Posted on 09/17/2025 10:49:42 AM PDT by Paul R.
Oh, boy. My Dell Win 10 Pro desktop suffered a MS Update last night, and won't reboot. None of the Dell repair / restore options have worked so far: I'm holding off on a complete "recovery" which would involve repartitioning the boot SSD & losing all the data on it, then reinstalling the OS, etc. Luckily, all my documents, images, etc., are saved to another HD, but, I would lose the programs on the boot drive and have to reinstall them, which means losing lots of settings and so on. So far as I can tell, I may be able to pull the boot / OS / programs drive and extract my Brave and Chrome bookmarks (I have a ton of them), and, I MAY be able to retrieve the Windows and Libre Office dictionaries, which would be hugely helpful.
Meanwhile... It appears the USB (flash) boot drive I'd made ages ago has become corrupted. No problem, I'll just download a fresh copy of Win 10 Pro and save it to an unused USB Flash drive, using my Win 11 laptop, right? Well, wrong. The process hangs at the actual download step where the little progress notification shows up. Progress shows "0%" and stays there, for over an hour.
I tried reformatting the flash drive to exFAT, no dice. I tried a different (new) flash drive, no dice.
What the heck? Microsoft says nothing about this support already being ended, and all the steps up to this point work fine.
So far, I can’t even run a restore.
Yeah, I have a monster gaming computer I inherited from my brother, and also a HP laptop, that both seem to have that same sort of problem, but, I’m not knowledgeable enough to quite dig in that far...
Could be. But how the heck are the restore points gone (per the Dell troubleshooting software)?
From what some posters are saying, I wonder if it’s possible to go back to a bit older version of Win 10 Pro. The updates are going to end soon anyway...
The “screen flash” you described seems like the symptom I had. The system is loading and aborts/fails at the video driver. I’m not current on Windows as I used to be but I can say that my Linux system never offered me restore points either (and I did have them).
See if you can get into your bios. If you saw the Dell splash screen, you should be able to hit F12 (I think) and get in.
Aha! It finally dawned on me that there is an old copy of the Win 10 Pro OS still on the data drive. So, I selected that drive as the boot drive, and, voila, less the update, the computer boots fine, I can read all drives, etc.
What I don’t have is the recent MS Security (by at least a year), most of the programs (apps), and recent bookmarks, etc., windows I’d left open last night, custom dictionaries of recent vintage, etc.
Also, the Win 10 Pro desktop wanted to do an immediate update with no possibility of delaying it once it becomes “inactive”. Update files were downloading — I just pulled the Cat 5e cable. Screw that, for now. And, I’ll shut down the entire machine when not in use. No carry-over from session to session - I’ll have to be sure to save everything. But, the laptop can take care of most of my web browsing until I get more goodies installed onto the new Win 11 desktop. A few of my most basic programs (apps) are on it already, and I can get more on there tomorrow. Today, I have to salvage today, what of it I can!
I wonder if that bootable Win 10 disk would have the latest updates? It looks like I’m better off if it doesn’t, and won’t accept them either.
” once it becomes “inactive”. “
That “if” being the machine itself.
IIRC the fix in to re-install Windows without wiping the drive. It knows to keep everything the same.
It’s the backup when you upgrade to 11.
Damnation!
If I reboot to the USB boot drive I just made, the Win 10 Pro desktop exhibits the SAME behavior as it does (fails) when booting off the C: (boot) drive. So, the Win 10 Pro one can now download has the same damn flaw s the update.
I then tried rebooting from the data drive with the old OS on it, and it did “some” updates very quickly, and then proceeded to complete booting and operate normally. (Less most of my programs / apps, etc.)
If you end up making a Linux stick and need anything else just PM me. But tell you what, in situations like this, a whole second independent stand alone operating system running from an external USB can be priceless to save all your files off your internal main drive... And the Linux is only a little over 2 gigs on the stick. I have saved a lot of Windows files doing this...
The problem is, Microsoft INSISTS on the update, and the update has broken something, perhaps a video driver as was suggested above.
The only option is to somehow get a copy of the old OS, and then not go online.
I wonder if the restore point problem is Microsoft blocking people from just going back to the “old” OS version via the restore point. If so, what bastards they are!
“See if you can get into your bios. If you saw the Dell splash screen, you should be able to hit F12 (I think) and get in.”
Yes. on a Dell it is F12 for the BIOS and Boot device option menu.
I was just thinking that when I call my wife (to warn her I’ve been fighting computers and Microsoft all day, and warn her about HER Win 10 Pro desktop here at home too, as a lot of her work is on it — I need her permission to get on it and start backing up as much as I can there, too, because I’m pretty sure she has not) —
I was just thinking I’m going to HAVE to devote some serious time to put Linux on an old machine and freaking learn it. This Microsoft crap is just too much... She won’t be happy, as she’s having a hard time just adjusting to me slowing down as I get old. (Me too!) :-(
I can’t get to safe mode from the C: drive or the bootable USB drive I just made. See above.
Thanks, tho’, that’s normally good advice.
“I wonder if the restore point problem is Microsoft blocking people from just going back to the “old” OS version via the restore point. If so, what bastards they are!”
You bet they would do this. They have been warning that if you don’t pay up $30 for a year extension or get a new computer they were going to break them so they can’t be used for windows.
I don’t think that will help. See this post of mine (above):
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4341085/posts?page=32#32
Sounds like since you have a lot to gather from a couple sources, you might want to go buy a 1-2 Terabyte USB external backup drive. They are less than $100 and should hold everything from both computers. Just use the Linux to make his and hers folders on the backup drive... :)
But I’m going to tell you right now, “learning Linux” is no real big task or curve. If you can already use Win 7 it is almost exactly the same...
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