Windows 10: Win 10 Shutdown and Update process damaged my attached USB hard drive

I had a problem with a Windows 10 update process that caused a USB-connected external hard drive to be corrupted and inaccessible. I was actually accessing the drive (searching for a file) when a Windows 10 update forced me to "shutdown and update." The system ground to a screeching halt, and when that happens, I know it's Microsoft forcing me to do a Windows 10 update. When I hit the Windows button, I saw that I was right; Windows was forcing me to update. I believe the forced shutdown while I was accessing the drive is what corrupted it.

I have exhausted all of Microsoft's technical support avenues, and the drive is now sitting at the Microsoft Store in Fashion Valley (San Diego) waiting for someone to authorize sending the drive to Seagate for data recovery at no charge to me. There is absolutely nothing more the store or technical support can do at this point except assist me in recovering the data assuming it's recoverable. I just won't let Microsoft damage my little external hard drive (1 terabyte) and then make me pay to get my data back. That's just not right.

I have been trying for about six weeks to get through to someone at a higher level at Microsoft who can authorize the store to send the drive out for recovery, but Microsoft makes that nearly impossible. I've even faxed the complaint department several times. Microsoft doesn't seem to have an executive level customer relations department at all, and no one at the store, at the Answer Desk, or in tier three tech support has been helpful beyond telling me there's nothing more they can do and no one else they can refer me to.

Every single person I've spoken with about this has refused to escalate my request to anyone higher beyond the level of the store manager and a tech support supervisor, neither of which can authorize the data recovery at no charge to me. I find that outrageous and unacceptable. I've even had Microsoft technicians tell me the situation I described is certainly possible. It would be just absolutely too coincidental for the drive to have failed at just the moment Microsoft was forcing me to update. As soon as the update was complete, the system rebooted. When I tried to access the drive again, it wasn't recognized. It was listed in the Device Manager, but Disk Management couldn't initialize it for some reason. So, I was told to take it to the Store, and they've been of no help.

They keep telling me their tech support says the update can't damage a drive, and I keep having to constantly repeat that it isn't the update itself that damaged the drive, but the SHUTDOWN part of the update and shutdown process. They just don't get it. I think this happened because the system was put in this "non responsive" state in order to force the update.

I'm interested in hearing whether anyone else has experienced their system becoming unresponsive when Windows 10 wants to update? Does anyone else think it's possible that shutting down while accessing a connected drive could have caused the drive to be corrupted? Please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions as to where I can find documentation that this is a known issue. They're refusing to admit it, but I know I cant' be the only one.

:)

 

Windows 10 how get into UEFI

On my in order to access the UEFI/Bios on my Toshiba laptop i have to fully shutdown windows 10 (the Hold shift+ click shutdown), then hit F2 on start up.

My hard drive has failed, I bought a new HHD one, put it in. Made a Win 10 install USB.

BUT The laptop will not boot to usb unless you select it in the UEFI each time i boot... I cant get to UEFI unless I do a full shutdown of windows 10, which is not installed on the new hard drive...

If I hit F2 (or any key) nothing happens "operating system not found". its the same message regardless of it being win 10, win 7, linux, even a usb dvd drive with an install CD.

 

Windows 10 wont boot

I cant get to any type of menu other than bios.

I managed to create a bootable USB and when i tried to do a reset it gave me an error telling me there was no partition found.

So im guessing my hard drive died after installed and shutdown...

What can i do? if i buy a new harddrive will i be able to install win 10 again?

or will i have to install win 7 again and then run the upgrade again? that would suck and be such a long process

what are my options?

 

Yes, writing to an External drive can indeed cause corruption when power is lost to the drive for any reason. It usually converts the NTFS formatting to RAW. Some folks say the EASUS program can help, I'm going to be trying it in a day or so on a 250GB HDD.
EaseUS | Data Recovery, Backup, Partition Manager & PC Utility Software

 

Thank you Berton! Let me know if you're successful at recovering your data using EASUS. And PLEASE let me know if you're aware of anyone else who has had a similar issue.

 

If its raw its lost the parition table and using parition recovery will normally get it back in a very short time

 

Thank you , Samuria. Right now, the Microsoft Store has the drive. They won't make any attempt to run any third-party program to recover the data or repair the drive. I, however, think it is their responsibility to do everything they can, including sending it out for further or better analysis, since it was their update process that damaged it. I'm having a hard time convincing them of that, though, which I why I posted here. If others have encountered the same problem, they might take me more seriously. I hope others will share here if they've had the same problem.