I cannot print from my pc or save files as a pdf

tzxlyd · 07 Jul 2023

I was able to get hard disk sentinel on the laptop with an external drive. The overview says that the performance is 100% excellent but health is only 75% = Good. Power on time = 1,284 days, 23 hours; estimated remaining lifetime = 303 days, and total start/stop count = 7,323. I may be able to get you any reports needed by using my flash drive to transfer the data between PCs.

What data do you need from me from Hard Disk Sentinel?

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I was able to get the external drive to work so I am creating a backup of the PC HDD now. I expect that to take a very long time. The PC is still running very slow and there are programs like Teams that are included in the startup that is taking hours to load. I know that Teams was running for at least 4 hours last night and never completed loading before I shut off the PC.

I was able to get to the BIOS and tried to change the boot to the flash drive. Unfortunately, that still did not work but when I removed the drive the PC seemed to startup better, so I attached the external drive before anything else tried to load. That seemed to work somehow, and I was able to get sentinel from my working PC, then transferred it to the other PC. It eventually allowed me to copy and paste to the flash drive.

I may attempt to reach the internet once I get a good backup created but I think I should not try too many tasks as the system is sluggishly slow. If the sentinel report is correct, then it seems to be saying that my drive is not long for this life.

dalchina · 07 Jul 2023

There's no indication there you've a physical problem with your HDD.

How are you creating a backup of the drive?

Your laptop appears to be from 2012. There is of course no guarantee of normal performance with Win 10 with an old device.
In rare cases they will work with builds of Win 10 up to a point, then not properly with later builds for one reason or another.

If you wish to persist with this old device, I recommend you see how it performs when booted from a live boot disk.

Or, if you wish to try another approach, put a spare disk in it and clean install Win 10 just to see how it performs. If satisfactorily, you then know the problem most likely lies with the content of your present system disk.

I.e. separate the issues- if you can verify that your hardware works with the current build of Win 10, then you have to consider what to do with your present system disk.

tzxlyd · 07 Jul 2023

I am creating a system image under control panel's backup and restore option. I wonder if I should create a system repair disc too once I have completed the backup? It sounds like you believe it is the age of the PC combined with Windows 10 and that can be a problematic situation. In my defense I am using the exact same (identical PC) type of PC to send this information -- the working PC.

I understand, you are indicating that there is no rhyme or reason to one working versus another not working -- but
for some reason, I think it is more of a virus (or something more akin to that) as the cause of the problem. I will try to isolate the problem as you have suggested and of course it will take some time to acquire another drive.

First, I will try to create the system repair disc. I am pretty certain I still have some old DVDs somewhere that I can use to create the repair discs. Won't that give me the live boot disc that you are mentioning? If not, I am sure I can find someplace to download and create .iso files with the DVDs I have -- there should be places online for downloading that if needed.

I just got the message "Activate Windows" with the Blue Screen again and it forces you to click on the "Go to Settings" box to get rid of the message. Backup is still moving but, slowly.

dalchina · 07 Jul 2023

No, as has been said so many times, do not rely on MS's Win 7 Backup and Restore.

MS itself recommends using a 3rd party solution - which is maintained, current and supported.

The clue is in the name. Win 7. It's there for legacy purposes only.

Your choice of course. Macrium Reflect is favoured by many members (free version still usable; Aomei Backupper (Chinese) is also pretty good and has an easier to use GUI.

Note that imaging can be done by creating and booting from the imaging program's boot disc. That way you're not dependent on the O/S - which matters in your case. If the disk performance is ok, then imaging would likely be much faster.

(Full image of my SSD over USB3 in about 20 -25 mins- differential images in 9-12 mins. With USB2 that will be much slower).

Further- Macrium Reflect also does a CRC check each time a partition is imaged, verifying the integrity of the source.

you believe it is the age of the PC combined with Windows 10

I don't know. I merely suggest the possibility. There are many possibilities.

tzxlyd · 12 Jul 2023

I just noticed that for some reason my laptop says that windows is not activated. How could my Windows have been deactivated? Could this be the source of the problem?

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For some reason I cannot link my account so I can activate Windows. I upgraded from 7 years ago and now I am having a problem linking my account. I see that my email is listed twice (seemingly because I had to add it again) but I do not remember why so perhaps I have had a problem with Windows 10 in the past.

I am unable to get beyond the settings to sign into my Microsoft account and link it to my digital license. Is there any other way to do that outside of the account info in the settings?

dalchina · 12 Jul 2023

Have you made any hardware change other than RAM or disk that might have lost your digital activation rights?

From the huge searchable Tutorials section (do feel free to have a look) I found this for you:

Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10

Otherwise feel free to contact your MS regional activation centre. (Phone nos - e.g. via Google).

Once your PC is activated you can link it to your MS account, not the other way round. Once it is linked, that makes activating easier when you are logged in with that account
Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License

tzxlyd · 12 Jul 2023

No, I have not made any changes to the pc at all and that is what is so weird. I had the blue screen just pop up out of no where maybe a week or a few days earlier -- prior to the start of the problems. Like I said when it appears and I clicked the settings button with that window the screen will disappear but that is it.

The information I saw wrt that screen was it was just a virus/hoax -- it would stop appearing in a week, well of course that was incorrect. Then at restart I began receiving messages about apps not loading, etc.

I will look through the information and your assistance is much appreciated. I am curious about the repair disc that I created which is the only thing so far that I have done successfully. What types of things will it resolve with Windows?

Also, I finally created a backup image after learning a costly but valuable lesson about Macrium and the difference between cloning and imaging. I lost all my data on my external drive by choosing the cloning option. That one was painful to take so I am very hesitant now to do anything without full understanding of the outcome.

dalchina · 12 Jul 2023

A system repair disk is a very limited tool.
Create System Repair Disc in Windows 10

and of very little use if your installation becomes unrecoverable, your system disk fails or your PC is stolen.

A full disk image (maintained by running incremental/differential imaging periodically e.g. weekly/before & after updating - as you choose... of at least ALL Windows partitions (not just C: ) gives you complete protection- Windows, accounts, programs, data- for all imaged partitions - provided your backup medium is securely stored.

Files can also be extracted after mounting the image file created, and programs such as Laplink PCMover can transfer complete user accounts to a new installation using a disk image as source.

It's somewhat essential as a practical step to use Macrium R's retention rules to control the space on your backup disk- e.g. to retain a full image and, say 4 or 5 differential images. That way you don't run out of space, as the oldest image once you reach the limit will be deleted.

tzxlyd · 12 Jul 2023

I will definitely have a scheduled weekly backup going forward. I have tried to activate using the trouble shooter but I get a message that says, "We can't activate Windows right now. Try again later." Does that mean I will have to attempt to activate the license by telephone with the attached method?

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This is the message that I am getting when I try to use the troubleshooter to activate Windows.

dalchina · 12 Jul 2023

Can you access the internet? (Just to check). Are you running a 3rd party firewall?

Your easiest way forward is to do what it recommends- get the relevant data as it asks and call the centre, describing what's happened. Have your full Windows build number ready. Details from Settings, About may be useful.

Try running the various forms of the slmgr command and see if that tells you anything useful.
How to Use the Slmgr Command in Windows

Note: one form REMOVES activation- so don't use that.

slmgr /ato
- attempts online activation.

Noted: you've not resolved the slowness - so something's significantly wrong. Malware perhaps?