Q: Unable to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 "Something happened"
I'll try to keep this short because my 48-minute call to Microsoft Support ended with me trying to educate the MS "Support" guy on how Bootcamp works! If I wanted to do that, I'd start a class and charge a fee.
Anyway, I have a MacBook Pro, 2012 model, with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and which has been running Windows 7 Pro since purchased.
Some months ago, I got a new MacBook Pro 2015 model, same configuration, and migrated my Windows partition (using WinClone) to the new machine, in the process upgrading to Windows 10. In other words, I have ONE Product Code for Windows, but it was available on TWO machines (one running Win7, the other Win10).
Knowing that I could/should not run two versions of the same license on different machines, so when it came time to upgrade the "old" machine to Win10, I purchased a new Product Code online, then tried over the past few weeks to upgrade Windows. This is where the Microsoft Guy says that it's a Mac Hardware issue, and where I got lost in his broken English explanation. What happens is this:
I have tried the Internal "Software Update" version of upgrading, but the process fails giving me the elusive error code: "C1900101-20017". But for this, I am NEVER asked for a new Product Key. So I assumed that this might be because somehow the software realizes that I have two machines running the same key (no way to replace the product key I suppose).
But when I try to boot from a Thumb drive with an ISO burned with the upgrade application, I have to enter a Product Key (which is fine, since I bought one), but then I am told to reboot the computer and restart the process. When I do this, I get the other elusive "Something happened" error, saying that it could not validate my new Product Key.
So here I am, running Windows 7 Pro, having purchased a new Product Key for Windows 10... and with Microsoft (lack of) support telling me to "Call bootcamp" because it must have something to do with the hardware.
Any ideas, really, any ideas short of reaching through the ether and throttling the guy at MS Support, would be appreciated.
MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), MacBookPro5,3
Posted on Aug 1, 2016 12:34 PM