December 2018 Win10 update trashes PC boot

Steve C said:

Did you reflash the BIOS?

I have a BIOS copy on a USB stick, but not installed it yet. Not had time at the moment. (I'm an LFC Kop End season ticket holder!)

Samuria said:

So your booting windows from c and it comes up with repair is that correct if so then its not corrupted boot or you would get select boot drive

No. From X: which believe is from the the Windows Boot manager, which is located on the same disk as C: but another partition.

Steve C said:

I recommend making regular system image backups e.g. using Macrium Reflect Free. This is my preferred option since you can restore from backup in 10 minutes using a SSD

I have such backups but the system fails to read them

@emailx45 You are probably right but the BIOS fails to read any HDD or DVD and the USB ports are not listed as a boot option.

I dont know where is the error, but its only install kb4477137 (SSU + Spectre patch etc...) and the PC dont boot.... only BSOD


For while, i dont want use 1809. maybe I'll go back to 1803 build 17134.1 for stability.... or almost!

Partial success.

The BIOS re-flash restored access to the DVD drive and the USB2 ports but not the USB3 ports.

Repair/system DVD booted but the "0"/C: drive boot and other critical sectors are corrupt, with no access possible. It was not possible with the available tools to delete all the partitions and restore the disk to an "as new" state. I have a spare 1TB drive and will have to start from scratch and hope the images on the USB backup drive are OK.

I am still very angry that an update has caused so much damage.

JohnD said:

Partial success.

The BIOS re-flash restored access to the DVD drive and the USB2 ports but not the USB3 ports.

Repair/system DVD booted but the "0"/C: drive boot and other critical sectors are corrupt, with no access possible. It was not possible with the available tools to delete all the partitions and restore the disk to an "as new" state. I have a spare 1TB drive and will have to start from scratch and hope the images on the USB backup drive are OK.

I am still very angry that an update has caused so much damage.

I assume you loaded the BIOS defaults after the reflash? I've only had BIOS corruption once following a power glitch.

I've bought a new mo-bo - not as good as the ASRock - and now have USB ports.

After a lot of stress we're up and running with Ver 109 Build 17763.253. I took the opportunity to install Office 2019 Pro for £20 via Amazon. Chrome is playing up though - "Establishing secure connection.." takes far too long. Firefox and the horrible Edge have no problem. Must be a Chrome setting somewhere.

Thanks for listening. All I've really learned is "Beware the Win10 update".

I've sorted the "Establishing secure connection…" delay.

Answer is here in the Forum: Chrome is stuck at "establishing secure connection..." on all pages

3. In Services > Cryptographic Services > Log On > Made sure that Log on as: Local system account is ticked and not This account.

Many thanks.