Windows 8 upgrade failing on 97%

1

I am trying to upgrade a PC from Windows XP to Windows 8 (both 32-bit).

I have ran the Upgrade Assistant, and started the upgrade. After accepting the license, a progress bar fills up and the computer restarts, showing the Windows 8 logo and a loading symbol.

On this screen, the percentage amount climbs fairly quickly until it reaches 97%, where the loading symbol continues spinning, but the percentage does not change. It stays this way for many hours, until my only option is to force a reboot using the power switch, and let Windows restore XP.

shea

Posted 2013-07-22T05:58:46.627

Reputation: 655

in this situation it would be usefull if you listed if your XP and/or Win8 upgrade type is 32bit or 64Bit? – Psycogeek – 2013-07-22T06:56:29.557

@Psycogeek Sorry. Both are 32-bit – shea – 2013-07-22T07:06:01.617

1a log should exist about here C:\WINDOWS\INF\setupapi.app.log or %SYSTEMROOT%$Windows.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log check for last thing on the log, or failed driver. When you get an endless loop thing, you can hit Shift-F10 to get to a console (and can stop things there, which will still be a fail).

Make sure your AntiVirus program is temporarily removed or inactivated from active scanning. Try doing a "custom install" and turning everything off, less is better. And above all no mater what anyone tells you if at all possilble grab your user data and fresh install – Psycogeek – 2013-07-22T07:32:46.413

An AV package would not prevent an upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 8 its not even running. The driver is likely the problem. – Ramhound – 2013-07-22T11:49:37.257

Answers

1

few things to check before upgrade to windows 8 on older machine

  1. Make sure your computer supports secure boot. You might be thinking that you won't fret about windows 8 secure boot on this old machine and simply install windows 8 without it. you might be wrong on this, as per my experience installing windows 8 on outdated BIOS causes various kind of problems
  2. uninstall antivirus and other incompatible softwares & hardware from your computer
  3. Scan for infections using Hitman Pro

techmate

Posted 2013-07-22T05:58:46.627

Reputation: 236

Why not use MSE to scan? What is so special about Hitman Pro? – Boris_yo – 2013-07-22T09:50:55.257

Windows 8 fully supports BIOS and does not require Secure Boot. Furthermore if his computer has Secure Boot then its not actually BIOS but UEFI. – Ramhound – 2013-07-22T11:50:24.940

i have helped many people in upgrading to windows 8 and i have seen computer with norton, kaspersky or mcafee. they all had some sort of infection when scanned with hitman pro, sometimes rootkit too. removing them using hitman pro has helped me in 75% cases that is why i suggested you hitman pro...

If you use hitman pro they won't pay me anything , it was just a suggestion. – techmate – 2013-07-23T03:14:26.483

According to the upgrade assistant, the computer does not support secure boot, but that was okay. I don't really see how an antivirus could be stopping things - would it even be loaded? The antivirus is Avast, if that helps – shea – 2013-07-27T02:32:02.890

I'm accepting this for now, as it might be some time before I can fully test all of these things and attempt the upgrade again. Thanks for your help – shea – 2013-07-27T02:32:53.830

Asked: 2013-07-22T05:58:46.627

Viewed: 1 236 times

Active: 2013-07-22T08:35:56.890