GOS' laptop on the fritz...

QuadraphonicQuad

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I have an SSD for Windows and all Programs. The SSDs are really fast and so the machine boots runs the Norton Scan really quickly, seconds from Power up to useable. But SSDs, which are huge FLASH devices, will fail with repeated writes to a location, but in the last few years they have improved, which is why I use it for the OS & Programs (which reminds me I haven't made a USB bootable back-up FLASH Drive yet!). I would go for a Samsung or Intel SSD, and its a cheap option to improve your machine. My main PC is a Desktop so I have a Hard Drive for Data, plus the NAS RAID Drive, where all the data is backed up.

I use the Samsung 850 Pro's in both my laptop and "Big Computer" for Windows boot drives. They are super reliable and come with the Magician Software that will monitor the drive for failures. I have yet to have one of these things even get close to being over used. I think, like you said, that the early SSD's had this issue, but if you buy a quality SSD you should not have to worry about that.

I will say this, I will never go without an SSD boot drive again. I have even put them in shitty laptops for friends and it's made quite a big difference.

In fact, the big $20,000 HP DL380 Gen9 Servers that I use at work have SSD Mirror Arrays for their C: drives. Speaks volumes!
 
Well, here is an odd turn of events. So, I had put the new windows 10 update on a USB as many have said to do. I then did the "erase" or "reset" or whatever the hell it's called. A total clean off of the hard drive. That seemed to go as planned, I then put the USB in and rebooted. It then behaved just like it did when I bought it and turned it on for the first time. You know, the whole initial setup thing...where it asks your name, setup an email account.....setup wifi, blah, blah.

Then after a half hour, boom. It loaded and looked very much like it did when I first bought it. Of course, assuming I need to do some massive updates I check that all out. What was totally unexpected was that it now says my operating system is Windows 8! Huh? How did that happen? No, I didn't put Windows 8 on the USB. I even went back and checked and it's the new windows 10 update on there.

Hmmmmm

Now, to be transparent - my laptop came brand new with Windows 8, but had a free upgrade to Windows 10 with purchase. I guess I'm shocked that it rolled back to 8 because I thought rolling back from 10 to 8 was NOT possible.

Either way, I still don't understand why it didn't install the 10. When I rebooted, it certainly fired up the USB as it lit up and was flashing during the whole install.
 
I use the Samsung 850 Pro's in both my laptop and "Big Computer" for Windows boot drives. They are super reliable and come with the Magician Software that will monitor the drive for failures. I have yet to have one of these things even get close to being over used. I think, like you said, that the early SSD's had this issue, but if you buy a quality SSD you should not have to worry about that.

I will say this, I will never go without an SSD boot drive again. I have even put them in shitty laptops for friends and it's made quite a big difference.

Totally agree. I added a Samsung 1TB 960 NVME M.2 drive which runs off the PCIE bus and reads and writes at around 2000MB/sec which I use to do all by file manipulations. Way, way faster than an old 'spinning' hard disc. I have a 850 Pro as my boot drive and an 840 Pro as my 'Temp' drive. BTW: The 960 is about 4 times faster than the 850 Pro!

The latest motherboards support M.2 drives with some having two slots or more slots.
 
I can give you two tips for moving forward.

After you install your OS and all important apps, make a clone of your system drive to an external drive. You can use the stock disc utility but it's easier with an app like Carbon Copy Cloner (a Windows user may have other recommended apps). Clone means every one and zero on the drive copied to another drive. That means you can boot your computer from that backup drive and everything is exactly the same. That means if/when something screws up, it doesn't bother you. Boot from the back clone and now overwrite the main drive to fix it.

You can make backups periodically so you're up to date on the backup. You can make a master copy early on and save it as a disc image file (not bootable until you copy it to a hard drive volume) for a failsafe in case you screw up and corrupt your backup disc. But the main thing is at least keeping a backup copy of your system that is a 1:1 clone and boots your computer just like the primary drive. In fact, you really can't ever have too many bootable drives kicking around.

Two, the only thing wrong may be a failing hard drive. Having spare systems on external drives around will help manage this scenario too. You wouldn't want to replace a computer for a drive failing any more than you'd want to replace a car for a flat tire.

Sorry that none of this advice may make today easier! I hope it helps moving forward though.

OK, a 3rd tip.
Get a network monitor app. I use Little Snitch.

This lets you make rules for what can use the network. That means you can tell the OS "no" even if they didn't give you an off switch for something (like updates) anywhere.
 
One thing I am very thankful for is that a year ago, I took the plunge and started putting all my music on a NAS. Imagine if I had lost that!!
No, I don't have a 1:1 backup of my NAS.....maybe I now need to take that seriously....
 
Well, here is an odd turn of events. So, I had put the new windows 10 update on a USB as many have said to do. I then did the "erase" or "reset" or whatever the hell it's called. A total clean off of the hard drive. That seemed to go as planned, I then put the USB in and rebooted. It then behaved just like it did when I bought it and turned it on for the first time. You know, the whole initial setup thing...where it asks your name, setup an email account.....setup wifi, blah, blah.

Then after a half hour, boom. It loaded and looked very much like it did when I first bought it. Of course, assuming I need to do some massive updates I check that all out. What was totally unexpected was that it now says my operating system is Windows 8! Huh? How did that happen? No, I didn't put Windows 8 on the USB. I even went back and checked and it's the new windows 10 update on there.

Hmmmmm

Now, to be transparent - my laptop came brand new with Windows 8, but had a free upgrade to Windows 10 with purchase. I guess I'm shocked that it rolled back to 8 because I thought rolling back from 10 to 8 was NOT possible.

Either way, I still don't understand why it didn't install the 10. When I rebooted, it certainly fired up the USB as it lit up and was flashing during the whole install.


When you bought your Windows 8 Laptop, HP created a small partition that contained the Windows 8 Image that was on your hard drive when you bought the thing. It's usually called the REPAIR drive, or RECOVERY drive. When you booted to the USB stick, the HP BIOS somehow redirected to that RECOVERY drive, and it reinstalled Windows 8 the exact way it was when you bought the PC. This is a "feature" of every HP laptop (unless you delete that recovery drive)

So it makes sense that you ended up with Window 8 again, just like it was new. Now the thing to do is use it and see if it still has issues. If it does, it might be your hardware, if it doesn't, then you can either leave it as is, reformat and install Win10 Clean, or just upgrade to Win10 again.

Your Windows 8 Key is good for Windows 10.
 
Totally agree. I added a Samsung 1TB 960 NVME M.2 drive which runs off the PCIE bus and reads and writes at around 2000MB/sec which I use to do all by file manipulations. Way, way faster than an old 'spinning' hard disc. I have a 850 Pro as my boot drive and an 840 Pro as my 'Temp' drive. BTW: The 960 is about 4 times faster than the 850 Pro!

The latest motherboards support M.2 drives with some having two slots or more slots.

Nice!! That 960 sounds sweet! (y)
 
When you bought your Windows 8 Laptop, HP created a small partition that contained the Windows 8 Image that was on your hard drive when you bought the thing. It's usually called the REPAIR drive, or RECOVERY drive. When you booted to the USB stick, the HP BIOS somehow redirected to that RECOVERY drive, and it reinstalled Windows 8 the exact way it was when you bought the PC. This is a "feature" of every HP laptop (unless you delete that recovery drive)

So it makes sense that you ended up with Window 8 again, just like it was new. Now the thing to do is use it and see if it still has issues. If it does, it might be your hardware, if it doesn't, then you can either leave it as is, reformat and install Win10 Clean, or just upgrade to Win10 again.

Your Windows 8 Key is good for Windows 10.

:) :) :) And that begs the question. How do I know what my Windows 8 Key is?
 
Its difficult to direct someone not in the same space how to get into CMOS and start to fix the problem. It could create a bunch of other issues not needed. I take down my old laptops and part them out to sell on ebay, have a collection of old hard drives I should clean up via my USB drive unit. (Some day ) I never reuse old HD's cause of possible wear.
And I can vouch for the hybrid variety I've used these also. Just rambling now.... Hope you get your issue resolved soon Gene
 
I've decided that I've had a very stressful weekend of PC troubleshooting...emphasis on TROUBLE. So, I am now popping the cork on a 2015 Malbec...compliments of Argentina. :)
 
And, while this has absolutely nothing to do with my PC issues, I'm having a GOS 2.0 weak moment. The weakness is overpowering......

now.jpg
 
You don't need that:nuke...get back on track...that unit is known to have HDMI issues and bluetooth problems..

LOL! That must be why the cheap price....cause otherwise, it's loaded. I know, I know. I have a soft spot for AVR's....and it's been a few years you know.
I suppose if I have $500-800 burning a hole in my pocket.....a laptop is next on the list. If this one acts buggy in the next couple weeks that is. :violin
 
LOL! That must be why the cheap price....cause otherwise, it's loaded. I know, I know. I have a soft spot for AVR's....and it's been a few years you know.
I suppose if I have $500-800 burning a hole in my pocket.....a laptop is next on the list. If this one acts buggy in the next couple weeks that is. :violin

You know you are going to need a laptop..better to get one BEFORE your old one bites the dust...if you wait until you have to get one you will pay more and might not get the right one...
 
Well, I am now the proud owner of Windows 8. lmao

It just finished installing the 150+ updates and now it's "configuring updates". It's the time of reckoning....we'll see what happens...will it crash like before? Bated breath........
 
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