After encountering numerous issues on win 10 with my SP3, I have decided to roll back to 8.1. However - the files to do so seem to have been deleted. I am not sure how they got deleted as when I attempted to roll back earlier yesterday they were there. The only thing I did from that time was I used the media creation tool to make a win 10 usb stick in case I decided to give it another try later on. Now it will not allow me to roll back. I still have the windows.old folder on the C: drive and it has only been 19 days since I upgraded. Anyone else have any issues rolling back after copying win 10 to usb stick?
Roll back to 8.1 files missing
- Thread starter Striknine
- Start date
I believe the documentation said you need Windows.old and $Windows.~BT to rollback. Id assume the Media Creation Tool modified $Windows.~BT. Performing a W10 Refresh or Reset also would kill the ability to rollback.
This is quite unfortunate, If you still have your Recovery partition I think you should have the option of Restore Factory settings otherwise you would need to use an 8.1 Recovery USB to Reset (remove everything and reinstall). Id be skeptical about 8.1 Refresh (keep files option) this may be untenable after W10; not so much the files but settings may not translate. definitely an unknown.
This is quite unfortunate, If you still have your Recovery partition I think you should have the option of Restore Factory settings otherwise you would need to use an 8.1 Recovery USB to Reset (remove everything and reinstall). Id be skeptical about 8.1 Refresh (keep files option) this may be untenable after W10; not so much the files but settings may not translate. definitely an unknown.
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Is there a way to accomplish the roll back without using the recovery console? I am thinking the media creation program screwed something up since I was able to proceed earlier but decided to wait until I made a usb stick and had the time to finish the roll back. I use my SP3 for work and since updating I have had nothing but issues with using my pen, having to enter password after closing the cover, program hang ups, battery drain, etc. plus I don't like the tablet/desktop modes, it just seemed more straight forward with the desktop button. Anyways I hope I can get back to where I was before the downgrade to windows 10.
I don't know how to get there from here. This is the reason I used Macrium Reflect to make backup images of my system first because no mater how twisted up it got I could always get back. I also made an image after the upgrade to W10.
I suspect changes to $Windows.~BT could be "fixed" IF we knew what was changed and it wasn't too significant.
What Id try if I was desperate is to Upgrade a test machine, make an image, copy the $Windows.~BT folder, run the Media Creation Tool the same way you did, compare and analyze $Windows.~BT for changes. It might be something simple like an XML file that holds the key or it could be much more complex but I really don't know. It could be elsewhere, if so... only God and Microsoft know where.
I suspect changes to $Windows.~BT could be "fixed" IF we knew what was changed and it wasn't too significant.
What Id try if I was desperate is to Upgrade a test machine, make an image, copy the $Windows.~BT folder, run the Media Creation Tool the same way you did, compare and analyze $Windows.~BT for changes. It might be something simple like an XML file that holds the key or it could be much more complex but I really don't know. It could be elsewhere, if so... only God and Microsoft know where.
I believe my only option at this point is a factory reset, which I should still have in my recovery partition.
What gets me is it still shows 6.29gb in settings\storage for previous version of windows.
I also have;
5.02gb in windows.old
5.76gb in $windows~WS
205kb in $windows~BT.
What gets me is it still shows 6.29gb in settings\storage for previous version of windows.
I also have;
5.02gb in windows.old
5.76gb in $windows~WS
205kb in $windows~BT.
