Upgrade Headaches

So I've jumped on the bandwagon. I'm attempting to do the upgrades to Windows 10.

I even thought I was prepared for it. I tested on two no-longer-in-service laptops I had laying around. Stuff with failing batteries or just barely enough "umph" to run Windows 7. Both updates with no issues. I was encouraged.

So I decided to take the leap today. Desktop: no problems whatsoever. It updated, I set my settings, and booted to a Windows 10 desktop. Not much different from Win 7, honestly, but once you click the start button and dig around under the hood, you immediately notice the differences. It's still new; I'm reserving judgement for now, but I will say I'm so far more impressed than I was with Win 8. That lasted 10 minutes. I'm actually doing this post on 10, a few hours after the install.

So I put it on the laptop. Or should I say, I tried to put it on the laptop. Twice. Failed both times with some obscure error message that refers to Windows 8 upgrade issues. How helpful.

I've been around computers for years, and long ago lost my fear of installing an operating system. An in-place upgrade? Please.That's so easy it's not even worth considering.

But this has me baffled. No hardware conflicts. I meet the system requirements. All drivers updated. Windows Update has been on and automatic since I got the thing. Yet Windows 10 will not install.

So I did the only thing I can think of: followed the troubleshooting steps for upgrading to Windows 8 and hoped for the best. It's sitting at 51% right now on the third attempt. Third time's a charm, right?

If it screws up this time I think I'll just stick with 7 until the thing dies and I replace it. I could wipe the hard drive and do a clean install, but when it worked so well on everything else I tried it on, why should I make more work for myself?

And if you hear a faint cursing on the wind in a little while? Yeah, you'll know exactly how it went.

EDIT: Hear that swearing? Three fails in a row, all due to INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. Yet it boots into Windows 7 fine. Looked online, if I want it, I'm stuck with clean install only. Can I scream now?

At least it reverts back to Windows 7 with no issues.