Windows 10 update nightmare

Are you needing to recover lost data? Or is it OK to start from a completely fresh install?

If it is the 2nd, you can do that without paying someone.

 

Stop ranting like an old fogey and describe the problem in detail. It can probably be fixed easily.

 

Boot in Safe mode, go to system restore, go back to earliest point.

 

^^^ [EDIT] I assume you've done moes Safe Mode restore? If not, do that.

Then I won't try to talk you out of paying someone, since you are way deep in following all the update/fix suggestions.

Here's my guess on how the tech will recover your data and give you back a Windows 10 machine. Rather than actually trying to fix it, which s/he might not even be able to do, since your attempts failed, s/he might do this:

1. Install a new harddrive, and put Windows 10 on it.
2. Slave to your old harddrive
3. Run file recovery software on the old harddrive to get your data
4. Call you on the phone and say your hd was bad, but s/he can get the data off, if you are willing to buy a new harddrive.
5. You say ok.
6. S/he returns the machine

That is what I'd do, if I was at the same point of utter frustration as you, having been very diligent at following all Microsoft's update/fix suggestions. If you feel you can do that yourself, you'd save money probably, and we can recommend the free file recovery software out there.

That said, I have no problem re-installing all my software. The method above won't restore software, just your data. I actually look at that task as something worthwhile to do every major OS upgrade, just to clean everything up, with a brand new (or reformatted) Harddrive and fresh OS install.

 

Here's what I would do. I would download Ubuntu, if you don't have a full HD, download the live CD.
You could also download tails Linux on a pen drive.
After you do that, if you can get into the desktop, open a terminal and run this:
1. Run lsblk. Find out what drive it is.
2. sudo mount /dev/sdx /mnt
*(x) is the drive.
3. cd /mnt
4. ls -a
5. sudo cp /yourdatafolder ~
Then you can connect to Google drive to copy everything to it.
Then reinstall wondows.
Done.

 

This is why those pesky millennials use overpriced Macs.

 

very cheap, nowadays.

consider also, that the current HD is not actually bad. So when you are all done, the old one can be reformatted and reused as extra storage.

For ultimate cost saving, you can then copy the new to the old (freshly reformatted and installed with Win10), and return the new for a refund. lulz.

 

HeyP he don't know anything about master and slave.
All you got to do is install a Linux system on the other hard drive and run the mount command to mount his old windows 10 to his Linux Drive.
Once you have access to that drive you can copy and paste like it a regular drive on the system.

What you're telling him to do is the hard way, something we might have done back in the 80s or something

 

Why would I buy a new hd and install Linux on a boot drive just to recover data from a secondary drive, when my goal is to put Windows 10 on that boot drive.

sigh

I don't think you know what Master and slave is. It's just BIOS terminology for C: and D: drive, and a freaking cable that everyone knows how to link between HDs.

I know how to do this using Linux to discover the corrupt drive, too. But, I don't like your idea, because all you explained was the case where the data is in a single file tree. That won't be the case. Your method above won't work, or will be extremely hard, not to mention the dude wants Windows 10 installed.

sigh sigh

It is much easier to recover Windows drives using the readily available, free file recovery software, running from a Windows boot drive. This also has the added benefit of readily available HOW-TO documentation on the internet to find app data from each major software that he might be running...like Outlook, for instance. Those instructions we assume you are viewing the files structure via File Explorer.

 

You could also install Windows 10 and then try to mount the window 10 drive to the new windows 10, but Windows 10 mounting system is convoluted.
It's much easier in Linux, but trying to create a master slaves setup is just plain wrong.
If you do go that route though I would highly recommend that you remove your existing hard drive, installed a new hard drive, then install Windows 10.
The reason is is that Windows partitioning system pretty much sucks, and you'll be lucky if you don't actually format the old drive instead of formatting this current Drive.
To be on the safe side make sure that you remove that old hard drive first.

 

Yeah okay, most people don't spend their life in the Bios, heypee.
I was also under the assumption that he was just trying to save some of his data documents.
I'm not sure why he would go in and copy the entire old windows 10 operating system to another drive that makes no sense.

 

That's not what I said. There is not a good windows 10 on the drive. That's the whole point of the thread.

 

Can you not hit restart, get your computer to the repair/bootup screen and select advanced system repair option or whatever to get to safe mode or go to last restore point?

Worst case you can use that same repair screen during start up to put a new windows installation on there and it should give you the option to save everything to a hard/usb drive

 

After all we've said I doubt he's going to try this anyways, lol.
But like I said if he does make sure that he doesn't try to make the Master Slave before he actually installs Windows 10 on his new hard drive.
Do that first.
Then go ahead and make the Master Slave if that's what you want to do.
Hell I know something about computers and I deleted my entire hard drive with that stupid partitioning system Windows 10 has.

 

This is what I said to do. Then reconnect them both as a dual harddrive setup. Do the file recovery to the new hd, then reformat the old hd, to use as secondary storage, or throw it away.

It's not hard.

As for partitioning, there is no way I'd partition a corrupt drive that I'm attempting to recover....that's foolishness.

You're stuck on the words Master/Slave like that's difficult. It's just setting up a box with two hard drives. If he doesn't have two bays, you can still do the file recovery.