Cortana process is missing, no search available

dalchina · 15 Sep 2016

Time.. far too long. It takes me about 12-15 mins to create an image of all my Windows partitions totalling around 78Gb from SSD to a USB3 drive.

It will be significantly longer for a HDD over USB2, or whatever speed applies, but I'd guess an hour or less.

Something wrong there. Certainly that network speed is way slower than USB3 of course, but even so..

Derek Zehr · 15 Sep 2016

Well, it finished, 39 hours, seems to have worked. I restarted the computer to do the disk scan and repair that you suggested, but it stuck at 100%, we needed the data, so we force-rebooted it. Gerr.

dalchina · 15 Sep 2016

Hi, given the length of time it took,
a. use Macrium's verification feature to verify the disk image
b. check the SMART parameters of your disk(s) with e.g. Crystal Diskinfo (free) which gives a quick Good/Bad indication
c. you could try running a surface scan with Macrorit Diskscanner.

All just to be on the safe side.

Derek Zehr · 16 Sep 2016

This is the results from the CHKDSK. The computer was shut down, and restarted, but it seems to have done the job.

Code:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.                         

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
  473600 file records processed.                                                         File verification completed.
  15983 large file records processed.                                      0 bad file records processed.                                      
Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
  563254 index entries processed.                                                        Index verification completed.
  0 unindexed files scanned.                                           0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.                     
Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 16706 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 16706 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 16706 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is compacting the security descriptor stream
Security descriptor verification completed.
  44828 data files processed.                                            CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  41417408 USN bytes processed.                                                            Usn Journal verification completed.
Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

 487821311 KB total disk space.
 148533680 KB in 281569 files.
    206000 KB in 44831 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    598739 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
 338482892 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
 121955327 total allocation units on disk.
  84620723 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 3a 07 00 05 fa 04 00 7e 01 09 00 00 00 00 00  .:......~.......
2f bf 00 00 28 7e 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  /...(~..........

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

How do you initiate the verification?

dalchina · 16 Sep 2016

Hi, good. I launched Macrium's help, typed 'verification' in the search box:
Verifying image and backup files - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

Derek Zehr · 16 Sep 2016

Good job at hinting at my own responsibility to find that myself.. Sorry. Thanks for your help. I started the verification. Once we get a second computer (coming next week) I will reinstall Windows. I don't want to do it now because this is now our only computer since our main one crashed.

Another thing: This computer has problems starting up. Sometimes instead of Windows starting, there will be a log displayed of things happening. I don't remember it all, but some of it has to do with "watch dog" I think. The last line is always "finished" and nothing more happens. after several force-reboots, Windows finally loads. Dunno if this is connected to search not working and divers other minor glitches...

dalchina · 16 Sep 2016

Ok, best wait 'til then. You can still try an in-place upgrade repair of course.. there are other options, but sometimes those don't work. But if a clean install is easy (not many programs or things to configure) then go for that.

Derek Zehr · 16 Sep 2016

What's the difference? Then maybe it's the in-place upgrade repair that I had in mind. Using this page: Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

BUT: the wackiest thing of all is that search is working again. I was trying to find how to boot in safe mode, and tweaked only one (if I remember right): disabling Quick boot. Other than that, I don't think I made any changes. I did notice yesterday in Event Viewer, a whole list of errors relating to cortana not starting. Seems Windows tried to start it muliple times. If the problem persists (which seems likely to me) I will take further steps.

dalchina · 18 Sep 2016

Some people find disabling fast startup useful- usually related to certain driver problems.

A clean install means- you have to re-download all non-Window store apps, configure settings, copy back data, reinstall desktop apps...

A repair install means you keep all your progs and most settings and all your data.

The first is longer- sometimes MUCH longer.
The second may solve problems- but not if corrupt or problematic settings are not overwritten, or the problem is related to an installed program.

Derek Zehr · 19 Sep 2016

Hi @dalchina
Now I cannot start that machine (using a laptop to send this). When I click on the lock screen, it darkens a little like it's supposed to, but no password box appears. Nothing at all except the three icons in the corner, power, ease of access, and network.
What do you suggest I do?

Thanks again for all your helpful knowledge.