Yeah, as stated, you don't really have a choice, Windows 10 will update itself eventually. The release of the update is just staggered so that MS's servers aren't destroyed by hundreds of millions of machines trying to get the update at the same time.
So, after completely reinstalling Windows 10--it seems like bringing up the BIOS settings in my boot automatically destroys my ability to boot.
What's actually happening I have no idea. This has never happened me before. I didn't plug in any new drives--just trying to change by boot settings (to try and allow for unsigned drivers, not even to install them) completely destroyed my boot. "Inaccessible_Boot_Device." One time it actually booted up, and I was terrified that restarting my PC was going to break whatever happened..and then it did.
What the hell is even happening? This is literally a waking nightmare.
Do you like upgrading BIOS firmware? I had a similar bizarre experience eons ago, with Linux, and learned (to my horror) that BIOS bugs are A Thing.
So, after completely reinstalling Windows 10--it seems like bringing up the BIOS settings in my boot automatically destroys my ability to boot.
What's actually happening I have no idea. This has never happened me before. I didn't plug in any new drives--just trying to change by boot settings (to try and allow for unsigned drivers, not even to install them) completely destroyed my boot. "Inaccessible_Boot_Device." One time it actually booted up, and I was terrified that restarting my PC was going to break whatever happened..and then it did.
What the hell is even happening? This is literally a waking nightmare.
Do you like upgrading BIOS firmware? I had a similar bizarre experience eons ago, with Linux, and learned (to my horror) that BIOS bugs are A Thing.
So, after completely reinstalling Windows 10--it seems like bringing up the BIOS settings in my boot automatically destroys my ability to boot.
What's actually happening I have no idea. This has never happened me before. I didn't plug in any new drives--just trying to change by boot settings (to try and allow for unsigned drivers, not even to install them) completely destroyed my boot. "Inaccessible_Boot_Device." One time it actually booted up, and I was terrified that restarting my PC was going to break whatever happened..and then it did.
What the hell is even happening? This is literally a waking nightmare.
Do you like upgrading BIOS firmware? I had a similar bizarre experience eons ago, with Linux, and learned (to my horror) that BIOS bugs are A Thing.
An ASUS Z97-A. I may over updated the firmware once a year or more ago, well before my Windows 10 upgrade.
Considering swapping the Samsung 850 Pro for a Samsung 850 Evo resulted in no BIOS issues whatsoever (versus "BIOS corrupted after every reboot"), I doubt it was my motherboard. SSDs are just...SSDs. I've owned 3 SSDs and two of them went bad within 3 years. It happens.
I just hope that recreating my profile in Windows 10 fixes my indexing issues, and maybe even my Windows Store issues. i can't even go back to when things mostly worked anymore (short of using a month-old image of Windows 8.1).
And recreating my profile in Windows 10--breaks the ability to log into other accounts in settings (and Cortana).
What did I expect from the "magic bullet"? An actual solution? I shouldn've known better.
Another helpless remote technician is actually restoring WIndows 10 via an ISO--at the very least, he/she can be disconnected without having to admit they were unsuccessful. Probably going to have to restore from the image I took earlier.
Well, I finally beat it. I think. While I wait for my PC to literally explode, apparently there was a solution: rebuild your profile from scratch, followed by a repair of Windows 10.
I'm left wondering how necessary both steps were, and reflecting on the modifications--if you repair Windows 10-atop-Windows 8.1, it will remove the last vestiges of Windows 8.1 like the older parts of the Start Menu/Search function, as well as the sliding blue lock screen. But after 60 hours of dealing with this, I'm glad it's over.
Well, until Samsung sends me back my drive anyway. That will be fun.
I've also noted that the repair, unsurprisingly, played around with my partitions: aside from trying to clean up the huge mountains of trash that a Windows repair inevitably leaves, I've got a new parition.
So that's weird. Obviously, that 464 GB is my primary partition. The Windows repair created that new 450 mb partition for--I guess future repair functions? It's hard to say.
That old 610 mb was something I salvaged off my dying Samsung 850 Pro, along with my main partition (slightly resized for the different drive size I think). It's not easy to get rid of, both in the Command Prompt and AOMEI Partition manager. Anyone have any idea what it is and how necessary it is, given that the drive it was created for sort of no longer exists?
that recovery partition is a windows recovery environment. it's basically the advanced startup tools on their own partition which lets you fix things if windows does break.
that recovery partition is a windows recovery environment. it's basically the advanced startup tools on their own partition which lets you fix things if windows does break.
I see--god knows if it's still any good at this point, but that explains some things. And the 450 mb partition?
that recovery partition is a windows recovery environment. it's basically the advanced startup tools on their own partition which lets you fix things if windows does break.
I see--god knows if it's still any good at this point, but that explains some things. And the 450 mb partition?
The 450 mb partition (second row on the end) is the recovery partition.
Are you asking about the 611 mb EFI System partition? That's related to system boot; it contains kernel images, drivers used by firmware, etc. Basically a thing for bootstrapping the operating system. It's a separate partition in part because it's operating system independent; it can be shared if you're dual booting Windows and Linux, for example.
I have no idea if your computer is actually using it. I believe my machine is using UEFI, but I don't have such a partition.
that recovery partition is a windows recovery environment. it's basically the advanced startup tools on their own partition which lets you fix things if windows does break.
I see--god knows if it's still any good at this point, but that explains some things. And the 450 mb partition?
The 450 mb partition (second row on the end) is the recovery partition.
Are you asking about the 611 mb EFI System partition? That's related to system boot; it contains kernel images, drivers used by firmware, etc. Basically a thing for bootstrapping the operating system. It's a separate partition in part because it's operating system independent; it can be shared if you're dual booting Windows and Linux, for example.
I have no idea if your computer is actually using it. I believe my machine is using UEFI, but I don't have such a partition.
Ah, okay, thanks for the clarafication. As I said, I think the 450 mb partition, being immediately created, is actually important...I'm less convinced of the 611 mb partition.
Truth be told, I should probably be more worried about clearing up the dozens of junk folders left behind by the Windows Repair (and the profile recreation) than a 611 mb partition. If you're not really familiar with terms like UEFI, MBR, etc., it's fairly opaque. I'm pretty sure you could get away with only the primary partition if you needed to, but it may not be desirable--eventually I'll be copying all this over to my new/replacement Samsung 850 Pro anyway.
Do not screw with the partitions windows creates. the EFI partition does in fact hold the firmware bits that let UEFI based machines talk to windows, and thus boot.
Okay--so one of them are repair tools, the other is necessary for booting. The process is a little opaque, but I get the message.
If copying this image onto my replacement 850 Pro causes another partition (the Pro is actually half a TB--512--instead of just 500), I'm going to be pissed.
Okay--so one of them are repair tools, the other is necessary for booting. The process is a little opaque, but I get the message.
If copying this image onto my replacement 850 Pro causes another partition (the Pro is actually half a TB--512--instead of just 500), I'm going to be pissed.
If you copy a disk image onto a larger disk, you'll probably just have unallocated space at the end of the drive, like so:
If you don't want another partition, disk management software will let you expand existing partition(s) to make use of the extra space.
Figured I should follow up on the Cortana search issue I was having. There's actually an easy fix by editing the registry. Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search there should be a DWORD called "BingSearchEnabled." Make sure that setting is set to 1. If it's not there just add it in. After editing that, I just had to log off and back on and Cortana works fine.
The only other issue I had with the update was for some reason my PIN code wasn't working. Thankfully I could log in with my password. I just reset the PIN and everything there was fine too.
I do wonder if the Cortana problem and the PIN problem were related, since they both seemed to be issues with my profile.
Figured I should follow up on the Cortana search issue I was having. There's actually an easy fix by editing the registry. Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search there should be a DWORD called "BingSearchEnabled." Make sure that setting is set to 1. If it's not there just add it in. After editing that, I just had to log off and back on and Cortana works fine.
I assume that's the old search toggle that used to be in the Settings app, which made Windows refuse to enable Cortana if it was off?
That's actually a pretty significant fix for people who value not getting online searches over the other features that Cortana would offer. I had assumed that that was gone entirely, but I guess it'll hang in there for about a year or so before Microsoft decides that only the Enterprise version can modify it.
Its in the infinite recovery process because a update failed and I cant even create a new iso usb (old one wasnt working!) cause their windows 10 tool isnt recognizing three different usbs on two seperate computers
Windows 10 tried to do the Anniversary Update this morning, but again was stifled by my wireless dongle.
At this point I am considering buying them in bulk from Lynksys (which is different from Linksys) and then repacking/reselling them as a combination "Windows 10 Update Deferral Device and Wireless N adapter".
Anniversary update downloaded this morning; "Update and Restart" and "Update and Shutdown" on the Start Menu both failed, had to commence the update from the Settings tab.
Then somehow my PIN and password were both fucked up; had to log in and change my password from my phone, then reset the PIN from the User settings menu. Other than that, though...
I'm starting to dread this update now. I'll just pretend/recall all the people who don't have issues don't post.
For the insane list of problems I had with Windows 10--and boot managers, and SSD reliability, and indexing, and god knows what else--I cannot concretely attribute any of them to the anniversary update (which I am very confident I have installed, albeit later than most).
Take that as a gift.
On a different topic, having had a few days I've been able to parse through the distinctions between a Windows 10 installation upgrade from Windows 8.1 (very similar, if not identical to a upgrade from Windows 7), and a repaired Windows 10 installation (very similar, if not identical to a a fresh Windows 10 installation). Here are some differences:
- Start menu: "New" icon versus "old" text line style. If you completely mod-out the WIndows 10 start menu, you might not notice, but otherwise there are some pretty immediate differences.
- Search menu: "New" versus "old" search refinement system, new one is, again, thumbnail rather than text option driven.
- Indexing: At least in my case, before my repair Indexing via Cortana broke very often, and couldn't necessarily be fixed. Now, rebuilding your index actually rebuilds your index, as oppose to breaking its functionality via Cortana
- Lock screen: New solid background transition at lock screen versus older lock screen atop blue Windows emblem background with Windows 8-style screen swipe.
- Notifications: New versus old notification bar, both on right side. Notification icon is moved right of date and date, notification panel uses different icon arrangement.
In my particular case, there are also a bunch of other reliability issues that were solved with a Windows 10 repair, but those could also be attributed to making a new profile. The above were clearly different under a new profile, pre-repair. To be honest I don't like all the changes (and I'm a little confused why Microsoft went such a way--ease the transition to Windows 10's new standard? Legacy GUI architecture?), but given the catastrophic issues I was having I don't mind so much.
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AkimboEGMr. FancypantsWears very fine pants indeedRegistered Userregular
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I had issues during the initial Windows 10 install with my usb ports, but that blame lies squarely with Via, not Microsoft. Since then, updates have all been smooth sailing.
yea, remember that you'll always hear a disproportionate number of bad experiences updating. All of the people updating with no problems are too busy using their computer the same way they did yesterday. It is generally only the people who have an issue that speak up.
there are 350 million devices running Windows 10. Within 3 weeks or so the majority will be on 1607, and it's going to go 100% smoothly for almost every single one.
Personally I've updated no fewer than 8 devices between home and work, and have had zero issues.
Only issue I encountered in updating 3 devices was my HTPC which required a BIOS update to go to Windows 10 with the processor I was using (G3258). Figuring that out was not simple though, no useful error during the update. I happened to look at the BIOS update options and see that an update was available.
BIOS updates are the worst, because there's no real way to know if there is one or if you need it unless you specifically go looking for it. There aren't too many mechanisms to do that in a kind of automated way. some OEM's have tools on prebuilt machines that will check for you, some don't. in some cases where those tools will do driver updates for you, they won't do bios updates automatically because they're viewed as higher risk.
I have a cheap-ish ASUS 2 in 1 that I use as a coffee table machine and I was super unhappy with it for the first couple months I had it. the processor would pretty aggressively throttle down in some cases. It's a newer generation atom with 4GB of ram so it should run fine for what I use it for, but sometimes the processor would just throttle and not go back to full speed. Ended up being a BIOS update that fixed the issue but it took me actively thinking about it, going to the product page, and doing the bios update manually. Even the patch notes didn't specifically say that it would correct the throttling issue, just that it "improved system efficiency and performance" The machine runs great now.
BIOS updates are the worst, because there's no real way to know if there is one or if you need it unless you specifically go looking for it. There aren't too many mechanisms to do that in a kind of automated way. some OEM's have tools on prebuilt machines that will check for you, some don't. in some cases where those tools will do driver updates for you, they won't do bios updates automatically because they're viewed as higher risk.
I have a cheap-ish ASUS 2 in 1 that I use as a coffee table machine and I was super unhappy with it for the first couple months I had it. the processor would pretty aggressively throttle down in some cases. It's a newer generation atom with 4GB of ram so it should run fine for what I use it for, but sometimes the processor would just throttle and not go back to full speed. Ended up being a BIOS update that fixed the issue but it took me actively thinking about it, going to the product page, and doing the bios update manually. Even the patch notes didn't specifically say that it would correct the throttling issue, just that it "improved system efficiency and performance" The machine runs great now.
The description of the BIOS update that I used to fix this problem was:
"Update Microcode 19."
So apparently the Windows 10 tech team isn't as pants-on-head insane or evil as I often credit them as being.
If you run into the problem that Windows 10's store desperately wants to install discontinued (and unavailable) apps (MSN Travel, MSN Health & Fitness, and MSN Food & Dining are particularly common culprits), go under System & Security, Find and Fix Problems, and Fix problems with Windows Update.
Amazingly, this fixed the issue without even having restarted (though you know I restarted immediately and repeatedly tested the store afterwards). Microsoft has gradually learned how to make wizards on their PC OS that actually fix issues you may not be aware of.
So apparently the Windows 10 tech team isn't as pants-on-head insane or evil as I often credit them as being.
If you run into the problem that Windows 10's store desperately wants to install discontinued (and unavailable) apps (MSN Travel, MSN Health & Fitness, and MSN Food & Dining are particularly common culprits), go under System & Security, Find and Fix Problems, and Fix problems with Windows Update.
Amazingly, this fixed the issue without even having restarted (though you know I restarted immediately and repeatedly tested the store afterwards). Microsoft has gradually learned how to make wizards on their PC OS that actually fix issues you may not be aware of.
Why is Windows Update even going anywhere near store apps, though? Wouldn't the store having its own service make much more sense? I can't think of a good reason to deliberately entangle the two (though I can think of a bad reason).
Posts
On the flipside, a lot of us (myself included) don't have a choice to download it through the normal update system even if we wanted to.
But you can manually initiate the update via https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12387/windows-10-update-history if you want. I just did it because I didn't want my computer randomly rebooting itself at some point in the next week or two.
Wow. I might as well be wearing a gigantic electromagnet around my neck at this point. Time for another backup image restoration.
EDIT:
Anyone got any websites they recommend for making a new, online-enabled account on Windows 10--and copying your various save data/app data over?
Has any of the troubleshooting you've done had you run DISM?
Do you like upgrading BIOS firmware? I had a similar bizarre experience eons ago, with Linux, and learned (to my horror) that BIOS bugs are A Thing.
Yeah. @Synthesis what motherboard do you have?
An ASUS Z97-A. I may over updated the firmware once a year or more ago, well before my Windows 10 upgrade.
Considering swapping the Samsung 850 Pro for a Samsung 850 Evo resulted in no BIOS issues whatsoever (versus "BIOS corrupted after every reboot"), I doubt it was my motherboard. SSDs are just...SSDs. I've owned 3 SSDs and two of them went bad within 3 years. It happens.
I just hope that recreating my profile in Windows 10 fixes my indexing issues, and maybe even my Windows Store issues. i can't even go back to when things mostly worked anymore (short of using a month-old image of Windows 8.1).
What did I expect from the "magic bullet"? An actual solution? I shouldn've known better.
Another helpless remote technician is actually restoring WIndows 10 via an ISO--at the very least, he/she can be disconnected without having to admit they were unsuccessful. Probably going to have to restore from the image I took earlier.
For me, Windows 10 is a gift that keeps giving.
I'm left wondering how necessary both steps were, and reflecting on the modifications--if you repair Windows 10-atop-Windows 8.1, it will remove the last vestiges of Windows 8.1 like the older parts of the Start Menu/Search function, as well as the sliding blue lock screen. But after 60 hours of dealing with this, I'm glad it's over.
Well, until Samsung sends me back my drive anyway. That will be fun.
I've also noted that the repair, unsurprisingly, played around with my partitions: aside from trying to clean up the huge mountains of trash that a Windows repair inevitably leaves, I've got a new parition.
So that's weird. Obviously, that 464 GB is my primary partition. The Windows repair created that new 450 mb partition for--I guess future repair functions? It's hard to say.
That old 610 mb was something I salvaged off my dying Samsung 850 Pro, along with my main partition (slightly resized for the different drive size I think). It's not easy to get rid of, both in the Command Prompt and AOMEI Partition manager. Anyone have any idea what it is and how necessary it is, given that the drive it was created for sort of no longer exists?
I see--god knows if it's still any good at this point, but that explains some things. And the 450 mb partition?
The 450 mb partition (second row on the end) is the recovery partition.
Are you asking about the 611 mb EFI System partition? That's related to system boot; it contains kernel images, drivers used by firmware, etc. Basically a thing for bootstrapping the operating system. It's a separate partition in part because it's operating system independent; it can be shared if you're dual booting Windows and Linux, for example.
I have no idea if your computer is actually using it. I believe my machine is using UEFI, but I don't have such a partition.
Ah, okay, thanks for the clarafication. As I said, I think the 450 mb partition, being immediately created, is actually important...I'm less convinced of the 611 mb partition.
Truth be told, I should probably be more worried about clearing up the dozens of junk folders left behind by the Windows Repair (and the profile recreation) than a 611 mb partition. If you're not really familiar with terms like UEFI, MBR, etc., it's fairly opaque. I'm pretty sure you could get away with only the primary partition if you needed to, but it may not be desirable--eventually I'll be copying all this over to my new/replacement Samsung 850 Pro anyway.
If copying this image onto my replacement 850 Pro causes another partition (the Pro is actually half a TB--512--instead of just 500), I'm going to be pissed.
If you copy a disk image onto a larger disk, you'll probably just have unallocated space at the end of the drive, like so:
If you don't want another partition, disk management software will let you expand existing partition(s) to make use of the extra space.
The only other issue I had with the update was for some reason my PIN code wasn't working. Thankfully I could log in with my password. I just reset the PIN and everything there was fine too.
I do wonder if the Cortana problem and the PIN problem were related, since they both seemed to be issues with my profile.
I assume that's the old search toggle that used to be in the Settings app, which made Windows refuse to enable Cortana if it was off?
That's actually a pretty significant fix for people who value not getting online searches over the other features that Cortana would offer. I had assumed that that was gone entirely, but I guess it'll hang in there for about a year or so before Microsoft decides that only the Enterprise version can modify it.
Again
Its in the infinite recovery process because a update failed and I cant even create a new iso usb (old one wasnt working!) cause their windows 10 tool isnt recognizing three different usbs on two seperate computers
Im beginning to really hate this
At this point I am considering buying them in bulk from Lynksys (which is different from Linksys) and then repacking/reselling them as a combination "Windows 10 Update Deferral Device and Wireless N adapter".
Then somehow my PIN and password were both fucked up; had to log in and change my password from my phone, then reset the PIN from the User settings menu. Other than that, though...
For the insane list of problems I had with Windows 10--and boot managers, and SSD reliability, and indexing, and god knows what else--I cannot concretely attribute any of them to the anniversary update (which I am very confident I have installed, albeit later than most).
Take that as a gift.
On a different topic, having had a few days I've been able to parse through the distinctions between a Windows 10 installation upgrade from Windows 8.1 (very similar, if not identical to a upgrade from Windows 7), and a repaired Windows 10 installation (very similar, if not identical to a a fresh Windows 10 installation). Here are some differences:
- Start menu: "New" icon versus "old" text line style. If you completely mod-out the WIndows 10 start menu, you might not notice, but otherwise there are some pretty immediate differences.
- Search menu: "New" versus "old" search refinement system, new one is, again, thumbnail rather than text option driven.
- Indexing: At least in my case, before my repair Indexing via Cortana broke very often, and couldn't necessarily be fixed. Now, rebuilding your index actually rebuilds your index, as oppose to breaking its functionality via Cortana
- Lock screen: New solid background transition at lock screen versus older lock screen atop blue Windows emblem background with Windows 8-style screen swipe.
- Notifications: New versus old notification bar, both on right side. Notification icon is moved right of date and date, notification panel uses different icon arrangement.
In my particular case, there are also a bunch of other reliability issues that were solved with a Windows 10 repair, but those could also be attributed to making a new profile. The above were clearly different under a new profile, pre-repair. To be honest I don't like all the changes (and I'm a little confused why Microsoft went such a way--ease the transition to Windows 10's new standard? Legacy GUI architecture?), but given the catastrophic issues I was having I don't mind so much.
Personally, I've had a smooth transition. Needed to reinstall Classic Shell, but apart from that, everything worked and there were no issues.
If you like I will sell you a combination Windows 10 Update Deferral Device and Wireless N adapter that plugs into your USB port.
$100
(plus shipping)
there are 350 million devices running Windows 10. Within 3 weeks or so the majority will be on 1607, and it's going to go 100% smoothly for almost every single one.
Personally I've updated no fewer than 8 devices between home and work, and have had zero issues.
I have a cheap-ish ASUS 2 in 1 that I use as a coffee table machine and I was super unhappy with it for the first couple months I had it. the processor would pretty aggressively throttle down in some cases. It's a newer generation atom with 4GB of ram so it should run fine for what I use it for, but sometimes the processor would just throttle and not go back to full speed. Ended up being a BIOS update that fixed the issue but it took me actively thinking about it, going to the product page, and doing the bios update manually. Even the patch notes didn't specifically say that it would correct the throttling issue, just that it "improved system efficiency and performance" The machine runs great now.
The description of the BIOS update that I used to fix this problem was:
"Update Microcode 19."
That's it.
If you run into the problem that Windows 10's store desperately wants to install discontinued (and unavailable) apps (MSN Travel, MSN Health & Fitness, and MSN Food & Dining are particularly common culprits), go under System & Security, Find and Fix Problems, and Fix problems with Windows Update.
Amazingly, this fixed the issue without even having restarted (though you know I restarted immediately and repeatedly tested the store afterwards). Microsoft has gradually learned how to make wizards on their PC OS that actually fix issues you may not be aware of.
Why is Windows Update even going anywhere near store apps, though? Wouldn't the store having its own service make much more sense? I can't think of a good reason to deliberately entangle the two (though I can think of a bad reason).