i got a spam question

Compumind said:

@corvairbob -

Can you backup all of your user data to a flash or other portable storage device?
It may take some time including your browser bookmarks and such.

A fresh install might be the best way.

FWIW.

i have all my pictures and programs and downloaded programs backed up on a usb hard drive now. i have the mediacreationtool909 and i have the windows creation tool exe programs. i found out the media creation tool will install on the usb thumb drive. and then wipe the hard drive and install windows again. i did this back in dec. but i may have got a corrupted file as the pc never ran the same after that.

the refresh tool sounds like i can select what programs to keep and data and that exe program will just do a complete fresh install while it is on the pc and i will not have to put that exe on a flash drive to run. does that sound correct. if so please let me know. i think it was the media creation tool that i ran last time as i have to boot to the thumb drive and run a tool from there. it may be better to run one from the pc. the windows refresh tool sounds like doing a defrag. the files get moved around until it has finished and then i have a fresh install again on my pc.

is that correct? thanks

spunk said:

I don't know what this efresh Windows Tool is, but you don't need it for a clean install. The instructions for a Clean Install are on post #19
Or follow these instrucions Clean Install Windows 10

that was entered as refresh windows tool, like i said i spell check and it changes after i post. that is one thing i'm trying to fix. i never had that before last dec. then i did a reinstall using the program you put on a thumb drive and boot to that drive and let it run. i will check that post number again thanks.

i just went back to that post and i did see it before, but when i did the reset back in dec. i did not go thru all that. i got some file on a thumb drive and then i had to boot to that drive and let it run. i did not have to put any key on a usb stick. so this may be different. i may do this tomorrow. i'm getting tired of the spell check not working. last night i started the restore and that ran for hours just telling me it was initializing the restore. so i pulled the battery out to stop that and now the pc is doing a bit better. but i think chrome did not load correct. i have removed chrome 5 times and installed it and it has done the same thing. now when i right click on a misspelled word i get a sidebar that shows developer stuff. i have to left click right click then left click and right click and still it may not correct the word lie refresh that posted a efresh. somewhere something went wrong and chrome is not loading correctly and spell check is not working. the chrome people told me it is windows doing that. so that is why i'm here.

so it looks like i will just do something tomorrow and see if it improves. if not i may get an ebay hard drive seller to load up windows 10 pro and just by a new hard drive. this is getting bad. sometimes it works and sometimes it fails. again thanks

spunk said:

You can Refresh Windows with the tool you talked about. But if you are doing a Clean Install, then The link in post #23 has pictures and step by step instructions, I put in the Cliff notes of that in post #19. A Clean Install is best option, as it leaves no residue from your previous install.

ok thanks for the help. tell me i just went to ebay and found a 500gb 2.5 sata hard drive with win10 pro loaded on them. so how hard will it be to get that drive to work on my pc? if i can just install another pre loaded os into my pc i will then take this hard drive and format it to become a backup drive. thanks

spunk said:

Well, first off you don't know what version of Windows 10 you are going to get. Currently, Microsoft is up to vs 1909, and in a few weeks it is going to be vs 2004. You also don't know what is on this drive, it could have someones personal files you don't want. Third it could have Viruses, Even if it is a clean install of Windows 10 the drive is a Used drive and you don't know what condition the drive is in, or how long it has been in use before you ior how old it is. You can buy a Brand New SATA HDD or better yet an SSD on Amazon or Ebay for less they what you are probably paying for this drive. It's very simple to download the ISO image for Windows 10 which is the latest build.and burn it to a USB Flash drive. You can easily install a new drive with a Clean Version of Windows that is up to date and has no issues.

thanks i was just asking. i just checked and i have all the programs and data backed up. so i will just do a reinstall as described here and see how it goes. and then do a restore from the backup drive. thanks i will let you know how that went. maybe i will get lucky and get the chrome browser to work again. and if norton take away another install i will just put back for anti virus what i had before. my wife still has that on her pc. i did not install norton on hers last dec. because i was having so many issues with this pc. i just put up with it trying to figure it out since last dec. again thanks for the help

again thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

ok tried to run refresh windows and it told me it can't run on my machine. i'm not sure about that media creation tool 909. has anyone run that tool and what might i expect. now i will try the media creation tool and see how that goes. so i may be off for a bit thanks

ok ran that tool and got the same message it can't update my pc. so i must have some virus that will not let me restore this pc. i will now try the create the usb drive and see if that does anything. i expect that will and then i will have a new something. have no clue what i will end up with. if that fails i will just get another hard drive with windows on it.

spunk said:

You should be able to download the ISO for Windows 10 on a different computer and burn it to a USB Flash Drive with Media Creation Tool, just follow the instructions. Use a fresh never used USB Flash Drive of at least 8 GB capacity.
If a Clean Install fails on the drive you are having problems with, then the Drive is the problem, not the software. If you have a brand new Blank HDD/SSD and do a Clean install, it should go flawlessly.
When you do a clean install on a computer, Windows takes a snapshot of the hardware you are installing it on and loads drivers specific to that computer. In previous versions of Windows, if you took that drive out and put it into a different computer the computer wouldn't boot because it couldn't find the previous hardware. Windows 10 is very good about recognizing new hardware and installing the drivers needed when you swap a drive from another computer, so that would boot, except for the other reasons I told you. So, do not waste your money on buying a HDD with Windows already on it..
BTW, you do not need to install Norton. Windows 10 has built in security Windows Security (Defender) Norton is bloated and many times bogs down a system.

thanks spunk one of the hard drive guys told me to set my pc up in the bios to this and any drive will work. also i ran a hard drive utility on my pc and it did not have any hard drive issues. thanks


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The drive will in laptops, and also in desktop with the appropriate caddy. I assume you already but I may still mention that one major reason why hdd from one laptop may not work in another is due to boot mode. If hdd running in laptop A is configured for UEFI boot, it'll not boot in laptop B if the latter has configuration in bios for Legacy boot., in this case all you have to do, if supported, is change the bios to UEFI . The same goes for Legacy model.