Another Catastrophic Win10 Failure....

[cohenfive]

I'm not a happy camper. Upgraded both desktop and laptop to win10 and now have had problems with both. With the desktop, after an update, win10 blew away my entire profile. Didn't lose anything, but it took hours to reset every single thing on the pc.

Now, I boot up my laptop and win10 says it had a problem on shutdown. Tried to diagnose and could not, tried restarting and it would not. Now trying to go back to prior build (win7) but so far things are just spinning.

Any suggestions on how to force the pc to boot into some operating system? Thanks.

 

[Berryracer]

The best thing to do usually is to upgrade, then note down the product key that was upgraded then do a clean install.

Heck now you can do a clean install immediately using your older OS product key

upgrade are usually an open door for problems

 

[ganons]

Best do a fresh install and install all your apps then make a system image should you need to do a clean install in the future again

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Best not to upgrade at all.

 

[Ketchup]

Fresh install is a good idea considering where you are. No need to get a product key. If your system was activated, just download your version with the Media Creation Tool here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Make sure you DON'T enter a key during installation. Once online, Windows will activate as it did before.

 

[Berryracer]

Here is my Windows 10 Clean Installation Guide

 

[Gunbuster]

Yeah my W10 (upgrade) grenaded and got stuck in the repair, cant, reboot loop.

Did a fresh install and it's been running great. Good thing I backup to OneDrive and a local NAS so it was pretty painless.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Best not to upgrade at all.

Ironically yes, or do what I did, reserve a free upgrade for all eligible machines and roll back to Win7/8 until "better times".

 

[cohenfive]

Fresh install of what? The old os or win10? I don't have a hard disk of my os, not with a product key for the laptop anyway...I have a disk for my desktop.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Fresh install of what? The old os or win10? I don't have a hard disk of my os, not with a product key for the laptop anyway...I have a disk for my desktop.

Use the media creation tool to do a fresh install of 10, I believe is the suggestion. You (should) need no product key.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Ironically yes, or do what I did, reserve a free upgrade for all eligible machines and roll back to Win7/8 until "better times".

I understand that even with a reserved upgrade when Microsoft decides the free upgrade is no more that you will be SOL!! Wait too long == SOL!!

 

[cohenfive]

MS is being pretty unhelpful, maybe not a surprise. Their solution is to go back to Dell/Alienware to get a free recovery disk and product key, then to do a clean install of win7. I probably don't have any choice, cannot get the laptop to do anything other than hang up 'restoring' the old os which isn't there any more. Hopefully ms is right in saying that dell will send me a recovery disk.

I do not know how to get to a media creation tool since on boot up, the pc just hangs in restore mode and will not do anything else that I can find.

 

[Ketchup]

MS is being pretty unhelpful, maybe not a surprise. Their solution is to go back to Dell/Alienware to get a free recovery disk and product key, then to do a clean install of win7. I probably don't have any choice, cannot get the laptop to do anything other than hang up 'restoring' the old os which isn't there any more. Hopefully ms is right in saying that dell will send me a recovery disk.

I do not know how to get to a media creation tool since on boot up, the pc just hangs in restore mode and will not do anything else that I can find.

What computer are you posting from? You can get the media creation tool that I linked from any computer with Internet access.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Truth be told you should've saved the restore image to another disc prior to wiping it out. I've got my original w7 image on a dvd packed away just in case I should decide that I want to restore it to my drive which is slim to nil.

 

[cohenfive]

What computer are you posting from? You can get the media creation tool that I linked from any computer with Internet access.

Where is the link, I'm using my desktop. Is this it?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nbr-windows-10-clean-installation-guide.781178/

 

[quikah]

Where is the link, I'm using my desktop. Is this it?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nbr-windows-10-clean-installation-guide.781178/

Yes, although I wouldn't blindly follow all the customization settings he recommends. The recommendation to turn off SmartScreen Filter is f'ing stupid.

 

[cohenfive]

Won't I need a product key installing win10 this way? It's not clear from what I can read so far. I guess no harm in trying since I have no os on the laptop now anyway.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I understand that even with a reserved upgrade when Microsoft decides the free upgrade is no more that you will be SOL!! Wait too long == SOL!!

Microsoft will keep your hardware id on their activation servers, you should not have a problem activating it again later, unless you change your motherboard. With a newer WX build you would be able to use your Win7/8/8.1 key anyway. Microsoft wants you to upgrade badly. So badly, it's not even funny. People can do without Microsoft, easily. Microsoft can't.

The recommendation to turn off SmartScreen Filter is f'ing stupid.

Not really, SmartScreen is now part of telemetry program. Why do you need excessive logging. Use a 3rd party av instead.

 

[cohenfive]

If I do the install will all my programs and files be wiped out?

 

[Ketchup]

You can install Win 10 on top of itself. I did that on a VM before the final release. All programs and files stayed in place.

 

[cohenfive]

So are you saying that a clean install of win10 can be done without disturbing existing programs and files? Or is this a different type of install?

 

[JEDIYoda]

Microsoft will keep your hardware id on their activation servers, you should not have a problem activating it again later, unless you change your motherboard. With a newer WX build you would be able to use your Win7/8/8.1 key anyway. Microsoft wants you to upgrade badly. So badly, it's not even funny. People can do without Microsoft, easily. Microsoft can't.

actually that's not what you said the first time! You spoke as if even if you did not download windows 10 that you would be able to download it for free forever...which is not true! Unless you download it before they discontinue allowing free downloads~

 

[MongGrel]

Surprised so many problems, still running the Dev beta WIN X's on the main and upgraded an older one to it in the bedroom.

I did have one problem with video awhile back on the main, but after playing around not sure that was even Windows.

 

[Magic Carpet]

If I do the install will all my programs and files be wiped out?

If you choose to upgrade, your files, documents, downloads, porn and most windows settings will be with you. Even that Start8 menu will still work. Clean install is better though, less junk and clutter overall.

actually that's not what you said the first time! You spoke as if even if you did not download windows 10 that you would be able to download it for free forever...which is not true!

By "reserving", I actually meant getting it upgraded and validated by Microsoft. Once upgraded, you can clean install (using Media Tool provided by Microsoft) it any time you want, with or without your original Windows 7/8/8.1 key (this option will come later though), for now, you just do "skip" and it gets activated itself upon after a "couple" of reboots. You can swap hard drives and cd-roms and it will still activate fine, but not the motherboard (so if you plan hardware upgrades in the near future, better to wait, this is especially true if you upgrade with an OEM key).

Unless you download it before they discontinue allowing free downloads~

Not really fussed about that, I still have several machines pending "free updates" but I am not in a hurry, chances are, I might turn these boxes into *nix workstations by the time I get around doing proper maintenance on them. I don't think this hassle is worth my time yet. I do believe that Windows 10 will get better in time but it's up to Microsoft to make it more attractive for the enthusiasts. Stop dumbing it down, I am not your Windows Phone user.

 

[quikah]

Not really, SmartScreen is now part of telemetry program. Why do you need excessive logging. Use a 3rd party av instead.

3rd party AV will not protect Edge from phishing sites unless it includes a firewall (which many don't). Whatever floats your boat, the tinfoil hatters are just making their systems more vulnerable.