Verify your configuration. After Windows 10 has been installed, use the inventory to compare and test each element that was inventoried prior to the upgrade to verify that the upgrade was successful.
Handling an Upgrade Failure
Before you upgrade, you should have a contingency plan in place. Your plan should assume the worst-case scenario. For example, what happens if you upgrade and the computer doesn’t work anymore? It is possible that, after checking your upgrade list and verifying that everything should work, your attempt at the actual upgrade may not work. If this happens, you may want to return your computer to the original, working configuration.
Indeed, I have made these plans, created my backups (two, just in case), verified them, and then had a failed upgrade anyway – only to discover that I had no clue where to find the original operating system CD. A day later, with the missing CD located, I was able to get up and running again. My problem was an older BIOS, and the manufacturer of my computer did not have an updated BIOS.
Disk Partitioning
Disk partitioning is the act of taking the physical hard drive and creating logical partitions. A logical drive is how space is allocated to the drive’s primary and logical partitions. For example, if you have a 500 GB hard drive, you might partition it into three logical drives:
■ C: drive, which might be 200 GB
■ D: drive, which might be 150 GB
■ E: drive, which might be 150 GB
The following sections detail some of the major considerations for disk partitioning:
Partition Size One important consideration in your disk-partitioning scheme is determining the partition size. You need to consider the amount of space taken up by your operating system, the applications that will be installed, and the amount of stored data. It is also important to consider the amount of space required in the future.
Microsoft recommends that you allocate at least 16 GB of disk space for Windows 10. This allows room for the operating system files and for future growth in terms of upgrades and installation files that are placed with the operating system files.
The System and Boot Partitions When you install Windows 10, files will be stored in two locations: the system partition and the boot partition. The system partition and the boot partition can be the same partition.
The system partition contains the files needed to boot the Windows 10 operating system. The system partition contains the Master Boot Record (MBR) and boot sector of the active drive partition. It is often the first physical hard drive in the computer and normally contains the necessary files to boot the computer. The files stored on the system partition do not take any significant disk space. The active partition is the system partition that is used to start your computer. The C: drive is usually the active partition.
The boot partition contains the Windows 10 operating system files. By default, the Windows operating system files are located in a folder named Windows.
Disk Partition Configuration Utilities If you are partitioning your disk prior to installation, you can use several utilities, such as the DOS or Windows FDISK program, or a third-party utility, such as Norton’s Partition Magic. You can also configure the disks during the installation of the Windows 10 operating system.
You might want to create only the first partition where Windows 10 will be installed. You can then use the Disk Management utility in Windows 10 to create any other partitions you need. The Windows 10 Disk Management utility is covered in Chapter 3, “Configuring Devices and Drivers.”
Language and Locale
Language and locale settings determine the language the computer will use. Windows 10 supports many languages for the operating system interface and utilities.
Locale settings are for configuring the format for items such as numbers, currencies, times, and dates. For example, English for the United States specifies a short date as mm/dd/yyyy (month/day/year), while English for South Africa specifies a short date as yyyy/mm/dd (year/month/day).
It is very important to only choose the locales that this machine will need to use. The reason for this is that for every locale you choose, your system will get updates for all chosen locales that you set up.
Installing Windows 10
The first step to installing Windows 10 is to know what type of media you need to install the Windows 10 operating system. Windows 10 gives you multiple ways to do an install.
You can install Windows 10 either from the bootable DVD or through a network installation using files that have been copied to a network share point or USB device. You can also install Windows 10 by using a virtual hard drive (vhd). This option will be discussed in Chapter 2, “Installing in an Enterprise Environment.” You can also launch the setup.exe file from within the Windows 10 operating system to upgrade your operating system.
To start the installation, you simply restart your computer and boot to the DVD. The installation process will begin automatically. You will walk through the steps of performing a clean install of Windows 10 from the DVD in Exercise 1.1.
If you are installing Windows 10 from the network, you need a distribution server and a computer with a network connection. A distribution server is a server that has the Windows 10 distribution files copied to a shared folder. The following steps are used to install Windows 10 over the network:
1. Boot the target computer.
2. Attach to the distribution server and access the share that has the files copied to it.
3. Launch setup.exe.
4. Complete the Windows 10 installation using either the clean install method or the upgrade method. These methods are discussed in detail in the following sections.
Performing a Clean Install of Windows 10
On any installation of Windows 10, there are three stages.
Collecting Information During the collection phase of the installation, Windows 10 gathers the information necessary to complete the installation. This is where Windows 10 gathers your local time, location, keyboard, license agreement, installation type, and installation disk partition information.
Installing Windows This section of the installation is where your Windows 10 files are copied to the hard disk and the installation is completed. This phase takes the longest because the files are installed.
Setting Up Windows In this phase, you set up a username, computer name, and password; enter the product key; configure the security settings; and review the date and time. Once this is finished, your installation will be complete.
As explained earlier, you can run the installation from the optical media, from a USB, or over a network. The only difference in the installation procedure is your starting point: from your optical drive or USB or a network share. The steps in Exercise 1.1 and Exercise 1.2 assume you are using the Windows 10 DVD to install Windows 10.
Setting Up Your Computer for Hands-On Exercises
Before beginning Exercise 1.1, verify that your computer meets the requirements for installing Windows 10, as listed earlier in
