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Help Me Fix Windows After Update


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#1 kurt91

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Posted 21 May 2018 - 02:33 AM

I've had an update appear on my desktop for a while, and kept hitting "Remind me Later" since I had a lot of things on my PC that I wanted to finish up first. I left over the weekend, and there was a power outage while I was gone. (My PC is on a surge protector, so it shouldn't have been damaged from that.) I figured that since I didn't have anything active left on my PC after starting it back up, I'd just hit the restart button and let it run the update.

 

Then things went wrong.

 

It seemed like a pretty big update, seeming to take forever to finish. When it did, I was taken to a blue screen that asked me what kind of keyboard layout I wanted, and then took me to a bunch of troubleshooting options. Stuff like "Startup Repair", "System Restore", etc.

 

The default partition that it's trying to start was "Windows Rollback", but every time I hit the button to start things up, it just took me back to the blue troubleshooting screen. My hard drive only has two partitions, the one that's normally used, and a "Recovery" partition. However, this troubleshooting setup is listing three. One is the "Windows Rollback" that isn't working. The other two are both labeled as "Windows", but I don't get any other information. I'm assuming that one is my main partition that I use, and the other is the Recovery drive.

 

I tried loading from one of those partitions, but when I put my Windows password in, it takes about twenty minutes to get any response beyond "Just a Moment", and even then it's only error boxes saying that important things like "explorer.exe" are missing. (Also, somehow I made one of those partitions the new default that Windows tries to boot from, and I while I can pick which one I want from the blue menu, I don't know how to swap the default back.)

 

So, I tried using my laptop and an external hard drive to download a Media Installation Tool from Microsoft's site, and use it as a USB recovery tool. When I hit "Repair My Computer", I'm just taken back to the original blue menu screen.

 

System Restore won't work because it claims that no restore points exist. Startup Repair keeps failing. At this point, I just want my computer to actually start. If I have to completely start from scratch, I'll deal with it and start re-installing everything. However, my computer was using a copy of Windows that was built-in when I got it. I have no idea how to use the Installation Tool that I set up, and I'm completely stumped.

 

I'm absolutely pissed because my computer was working perfectly when I got back to my dorm room, and only broke after hitting "Update and Restart". If I hadn't updated my computer, I wouldn't be having any problems at all. Does anybody have any clue what I'm supposed to do?

 

EDIT: So, after posting all of this and spending something like three hours, I finally got the option to "Reset my PC", which is *supposed* to fix things like factory settings without deleting everything. This option was not there before, and I don't know why it suddenly appeared. I'm going to try using it and see if I can get things working again. Wish me luck!


Edited by kurt91, 21 May 2018 - 02:36 AM.


#2 Lüt

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Posted 21 May 2018 - 02:52 AM

So uh, what version of Windows?
 

If updates are completely wrecking it, I'm going to assume 10, in which case sorry I can't help there.



#3 kurt91

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Posted 21 May 2018 - 03:42 AM

It looks like the "Reset My PC" option fixed it. I don't know why it didn't appear during the first multiple hours of trying to fix things. When I looked online and found that it was probably my best bet, I later found out on Microsoft's site that they had removed it from the troubleshooting menu, and that you can only access it from within the Control Panel on Windows 10, which completely kills the entire point!

 

Also, apparently System Restore is disabled by default, so if you don't ever think to manually turn it on (raises hand), it won't make any restore points. Shouldn't these kinds of things be ON by default, so that when something does go wrong, you have some sort of recourse?! I mean, the thing automatically makes a recovery partition, a couple more MB of space for at least one default System Restore point can't be that hard!

 

My Desktop PC is my main computer. I have all of my Steam games on it, I have my game design programs and blueprints on it, and I have various 3D modelling programs on it for when I get to those classes at college. I got back to my dorm room at 7:00 PM, and because of all of this hassle, it's now 1:30 in the morning, and I should probably go to bed. This whole issue destroyed all of my plans for the evening, and I can't just do one of these things because I need to be able to get up and go to classes tomorrow. (My laptop is basically my emergency PC. I've got basic stuff on it like Word and Firefox, but not much else. It's mainly just so that I can do schoolwork if something happens to my desktop, and is something I can actually carry to classes. I'd hate to have to rely on it long-term)

 

Anyways, sorry about the little rant there. Just needed to vent a bit. Long story short, things look like they're working now, and I even got to keep all of the programs on my computer alongside my files. Apparently, by "All Apps will be removed", they meant the Windows Store apps, and I never use those. I was dreading having to rebuild my Skyrim mod setup. I only just got that "finished" a couple weeks ago. ("Finished" as in playable. I'm still looking at minor tweaks and stuff)

 

EDIT: I stand corrected. Went to go check on something, and found out that everything IS gone, and I just have a ton of broken shortcuts. I did get a file that lists everything that was removed, so I know how many things to look for. Good God, this is going to take a while. And I really will have to rebuild my Skyrim game, damn it!


Edited by kurt91, 21 May 2018 - 04:11 AM.


#4 Timelord

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Posted 06 June 2018 - 01:56 AM

Just: No.

 

Windows 10 Update corrupted my entire (old) Win10 installation to the point of being unable to boot--at all.

 

There's no logistical way to fix, or to prevent this issue. You cannot indefinitely freeze the updates, skip them, ignore them, or prevent Win10 from raping itself whenever it bloody well wishes. This is the primary reason why I feel that Windows 10 is utter rubbish.

 

Windows Restore Points are NOT succicient!

 

Buy two large, external HDDs, then. every week or two, make a full system image, and pray.

 

This requires a HDD at least as large as your full drive capacity (in blocks). Use Linux (CloneZilla) to make a clone of it. Then, periodically make a second clone. Use two drives, and overwrite the older of the two when you make a new image.

 

Then, if Win10 wrecks itself, boot into Parted Magic, copy off your newer data, and restore your entire drive from the image.

 

You also want some 256GB NAND cards (USB or otherwise). Evry week, copy your latest datafiles onto one. They're cheap, and you can toss them in a safe, or a desk drawer, and be sure of having your local data when Win10 eats its own brain and wipes your user account.

 

I picked up a spare Dell today, and it has Win10 on it. As soon as I return home, I am cloning my Win7 install over this. :D

 

You also want some 256GB NAND cards (USB or otherwise). Evry week, copy your latest datafiles onto one. They're cheap, and you can toss them in a safe, or a desk drawer, and be sure of having your local data when Win10 eats its own brain and wipes your user account.


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