Scenario

You have attempted to upgrade to Windows 10, perhaps with the media / download tool however none of the upgrades are successful.

You may be experiencing one or more of the following symptoms:

• “Upgrade this PC now” gives the disappointing “Something happened” error message
• Creating a USB or ISO image is unsuccessful
• You may receive a message box saying “Setup has failed to initialize the working directory”
• Windows Updates for “Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro” has repeatedly failed
• User anger and frustration at the implication “Something happened” but in reality absolutely nothing happened and you have to start again!

Possible Cause

I’ve seen this problem occur when the C:\ drive on the computer being used is low on disk space.

The upgrade process requires approximately 3GB to store upgrade sources, however the actual upgrade and/or creation of an ISO image requires more space. Ensure you have a minimum of 10GB space free on C:\

If you’re unsure where your disk space is tied up, I recommend the free and open source tool WinDirStat to help you visually find used space in unexpected locations.

Did this help? Let me know in the comments.