Laptop not working after Windows 10 Update

claire07

Could I just check what size usb I would need to download linux or ubuntu so that I could boot up my laptop to try this.  Most of those I've got are nearly full so I'll get a new one but don't want to risk it not being big enough (I've tried googling it and the recommendations seem to vary).

DoaM

Minimum 8GB USB stick, preferably 16GB. That way you could use the same stick to later reload Windows 10 onto your laptop, whether it be to the same HDD or a new SSD.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4000735/windows-10-reinstall ... see the Clean Install section.

claire07

That's brilliant - thank you so much for your help.  I apologise if I'm asking obvious questions but I've never tried anything like this before. However as it would be great if I could keep my laptop I'll certainly give it a try!

TheRightOne

claire07 said:

That's brilliant - thank you so much for your help.  I apologise if I'm asking obvious questions but I've never tried anything like this before. However as it would be great if I could keep my laptop I'll certainly give it a try!

I'm not sure of the issue you have with swapping the drive to an SSD. Much easier than messing around with Ubuntu, the laptop will be much faster and there would be no need to back anything up. Some feedback would have been nice.

claire07

I'm sorry that you feel I haven't given any feedback on what you say would have been an easy thing to do.  I wasn't being disrespectful to you personally - it was just that this has been quite a stressful time and initially it seemed easier to buy a new laptop.

However I have been grateful for all the suggestions of a way I could access my laptop and retrieve the data.and  am now going to try that.   I might have an issue with swapping the drive to an SSD as this is something  totally beyond my comfort zone but I have used usb drives in the past so thought I would try that method first.

bodsj

TheRightOne - think you have mis-read the post. Claire has an issue with laptop not booting to Win10 since a software update. with all due respect to Claire, she may not have the knowledge/funds to buy an SSD drive and then install it? If she did then it would leave the laptop in the same situation (ie - non bootable with data sat on her old drive). I believe this is a software problem with data to recover which Ubuntu/Linux USB could resolve. Once this situation is resolved then maybe your idea to swap the drive to SSD would work, but as I'm unsure of the exact model/age of laptop , it could be an IDE interface so SSD with a different interface would not work

debitcardmayhem

claire07 said:

Could I just check what size usb I would need to download linux or ubuntu so that I could boot up my laptop to try this.  Most of those I've got are nearly full so I'll get a new one but don't want to risk it not being big enough (I've tried googling it and the recommendations seem to vary).

Not butting in per se, OK I am what is on those nearly full ones, they are not reliable for backup, but that is off topic, but I hope they aren't your only backups. As for a live linux stick 2/4 Mb but 8/16 is great for a windows re-install afterwards, but then where are you going to copy the data from the dodgy lappy to?

debitcardmayhem

bodsj said:

TheRightOne - think you have mis-read the post. Claire has an issue with laptop not booting to Win10 since a software update. with all due respect to Claire, she may not have the knowledge/funds to buy an SSD drive and then install it? If she did then it would leave the laptop in the same situation (ie - non bootable with data sat on her old drive). I believe this is a software problem with data to recover which Ubuntu/Linux USB could resolve. Once this situation is resolved then maybe your idea to swap the drive to SSD would work, but as I'm unsure of the exact model/age of laptop , it could be an IDE interface so SSD with a different interface would not work

Good point but what makes you think she could use Ubuntu/Fedora(my fave)/systemrescuecd etc please don't assume that folks have the same level of knowledge, but of course when needed this forum is a fount of knowledge and often criticism

TheRightOne

claire07 said:

I'm sorry that you feel I haven't given any feedback on what you say would have been an easy thing to do.  I wasn't being disrespectful to you personally - it was just that this has been quite a stressful time and initially it seemed easier to buy a new laptop.

However I have been grateful for all the suggestions of a way I could access my laptop and retrieve the data.and  am now going to try that.   I might have an issue with swapping the drive to an SSD as this is something  totally beyond my comfort zone but I have used usb drives in the past so thought I would try that method first.

Ok, no probs. 
But if you choose to keep the laptop, you really need to swap the drive anyway or you'll be doing yourself a disservice. Suffering painfully slow performance when it could be much better. So since you need to do it anyway, there seemed little point in wasting time trying to retrieve the data.
That being said, nothing wrong with the 'belt and braces' approach for when it comes to your important data.

bodsj

debitcardmayhem said:

bodsj said:

TheRightOne - think you have mis-read the post. Claire has an issue with laptop not booting to Win10 since a software update. with all due respect to Claire, she may not have the knowledge/funds to buy an SSD drive and then install it? If she did then it would leave the laptop in the same situation (ie - non bootable with data sat on her old drive). I believe this is a software problem with data to recover which Ubuntu/Linux USB could resolve. Once this situation is resolved then maybe your idea to swap the drive to SSD would work, but as I'm unsure of the exact model/age of laptop , it could be an IDE interface so SSD with a different interface would not work

Good point but what makes you think she could use Ubuntu/Fedora(my fave)/systemrescuecd etc please don't assume that folks have the same level of knowledge, but of course when needed this forum is a fount of knowledge and often criticism

As mentioned in my post "with all due respect to Claire, she may not have the knowledge"; Just trying to help because I had a feeling important data needed to be retrieved. I was hoping Claire would come back with "ok done that, ..now I am  stuck etc. Thanks for you comment. PS - I use a number of tools one of which is  a ubuntu multiboot USB containing a lot of versions including fedora. I have no real favourite as some versions don't work with different models/age of laptop.