Microsoft Destroyed My Computer (or so it seems)

October 8, 2019 | ML/NJ

[ml/nj]

So when I went to turn off my Windows7 machine last night, I got the warning not to turn it off because it was doing updates, so I left it going and went to sleep.

In the morning, it took forever to start, but it did start. I looked at Dilbert and turned it off normally. Now I've come home and the startup didn't complete after ten minutes or so, so I turned it off and then turned it on again.

The system suggested "Startup Repair" so I took that option and after a while, it asked if I wanted to restore to a known good state, so I took that option. But when I restarted the startup hung again. Off and on again; and now "Startup Repair" has been running for about 18 minutes with no end in sight.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

ML/NJ

[Scooter100]

I had a '90 5.0L Mustang with the stainless exhaust pipes. At 15 years it was everything from the headers to the trunk key. Found a speed shop that dumped the converter and put in some performance mufflers, and new stainless pipes, plus a retune....what a difference! Of course, it was illegal....but it sounded 200% !!

Quiz: How do you find out someone is a Commie?
Answer: Ask them where they stand on auto emission regulations. If they sit there like jelly on a bun, you got them, they're redder'n a pot-head's eyeballs.

[crusher2013]

After you buy a new computer or pay some one to fix this one.

Learn to use imaging software like Clonezilla. You can take an image of your system and store it on a USB drive.

If you system crashes just restore the image.

[KevinB]

Do you have any third-party disk encryption software on your computer?

[AnonymousConservative]

The recommendation is to let startup repair run for as long as it wants, as often as it wants until you are back in, then back everything up. It could take a day or two of running, reboot, and then tell you it is corrupted and needs to run start up repair, and you are supposed to let it run again. It could be five or six times or more, but supposedly as long as it is running, it is going piece by piece repairing things.

Supposedly it is the best chance of getting back to where you can get all your files. People sell repair disks, but they are very iffy, and your best bet is startup repair.

If start up repair failed, I would buy a new hard drive, reinstall a new operating system, then hook up the old one as see if I could pull off the disk what I wanted of my old files. It is really either that or ship it off to a professional to recover the files.

[Tacrolimus1mg]

I turned off all Windows updates. My laptop runs smoothly, and on Windows 7.

The updates take up so much room and make so many changes that it’s not worth it. Do a system restore to a point well before the last update, and turn off future updates.

You may also want to upgrade your memory, if possible. I went from 4GB to 16, and it’s glorious. Startup is almost instantaneous.

[sushiman]

I turned off auto update over a year ago & have not updated anything manually since . NO problems with either of my Windows 7 desktops .

[Labyrinthos]

I guess you don't do the kind of work where having your PC reboot itself because Microsoft just launched the umpteenth upgrade and it needed a reboot isn't a real problem. Nothing like coming in to work in the morning and seeing that the programs you left running the night before all got terminated and your PC rebooted. And I have always found it "flawless" to have to sit around in the middle of the work week while my PC spins up to 100% of disk usage during some Microsoft update and I can't get anything done.

I didn't say that Win 10 is flawless; I said it is "near flawless." As for your particular gripe, Win 10 allows the user to schedule, delay, postpone, and even disable updates including feature updates. Its not that complicated.

[KEVLAR]

I wish you could prevent it from changing your default programs to Microsofts offerings constantly.

Microsoft no longer knows how to make an operating system that is centered around the user/owner.

[trebb]

How old is it - and the hard drive - and the BIOS?
Before my last WIN7 machine died, I had to do a BIOS update for some incompatibilities ...had to do the same with a WIN10 machine too.

[mewzilla]

Try a sledgehammer.

God knows, I want to take one to mine.

[taxcontrol]

I have one machine on 18.3. I tried to move to 19.0 early but my video card was not supported. Just been lazy since and have not tried to upgrade. My other machine is 19.1. Both work flawlessly

[dljordan]

I turned off updates a couple of months ago after having so much trouble.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Remove the hard drive. Install a new one...a bigger one. Nice and big. Use any other computer to download and burn a Linux Mint ISO to a DVD. Put the disc in your old system and install Linux Mint. In fact, you should be able to install your old hard drive as a slave and use that to access all your old data.

Consider it an Adventure in Computing. Besides, Linux IS the Ultimate Windows Service Pack.

[freeandfreezing]

I didn't say that Win 10 is flawless; I said it is "near flawless." As for your particular gripe, Win 10 allows the user to schedule, delay, postpone, and even disable updates including feature updates. Its not that complicated.

Well I guess "near flawless" is only a few millimeters from "poorly designed" in your world. Not for the rest of us.

As to your comments about managing updates, you are ignoring a few facts. First, not having any updates at all isn't practical. What would be the point of having a system without any of the bug fixes and security updates Microsoft needs to push out due to their weak QA in the initial development?

As to the scheduling, their updating software regularly ignores the active times that have been set, and the system performance is so degraded once their code is in the "waiting to install upgrade" state that the machine is basically unusable until you let the update run to completion. And, I presume you know but forgot to mention, you can only postpone updates for a short time and then the OS does them anyway, regardless of your settings.

Watching the actual internal operation of their updating process is instructive - it is woefully inefficient in design, and often leads to needless CPU and disk usage which interferes with normal operations. Oh, and the code is so weakly designed that their self reboot feature isn't smart enough to recognize that even though it is at night, a machine with lots of active programs probably shouldn't be force rebooted.

If you are just using Windows to surf the web, or listen to music, or do any of the consumer tasks that the Windows developers seem to focus all of their attention on then Windows 10 probably is fine. If you are actually using Windows to try to get work done it is abysmal.

[Openurmind]

Thank you for sharing that. It must be the 19.2 that is having a few problems then.

[tet68]

Update: Geek Squad appears to not know what the heck
they were doing. Said the hard drive was bad.
Took it back where I bought it.

AML Computer Services in Dawsonville Ga.

Rick Eubanks treated me great, replaced the HD at no
charge, which he didn’t have to do because taking it to
the geeks voided my warranty, and now I’m back on line.

If you’re in the North Georgia area AML Computer services
in Dawsonville Ga. sure took care of me.

[dayglored]

Windows Update help ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

Thanks to Army Air Corps for the ping!

[Svartalfiar]

Run a complete system backup at least once a month with a backup boot thumb drive. Run system updates manually from the control panel.

One I've used before is Macrium Reflect Free. Been a while, but I think they offer the full suite free for personal use on one or two machines.

[Bob434]

yes they do- great backup- another option is to get rollbackRX- it is system restore on steroids- it starts BEFORE windows boots- so you can roll the system back even when it won’t start- There is a free edition, but it limits to only a few snapshots- the program only costs about $50 or so- well worth it- viruses are a thing of the past- if you get one- do a rollback- easy peasy- virus is completely gone

[knighthawk]

There is another option you can use. All that requires is another PC and a USB stick (8 gb or larger)

You need to download the ISO file from Windows 10 and then install it on the USB drive.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-bootable-media-uefi-support

Boot from the USB drive (if that does not work you may need to change some BIOS settings)

Use the USB drive to install Win 10 using your Win 7 key. This will work and you can choose to upgrade your Win 7 or install a parallel Win 10 installation depending what you want. Make sure you have enough free space on the drive.

If your computer can run Win 7 it can also run Win 10. And Win 10 accepts Win 7 keys still and this will activate your computer all legally. You can even choose to downgrade again to Win 7. Microsoft still allows Win 7 users to freely upgrade to Win 10. I have upgraded a lot of machines this way and Win 10 even runs on older computers with socket 775 processors like a Core 2 Duo, Pentium 4 or Q6600, as long as you have 4gb memory.