Hi 'All',
First ask yourself a few main questions (to feel more at ease, especially if you are worried/troubled/frustrated):
-do I have personal files to save
(if you had OneDrive active you may have put them all there)
-do I have the drivers from my Computer manufacturer available
(if you bought your Computer with Windows 10 preinstalled this should be the easiest; manufacturer websites support)
-do I have my software (Programs = applications = Apps ) available
(your backups, disks, sticks, cards; your Apps are in the Store; manufacturer support; old software is on the internet)
-do I have access to another Computer with more than one Hard Disk
connection available preferably
(if you don't a friend or someone you know may have; library, school, print or copy shop, internet cafe etc.)
-do I have (other) storage available
(disks, sticks, cards; possibly second Hard Disk from your older Computer, if you are able to connect it - unplug
power first - internally too)
-was my Windows 10 already activated
(your Microsoft activation is stored for your hardware and still available through the internet connection later)
The answers may help you find your personal solution. Think first. Be patient.
! IMPORTANT !
When you choose a Custom install or Upgrade, it will move your current Windows installation to the folder called
Windows.old where you can recover your files later. This is the main topic I am trying to help with here; if you did it
again the content could get overwritten, but there may also be some
doubt about it backing up like it was supposed to do the previous time. The Rollback state may also be different than the one it would be in if it went like it was
supposed to do.
If you need to backup things to feel safe
and your Computer boots into the Desktop and you have
storage available you can make handy use of a Task manager trick.
You can always try
a similar but limited File Dialog Window trick available when you booted from your installation media.
And you can always try to make
use of the Robocopy command. More info
on the use of the Tricks and Robocopy (with detailed methods)
further down in my Tips on
this page.
(You may want to read the other Tips to be more secure too.)
You can compare the copied result later. Maybe on an other Computer.
You might consider to make an
extra copy in an other folder if you still feel insecure. Do this to at least an other
partition if you can (but an other disk or other external storage preferably of course).
I am more than curious about a few things right now (to see if I can understand and help with the
general problems even better).
One is if any of you who are experiencing this problem
remember having a (simultanious)
download and/or install attempt (in Windows Update)
that failed (shortly) before this problem arrised.
An other is if you had an other Antivirus or Antimalware in use
than the one mentioned.
And if you are here because you are experiencing a problem only similar to this.
If you also experience these (similar) problems please report more details that may help with giving additional tips for the solutions. And mention whether it's also in connection with 1st or 2nd Method or not. Post a photo/screenshot
picture with it if you can please.
Depending on your Computer responding and you having to save personal files or not there are several other good options to explore:
Start fresh (Microsoft)
Troubleshoot problems
updating (Microsoft)
Rescue files (Greg
Carmack)
Clean install (Greg Carmack)
Recover
personal files (Andre Da Costa)
Install
and Update Hardware Drivers (Andre Da Costa)
Clean install (Paul Sey)
Windows 10 Download (Microsoft)
I have collected the links together with the links of a
list of manufacturer support pages with drivers on
page 13 for your convenience.
(They are all available there in text form also.)
If you have experienced dataloss see the Tip at the bottom of my Tips on this page.
If you know that you do not have to save personal files,
drivers and software & settings you could easily do a
Clean install.
Please do investigate first with use of another Computer or Device to be sure (manufacturer websites support, etc.). You may have your Manufacturer partitions to think/decide about as well.
Windows 10 Download (Microsoft)
If you Upgraded from Windows 7 or 8 in the past and you still have your
installation disks you might consider to first install Windows 7 or 8 again and then do the Upgrade again later (especially if the disks contain your initial drivers & software also).
===
! IMPORTANT ! With Method 1 Step 8 you should ALWAYS VERIFY AND COMPARE YOUR
Windows AND Users FOLDERS WITH
Windows.old AND
Windows.old\Users BECAUSE THE STATE OF ROLLBACK
MAY BE DIFFERENT
THAN IF IT WENT LIKE IT WAS
SUPPOSED TO DO!
! IMPORTANT ! With Method 2 Step 21 you should ALWAYS VERIFY
Windows.old.bak BECAUSE IN YOUR PERSONAL SITUATION YOU MIGHT SEEM TO HAVE DONE THIS CORRECT BUT
ON THE WRONG PARTITION IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE Windows
INSTALLMENT!
This is also your LAST CHANCE TO V****ERIFY
if the CONTENTS ITSELF are really here if you did not do that already with one of the other tips.
If you have only ONE Windows INSTALLMENT the drive letter is most likely to be
D or C (the latter is a scenario where your System boots with
and Windows operates from the same partition).
Do not confuse this 'System' drive letter with the drive letter that you normally
see in Windows Explorer; they are not automatically the same.
With Method 1 Step 4 and with Method 2 Step 9 (Command Prompt): Shouldn't there be a step select
Advanced options before this or am I wrong? (I'm a bit tired right now.)
With Method 1 Step 6 you do
not have to see four entries (this example is obviously based on someones
personal installments). You should see Windows Boot Manager with the mentioned identifier {bootmgr} and
at least one other entry of Windows Boot Loader with an identifier with a value. If you see
only one entry of Windows Boot Loader then you should use the drive letter that you see with
device there (this is with a value similar to partition=C:). If you see moreentries of Windows Boot Loader and you normally do
not manually select which Windows installment to start and you know that you did
not make that manual choice with the Windows that went wrong
now also, it automatically has to be the one that has the value {default} also. Please do
verify this yourself first because there could be some kind of error/corruption that you are missing? If you
know that you have only one Windows installment it should be simplest. If you
know that you have more, one question that you could always ask yourself is if you changed it just now in your latest Session? (With System configuration in Control Panel for example?)
The whole text from copy to Sources is on
one line. Make sure that you used the letters OO in OOBE (this stands for OutOfBoxExperience).
And that you used a space between copy and the next \ and between SetupPlatform.exe and the next \ also.
If you typed the command and pressed Enter correct with Method 1 Step 8 you should see the output: 1 file(s) copied.
If the file does not exist with Method 1 Step 8 you should see the output: The system cannot find the file specified.
If the path itself does not exist with Method 1 Step 8 you should see the output: The system cannot find the path specified.
But sadly if you typed something wrong with Method 1 Step 8 you should
also see the output: The system cannot find the path specified.
If you typed the command and pressed Enter
correct with Method 2 Step 11 you should see NO output at all.
If the folder does not exist or you typed it wrong with Method 2 Step 11 you should see: The system cannot find the file specified.
You can use the dir/w command to do a test to clarify something for yourself.
If you type dir/w it should give the contents and info of the
folder if it exists or if not the
output: The system cannot find the path specified.
dir/w $WINDOWS.~BT\Sources
dir/w $WINDOWS.~BT
dir/w Windows.old\Windows\System32\OOBE\SetupPlatform
dir/w Windows.old\Windows\System32\OOBE
dir/w Windows.old\Windows\System32
dir/w Windows.old\Windows
dir/w Windows.old
dir/w Windows.old.bak
dir/w Windows.bck\Users
dir/w Windows.old\Users
dir/w Users.bck
etcetera.
If you would type dir/w and press
Enter only in the example in Method 1, you would get the contents and info of
E:
Make sure that you used
a space between dir/w and the first folder.
More info
on the use of
dir/w and such further down,
especially if you only have values similar to partition= \Device\Harddiskvolume2.
If you still feel insecure about your result for the
here proposed Method 1 Step 8 (SetupPlatform.exe) or Method 2 Step 11 (Windows.old) you might consider to check or do this with the
Task manager trick. (So to double-check the contents and change to be secure.)
With Method 1 Step 12 and with Method 2 Step 25 you could probably best
disconnect your internet cable and check or change your Windows Update settings first for now before reconnecting it later?
! IMPORTANT !
If you did not read the other steps and tips with
corrections here do that first!
If you don't have access to another Computer with Method 2 and you made sure that you did everything to backup or to be safe (as described in the other steps and tips here) you can try if
Internet Explorer will open on your failing Computer with use of the
Task manager trick. Open Task Manager if you didn't already and browse to
C:\Program Files\Internet explorer and select Iexplore.exe and click
OK (don't forget to put a check in the Administrative privileges Checkbox
also).
If it opens go to the **** Windows 10 download website (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=616447)
mentioned in Method 2 Step 1 and make your informed choices continued from there.
===
This is a link to the Avast website you might want to visit first
(for now) to make your informed decisions
(**https://www.avast.com/).
Their support page (https://support.avast.com/en-us/) and their forum (https://forum.avast.com/) with the article mentioned just above Method 1 for your convenience (https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=219218.msg1463080#msg1463080).
The article says that they got the original instructions from a Computer repair shop. It
also states 'In cooperation with Microsoft we have identified an element of the latest Windows 10 1803 update that is incompatible with the Avast Behavior Shield, causing the aforementioned update to fail in some instances (...)'. Logic
clearly dictates that this could effect the next Upgrade attempt as well. It also suggest that somehow
updating Avast or temporarily removing Avast could help prevent it causing the update to fail again. (The
article also says that they 'are now automatically pushing a VPS update to all customers which makes sure that the problem doesn't happen. The VPS number is 180524-08; all users running this version (or later) should be 100% safe.', which may mean something to you.)
If you choose to uninstall Avast you should run their Uninstall Utility (https://support.avast.com/en-us/article/Uninstall-Antivirus-Utility).
Download this first to a secure location.
To uninstall Avast you should do this in Safe boot (and disconnected from the internet). Several restarts may be required?
Right-Click the downloaded Avast Uninstall Antivirus Utility (avastclear.exe), and select
Run as administrator from the Context Menu.
To uninstall an Antivirus you are normally advised to do so in the 'Safe boot'. Often there is a special Uninstall utility to do this on the Antivirus website
Support page.
Sometimes there are still leftovers that remain active almost unnoticed (usually a 'Service' or 'Run' entry for Startup items in the Registry). To uninstall it, it is best to do so in the 'Clean Boot'.
The unwanted Processes and Services are sometimes recognizable by their name in
Task Manager or Services Tab in msconfig. It can also be that the
description is clear enough (the service, the manufacturer). If you Right-Click the recognizable in the
Startup Tab in Task Manager you can check for where it is located. If you have enough experience, you can remove the launcher from
Run in the Registry. (Be careful with this! Making errors/wrong changes in the Registry is dangerous!) If you don't have enough experience to make changes or are too unsure, you could also use a trick (explained further below)
in the 'Clean boot'. (You might also want to check if Windows
Defender is temporarily enabled and updated if you do this.)
Safe boot (and disconnected from the internet).
Open Task Manager and Select File at the top, then Run new task. Put a check in the Administrative privileges Checkbox. Type: msconfig and Click OK.
Within System Configuration select the Tab Startup. Put a check in the Checkbox for Safe boot and Click
OK. Now reboot (to Safe boot).
Once completed your task reboot your system again or consider to continue to do some next step(s)
in Safe boot as well.
Undo Safe boot
Open Task Manager and Select File at the top, then Run new task. Put a check in the Administrative privileges Checkbox. Type or select
msconfig again and Click OK.
Within System Configuration select the Tab Startup again. Now uncheck the Checkbox for Safe
boot and Click OK. Now reboot.
Clean boot (and any unnecessary external devices disconnected from your Computer).
Open Task Manager and Select File at the top, then Run new task. Put a check in the Administrative privileges Checkbox. Type: msconfig and Click OK.
Within System Configuration select the General Tab. Choose Selective startup and then
uncheck the Checkbox for Load Startup items.
Select the Services Tab. Here check the 'Hide all Microsoft services' Checkbox. Write down which of the remaining are
Active. After that click on the Disable all button (now
no of the non-Microsoft services here are disruptive) or uncheck the ones that are undesired.
Now click on Apply and Click OK. Now reboot (to Clean boot).
Once completed your task reboot your system again or consider to continue to do some next step(s) in Clean boot as well.
Undo Clean boot
Open Task Manager and Select File at the top, then
Run new task. Put a check in the Administrative privileges Checkbox. Type:
msconfig (or select msconfig again from the Dropdown list) and Click
OK.
Within System Configuration select the General Tab. Choose Selective startup and then put a check in
the Checkbox for Load Startup items.
Select the Services Tab. Here check the 'Hide all Microsoft services' Checkbox. After that
put a check in the Checkbox for
the ones for which you wrote down that they were
Active (or if most were Active you can first click on the
Enable all button and then uncheck the others again).
Now click on Apply and Click OK. Now reboot.
Make use of a temporary Trick (for now)
if you don't have enough experience or still have problems (as a last resort!)
First check if there is a easily recognizable residu of your Antivirus. (Did you check for the
location already in Startup Tab?)
Browse to C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files\Common Files to look for the folder you can easily recognize.
(In some cases maybe in C:\Program Files (x86) and in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files also.)
Right-Click and rename it (put a - or x at the beginning of its name). If the problem was originated here it can at least no longer be found and be started/become Active again later.
IMPORTANT! If you use the Uninstall Utility later
after this it will not find it either and it will not work!
Remove manually from the Registry (Be careful with this! Making errors/wrong changes in the Registry is dangerous! Save first?)
As a last resort Remove manually at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
IMPORTANT! If you use the Uninstall Utility later after this it will not find it either and it will not work!
Save manually from the Registry first to be safe (Be careful with this! Making errors/wrong changes in the Registry is dangerous!)
It is always safer and better to fist Save what you want to Remove manually at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run by opening the folders like in Windows Explorer.
Right-Click the Run folder and choose Export, Browse to a secure location and name it 'Run before the change' or something similar.
Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services by opening the folders like in Windows Explorer.
Right-Click the Services folder and choose Export, Browse to the secure location and name it 'Services before the change' or something similar.
You can OPEN THE REGISTRY EDITOR by typing Regedit in Task Manager. Select
File at the top, then Run new task. Don't forget to put a check in the
Administrative privileges Checkbox. and Click
OK.
! WARNING ! Please be extremely carefull with what you do with this (do not click or open if you don't know what this is)!
If you don't have something available on your failing Computer there are a lot of other things you can open with use of the
Task manager trick. Open Task Manager if you didn't already and click
Browse... (don't forget to check the Administrative privileges Checkbox and select 'All files *.*' later also in the Dialog window that opens).
If you want you can try to search for something in your SysWOW64 or System32. You can browse normally of course. But you can also type in the Search box on the top right. Or use it as a trick to create a search filter. Like
(Control Panel) .cpl to find Inetcpl.cpl (Internet Options),
ncpa.cpl (Networkconnections, with the Problem solver that you can open after
Right-Clicking your networkconnection)
or .msc to find Services.msc or Compmgmt.msc (Computer Management) etc. Some may and some may not work now. You can try control.exe too of course.
But if you only need to check for a service to start
you can find it in the Services Tab of Task Manager. At the bottom you see a link called
Open Services that you can click.
===
If you have an extra hard disk available thats large enough, you might make use of an
application or tool that is able to make a 'copy' of your
whole original disk first, especially if you are worried that you might lose really a lot of personal files.
Task manager trick to
backup things (available when you booted into your Desktop).
Right-click the blank area on the Taskbar, and then select Task Manager. If this does not work press
Ctrl + Alt + Del to select Task Manager. Or try Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager directly. If necessary, click
More details, so that you can see the Menu bar at the top. Select File at the top, then
Run new task (don't forget to check the Administrative privileges Checkbox). Select
Browse... You now have access to some of the Explorer functionality. Select 'All files *.*' from the drop down list above the buttons at the right. Do
not use the buttons. Use the left pane to select folders and the right pane to select
files, like in normal Windows Explorer. You can locate files you want to backup (in
Windows.old etc**.**). Select them, Right-click and
Copy, browse further to your storage, Right-click and Save.The screen may appear frozen but please be patient.
You will not see the Progress window but you will notice when the job is done.
You can compare the copied result later. Maybe on an other Computer.
You might consider to make an
extra copy in an other folder if you still feel insecure. Do this to at least an other
partition if you can (but an other disk or other external storage preferably of course).
Limited File Dialog Window
trick to
backup things (available when you booted from your installation media).
Boot from your installation media as if you were going to perform a Windows Setup. At the Choose your language and keyboard layout screen from Windows Setup click
Next, then choose Repair Your Computer. In the Choose an Option screen click
Troubleshoot, then System Image Recovery, then select your Windows 10. (Close the small windows that can't find the system image by clicking
Cancel.) In the other Select system image screen click Next. Choose Advanced. And then Install a driver and click
OK if a small screen comes up. You now see a small File Dialog screen (normally intended to browse for a driver). You can go to your
personal folders, select them, Right-Click and choose Copy then browse to your secure location and Right-Click and
Paste. You will not see the Progress window but you will notice when the job is done. You can check by Right-Clicking a blank area
and choosing Refresh. You can do this as many times as you need to as long as you don't click the buttons! If you are finished simply click
Cancel a few times. From here you can decide to turn off your PC or to continue with some next step(s).
You can use Robocopy
(in Command Prompt)
to try and make an automated copy of your personal folders (where ... is your
profile-name).
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Desktop
E:\Users.bck\ ... \Desktop /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT /R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Documents E:\Users.bck\ ... \Documents /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT
/R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Pictures E:\Users.bck\ ... \Pictures /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT
/R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Downloads *E:\Users.bck\ ... *Downloads /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT
/R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Music E:\Users.bck\ ... \Music /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT
/R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Videos E:\Users.bck\ ... \Videos /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT
/R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Favorites E:\Users.bck\ ... \Favorites /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT
/R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Links E:\Users.bck\ ... \Links /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT
/R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Contacts E:\Users.bck\ ... \Contacts /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT
/R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Saved Games E:\Users.bck\ ... \Saved Games /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT /R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \3D Objects E:\Users.bck\ ... \3D Objects /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT /R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \OneDrive E:\Users.bck\ ... \OneDrive /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT /R:2
Robocopy D:\Users\ ... \Searches E:\Users.bck\ ... \Searches /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT /R:2
The whole text from Robocopy to
/R:2 is on one line. Make sure that you used a space between Robocopy and D: and that you used
a space before E: and that you used a space before every / of the parameters at the end of each line.
In the examples I use the
D drive/partition as source and E as your destination drive/partition. If you don't have an extra drive/partition you can use
D (or C) if you have enough space as well.
But use at least an other partition if you can (and an other disk or other
external storage preferably of course).
As you may have noticed the Robocopy command uses a
sourcefolder, a destinationfolder and a few
parameters to make it work (/R:2 means Retry twice only; otherwise it would go on almost like forever).
You can use the
DIR/W command (in Command Prompt) to find out which (other)
folders you may have. In the example DIR/W D:\Users can tell you more about
your actual profile-name on disk (that you have to fill in with the ... after the Users folder).
It tells you how much
free space in bytes you have left on the drive/partition among others; 1 GB is about 1000000000 bytes (or 1073741824
bytes to be precise). It may help you make an estimate when you compare
space in use in bytes
above it also, to compare
folder sizes. You may want to compare D:\Users with
D:\Windows.old\Users for example to clarify something for yourself. And you may want
to compare your
copied results later.
If you would type dir/w and press Enter only in the example in Method 1, you would get the contents and info of
E:
Make sure that you used
a space between dir/w and the first folder or drive/partition
letter.
For identification
you can switch to a drive/partition by typing the
letter and a : and press
Enter*.* (In the example E: and Enter.)
You can select the next folder in the current folder simply by typing CD
a space and its name and press
Enter**.** By typing CD..
and press Enteryou can go back one step (so CD followed by two dots to go to the
preceding folder).
You might want to check for the
existence of the last file or folder you remember creating, the
creation date of something or something similar? DIR/P may be (more) usefull also. (You can press Ctrl + C to cancel.)
Don't forget that you may have your local Outlook contents to backup as well (an
Outlook.pst and maybe an Archive.pst file also). For an older Outlook probably located in: *Users\ ... \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook* (where ... is your
profile-name). For Outlook 2010 and later probably located in the subfolder
Outlook-files in your personal (Users\ ... \Documents) 'My Documents' folder (check this
default location if you know that you did not change this to an other location yourself). Some Outlook users may have them in:
Users\ ... \Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook.
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