Windows 10: Update 1803 failed - leaves laptop machine unusable

Anonymous

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...

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54 answers

Anonymous

2018-06-02T23:15:18+00:00

Same problem, i updated and thet happened. I am not sure on what to do, can i get some help microsoft?
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Anonymous

2018-05-29T03:36:18+00:00

I won't ever trust that MS updates or anything really are to be approved or taken at face value again. I had to finally pay a license fee to use Wondershare Recovery and am in process of recovering my files (docs, pics) . I am self taught and just muddle through this stuff on my own by reading and researching. I'm crossing my fingers that this program will indeed recover and do so placing them in folders as they were originally.
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Anonymous

2018-05-28T23:36:34+00:00

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your inputs as it has been valuable information. As of the moment, we have submitted a report using the details that you've provided on this thread. In the meantime, in order for you to gain back full functionality, we suggest that you perform a roll back on your Windows to a previous built.

Please let us know if this helps by replying for further details.

I repair computers and feel for non technical users out there pulling hair out with machines.

The windows 1803 update in the last week trashed 3 laptops - DELL, Samsung and HP - 2 of these were supplied with oem windows 10 so updates should not have been an issue.

1803 is the same as other major builds in that it risks the machine by deleting/backing up the current install relying on no problems installing the new update. It fails in a big way by leaving very little rollback/recovery options to the previous build.

The system goes into a loop of repair options. (fails to diagnose startup problem - windows 10 is not there!)

Recovery is impossible - rollback does not work. Neither does restore previous version.

All troubleshooting is defunct as 1803 removes restore points and previous builds.

The only option i had was to use a usb drive with windows 10 and reinstall - wiping the partition. The customer had a backup I could access to rebuild user files, but installed software was gone and user settings....

I do wish Msoft would allow users to choose to update or not - or at least defer updating until they have backed up the working install first. Many users only know there is an update when they shutdown and get a message saying "do not switch off - windows is installing an update" - this is too late!
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Anonymous

2018-05-26T17:25:16+00:00

Hello All

Me and my cousin had the same exact issue with Dell Inspiron laptop.

We fixed this issue by Resetting the laptop and keep the files.

In the Advanced menu >> Troubleshoot >> Reset This PC >> Keep my files

The reset process took around 2 hours to be completed and reset the laptop.

We had the idea from the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zonjyd2L\_GQ

I really hope that this solution will fix your issue guys.

Best of Luck

Hossam
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Anonymous

2018-05-25T22:54:03+00:00

too bad we weren't working on our Dells together! Mine is also a Dell Inspiron! And I didn't even know about that notepad thing and all that. I think I probably went about this a difficult way but at least I have the Peace of Mind knowing that a bunch of pictures taken in France on a couple of our vacations there are not lost. I would have just died!
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