I'll try and retell my attempts to upgrade to 10 as best as I can remember. I'll probably forget about some attempts just because I've been at this for so long I've lost count. I've been trying for about a week.
Day 1:
-Wonder why I can't get 10.
-Click on get updates from MS, not WSUS, and there it is. (Seriously, MS, why can't I uses WSUS to cache a 3 GB ISO?)
-Update downloads (over 3 hours on my 3 Mb/s connection), finally installs.
-Reboots, gets stuck on 82% (configuring settings 29%).
Day 2:
-I wake up, check progress, and it's still at 82%. Reboot and it reverts to 8.1.
-Try again, this time Windows Update gets stuck at Preparing for Installation.
-Google my error, find this, try all the steps listed, and it still happens.
-Try all sorts of stuff, like using disk cleanup's system file cleanup to clear Windows updates, run a FixIt for Windows Update, stop and start Windows Update service, etc.
-Still fails at preparing for installation.
-Eventually restore from Acronis backup in hopes that somehow this will work, but nothing new.
Day 3-5:
-Keep trying Windows Update, sometimes it works but hangs at 82% again, other times it sticks at Preparing for Installation.
Day 6:
-Discover the boot media creator tool.
-Try to use the "upgrade" option.
-Downloads the ISO, reboots, fails once again at 82%. This time, however, I get the error message listed here when I get back to desktop.
-Try again, same results.
Day 7:
-Choose to download ISO, put on USB drive with Unetbootin.
-Run setup.exe, it runs and reboots, stuck at 82% again.
I am going insane trying to upgrade. For some reason, my wallpaper randomly turns black and then returns to what it was originally. Nothing has worked.
I was going to use the reset option after upgrading since clean install requires a Windows 10 key, which I do not intend to buy. However, it seems the only way to upgrade may be to use the reset option in 8.1, then upgrade to 10.
As some of you may know, taking the 8.1 upgrade from 8.0 prevents you from using the reset function since you don't have the original 8.1 disk. I do have an AIO rollup image I torrented, would that work as installation media? Or do I need to get an untouched 8.1 Pro x64 disk?
Also, according to my router logs, I have downloaded almost 45 GB of data from MS, so...about 15 failed upgrades (not including using my USB drive after I downloaded the ISO to my desktop)...what a waste of my 3 Mb/s connection. Thanks, Microsoft, for not letting me cache the upgrade on WSUS! You're wasting both of our connections!