ISO Disaster

Very short version of very long story: Dell Support Assist has a bothersome error on my computer. I even got my ticket promoted to a very high (if not the highest) support level. Much time spent to trying to fix this; Dell finally said either do an ISO or send your computer to us.

1. Created an ISO on my computer, which crashed at the end, with the usual full-page message about gathering some data and restarting. As has been usual when I have seen that, it does not restart, so I did, which led to a failure to install the ISO, plus many other serious problems. I eventually was able to recover.

2. Created a bootable USO on my wife's computer, tried to run it on mine; did not work. I would restart, choose to boot from a USB, proceeded, ended up back in Windows, ISO never ran. Tried on two USB 3 slots, one USB 2, never worked.

3. Tried three or four times for a Clean Boot; never got there, always returned to standard restart.

Gave up trying, decided to post here. Before doing that, found that sometime today, Firefox started doing a look-up for every URL, and when I started this forum session, I saw a lookup for Google.com. Also found that I could not update DSclock.exe or replace/install it. I have not been aware of any Windows problems other than the Support Assist, although I have not been doing anything complex and have not run many programs recently.

I do have a Macrium Reflect full backup from last Monday. As I started trying to install the ISO the next day, I saw no reason to create a new one, and I don't actually know if Windows has since been damaged, nor, if it has, when that might have happened.

What do I do now to get out of this?

A moment later: Clicked on Preview, was delayed by a "Looking up cse.google.com". Probably happen again when I click on Submit, as I am, as is usual, using Firefox with its new lookup problem. Looked up that URL in Edge, may well be the cause of all the delays.

Whats the iso win10 or other how are you writing the iso you cant just copy it it needs software to write it correct. The best option is to go and get a free iso from https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/soft...load/windows10 at the end it gives and option to write the iso to usb let it do and it should boot ok

Samuria said:

Whats the iso win10 or other how are you writing the iso you cant just copy it it needs software to write it correct. The best option is to go and get a free iso from https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/soft...load/windows10 at the end it gives and option to write the iso to usb let it do and it should boot ok

Standard procedure, which I always follow when I need an ISO, so, okay for me, and I have no understanding of why it has not worked now, which is very frustrating. I don't, of course, know if an in-place update will fix the Support Anomaly, which I removed before trying the ISO approach, so that there will be no record of the oddity in the SA logs.

If you goto the link I posted and hit update let it do a full update you have nothing to loose if you have yor MR backup

Not Myself said:

Standard procedure, which I always follow when I need an ISO,

And exactly what would that procedure be?

NavyLCDR said:

And exactly what would that procedure be?

The one shown in the link in the message to which I posted that reply, namely the way to get an ISO.

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Samuria said:

If you goto the link I posted and hit update let it do a full update you have nothing to loose if you have yor MR backup

Except that the first time I tried this, by creating the ISO on my computer, as I had done in the past, when the error page appeared and the progress stopped, that in turn created the original disaster, one that caused me to spend a great deal of time getting back to an operating version of Windows 10 (the one that was there before attempting the ISO), and which I have reason to suspect (don't know) damaged Windows somewhat.

I made that last statement based on some of the problems that I have seen since the ISO attempt, such as that the bootable ISO USB key I created on my wife's computer cannot be accessed after setting the computer to boot from a USB, and that I cannot boot into Clean Boot. These are two reasons for my suspecting the damage, but as I had not had occasion to use either one for months or even longer time spans, I don't know if they were working before the attempt.

I suggested just hit upgrade no ISO. You may get problems with ISo if one pc is uefi and the other not

Samuria said:

I suggested just hit upgrade no ISO. You may get problems with ISo if one pc is uefi and the other not

Just to be sure, I clicked again on your link, which offers two choices, Update Now and Download Tool Now, so I clicked on the first one, which downloaded Windows10Upgrade9252.exe. If you look at that file's property sheet, it shows that it is the Windows 10 Update Assistant, not a copy of Windows 10. I clicked on the program, which opened and informed that I have the latest version of Windows 10.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained is a proverb; in my instance, that has been revised to Ventured and nothing gained.

Porthos said:

Could do it this way without a USB. Refresh Windows 10

Are you really Baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds , aka Porthos, from the "Three Musketeers", aka "Les Trois Mousquetaires"?

Fascinating, and definitely the first reference to this method that I have seen, despite my lengthy searches. Much appreciate your joining the thread. I will have to wait a day or two until I have the time to give this a try. I can only hope that it works better than anything else I have attempted.

From outside of Santa Fe, NM, words of wisdom:

Poor Old New Mexico,
So far from Heaven,
So Close to Texas

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Porthos said:

Could do it this way without a USB. Refresh Windows 10

A question that I doubt you can answer, but I shall ask anyway: Given that I am rather certain that the existing copy of Windows 10 is damaged, how likely is this new method of updating likely to work, given that, according to the tutorial, the process uses the existing installation?

I intend to try it, but given how much grief I have endured since I tried to create and run an ISO (which has worked perhaps once or twice, at least) failed when it crashed at the very last step before starting the install, I am leery as if this new method also fails, I don't know what I will do, nor--obviously--if it does fail, in what manner that might occur.