Windows 10: Update 1803 failed - leaves laptop machine unusable

Anonymous
2018-05-05T19:31:55+00:00

Hi,

Spent all day yesterday trying to recover from a failed update on a 64bit Lenovo laptop that was completely up to date before starting the upgrade to 1803 a couple of days ago. I left the upgrade working overnight. Here's the screen after I enter my login, password and wait some time for the system to load..

No icons from my applications, no wireless, cannot even access the 'Start' menu or Search! I have looked through many websites and pages but no-one else seems to have had this issue....

I started exploring my laptop... The only way I could get the laptop to reboot was to use 'Ctrl-Alt-Del' to bring up the Task Menu, then there is a 'Restart' button bottom right. No Windows services were running.

Upon restarting, I cannot access the recovery menu... nothing worked... tried all function buttons, Shift key and Windows key combinations etc. Can't recall exactly how I did it now - but trying to recover, I get to:- 

then: 

Tried them all but no change in the final outcome.... and keep coming back to: 

None of the options work to install the windows update.

Thinking I might be able to get the wifi working to continue the update download, I use Task Manager to start lots of services, not really knowing what I am doing.. but I get the wifi icon in the task bar, but cannot find a way to see the accessible wifi networks or log onto them... After working all day on this, I leave the machine running overnight as I appear to have triggered an update - at least the message read's Getting my machine ready! In the morning, I see: 

Click 'OK' and back where I started.

So more research... already a couple of unproductive days invested.... and came across a website and started to read .. and read...

Used Powershell to access diskpart and came up with this: 

I did find that my files are located in Drive E:/[user]/my documents and that the version of Windows installed is 10.0.17134.1

Accessing c: (Volume 1) there is [EFI] and a recovery.text file with no content (0 bytes).

Arrived at a point where doing something with Diskpart might really mess the system up... if that is possible! Can anyone/someone help me out of this? I have downloaded a new Windows 10 ISO to a USB drive but don't want to clean install and lose my files or applications - lots of which I no longer have the CD's for!... and no backups.

I fell into the trap of having three computers, two of which updated ok and felt somewhat reassured to update the third... Hoping...

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-06-26T03:05:22+00:00

    I do not need further help. Thanks for asking!

    The main points of the final status are,

    1. When Update 1803 destroyed my Win 10, it did NOT preserve my personal files. There was a Windows.old folder, which included a Users\Judd\Desktop, but there were no files in the Desktop folder. There was no Windows.old.000 folder. I had to pay a data recovery company about $460 to recover my files. But I got them, without any losses (except for the $460).
    2. Method 2 finally worked for me. The problem was, the first two times I downloaded the software, it was somehow corrupted, and would not install. The third time, it finally worked.
    3. I was without the use of my computer for just over a month, during which I probably spent 10-12 hours working on this problem.

    But now everything is fixed.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-06-25T09:23:34+00:00

    Hi Judd,

    We've noticed that the thread got idle, while you still have a query. We'd like to know if you're still needing further assistance on this. There could have been many things that have happened, so we're thinking that it would be lovely if you can share to us the solution you found to work with the problem.

    Kind regards.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-06-20T12:02:28+00:00

    *>>*Did you check for a Windows.old.000 folder?

    I checked. There is no Windows.old.000 folder.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-06-20T08:29:54+00:00

    *>>*Reinstalling with boot media won't lose any data files unless you format the drive.

    Unfortunately, in my case, this is not true. A Windows.old folder exists, and it contains a Users/<MyAccountName>, but the Desktop folder is empty. All the files are gone.

    In the meantime, in the main account -- weirdly -- the contents of my "Recycle Bin" were preserved. That's all I have. A blank desktop with a "Recycle Bin" containing files I threw away.

    Did you check for a Windows.old.000 folder? I've seen this problem 5 or 6 times now, and the files were always within that folder, not Windows.old.

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-06-19T12:06:12+00:00

    *>>*Reinstalling with boot media won't lose any data files unless you format the drive.

    Unfortunately, in my case, this is not true. A Windows.old folder exists, and it contains a Users/<MyAccountName>, but the Desktop folder is empty. All the files are gone.

    In the meantime, in the main account -- weirdly -- the contents of my "Recycle Bin" were preserved. That's all I have. A blank desktop with a "Recycle Bin" containing files I threw away.

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