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Repair Windows 7/8/10

Kursah

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Hey Man Use Askwoody.com ms-defcon for updates that are causing issues with any Windows OS.

Been a while since I looked there! That is a handy site for sure! I'll find somewhere to add it. :toast:
 
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Reset-WindowsUpdate.ps1


This script will completely reset the Windows Update client settings on Windows 7, 8, 10, and Server 2012 R2. It will configure the services and registry keys related to Windows Update for default settings. It will also clean up files related to Windows Update, in addition to BITS related data.

Download from Technet
 

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Reset-WindowsUpdate.ps1


This script will completely reset the Windows Update client settings on Windows 7, 8, 10, and Server 2012 R2. It will configure the services and registry keys related to Windows Update for default settings. It will also clean up files related to Windows Update, in addition to BITS related data.

Download from Technet
....


what good does this do?
 
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....


what good does this do?

I'm assuming something similar to what troubleshooting does with a little less work maybe?
 
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I'm having a technician come to my place in 1 hour or so. It all began when GeForce Experience could not install the new graphic driver, I tried to uninstall GeForce Experience, then install it again...I then tried to manual update the driver to no avail. And when I tried to do restore point, the OS could do it. I allowed ms technician to remotely access my computer to try to resolve the issues, but after 2 hours he gave up. Btw, I've just had a clean install about 2 weeks ago. This had happened before the clean install of course...
 
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Good write-up. Thanks.

Something you may want to include in your Win10 tweaks, https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10. It's a great tool for turning all the data-mining and "phone home" features off of Windows 10.

I've used it on a few machines at the office with success.
 

Loveisallyouneed

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Hi Kursah,

First off I'd like to thank you for taking the time to share your wealth of knowledge! I am reading about repairing windows 10, as I've been experiencing slowness, freezing, choppy video playback when projecting to hdmi, and disk frequently at 100%. I'm new to the world of troubleshooting and repairing PC issues.

Another forum suggested I use defraggler to defrag my hard drive (which I've done) and that led to me seeing a host of other issues with the disk. I've included the summary from my last defrag.

Basically I'm wondering where do I start in terms of cleaning up and fixing my pc? It is an Acer m5 581 T laptop that I've had for 2-3 years. Still should have a lot of life left in it, no?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

Repairing Windows 10

The most recent Windows operating system as of this guide's creation, has furthered the OS repair and allowed for more advanced tools to take place in various CLI environments. With that, they also added some complexity and made some previous easy repair options not as useful without some extra resources on-hand.

I aim to review those options, why they're needed and what you can do to be prepared for such situations. Windows 10, like 8/8.1 features a more advanced refresh feature that is similar to a Windows 7 in-place upgrade without the need of having installation media.

I will review the actions I take in the field and have found most useful for making repairs to Windows 10 installations. Hopefully you find them useful!

DISM

If CHKDSK and SFC fail to repair the issues with the system, then your next option is to perform more in-depth scanning and repair utilizing a more advanced CLI command, DISM. Besides restoring from a previous backup if available, this might be the second-to-last option before re-installing the operating system.
  • In some instances, you won't need the OS ISO to perform the DISM image cleanup. You can attempt this on any OS from 8-10 by using the following command in elevated CLI: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
  • In many cases now due to some changes Microsoft made, you'll need to have a copy of the OS ISO available. The ISO will need to be a standard deployment variety that contains Install.WIM in the Sources directory, otherwise the process will fail. Once you have the correct ISO, mount it in Explorer (can do this natively on Microsoft Windows 8.0+), verify the drive letter, verify image.WIM in the Sources directory.
    • To download Windows 10 from Microsoft, click here.
  • Note: Some Microsoft downloads of Windows 10 1607 (Anniversary Edition) and later contain Install.ESD, which will NOT work with this repair. The ESD must be converted to a WIM. Please click here to find the directions to perform that process. The link provided above as of 12/23/2016 was providing an ISO that contained the Install.WIM.
  • Enter the following in elevated CLI: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:WIM:X:\Sources\Install.wim:1 /LimitAccess
    • X = drive letter of mounted ISO. Change to match the appropriate drive letter.
    • So say I had the Install.WIM located in C:\Images, I would type the following command: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:WIM:C:\Images\Install.WIM:1 /LimitAccess
The DISM scan can take a while, many times longer than an CHKDSK or SFC scan. To speed the process by having the Image.WIM on a faster flash media or on local storage rather than disc media will help greatly. In many cases one or two runs of this command will repair most issues I've found with Windows 10.

Once DISM has been found successful, or not, I will perform a reboot. If DISM was unsuccessful, this will be when I attempt a second pass. If the second pass fails, it is time to move onto the next solution. If it passes, I reboot again, then perform an SFC check to confirm no further issues are found or need resolved.

Operating System Refresh

In the event that SFC and DISM do fail to repair the system, then an OS refresh would be the next suggestion if the deployed that could save the user's files and OS deployment. This is an available feature since Windows 8. If the system is an OEM, an OS refresh from the OEM partition will mean a reinstall of the OS and loss of user data. You can also (and preferrably) run an OS refresh procedure from the advanced boot menu or you can run the installation media while in Windows to perform and Upgrade installation, this will keep your files and settings but replace Windows files and components.

To access the advanced boot menu for Windows 8, there are a several options.
  • When choosing restart from the OS GUI, hold down SHIFT and click restart. This method will work even if you cannot log into a profile on the system which makes it very useful in some situations.
  • If logged in, access PC Settings, and click Restart Now under Advanced Startup.
  • If logged in, open a command prompt window and type shutdown /r /o /t 0 which will initiate a reboot into the advanced menu right with no delay. Without /t 0, there will be a 60-second delay.
Once you've reached the advanced boot menu, choose Troubleshoot. From there you can choose to Refresh your PC, Reset your PC and Advanced Options. For this repair, we want to choose Refresh your PC. It's description reads "If your PC isn't running well, you can refresh it without losing our files." That is exactly what we want to accomplish here!

Follow the prompts and processes, and after the refresh installation and rebooting, you should be greeted with a login screen back to your profile in your stable OS environment. If not, I do apologize if my guide was not able to help you resolve your issues.

Please create a thread and mention you tried these methods to see if we can perform any further advanced methods of repair to resolve your issues or decide of a fresh install is the best course of action.

**If at this point your issues are not fixed, then there is something else occurring that is causing the issue be it Malware, hardware, drivers, etc. Please refer to the OP in this thread to run through some of those tests and diagnostics, or create a new thread seeking help and stating what you've tried.**

Link your Windows 10 License to a Microsoft Account

Why would you want to do this? Well, if you happen to go through a hardware change and want to take your Windows 10 license with you. This could be from upgrades or major failures. Windows 10 is registered to your main board's hardware ID that Microsoft uses. If you do not tie the license to a Microsoft account, you'll have to go through an arduous process with Microsoft support to regain access to your key or be forced to buy a new copy of the operating system.

Since Windows 8, during first login after a fresh install, Microsoft tries to have users login with their Microsoft Account to create a cloud-synchronized profile on the PC. This is useful for some and not for others, luckily the fine print "create a local account" option still exists in both 8 and 10 installation methods. If you created a profile using you Microsoft account you can do the following process to the activation page and should be able to confirm the license is linked.

Those that chose the local account route, please follow the directions to link your license so you can recall it later. I will provide several links at the bottom for further reading into why you want to do this process and how to do it.

While not a repair, I felt while this process is relevant to Windows 10 it would be worth posting here.
  • Click Start
  • Click Settings
  • Click Update and Security
  • Click Activation
  • As or with Admin permissions, click Add Account
  • Login with your Microsoft Account credentials.
Then you should see a message that reads:



More info, screenshots and detailed instructions can be found found here, here, and here.

Repair Windows 10 Start Menu

The 10 start menu is not without its flaws, one of them being the random user that loses the start menu altogether. Out of 100s of systems, I've personally only seen this issue come across my bench 4-5 times. But without the start menu, most folks will be helpless.

If you are looking for help on that matter, hopefully this section will give you guidance in repairing the Windows 10 start menu should it no longer display, respond or work correctly.

First thing to try is rebooting your PC, verifying available updates are installed, and if other issues exist confirming steps listed in the OP of this thread were followed.

Next step would be downloading the Windows 10 Start Menu Troubleshooter from Microsoft. This may just take care of the issue for you, it has worked a couple of times.

But if your issue is major and the start menu continually fails to display, then you may need to elevate things to fix the issue.

  • Open command prompt or PowerShell, must have elevated privileges by running as administrator.
    • You might be able to open one or the other from the Windows Utility menu which is found by right clicking the Start button.
    • If not, use Win Key + S, search for CMD or Powershell, run as admin.
  • Copy and paste the following command.
    • Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
  • You may see various results, some blue, some red. Reboot when completed, test start menu.
  • Another option is to test a different profile, or create a new one. If the start menu works there, a corrupted profile could be the culprit. Though admittedly the command above should repair such a situation, along with the OP corruption repair options. But in some cases a new profile will still need to be created rather than repaired, in which case you'll need to migrate your data over as well.
  • If this repair method fails, perform OS repair. I've only seen this process fail once, but it does happen. This option might actually be faster and more effective than creating a new profile and migrating data for many users and is worth keeping in-mind when running out of options.
If this or other solutions do not solve your issues, please start a new thread to receive help. Thanks!

Windows 10 Tweaks

This is a list to other threads on TPU that have some very useful tweaks.
If you feel there are other links that should be here, please let me know. :toast:
 

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Kursah

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Hi Kursah,

First off I'd like to thank you for taking the time to share your wealth of knowledge! I am reading about repairing windows 10, as I've been experiencing slowness, freezing, choppy video playback when projecting to hdmi, and disk frequently at 100%. I'm new to the world of troubleshooting and repairing PC issues.

Another forum suggested I use defraggler to defrag my hard drive (which I've done) and that led to me seeing a host of other issues with the disk. I've included the summary from my last defrag.

Basically I'm wondering where do I start in terms of cleaning up and fixing my pc? It is an Acer m5 581 T laptop that I've had for 2-3 years. Still should have a lot of life left in it, no?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

First of all, thank you and welcome to TPU!

Windows 10 defrag is actually pretty good, so is 8 and 7's. But Defraggler is a decent free option, but what it is showing me is that you have a failing hard drive with A LOT of detected re-allocated sectors. I'd check your HDD S.M.A.R.T. data from Speccy or Crystal Disk Info (preferred). Those kinds of issues will cause a drive to struggle.

Also I would recommend you backup your data ASAP, get a USB hard drive and see the instructions for downloading and using Macrium Reflect Free to create an image of your hard drive. Then create the bootable media, replace your hard drive, boot to the Macrium repair disc, restore your hard drive from the backup image on the USB hard drive. I would run a CHKDSK /R and SFC /SCANNOW on the drive in an attempt to repair any corrupted data before backing up. But odds are you can repair a lot of that later on a good hard drive too.

Odds are that'll fix a lot of your current issues. Laptop hard drives are smaller, and generally slower, especially in mid-range and lower laptops. They also have a higher likelihood of failing because they're cheaper and run hotter than many full size PC's do...and to an extent heat is the enemy (cold can be too).

Here's how to get into your laptop, hopefully this matches what you have! :toast:
 
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If you were to replace the Hard Drive with a new unit, I would suggest a Solid State Drive, for less heat and better performance. A smaller capacity of 240Gb should be fine as you currently have used only 11% of your drives capacity.
It should be noted the Original Equipment Manufacturer drive is rated SATA300, which is half the rate of more modern drives @SATA600.
 

Loveisallyouneed

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Thanks, man! I will follow your suggestions. Can't wait to put in a new drive :-D

First of all, thank you and welcome to TPU!

Windows 10 defrag is actually pretty good, so is 8 and 7's. But Defraggler is a decent free option, but what it is showing me is that you have a failing hard drive with A LOT of detected re-allocated sectors. I'd check your HDD S.M.A.R.T. data from Speccy or Crystal Disk Info (preferred). Those kinds of issues will cause a drive to struggle.

Also I would recommend you backup your data ASAP, get a USB hard drive and see the instructions for downloading and using Macrium Reflect Free to create an image of your hard drive. Then create the bootable media, replace your hard drive, boot to the Macrium repair disc, restore your hard drive from the backup image on the USB hard drive. I would run a CHKDSK /R and SFC /SCANNOW on the drive in an attempt to repair any corrupted data before backing up. But odds are you can repair a lot of that later on a good hard drive too.

Odds are that'll fix a lot of your current issues. Laptop hard drives are smaller, and generally slower, especially in mid-range and lower laptops. They also have a higher likelihood of failing because they're cheaper and run hotter than many full size PC's do...and to an extent heat is the enemy (cold can be too).

Here's how to get into your laptop, hopefully this matches what you have! :toast:

Thank you for looking up the Original Equipment Manufacturer drive for me. I'm looking at SSDs now, and the Samsung 250GB 750 EVO looks like an affordable option. # SAMZ750250BW

Any idea if this is a good one to purchase and install? Reviews on bhphotovideo.com look good. I'm new to this so I want to make sure I'm getting the right thing before taking the leap.

Thank you!!!

Also- FYI to anyone who responded to initial post, I added the crystal disk info to confirm the HDD issues I'm having. Not sure if this changes the recommended course of action...
crystaldisk.png


If you were to replace the Hard Drive with a new unit, I would suggest a Solid State Drive, for less heat and better performance. A smaller capacity of 240Gb should be fine as you currently have used only 11% of your drives capacity.
It should be noted the Original Equipment Manufacturer drive is rated SATA300, which is half the rate of more modern drives @SATA600.
 
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Loveisallyouneed

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Running into some issues... I've been unable to create a disk image due to multiple errors.

Error 6 No Free Space Available (I used Microsoft disk management to shrink partitions)
Error 23 Unable to Read from Disk, data error, cyclic redundancy check (I got this error twice)

I ran chkdsk /r twice and it's still getting stuck on errors. I don't know what to do! I want to get the disk image over with so I can get a new drive and see a speedy, working computer once more. Help!
 

Kursah

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You don't need to shrink partitions. By default Macrium will only image the used data. You have to tell it to copy empty sectors.

Another option is to copy the data to another drive using a Linux live boot disc like Ubuntu. Its generally less finicky than Windows with drive errors and issues.

CRC errors and nonstop errors might mean too much limitation to image the drive...I'd stop using that drive until absolutely necessary. Maybe give it a couple days to rest and try again.

How critical is your data on that system?

You might just try copying your profile data over (pictures, documents, downloads, etc.) and then performing a fresh OS install on the new drive and copying the data back over.

Not sure what too much limitation means exactly. Like I said I'm new to this.

I already backed up a lot of photos and documents, so yes, I think your idea to copy profile data over and perform a fresh OS install might be best.

I'd still benefit from a new hard drive though, right? I think the issues I saw from defraggler and crystal disk info mean that it's towards the end of its life...

Thank you kindly!!!

You don't need to shrink partitions. By default Macrium will only image the used data. You have to tell it to copy empty sectors.

Another option is to copy the data to another drive using a Linux live boot disc like Ubuntu. Its generally less finicky than Windows with drive errors and issues.

CRC errors and nonstop errors might mean too much limitation to image the drive...I'd stop using that drive until absolutely necessary. Maybe give it a couple days to rest and try again.

How critical is your data on that system?

You might just try copying your profile data over (pictures, documents, downloads, etc.) and then performing a fresh OS install on the new drive and copying the data back over.
 
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Kursah

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What I mean by limitations is with the old drive's abilities to copy data without errors before failure...that's your biggest limiting factor at this point.

Good to hear you copied a lot of your data already!

Yes you need a new drive to do a fresh OS install on. Make sure you drill a hole into or hammer the hell out of the old drive before you toss it. :toast:
 

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First of all, thank you and welcome to TPU!

Windows 10 defrag is actually pretty good, so is 8 and 7's. But Defraggler is a decent free option, but what it is showing me is that you have a failing hard drive with A LOT of detected re-allocated sectors. I'd check your HDD S.M.A.R.T. data from Speccy or Crystal Disk Info (preferred). Those kinds of issues will cause a drive to struggle.

Also I would recommend you backup your data ASAP, get a USB hard drive and see the instructions for downloading and using Macrium Reflect Free to create an image of your hard drive. Then create the bootable media, replace your hard drive, boot to the Macrium repair disc, restore your hard drive from the backup image on the USB hard drive. I would run a CHKDSK /R and SFC /SCANNOW on the drive in an attempt to repair any corrupted data before backing up. But odds are you can repair a lot of that later on a good hard drive too.

Odds are that'll fix a lot of your current issues. Laptop hard drives are smaller, and generally slower, especially in mid-range and lower laptops. They also have a higher likelihood of failing because they're cheaper and run hotter than many full size PC's do...and to an extent heat is the enemy (cold can be too).

Here's how to get into your laptop, hopefully this matches what you have! :toast:

I do defrags on the raptor using cmd prompt lol for the switches.
 

Loveisallyouneed

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Thanks Drone!

Now I'm running into another issue.

I cloned the HDD to Sony Evo 850 SSD using EaseUs todo (the program it came with- Sony Magician didn't work) with success but when I install the new drive it says it's not bootable.

I've searched for this issue on other forums, but many answers pertain to Windows7, or have solutions involving DVD's (I have no blank ones, plenty of USBs however.) I'm hoping I can boot from USB, from what I've read it seems like I can get the proper drivers so it will know how to start up with the new SSD. If anyone knows how to do this, I would need step by step instructions.

As a newbie to DIY computer repairs, I am feeling stumped at this point! I feel so close yet so far..

Specs for my ultrabook: Acer m5 581t
New SSD: 250gb sony evo 850

Any hints or suggestions welcomed!

Thanks!
 
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it depends what you are using, bios (mbr) or uefi (gpt). When a drive is cloned it can mostly be repaired by startup repair. Things to check:

- Ahci or IDE
- Bios or Uefi or CSM(which is a sort of compatibility in uefi for emulating bios)

Normally you shouldnt have to change settings with a clone. But it could have different settings with a new drive.

Edit: typo
 
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Now I'm running into another issue.

I cloned the HDD to Sony Evo 850 SSD using EaseUs todo with success but when I install the new drive it says it's not bootable.

Thanks!
I used Easus to clone my drive also previously, and had the same issue initially.
You have to select the entire drive to clone or it will not include the boot sector.
 

Loveisallyouneed

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I used Easus to clone my drive also previously, and had the same issue initially.
You have to select the entire drive to clone or it will not include the boot sector.
Oooh that explains it! So select everything I possibly can? There are 6 things to select under the 'hard disk 0' section.

Or should I just select system clone, which I assume automatically clones everything?

(I'm worries about bad sectors getting cloned as well. It's my first time trying this so I am a total novice.)

Thank you for responding! I should have checked back sooner, I didnt get an email notification
 

Ahhzz

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select the entire drive, which should select all partitions
 
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December 3, a number of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 users reported that they are experiencing Windows Update error 80248015 on Windows 7 when they check for system updates.

For now, there are at least two workarounds to fix the broken Windows update system on Windows 7.

Read more here
 
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