Windows 10 1809 failed upgrade

[#1]

Thanks Reed Richards. I never thought of the hdd being faulty. Will run chkdsk later, and post back outcome. I cannot therefore do a repair install, as though on occasion I can get to a desktop nothing works correctly. Last ditch before a full reinstall would be to maybe try a custom install and try and recover any data from the Windows. Old folder. Will make sure my backups are OK first off. Any ideas on the serial number not found issue. This can't be windows related, as it's seem before windows starts to load the kernel etc

PS any difference between chkdsk /r /X and chkdsk /b /x

[#2]

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@penfold wrote:

PS any difference between chkdsk /r /X and chkdsk /b /x 

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If you run chkdsk /? it will list all the switches with a short explanation of what each does. 

If a failing HDD is suspected, i.e. on its last legs, I'd be inclined to either make an image (using something like Macrium Reflect) or attempt to clone it to another known good HDD.

Either way you'd have a 'snapshot' of the HDD which you could then run chkdsk on instead of the failing HDD (i.e. restore the image to a known good HDD if imaging is chosen, then run chkdsk).

I've managed to recover a few systems this way, whereas attempting to recover using the original HDD sometimes leads to further physical degradation of the HDD.

[#3]

Currently restoring files to sons desktop. Once I know these are OK, then I am more free to try playing with the drive..

[#4]

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@penfold wrote:

.... it seems to have 2 version if 10 to choose from. 

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This is a "normal" side effect of a Windows 10 version update that failed midway.  Have you tried both versions in case the default is wrong?  This has worked for me at least once.

chkdsk /b does everything else and also re-evaluates sectors on the hard drive previously marked as bad.  So you should get an accurate count of bad sectors at the end.

If you can get Windows to start then CTRL ALT ESC should start Task Manager, find the Run option and choose setup.exe on your installation medium.  That should be enough to initiate a repair re-install (in the unlikely event that your hard disk passes chkdsk with no bad sectors).   

[#5]

I forgot to agree with @RobPN, if the hard drive really is failing then the stress of running chkdsk can make matters worse.  Whether it is worth trying to create a disk image depends on whether you have software you could not easily re-install.  Before Windows 10 you used to have to worry about the Windows Product Key, but not anymore.  

[#6]

Thanks. Software isn't really an issue to be honest. Just recovering approx 160gb of data to my sons desktop from the backups, then we can see where we are. Will try the task manager option.
Also, yes I tried both. When they boot, I get the login. I login, and it about 5mins till it gets to telling me it's done an upgrade, and it's setting things up. Then after a while get a black desktop with a recycle bin and nothing works apart from right clicking the task bar. Everything else either elicits no response ot tells me that a container or app is missing.

[#7]

Currently restoring files to sons desktop. Once I know these are OK, then I am more free to try playing with the drive..

[#8]

Restore worked thank goodness. Now copying files to another location as well for safety. (I know I'm likely being paranoid, but this is all my kids photos and videos and alot of documents as well. I've never had to restore a backup before, and 224gb was alot to restore). Oddly enough just before this happened, I had just run an incremental, as I hadn't done one for around 3 months. Must have had a feeling. Anyhow will get to work on the laptop, and let you know how chkdsk fared.

[#9]

It's probably worth running chkdsk on the backup drive also (from a working computer).

[#10]

Thanks. Didn't get time to run chkdsk this evening, other things got in the way. Backups all fine, but tonight realised I never backed up my thunderbird profile. Pulled the drive and pit it into my caddy, but it took ages to get it going. It either refused to spin up, or started making loud clicking noises. I finally got to read it, after having to hold it in a certain way. Got my thunderbird profile off, so OK, but it dosnt sound good...... Will run chkdsk tomorrow to see what happens and post back but at least my data is safe.
Things like this really do put the process of doing backups which people find tedious right up into the spotlight I know I won't be quite so blasé in future.......

[#11]

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@penfold wrote:
Pulled the drive and pit it into my caddy, but it took ages to get it going. It either refused to spin up, or started making loud clicking noises. 

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Those are symptoms of a drive that is on its last legs; you are almost certainly going to have to replace it.  Normally I would recommend a Solid State Drive but it sounds as if you were storing quite a large volume of data; do you really need it all to hand or can you archive some? 

[#12]

Probably not..... What would you recommend as an archive solution. A mirrored nas or similar.... My data is mainly photos that can certainly be archived

[#13]

Anything that creates two copies of your data would suffice; the most basic solution would just be to use two independant portable hard drives.  You need to be careful with mirroring to ensure that the source is the original data.  You don't want to be in a situation where if one drive starts to go wrong it mirrors its corrupt files to the second good hard drive.

On the subject of corrupt files, it's quite likely that a few of the files you have carefully restored to two different computers are corrupt and will not be capable of being opened.  It's likely because the drive that was the original source of these files seems to be failing.  Chkdsk may be able to repair corrupt files on your backup drive, which was why I suggested you run it.  In fact you should run chkdsk on all your hard drives periodically as an act of routine maintenance (given the caveat that it could make a sick drive sicker).    

[#14]

Thanks reedrichards. Will run chkdsk today on both drives. The drive in the desktop is new, as it was a new build. Although my laptop is around 7yr old, I did replace the drive with this one as the old one was only 250gb. Looking at it last night I can't tell who the make was?? It came from scan. Uncertain as to whether to get a new laptop or replace the drive, due to this serial number error thing.....

[#15]

Ok, a little stumped.... Tried running chkdsk from within the corrupted windows. Said it would run after boot which it didn't. Ran the command prompt from within the recovery environment. Disk relabelled as x: ran chkdsk again, but won't run as disk is write protected???  Ran DISKPART selected the correct volume, and tried to remove read only attributes. It couldn't do it, but when I list the volume attributes, it says it's not read only.. will running the command prompt from the install CD have any better luck, or can anyone suggest other methods of removing read only status???

PS ctrl alt esc didn't work from the desktop....