Windows Update Roll Back Loop

Backup and Load a Fresh Copy of Windows.

If you are reading this, you searched and simply couldn't find a solution. You best bet is to reload a fresh copy of Windows.

On Sunday, I came in to work (bookkeeping) at a Broadway Kitchens and Bath. I had my entire day planned only for those plans to be ruined by a Windows 10 Update. The update took about 30 mins only to land me on a screen that says the update failed and whether I wanted to restore to a previous build! It was such a PITA to deal with. I tried a few options that were available but none worked. There are a few videos on using command prompt to restore to an old config but I figured it's really not worth doing. Chances are the restored version would be unstable and I figured to my self, it's time to do a clean format.

And that's what I did. However, before you format your computer, be sure to backup all the files and folder. The fact that you are about to reload Windows means you have some idea of command Prompt. Plug in an external hard drive (1 TB) and copy your C drive to the External drive. This way, after you wipe your C drive, you will still have a copy of it that you can pull your documents, etc.

xcopy "C:\" "Destination Drive" /E /I

Reload the whole system. It't better this way.

Tip: when reloading, partition your hard drive. Don't store your documents and data to your OS drive. It's a really bad idea.

I also have a batch file script that runs when my PC shuts down. This backs up my files to an external drive.

Use cloud service like DropBox or Google Drive. It can really help saving those small words and excel files. It's not ideal for larger files, like quickbooks data files or database file.

Once you reload, browse the external drive for the old info and put it back where you wanted them.

Uninstall Anti-Virus

I did the update on another computer, but before I did, I uninstalled the anti-virus. My computer updated without problems.