Is there another legit source besides Microsoft? Should I try the download on yet another computer (basically, make sure wifey brings home her hot shot Win 11 laptop from work.)
Thank goodness I'd just completed some very critical work -- mostly tax stuff, and all that is saved to the data drive.
Suggestions (besides dumping Microsoft - maybe that can come next year, but right now I need to get things running!
How far into the boot cycle does it get?
Past the bios post, but not into windows?
Is there a BSD or 0x000 code?
Maybe try a temporary boot drive and run a check disk on that HD
That happened to me 3 or 4 days nights ago. I have a newly installed Windows 11 and figured they were just working out the kinks. I turned the darn thing off and went to bed. The next morning everything was fine and dandy.
If you want to save important stuff there is an easy way to do that. Borrow or access another computer to make a Linux Mint “live CD” stick. then you can use that stick to boot into, and use it to send stuff off onto another USB stick to save it.
You do not have to install the Linux, you are just using it from the stick temporary to rescue your data to external storage. Everyone should have a Linux stick just for this reason alone... To save personal MS files before being forced to completely reinstall MS and lose them all...
You will need to first install Rufus into the borrowed compter if it is a windows system. Then you download the Linux ISO and use rufus to make the stick. Then using your boot manager boot into the Linux stick. It will let you access and manipulate your MS files as needed.
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/download/v4.9/rufus-4.9.exe
https://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=322
The desktop can't take Win 11 Pro, according to Microsoft. Other downloads from the web (on the laptop) are working fine, if a bit slow - sometimes even the fiber optic lines from my ISP get bogged down a little, mid-day, but, Speedtest says I still have ~16 Mbps download speed (and, curiously, 45+ Mbps upload speed). Normally these are ~ 75 Mbps, but, even so, the darn download should work... Is there another legit source besides Microsoft? Should I try the download on yet another computer (basically, make sure wifey brings home her hot shot Win 11 laptop from work.)
And you do not create system backups, such as via Macrium (for non-commercial)? Get a 240GB HD for under $20 and a USB SSD adapter for under $10.
Meanwhile, this may help: How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade. This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 10 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything.
Forgot to add that 16 Mbps download speed via fiber optics is very puzzling.
Backups can be your friend in these situations
Go to this link, it is a download to create a bootable Win10 disk:
https://www.easeus.com/backup-utility/winpe-bootable-disk.html
Had a similar thing happen to a Linux install. Problem eventually traced back to an odd-ball Dell video driver that Linux didn’t support. Eventually got around that by editing the Grub line to allow Linux to substitude a default driver.
My system appeared to lockup when is simply lost video output.
I’m betting your system update ‘broke’ your video driver. Windows 10 is back there. Some of the older Dell Video Cards dont have drivers for the later OS’s.