Solved Latest Windows Screw-You-Update March 13 2024

Wow this one really screwed me up. I'm still in the process of replacing my cards on my HERO X570 after over three hours of fighting to get my OS back. I'm guessing the folks over at HQ are getting real serious about forcing people onto Windows 11 because they sure don't seem to spend much time checking to see how their updates affect Windows 10 users these days.


I do not use One Drive, Google Drive, or Dropbox on the PC in the video. It has the latest version of Windows 10 installed. Any idea what causes this?

SOLUTION: Just keep restarting your PC. Dive Image cannot fix this. Backups can't fix this. System Restore can't fix this. You have to let Windows sort it out.

Do you have a quad-core processor?

But without kidding. Is your system encrypted with bitlocker? If not, I would probably try to boot from a new Windows 11 installation USB stick and do an upgrade install from there.

Are you able to get to Windows Now?
If yes then, could you go to Update History and screen it for us pls.
I'm SOooo glad I have mine on Pause until the end of this month.

Scannerman said:

Wow this one really screwed me up. I'm still in the process of replacing my cards on my HERO X570 after over three hours of fighting to get my OS back. I'm guessing the folks over at HQ are getting real serious about forcing people onto Windows 11 because they sure don't seem to spend much time checking to see how their updates affect Windows 10 users these days.

I do not use One Drive, Google Drive, or Dropbox on the PC in the video. It has the latest version of Windows 10 installed. Any idea what causes this?

SOLUTION: Just keep restarting your PC. Dive Image cannot fix this. Backups can't fix this. System Restore can't fix this. You have to let Windows sort it out.

Click to expand...

System Restore is, at best, not very good. Of course, this is after the fact in your case, but get another source for doing backups to restore your system. As a solution to the current problem, try doing an in place system repair. Referencing the number of posts you have submitted I would think you already know how to do what I suggest, but...the link below has the information necessary for your reference. I recognize that you state you have tried System Restore which isn't the same as an "In Place system repair."

Sir_George said:

System Restore is at best not very good. Of course, this is after the fact in your case, but get another source for doing backups to restore your system. As a solution to the current problem, try doing an in place system repair. Referencing the number of posts you have submitted I would think you already know how to do what I suggest, but...the link below has the information necessary for your reference. I recognize that you state you have tried System Restore which isn't the same as an "In Place system repair."

Click to expand...

System Restore was a last ditch effort. It wouldn't even repair from my backups. I've lost all my settings, lost my OC, and the entire system is wonky. Can't get it to operate correctly from BIOS even after loading optimized defaults. This is going to result in a complete rebuild. Yes, I can get the OS to boot now but that's about it. All of my settings are gone and my configurations are out the window. (No pun intended.) I've never seen Windows ask for my Microsoft email password for System Restore before. I guess that goes to show how often I use it. This last update was a complete disaster. I'm going to take a break from trying to get this build to run right. I can't even get it to overclock by 3% anymore. It's a mess.

I hope it's not UEFI-BIOS malware! With what you said, if that happened to my PC, I would get extremely suspicious that I was hacked!

One month ago, I suspected a hacking attempt by a malicious actor and thus I wiped the SSD, reinstalled everything and changed passwords!

RJARRRPCGP said:

I hope it's not UEFI-BIOS malware! With what you said, if that happened to my PC, I would get extremely suspicious that I was hacked!

One month ago, I suspected a hacking attempt by a malicious actor and thus I wiped the SSD, reinstalled everything and changed passwords!

Click to expand...

To be honest, I did have a temporary bout of paranoia, but I really don't think it was anything so malicious. (Unless Microsoft can be included in that line of thought.) It occurred to me that the behaviour and error reports were very similar to what happened on my other PC when I installed a TPM module. Alas, this time the damage was considerably greater. No, it's just Windows being retarded again, as usual. I'm pretty sure it was the update that messed up my PC. It's really kind of funny as I had TPM2 enabled on my X570 and all that "security" didn't make one bit of difference. What's even stranger is when I finally got Windows 10 back and running I cloned it and then updated the onboard OS. After the update I can't even read 'system properties' I just get a blue tile with a cog icon. I know for a fact I could read system properties before the update. It's just a really, really bad update.

I've had a few bouts of PC failure myself, that were beyond the scope of System Restore. Usually after an MS Update.

And I've had a few customers, who had an MS Update go Wonkey on them, where no standard repair would work.

In every case it was a Ghost Restore to the rescue.
When "Ghost Backup" makes a backup of the C: drive, it copies every BIT of information, from the beginning of the hard drive on out to the end of data.

So when I've done a Ghost Restore, the entire partition is totally rewritten, back to exactly like it was when the Backup was done.
Anything less would not be a true backup.

So, I'm confused, when anyone says that their "Backup" didn't work. ???
I'm just glad, that I never have that problem.

TM (40+ years, a Computer Tech)

Scannerman said:

After the update I can't even read 'system properties' I just get a blue tile with a cog icon. I know for a fact I could read system properties before the update. It's just a really, really bad update.

Click to expand...

Have you thought about doing a RAM test? I suspect RAM corruption or drive corruption.

TechnoMage2021 said:

So, I'm confused, when anyone says that their "Backup" didn't work. ???
I'm just glad, that I never have that problem.

TM (40+ years, a Computer Tech)

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I'm surprised to learn that in your 40+ years of computer tech you've never had a single failed backup. In my meagre 20 years at this I've had a number of failed backups — even with Norton Ghost. Mind, that was back in the Windoze Mistake Edition era so I can't blame Norton for that. Ghost really was a very reliable program/app whatever. I used to have it on floppy but no idea where it vanished.

At some point (probably around the Win 8 era) I concluded that backups really weren't worth the trouble. The best "backup" is a Drive Image. When I say Drive Image I don't mean Microsoft's sorry excuse for a system image. No, I mean a complete bootable clone of the OS with all the apps and personal data all functional. The one real nifty thing about File History is that you can snag back all your latest, most current work with it — that is, when it works. So a Drive Image will work wonders when everything in File History works and it will work exponentially better than the majority of backups because all you do is swap out the OS for an identical functional OS.

When you resort to a clone instead of a backup in most cases even if your File History is out to lunch you can still drop the old, dysfunctional drive in a toaster and extract the valuable personal files from it via Disc Management. Once this is done you can wipe the dysfunctional drive, make any potential repairs if needed, and clone back your clone to that drive. *Rinse and Repeat* so-to-speak.

I've pretty much given up on backups because the newer operating systems are just too volatile and backups have failed me too many times. I still make backups because it's a hard-wired habit and it's always good to have options. I know my system beats any standard backup any day of the week. I mean, the work is already done in advance. All I need to do is pop the replacement drive in my PC and VIOLA! I'm up and running :) Way less time intensive. Way less work. These days a guy can clone his drive faster than it takes to make a backup.

DRIVE IMAGE/DRIVE IMAGE/DRIVE IMAGE

You confuse me sir!
"These days a guy can clone his drive faster than it takes to make a backup."
Bit for bit, what's the difference in time spent. Almost exactly the same number of bytes involved.

I have done, and still do, BOTH using the same Ghost that I first used in 1997 when my boss first downloaded a sample of Ghost.
Granted, the version I use today has had a bit of spit and polish. I use it now, from within a Windows 10 Shell.
That little trick was accomplished by "Broadcom".
But even with some upgrades so that it works with NTFS, and other advancements, it still works the same way.

The program itself never fails, only the media it's forced to work with can and sometimes does fail.
Yes, I've had a backup fail, now and again, so I always have several more to choose from. Out of several I'll always have at least one that will work.

So how's things in Canada? It's 90°F here today. Spring has sprung!

TM

Looks very weird. My first thought would have been malware especially if it asked for your password and it didn't work. I did the updates yesterday and had no issues. If you have a clone of your disk presumably you can use that, but it would be nice to work out what's going on.

TechnoMage2021 said:

You confuse me sir!
"These days a guy can clone his drive faster than it takes to make a backup."
Bit for bit, what's the difference in time spent. Almost exactly the same number of bytes involved.

I have done, and still do, BOTH using the same Ghost that I first used in 1997 when my boss first downloaded a sample of Ghost.
Granted, the version I use today has had a bit of spit and polish. I use it now, from within a Windows 10 Shell.
That little trick was accomplished by "Broadcom".
But even with some upgrades so that it works with NTFS, and other advancements, it still works the same way.

The program itself never fails, only the media it's forced to work with can and sometimes does fail.
Yes, I've had a backup fail, now and again, so I always have several more to choose from. Out of several I'll always have at least one that will work.

So how's things in Canada? It's 90°F here today. Spring has sprung!

TM

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Don't be confused. The best backup is a nice clone of your OS tucked away in a dry dark corner of a cupboard where you can find it. Odds are you'll have to do updates after using a backup to repair your OS anyway. File History will help you keep your personal files current only when it works. Looks like we both do both. Probably something our younger viewers might want to take into consideration. But hey, I'm just an old work-a-daddy, throw it together, dumpster diver/hardware kinda guy. That's why I come here for answers because there are some sharp and gifted people in this forum who know their stuff.

That last update really did a number on my OS. I found data corruption after ward. No wonder you turn off your Windows Updates!







I believe I have it fixed now. The question is, should I attempt upgrading to Windows 11 on this rig or just leave well enough alone.

hmmm..

*editorial note* Weather here is fine for Northern Alberta. It got to a balmy 11 above today. We really need more precipitation if we're going to stay safe from those nasty wildfires that caused us to evacuate last spring.

That SFC corruption report: I wouldn't be surprised if CBS is just complaining about Bluetooth files. (A bug that existed since the August, 2022 patch-Tuesday)

10, OTOH, has a bug, where CBS, IIRC, complains about an invalid Windows 10 TP update! Yes, a fudgin' TP of Windows 10!

11 just has the cursed Bluetooth file issue with SFC. Other than the fact that DISM is complaining about the component store, but where in the component store?!

It's best to run dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth before every CU update and
check with dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth before updating!

Scannerman said:

Wow this one really screwed me up. I'm still in the process of replacing my cards on my HERO X570 after over three hours of fighting to get my OS back. I'm guessing the folks over at HQ are getting real serious about forcing people onto Windows 11 because they sure don't seem to spend much time checking to see how their updates affect Windows 10 users these days.

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that you had problems with these updates. I updated all 3 of my computers at home running Windows 10 with the latest march updates and didn't have a problem on any of them.

I very rarely ever have problems with Windows updates.

RJARRRPCGP said:

That SFC corruption report: I wouldn't be surprised if CBS is just complaining about Bluetooth files. (A bug that existed since the August, 2022 patch-Tuesday)

10, OTOH, has a bug, where CBS, IIRC, complains about an invalid Windows 10 TP update! Yes, a fudgin' TP of Windows 10!

11 just has the cursed Bluetooth file issue with SFC. Other than the fact that DISM is complaining about the component store, but where in the component store?!

It's best to run dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth before every CU update and
check with dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth before updating!

Click to expand...

Mercy! I ain't got time for that. lol Originally I ran SFC first and it found files it couldn't repair. I know my files were fine before that because I ran a scan two days before that and everything checked. (The problem there was my external backup drive which I learned later had been inadvertently disconnected.) There's no getting around it. Even Windows stated that the update failed.

RJARRRPCGP said:

Have you thought about doing a RAM test? I suspect RAM corruption or drive corruption.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure my RAM is good. I've ran mem tests on it before and they always check A okay. I fixed the System Properties problem (ironically) by using System Restore after I finished repairing my files. I posted that video with the four spinners because I'd never seen anything like it before and I was wondering if anyone else had.

TheQuickFox said:

Do you have a quad-core processor?

But without kidding. Is your system encrypted with bitlocker? If not, I would probably try to boot from a new Windows 11 installation USB stick and do an upgrade install from there.

Click to expand...

Actually it's an Octo. I did try the upgrade after re-cloning the OS and verifying that it was bootable. The upgrade failed. No surprise there. I also attempted the "in place" system repair, which can be handy in especially stubborn situations where data is corrupted. NO DEAL. At least this time Microsoft managed a successful roll back. The only way I'm going to get Windows 11 to work on this X570 is to do a fresh install and I'm not ready for that because if I do that I'll be tearing apart the entire build first and putting my NVMe in RAID. Methinks the time has come to pull these crappy sticks of Corsair NVMe anyway. I'm just saving it for a rainy day.

AGAIN: Anyone familiar with the four spinners conundrum?

Hazel123 said:

Looks very weird. My first thought would have been malware especially if it asked for your password and it didn't work. I did the updates yesterday and had no issues. If you have a clone of your disk presumably you can use that, but it would be nice to work out what's going on.

Click to expand...

I wondered about that but I did get a system error # reference and some thing about how Windows was working on the problem. It's a One Drive thing and frankly, I can't be bothered. I hate One Drive. I wish they would stay off of my cloud.

Drive Image is one of many programs you could use and not even the best.
If I had such problems, I would delete all the partitions and then run chkdsk to check. Or use any other available way to check the disk for errors. If an image restore did not work, it would suggest a hardware or BIOS fault.

kelper said:

Drive Image is one of many programs you could use and not even the best.
If I had such problems, I would delete all the partitions and then run chkdsk to check. Or use any other available way to check the disk for errors. If an image restore did not work, it would suggest a hardware or BIOS fault.

Click to expand...

I'm assuming you're referring to R Drive Image, which is a good program in most cases. My preference is MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate for cloning drives. Never had one fail on me yet. Chkdsk and SFC reported all drives were good before the update. Indubitably it was the update, but I did later discover that I needed to re-flash the BIOS. (Something commonly overlooked.) Sadly, I've lost all my settings and my overclock and all the rest that went with it. It still won't upgrade to Win 11 and the old "in place" trick also failed. Fortunately the roll back didn't fail So I'm back to Win 10. I'll likely overclock the RAM and CPU again after I rip the whole thing apart and rebuild it. It's my secondary rig anyway so there's no rush. My main also crashed after the same update and it didn't need a BIOS update or anything like that. So, I'm guessing it's another half-baked update compliments of you-know-who.

I have not heard of R Drive Image, I was referring to Drive Image, which seems to be defunct now.