Windows 10: Window 10 Broke My Computer

The busted pc does not have a DVD drive. In fact, I had to go buy a flash drive, so there's another $20 or so Microsoft owes me. I followed your instructions, and am now downloading Windows 8.1 to the flash drive. Hopefully, I can use that to restore the busted laptop. Thanks for the tip on settings. I hope I can get to it to change it.

 

Ok- so you're planning to go back to Win 8, and not install Win 10.

Actually it's more a matter of choice as to whether you bought a laptop with a DVD drive or not. So for example if you also want a general recovery boot disk (there's one produced by a senior member of this forum) - that's another flash drive. And if you want one for disk imaging- that's another. And then you might want one for a partition manager..

 

I am rapidly reaching the point of despair here. Following your instructions, I managed to download Windows 8.1 to a flash drive on my old computer but it won't install on the new computer because I don't have a product key for the laptop. (I bought the laptop from Amazon. I no longer have the documentation that came with it, if any, and it doesn't seem to appear online.) I tried again to copy the Windows 10 media creation tool and it again refuses to recognize the flash drive.

 

You will be able to install Win 10 without a key.

You can also use an external hard drive to boot from.

Can you confirm that if you insert the flash drive you can view it in explorer?
Or in disk management?
(Windows key + R, diskmgmt.msc)

If so, you can use the Win 10 iso + Rufus to create a bootable Win 10 medium.
This separates the downloading and creation tasks.

Failing all that, get a USB optical disk drive (pretty cheap) and use a DVD.

Perhaps you know someone who's familiar with installing Windows on PCs who can help?

 

Maybe I'll try re-installing Windows 10. Thank you for your patient responses. Another user, who shall remain anonymous, informed me that "Microsoft does not break computers," which is a way of saying, "you are an idiot."

 

I can understand your frustration- many years ago I determined to be prepared for when things go wrong as far as I could. I've had to recover from a failed mother board, lost partition structures, a failing hard drive, unbootable PCs etc..

Partly it's about having the right kind of backups, partly the right boot media.
But I've never lost anything significant that I can think of.

I think it's literally true that MS does not break PCs. That is, installing its software does not literally cause the hardware to fail. But it is true that enough users - esp. with Win 10- have had experiences of inaccessible disks, data apparently not being transferred when upgrading, and sometimes making programs incompatible.

Thus some users experience failures in function of the OS after some updates or upgrades. This, in the case of Win 10, is widely documented.

MS's apparently market insensitive attitudes and failure to communicate change in advance, taking users by surprise, has done them no favours, together with difficulties for some in downloading and completing updates.

I'm happy with Win 10 myself- I just don't use the universal apps or its start menu, and rarely Cortana.

 

But whether "broke" is the right word or not, I have a computer that does not operate, and I'm well into Day 2 of trying to fix it. I can't load Windows 10 onto a flash drive because MS can't "find" the flash drive. It could find the flash drive when I tried loading Windows 8.1, so I tried that. Now it's demanding a product key in order to install it, which I can't find. There is a reason why Microsoft is so widely loathed. Nobody but a genuine enthusiast could possibly put up with the aggravation that it imposes on its customers. I am a freelance writer, and I cannot do my work efficiently. If I pay to have this computer fixed, or buy a new one, tomorrow Microsoft could disable it again, at any moment.

 

If you can see the flash drive in explorer, you can use Rufus to create a bootable device.
Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

It's entirely normal for Win 8 to require that you enter a license - of course you can skip that and enter it later.

With Win 10, MS moved on to record that your PC is licensed, once done, on its activation servers, making future activation on that PC automatic.

Using disk imaging (strongly recommended here) allows you to quickly recover from many types of failure without technical help (even disk failure). We recommend Macrium Reflect (free), but there are other such programs.

I've run Win 10 for about 6 months since getting this laptop without real difficulties, but I know that's not been everyone's experience- else this forum wouldn't be so busy.

 

No, that's definitely not what I meant. *sighs* It means Windows doesn't break computers. An upgrade can go wrong, due to many underlying factors, such as the Razer issue mentioned already. As I also explained, this is why people do clean installs of new OSes rather than upgrading them. If you bought a new car, would you want to have your old engine put in it?

On a side note, you admit you are in over your head, so instead of blindly blaming the wrong source, just listen to the people trying to help you.

 

If it is a USB3 Key you purchased , it maybe that the old Win7 laptop can not see it properly I just returned a 3 pack of Verbatim USB3 Drives as they would not Boot (worked fine in windows only), also I assume it is at least 8GB ? if not the MCT tool won't use it as Win 10 AU is now over 4GB so won't fit on smaller USB Drives.

Do not use or let anyone like GeekSquad reinstall from the DELL Recovery Option as it will WIPE EVERYTHING off the Harddrive and you will lose all your programs , Documents , photos etc....

I would try a Boot USB like Kyhi's and save all you Data etc 1st if you are contemplating a Full reinstall and DONT have all your work backed up somewhere else like and External Hard-drive.


KB

 

I believe I already did that. That is, I used Rufus to create a bootable device. The MS download function still couldn't find the flash drive when I tried to download the Windows 10 fix, but it did find it when I tried to download Windows 8.1. I then tried to re-install Windows 8.1. My last attempt to fix the problem was halted when it demanded a product key, which I can't find.

 

As you will see if you read the rest of the thread, I am listening to the people trying to help me, and following their advice. Please stop replying to any post from me. I do not find your responses helpful.

 

Please check how you did this. Instructions for Rufus in the 2nd section (just search for - yes- Rufus)
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

A little education goes a long way. My apologies that you didn't like my answers correcting your blame game. You're welcome for the time I put in trying to explain the license key in your other thread. Good luck to you with the learning and getting to do a clean install, which will solve your issue.

 

If you need Kyhi's Windows 10 Boot Disk , it is right here on the Forums , and you can use Rufus to make the USB Key from his ISO too. It will fit on a 4GB key if that is all you have currently.

Your system specs don't have enough info , but I would assume you have a 64 bit computer these days......

Main Page

Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

The ISO file

ToolsLib - Downloads - Win10586PESE-x64