn't find a large picture folder. Turns out W7 makes a lot of assumptions, none of which error on the side of storing too much.

I can't remember the full history, but a lot of pictures came from the previous laptop running XP. There "My Pictures" is stored down the file tree and under "C/users...." and Back Up assumes it is under "Libraries/Pictures...." so be careful. I think pictures should be saved separately.. then too I can chose to pick what Back Up handles.. may do that. My assumption is with the right "back up" I can resort a complete recovery to the factory W7, and run update, than backup and get pretty much back to where I was (again assuming I backed up all I wanted, not just what W7 picks) with a clean W7 to run for a while...

MS apparently makes an image of W7 before loading W10 and MS allows one to revert to that image if they are not happy with W10. Still, I am thinking I'll image on my own USB connected mass storage disk before taking the plunge to W10. May have said, likely a Western Digital 1.5T byte.. WD back up may also be better than W7 back up, any views on that welcome.

As for Linux, I believe the Ubuntu flavor run from a USB or internal DVD makes use of the computer RAM and HDD to load as much as it can to improve processing speed, but with a ReadOnly DVD one can not carry user information over boot cycles... not sure of that or if true why Ubuntu doesn't make a file on the HDD to carry over user saved information, even make a partition but now I'm getting well beyond my understanding of how the Windows boot loader works with new partitions involved. Here the idea is the W7 boot loader works only with booting W7.

Sorry for the rather long reply, I am not expecting many to read the whole thing, but for those who do I welcome all corrections of my misunderstandings and stupidity.

jerry, the W7 bootloader (bcd.exe, which resides in the 'System Reserved' partition) is actually usable from the command line & much easier to work with using the EasyBCD program -- that's what I use for triple-booting W7 w/two linux distros. Windows10 -- I have no idea yet. Below is my EasyBCD's list of Windows boot options:

*******************

There are a total of 3 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Windows 7 Home Premium
Timeout: 15 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7 Home Premium
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Precise Puppy Linux 5.7.1
BCD ID: {0531fba3-f8c5-11e4-b8c3-b0f20b2e9e36}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\nst_linux.mbr

Entry #3
Name: Mint 17 Linux
BCD ID: {0531fba8-f8c5-11e4-b8c3-b0f20b2e9e36}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\nst_linux-ABCFBAB2174079FCDFD735D29910CA5C.mbr

*********************

The two linux distros are on their own, separate partitions, and the C:\NST\***.mbr file identifies/guides to the different locations.

Thanks, looks like good stuff. This is beyond anything I have tried since leaving industrial software programing about 40 years ago. I'll at least look deeper, but not sure how I get this displayed in "command line"... and editing mode

There are instructions on the web for using the command prompt in windows to run bcd.exe, but downloading and running EasyBCD makes it much easier:

http://easybcd-.en.softonic.com/

Thanks, I'll also discuss with one or more of my "computer friends" here at home.

A long time ago, I did a Mint Mate install(actual install, not live) onto a 16GB Gigaware USB flash drive. It booted slow as molasses and the first time running apps was just as slow. It ran fine afterward though. I considered getting a faster flash drive such as a SanDisk Extreme, but it wasn't it my budget at that time.

I seem to remember playing around with bcd.exe but my memory is short. Some day I'll have to give EasyBCD a try.

In the meantime, GRUB works for me.

An extraordinarily boring (and embarrassing, mostly because I flubbed customizing GRUB2 because I'm too lazy to learn to use it properly right now) video of my installing Mint Mate alongside Windows 10 in a virtual machine...

I suppose the point is that they can, at least sometimes, live happily beside one another.

I was really expecting Mint Mate to offer to "install alongside windows" and auto-partition but it did not.

Don't some other Ubuntu based distros do that? Or is it just full blown Ubuntu?

Anyway, after all my stumbling, doing it incorrectly, redoing etc., Grub now reads exactly the way I want, remembers the previous boot choices etc. ...

That's just a virtual machine though. I wouldn't suggest others try it on their real machines.

I suppose if one were to practice setting up a dual boot system, a virtual environment would be the safe place to learn, right?

BTW, I used Oracle's VirtualBox in the above videos. Free and open source. Oops, I just read the warning on the VirtualBox download page: "Please be aware that Windows 10 is not yet officially supported!" Oh well, seems to run fine for me.

Thanks, lots to keep in this thread. The dual boot Ubuntu 15.4 on my W7 Starter Netbook was installed using the Ubuntu installer ISO. It partitioned the HDD ans modified the boot loader with Ubuntu as the default. It worked, but has some problems, of which I no longer remember.

I have a total of 7 devices win Windows 10 on them. An Acer Aspire 5742z-4601 Laptop w/Win7 Home, Lenovo G560 Laptop w/Win 7 Home, 2 x Acer Aspire V5 573P-6896 Laptops w/Win8.1 Home, Toshiba A205 Laptop w/Win 7 Ultimate, Self Built AMD Phenom II Desktop w/Win 7 Pro and an Acer Iconia Tablet w/Win 8.1.

I upgraded all 7 of these devices to Windows 10 and all were running great. Yesterday for some reason the Touch Screen on my Acer Iconia Tablet stopped working. Thinking it could be a problem with Windows 10 I used the Recovery to go back to Windows 8.1. The Recovery of Windows 8.1 went off without a hitch but it didn't fix the problem, still no Touch Screen. Well, today I popped open the back cover of the Tablet and Reseated all Flat Flex Cables that were associated with the Touch Screen. The Touch Screen is now working again, not the fault of Windows 10 as I first thought. I now have Windows 10 Reinstalled on my Acer Iconia W4-820-2882 Tablet! As stated in a Post Above, Windows 10 is Awesome!

Grub bootloader works fine. I just wanted to tinker & BCD seemed a simple solution.

Only problem w/a "standard" Grub installation is a Windows restore/repair/upgrade -- it'll overwrite Grub on the windows partition & the only solution then is reinstall grub from a live Linux DVD. W/the BCD method, the BCD settings would be retained after a restore & multiboot still available. W/BCD, Grub is still installed when initially installing Linux, only it resides on the linux partition (not the Windows partition) & picks up the boot-process after being directed to that partition by BCD.

Ask Leo addressed this last week too, FWIW.

https://askleo.com/how-should-i-back-up-my-computer-before-an-operating-system-upgrade/?awt_l=GdOtZ&awt_m=JGZR0YS17JdfbL

I ordered the Western Digital 1.5T USB connected hard drive, and took free shipping, suppose it will be here in a week or so.

But, as I have a 64 GB flash drive on my W7 which already has a W7 managed back up I decided to try to make an image to that FD. I got a failure due to a need for a NTFS format, This stumps me, W7 has no problem reading and writing files to the FD, is there something in the image making business that requires a different storage format? Even so, I will assume the ScanDisk FD has a "normal" formate, FAT32 or NTFS.

Is it that the W7 image maker saw there was not enough space on the FD? If that's the case, and it is likely the case, I would expect W7 to notify me there is not enough space.

This complication may also show up on the WD USB HDD. I have a free WD back up software package I have not tried yet.. that may work better than Windows anyway.

Amazon reports I will get my 1.5T Western Digital USB disk drive in a day or two... is WD still one of the market leading brands?

Just for practice, I used Windows 7's Disk Management tools to attempt making an image on my 64 GB Flash Drive, not empty, has a W7 backup on it.. but I figure I'll get a stop for lack of sufficient storage space.

NOT SO, I get a "must have NTFS format".. that's what stopped the image. Suppose that means the Flash Drive is FAT32 and W7 Backup is okay with that, but not for image. 3rd party backup/image programs, e.g., WD, may work otherwise, in fact not "like" NTSF as it is a proprietary MS file format, imo.

So I'll await the 1.5T HDD, and will partition and format as needed... assumption being that if I make, say, a 500 GB partition NTSF the W7 and W8.1 will find (or allow me to select) the NTFS partition for making images.

Sound about right? What about using WD's free software for backup and image rather than MS? I am inclined to use MS tools to deal with MS OS programs/OS.