Windows 10: W10 issues - upgrade or automatic repair loop?

Hello,

About two weeks ago I upgraded my Windows 7 to Windows 10. Overall it seemed like the upgrade had worked well. However, I would sometimes get a 'Something went wrong.. please restart' screen if I booted up the computer, although the PC would work perfectly fine after the restart.

This weekend I noticed that my explorer tab had suddenly stopped working. The only way I could shutdown my PC was through ctrl/alt/del and I was able to click the options there. The next day I couldn't get past the Windows logo and the spinning dots at all, I left my computer on for a couple of hours and it kept being stuck at that screen.

I rebooted and I got into automatic repair. I tried some of the advanced options, but none of them seem to work. The normal repair option didn't offer anything.. I tried to do a system restore but I got an error message in return that I should restart and select something (I end up back in the loop, so it amounts to nothing). I also tried to rollback to Windows 7 but for some reason I am barred from this option as well. In addition I tried to use the command prompt chkdsk, and while it could read the harddrive it could not perform any of the /r /f or /x parameters (did not have access to the volume?).

I guess the only thing I have left is to do a clean install of Windows 10. But I really would like to try and find an alternative solution that does not end in me losing all of my data.

Any help is much appreciated!

:)

 

Retail key comes up as invalid when trying to upgrade win 7 to win 10

Here is the tool and the iso :

Windows 10 herunterladen

My 3 PCs were upgraded from W7 and run perfectly.

If you prefer to do a fresh install, you have to upgrade first to W10 from W7. If you do it without upgrading, you'll have to buy a W10 licence. Reason : it is considered as a
new install and not as the free upgrade.

The "good" method to upgrade :

• Burn the DVD with the iso. Burn it as an image, not as a file. You'll need the disk anyway to repair or do new installations.
• Start your W7 normally (don't boot from the DVD).
• Find and launch the setup.exe on the DVD. Upgrading will start.

Once the upgrade is completed, check if your upgraded W10 is activated. If it is, you can do a fresh install.
Don't type in any key when asked ! Just bypass the question. The "new" W10 will be automatically activated.

Method of W10 activation : just after you upgraded W7 to W10, a material signature is sent and registered into the Microsoft servers. If you reinstall W10, your material signature is compared to the registered one. If both are the same, W10 is automatically
activated.

Hope it is clear now.

 

Dell Studio 1555 Windows 10 stability issues caused by faulty Ricoh card reader (I think)

Hi.

Many thanks for responding.

Just to be clear, are you suggesting that I proceed as follows:

1. Upgrade to W10

2. Create a System Repair Disc

3. Boot using that disc and run Automatic Repair as described

Given that I appear to have one problematic hardware issue and any kind of interaction with its driver (rimspx64.sys) causes a BSOD crash, how confident are you that the repair will fix my issues? Can you describe to me in technical terms what the repair
will do when it detects the problematic hardware? I need a persistent fix so that W10 boots fast every time and effectively ignores the device. That's what W7 does.

I will wait for your response before commencing. It's a very time-consuming process as you know!

Best Regards

S

 

Welcome to the forum you can't run chkdsk while the drive is in use boot from DVD go to CMD prompt then run it

 

Thank you! Gonna try that one, which parameters should I use? The entirety of /r /x /f or?
Also.. I am not knowledgeable on this front. But I noticed that I could boot from the standard dvd drive or via UEFI. Which one is more desirable?

Edit:
Ok, so I did chkdsk c: /x /r from the bootable dvd. But it didn't really fix anything. So I will resort to a fresh install of W10, however.. where I used to be able to get into the installation process of W10 by booting from the CD. Now I am just stuck on a purple screen and it no longer shows any sign of being able to freshly install W10.

 

Hi Gravemind

Excellent tutorial on Clean Install here

Windows 10 - Clean Install

Now clean install will delete your data. Since you've moved on to this can we assume you got your data off successfully.


Ken

 

Sadly, not quite.

I did the advanced options method with the W10 install. Where it would notice I had a version of Windows on that particular drive. Installing over it would move the folders and files to windows.old.

However, I have been looking at 'Installing Windows' --> Copying Windows Files (0%) for about 2 hours now. But it does not seem as if the installation is stuck as I can move my mouse and the close button even lights up as I pass over it. Is it normal for this process to take multiple hours perhaps due to the amount of data on the drive or should I shart over?

Thanks in advance!

 

Ouch.

I don't believe it should take that long. Us all being in different times zones can make this a little difficult. I was out teaching seniors today.

If you haven't actually done the install I think the data should still be recoverable. If your data is gone then I would start again and I would delete all the partitions on disk for a nice clean install. I would only do this if I've given up on data.

In the tutorial it mentions have fast boot off and Secure boot off. You did that right.

 

Hi Caledon! Obviously that is not a problem haha, you guys are doing this to help so for that I am glad already.

I actually cancelled the installation yesterday and after that I couldn't get the boot media to work anymore. At this moment I am considering using my old Windows 7 (official CD, not a burned one) to perhaps install Windows 7 for now.
If I go ahead with the Windows 7 install CD and select the partition (which at the moment has Windows 10) will it be able to overwrite and move my files to windows.old?

Because if so I might revert to Windows 7 in this fashion for now, get the files I need and then consider doing a true clean installation.

Thanks in advance!

 

Sorry I can't answer that, that is installing 7 and having Windows old set aside. I would also be concerned that this is Windows, not your data.

Do you have access to another machine with an external dock for your current drive. That is the route I would go. Get data first.

If the disk shows locked in the other system we can deal with that as well.

If you don't have access to another machine but you do have access to a dock and have a disk your data should also be recoverable.

You didn't mention how your storage was configured and what kind of drives you are using. Could you share.


Ken

 

What do you mean exactly in terms of what kind of storage or drives am I using? Where can I find this? My apologies, I am a total noob at this haha.

 

Sorry.

Are you using two disks, say an SSD and HDD or just HDD. The easiest way to tell would be to open case and look.


Ken

 

Oh it's just one HDD. No SSD or anything *Smile

 

Great.

So what is your next step?

 

Well, my own pc is surprising me at every turn.

Yesterday I hooked up my external dvd drive (Apple Superdrive) and yesterday the BIOS recognized my first two HDDs and then the external drive which it denoted with either UEFI or normal (can't remember the exact name it was given..)

However.. today it seems to simply call it 'Apple Superdrive' in the boot menu and it doesn't do anything at all when I select it. I no longer have a single clue about what's going on with this system.