When is a system beyond repair?

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PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley I’m giving up. I hate giving up. It annoys me, but I’m giving up on repairing operating systems. Why? Because we’ve reach
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Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Perq, ibe98765, fisher75, KP, steeviebops, KWGuy, windbg, DLivesInTexas, rc primak, Casey S, 280park, LHiggins, lmacri

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I pretty much came to the same conclusion. Trying to solve errors takes hours to determine the cause – if at all. Most of the times the errors are SO generic, it could be anything. Therefore, I create images of all systems in the office every month and keep the two most recent ones. PC on the blink? Just restore the latest image.
Reinstalling Windows isn’t a smart move in our case. This means we have te install the whole Autodesk suite as well and installation takes literally hours to complete. That is – if there are no errors. If there are errors, it takes a couple of hours more to get things working again.

I don’t think the Microsofts, Autodesk etc. are willing to invest rewriting desktop software to address all these issues – they rather push you to their cloud solutions?

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We use a simple approach to recovering a PC when the system is beyond repair.

We use a standard set of applications on all of our Windows computers and have backup computers on the shelf.

If a computer goes down, we pull a backup computer off of the shelf and recover backup data files from an external drive.  Employee time lost – the time to recover their back up data files.

Then it is time to deal with the misbehaving machine.

After setting up a new machine for the first time, we clone a copy of its C drive to an identical SSD and put it away for safekeeping.

Then, if we have a computer that is “beyond repair,” we simply take out the misbehaving drive, slip in the clone, update the system using the manufacturers site first, and then recover data files from a backup.

If the machine still doesn’t work – it is time to replace the computer.

The only problem with the new computer approach is that they now come with Windows 11 installed and we have to backfit them to Windows 10.

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DLivesInTexas, bbearren

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Susan Bradley wrote:

We still use registry cleaners and find any number of third-party applications promising that your computer will work better and faster — if only you use those tools.

Nope.  I’ve found one (1) utility that cleans out detritus reliably, but it is not a one-click magic bullet.  Instead of one-click magic bullets, I use a little preventive maintenance from time to time.  Windows can be humming along nicely, no hiccups, no hesitations, and still have corrupted files lurking.  The lack of symptoms can merely mean that those particular corrupted files are idle, not being called on for any routine tasks.  The following is fresh, completed not ten minutes ago:

And I always have my drive images to fall back on.  Preventive maintenance is a necessity, and preparing for the inevitable is just plain common sense.  Stuff wears out, breaks, gets snuffed by a power surge, etc.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Lars220, CraigS26, SueW, rc primak, RetiredGeek

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Hi Susan,

What about Resetting the Software Distribution folder that you gave directions for?

I had a problem with KB5034763 last month and never did resolve it. It would install to 94% and then say it couldn’t install and it was undoing changes. After trying many things with lots of AW help, -all detailed in the A “sort of” quiet February thread, one of the suggestions was to do a reset of that folder.

Might that fix whatever problem there was with this update? Or possibly correct the issue before I try the next set of updates when you give the go ahead. All of the other suggestions, including what MS told me, and the error message I finally located 0X800F0922, didn’t correct the problem.

Thanks!

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OMG! If I didn’t know better, I’d swear this article was written specifically for me!!! 😉 Just what I need to address a chronic update issue I’ve been experiencing since December. Clear, understandable instructions with links to tutorials…thanks Susan.

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KP

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Susan,

Four comments.

First, my maxim is always to make sure that a hard drive is free of defective sectors before doing anything else. There are several programs to display and interpret SMART data, the best indicator of drive health. Trying to repair the software on a defective drive is likely to mess it up even more.

Second, I have NEVER had a problem after cleaning the Windows registry with CCleaner. NEVER! I cannot and will not speak for other registry cleaners. I use CCleaner’s registry cleanup on my own computers and clients’ computers. No complaints.

Third, there are two reasons to repair a non-bootable disk drive with an over-the-top reinstall. Oh, actually, only one provided software and hardware tools are available to copy the personal data of the owner of the computer. The second reason is not subtle, involving all the programs the owner licensed or downloaded for free use. These all need to be reinstalled, too. What was downloaded can be downloaded again. Software acquired under license may be more tricky, involving the software license key, access to the vendor’s site, obtaining the software to download again.

Fourth, those cute little exclamation points on devices in Device Manager are often very difficult to fix. Sometimes the name-brand company has drivers available. Other times, one must decode the Vendor ID and the Device ID, then dig the driver out with various searches. Occasionally, there are neither Vendor ID nor Device ID, only something cryptic, eliciting a response of “Whuzzat?”

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Susan’s article prompted me to check my iso files to see if I had the most recent version–both main PC (WIN 10) and Laptop (WIN 11) were missing the latest.  The WIN 10 iso was saved without issue, but same procedure for WIN 11 said I was already running Windows 11 and wouldn’t let me download the file.  I used the same URL as posted in the article’s LINK, changing 10 to 11.  Something seems odd here.

Casey H.

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Try Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool (heidoc.net)

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Casey H wrote:

The WIN 10 iso was saved without issue, but same procedure for WIN 11 said I was already running Windows 11 and wouldn’t let me download the file.  I used the same URL as posted in the article’s LINK, changing 10 to 11.

Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices works.

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Ed Tittle suggests that if troubleshooting is starting to take longer than an in-place upgrade, do the IPU.

However, a clean install is often the best route.

 

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OldNavyGuy wrote:

Ed Tittle suggests that if troubleshooting is starting to take longer than an in-place upgrade, do the IPU. However, a clean install is often the best route.

I have never, ever had to resort to a clean install to fix any Windows OS issues.  In my experience there is absolutely nothing that outperforms, whether in time, effort, or simplicity, restoring a known-good drive image.

With the partitioning scheme I’ve used for decades, I can reboot into TBWinRE, restore my most current OS partition image (always less than one week old), and boot back into a healthy Windows OS in less than eight (8) minutes, including the boot times.  No fumbling with USB thumb drives, just a few mouse clicks.  The actual image restore is under four (4) minutes.

A failed drive (and I’ve had a few) takes the additional time of replacing the failed drive with a spare (you do have a spare drive on hand, don’t you?), but in my case that adds only about ten to fifteen minutes.  It’s Always “When”, not “If”, so in my experience, it’s much better to be prepared for it.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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satrow

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bbearren wrote:

I have never, ever had to resort to a clean install to fix any Windows OS issues.

I follow the same guidelines as you. The only time I have had to do a clean install was after I had a Win7 to Win10 upgrade that was bloated and showed some signs of a virus. I clean installed Win10 at some point. I still dual boot that win7 to Win10 upgrade because it has a few programs that are licensed to that original Win 7 image. But, in either case, it is a simple 5-10 minute recovery. It takes me HOURS to get the settings the way I want with a clean install.

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bbearren wrote:

I have never, ever had to resort to a clean install to fix any Windows OS issues. In my experience there is absolutely nothing that outperforms, whether in time, effort, or simplicity, restoring a known-good drive image.

It was interesting during the WannaCry ransomware outbreak how many folks (including companies)…did not have a known-good drive image…or a drive image at all.

 

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bbearren wrote:

I have never, ever had to resort to a clean install to fix any Windows OS issues.

Me too.
Once, years ago, I did restore from Acronis image backup on my Windows 7.

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I remember the older, simpler mainframe days when one could dive into a hex dump of say, an 0C5 or whatever error, locate the offending code, then fix the program, compile a new version and get back to work.  All in a few hours to a few days.  If you were lucky…

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SueW

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ibe98765 wrote:

I remember the older, simpler mainframe days when one could dive into a hex dump of say, an 0C5 or whatever error, locate the offending code, then fix the program, compile a new version and get back to work.  All in a few hours to a few days.  If you were lucky…

I did this for years reading dumps and even fixing over the phone at night while at home.

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SueW

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… track those updates that did this kind of damage to the extent that the system became unbootable. But here’s the thing: no update is designed to make systems unbootable.

We, clan of former MS employees, strong disagree with your assessment.  Many of us left MS since we were told to create updates to break system or stop them from working correctly or force people to get new system  by making updates to slow down there systems. We know how MS operates.

ibe98765 wrote:

I remember the older, simpler mainframe days when one could dive into a hex dump of say, an 0C5 or whatever error, locate the offending code, then fix the program, compile a new version and get back to work. All in a few hours to a few days. If you were lucky…

Yes. Those were the old simple days where developers cared for users rather making a profit.

 

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Says the anon poster.

Yea, right. Sure. If you have a claim, post your real name.  Otherwise you are just another troll on the web.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Andy M, NaNoNyMouse, Kathy Stevens, RetiredGeek, Bob99, OldGuyForum

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