December 2018 Win10 update trashes PC boot

I am absolutely furious at the latest update which has trashed the boot process of my PC.

Just before Christmas, I signed out of my PC, noticing it said "Update and restart". I clicked, saw the screen indicating the progess of the update and left the room while it did its business. I returned later to see the Automatic Repair in process.

I then got stuck in an Automatic Repair, and soon got out my repair disc and 64Gb stick with Win10.To my surprise, the USB ports were not listed in the UEFI boot sequence (though the mouse and keyboard worked) and I could not boot from the DVD drive nor the C: ("0") drive.

I could read the files on the C: drive and DVD drive from the Command Prompt option. The automatic repair option found the restore created when the update started but failed to complete. Then I discovered all restore items were absent. I tried various suggestions on the MS help page but they all failed to complete. Just about all off them started by saying boot from USB or DVD, neither of which work.

It seems to me the whole boot setup has become corrupted, both on the C: drive and the UEFI.

I have ordered a replace (identical) AS Rock mo-bo, and will rebuild the PC.

And this has happened before, when I originally upgraded to Win10 from the previous version of Windows. (There's a thread here about somewhere - https://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1758928 )

Unbelievable.

Not clear on that you say you can see files on dvd a c from cmd prompt so what are you booting to get that. Its highley unlikely the MB is the problem the one in your link was a gygerbyte which has duel bios. Have you got secure boot enabled to do a repair you need the same o/s thats on the drive ie 1803

I saw the files via the command prompt option in the Automatic Recovery menu.

Whatever you say, an update and restart should not trash the UEFI, the boot procedure and the boot secotrs of C:.

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

Sometimes when Automatic Repair starts unexpectedly you can just hit the power switch to turn off the PC and all is OK on restart. You could try creating a Macrium Reflect repair USB drive if you have access to another PC, boot from that and use the option Fix Windows Boot Problems https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/di...+boot+problems

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 emergency USB and DVD but the PC will not boot from them. The UEFI boot has been corrupted. In fact the "boot from USB" option has disappeared.

The emergency USB and DVD are fine as they work on another PC.

JohnD said:

I have such emergency USB and DVD but the PC will not boot from them. The UEFI boot has been corrupted. In fact the "boot from USB" option has disappeared.

The emergency USB and DVD are fine as they work on another PC.

Can you enter the BIOS OK? It might be worth loading the BIOS defaults else remove the CMOS battery for while. I would also try reflashing the BIOS.

Been there, done that. USB still missing as a boot option but mouse abd keyboard work. UEFI still not able to boot from C: aka Drive 0 nor the DVD drive which now is no longer correctly identified as an HP - just a DVD drive.

Replacement Mo-bo ordered as something is seriously wrong.

An update should not cause all this damage.

JohnD said:

Been there, done that. USB still missing as a boot option but mouse abd keyboard work. UEFI still not able to boot from C: aka Drive 0 nor the DVD drive which now is no longer correctly identified as an HP - just a DVD drive.

Replacement Mo-bo ordered as something is seriously wrong.

An update should not cause all this damage.

Did you reflash the BIOS?