@musicmaster I wish I could look back into that localhost upgrade failure inside my wamp64 for you however I deleted all of it already. Sorry 
However I have "all the time in the world" to prepare for this next try to get from 1.6.1.24 to 1.7.7.7
First a little backstory: Right now I'm running a live production site with ps version 1.6.1.10 under these server specifics.
; cPanel-generated php ini directives, do not edit
; Manual editing of this file may result in unexpected behavior.
; To make changes to this file, use the cPanel MultiPHP INI Editor (Home >> Software >> MultiPHP INI Editor)
; For more information, read our documentation (https://go.cpanel.net/EA4ModifyINI)
allow_url_fopen = On
allow_url_include = Off
asp_tags = Off
display_errors = Off
enable_dl = Off
file_uploads = On
max_execution_time = 1000
max_input_time = -1
max_input_vars = 5000
memory_limit = 256M
post_max_size = 128M
register_argc_argv = Off
session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440
session.save_path = "/tmp"
upload_max_filesize = 128M
zlib.output_compression = Off
So my live presta website 1.6.1.10 is configured this way.
----
1) Apache Version2.4.48
2) PHP Version 5.6.40 ---> However configured as PHP 7.2 (ea-php72) aka PHP Version 7.2.34 under cPanels MultiPHP Manager
3) MySQL Version 5.7.35
My son and I went through everything and rewrote a lot of files to pull this off. I also downloaded a lot of files from here on the forums to run a higher php version so we had some protection. As no matter how many times we tried we could not upgrade our ps 1.6.1.10 website. So here we are...
Anyway I seem to remember hacking the tools.php file a few times over the years. However I can't see how that would effect the jump for 1.6 to 1.7 above. Considering I took all the data from the website with your copy_shopdata and used it in a fresh 1.6.1.10 install.
If you need anymore info that might help on our live website I would be glad to provide it. In the next post I will provide all the details of where I'm at before trying to upgrade to 1.7 again.
Time I have so I'm in no rush...
Edit: Let me add that this is a very old website. I started with this one back in 2011? On version Presta v1.3.1 and have upgraded it and the themes since.
Edit #2: Let me also say I'm burning the candle at both ends. As I also have this same site migrated to Thirty Bees v1.2.0 and am currently fighting with the panda theme demo 7 on the forums over their.
I am determined to get both ps and tb working the way I want!