Getting option for W10 or 11 boot after failed 11 upgrade attempt - can I get rid of 11 remnants?

R

Robert P

Member
I tried upgrading to W11 just to see what would happen with a non-supported CPU. It got all the way to the end and got a message that it failed and was reverting to W10. Apparently this left some part of the W11 installation in place since I now get an option to boot into W11 or W10. I found steps to make it default to W10 but obviously whatever is there from the W11 installation is pointlessly taking up space on the system drive. Is there a way to erase whatever is there from W11 without getting rid of W10?

Thanks.
 
You can't upgrade unless you bypass the requirements and sometime you can only do that by doing a fresh install.

You most likely just need to edit the boot.ini file to remove the instance of windows 11. But be careful, you do the wrong thing and you'll screw it up.

In the search bar, type msconfig and hit enter. You'll see a box pop up like this.

boot ini 1.png

click on on the boot tab,

boot ini 2.png

click on the line for where yours says windows 11 and then just click on the delete button underneath there and then apply.
 
johnb35 said:
You can't upgrade unless you bypass the requirements and sometime you can only do that by doing a fresh install.

You most likely just need to edit the boot.ini file to remove the instance of windows 11. But be careful, you do the wrong thing and you'll screw it up.

In the search bar, type msconfig and hit enter. You'll see a box pop up like this.

View attachment 11729

click on on the boot tab,

View attachment 11730

click on the line for where yours says windows 11 and then just click on the delete button underneath there and then apply.
Click to expand...
With the newest version of W11 apparently there's a requirement that can't be bypassed and the newest version is the only one that's available now.

If I follow your directions above does that remove everything associated with W11 and free up the drive space or does it just not look for the W11 boot option?
 
It just removes the reference to it at boot. Since this was an upgrade I'm not sure where the windows 11 files would be stored at, not sure if they are even on your system since the upgrade failed. If the upgrade had went through, windows 10 files would have been in a windows.old folder at the root directory.
 
johnb35 said:
It just removes the reference to it at boot. Since this was an upgrade I'm not sure where the windows 11 files would be stored at, not sure if they are even on your system since the upgrade failed. If the upgrade had went through, windows 10 files would have been in a windows.old folder at the root directory.
Click to expand...
Doing what you advised it does just boot to a desktop.

Going by properties on the Windows folder it shows to be around 40 gigs - does it sound like that would be enough to hold installs of 10 & 11?
 
Robert P said:
Doing what you advised it does just boot to a desktop.

Going by properties on the Windows folder it shows to be around 40 gigs - does it sound like that would be enough to hold installs of 10 & 11?
Click to expand...
Usually an upgrade will leave the previous version as Windows.old

You could see if there was a specific path for the W11 boot option but generally it would revert your files, it seems like it simply forgot to rewrite the bootloader to only have your previous installation as the choosable option.

I wouldn't really start randomly deleting crap out of the Windows folder.
 
beers said:
Usually an upgrade will leave the previous version as Windows.old

You could see if there was a specific path for the W11 boot option but generally it would revert your files, it seems like it simply forgot to rewrite the bootloader to only have your previous installation as the choosable option.

I wouldn't really start randomly deleting crap out of the Windows folder.
Click to expand...
Have you no sense of adventure? :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top