Can't upgrade to windows 8.1 due to users on different drive

Windows based issues resolved
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RescuePC
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:48 pm

Can't upgrade to windows 8.1 due to users on different drive

Post by RescuePC »

If you get the error
Sorry, it looks like this PC can't run Windows 8.1. This might be because the Users or Program Files folder is being redirected to another partition.

Then the following will resolve

Create a new local user, with administrative rights.
Change the aforementioned registry key's value to %SystemDrive%\Users. This is to return the system to the installation default.
Reboot the machine.
Login as the administrative user that you created above.
Verify that this user's profile was created on the system drive in the Users directory.
Start RegEdit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
Export the key for each profile, that does not point at the system drive, and then delete the registry key for that user.
Access the store and upgrade to 8.1 and wait a WHILE for the upgrade to complete.
Login to the administrative account created above.
Import the registry keys that you exported previously.
Change the value for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ProfilesDirectory back to what it was.
Reboot.
Test your accounts.
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