Can't update, restore, reset my PC

Hi, welcome to tenforums.

It might be worth noting that my electricity has been going down the last few weeks due to maintenance outside my house,

This would not affect you were you using either a laptop with a functional battery in it, or a desktop with a UPS.

Actually I know nothing whatsoever about your PC.
Click 'My computers' under my post to compare.

Please complete specifications of your PC. There are tutorials on how to do that in the Tutorial section if needed.

Start with absolute basics given your multiple problems.

Please download and use Hard Disk Sentinel (SSDs too, trial) - portable version available too. Best instant appraisal right on its GUI I know. Post a screenshot thus:


I'm going to guess you haven't been using disk imaging routinely- as is endlessly recommended here. E.g. Macrium Reflect (free) - if you had, you could have restored your PC to a previous working state assuming the system disk is ok relatively quickly without help, and had the confidence of having a full backup. I won't ask if you have been doing that as no one ever answers unless they have (!)

You have build 20H2 - please confirm you used the MS media creation tool to create your iso file.

Will need to know the state of your disk(s) before going further.

dalchina said:

Hi, welcome to tenforums.



This would not affect you were you using either a laptop with a functional battery in it, or a desktop with a UPS.

Actually I know nothing whatsoever about your PC.
Click 'My computers' under my post to compare.

Please complete specifications of your PC. There are tutorials on how to do that in the Tutorial section if needed.

Start with absolute basics given your multiple problems.

Please download and use Hard Disk Sentinel (SSDs too, trial) - portable version available too. Best instant appraisal right on its GUI I know. Post a screenshot thus:


I'm going to guess you haven't been using disk imaging routinely- as is endlessly recommended here. E.g. Macrium Reflect (free) - if you had, you could have restored your PC to a previous working state assuming the system disk is ok relatively quickly without help, and had the confidence of having a full backup. I won't ask if you have been doing that as no one ever answers unless they have (!)

You have build 20H2 - please confirm you used the MS media creation tool to create your iso file.

Will need to know the state of your disk(s) before going further.

PC specs: Desktop, custom built.
Win 10 Pro 20H2
CPU: AMD FX 8320, stock clock
RAM 16GB
Graphics Card: Amd Radeon RX 570, stock clock etc.
My anti-virus was Avast and I used it along side Malwarebytes (not at the same time) I uninstalled them yesterday when trying to get this working.

HD Sentinal: Hard drives are both good apparently. These are both standard HDD's, not SSD's.


Nope, I don't use Disk Imaging. I usually had no issues using system restore in the past. Will be doing that from now on though (if I can evr fix this) Yes, I used the media creation tool to make the ISO.

Thanks for replying

That's good.. but plenty of issues. You've run chkdsk and SFC /SCANNOW and both pass.

When you

downloaded a windows iso from MS website and tried to install/reset from that.

do you mean you attempted an in-place upgrade repair install? I.e.

rt click, Mount iso
open new drive letter
double click setup.exe

- or something else?

It started yesterday when my graphics drivers wanted to update. I ran the Radeon installer and it gave me a general error. So I tried a clean install using the Radeon clean up utility, no luck, now I have no gfx or sound drivers later found out It won't update because my windows isn't up to date.

Your Windows build is not far off the latest.

Can you get or do you have an older build of that graphics driver? Normally I'd have said the last from the manufacturer, but your PC is custom.

So I then tried to load a restore point a few times again; no luck got the undoing changes message so I can't roll back.

Restore points are unfortunately vulnerable in Win 10. Many have found that they suddenly won't complete the restoration process - then perhaps some weeks or months later all is well again.

(And, unlike disk imaging, pretty useless if your drive fails or your PC is stolen, say). Great otherwise.

Window's update troubleshooter gets stuck on checking if there is updates.

Which one are you using? It shouldn't be checking for updates.

When you had outages, were any updates in progress?

My guess is that something in your registry may be corrupted. Unfortunately MS chose to disable 'Regback' at the and of build 1709 (automatic registry backups).

Do you get a specific error when trying to use a System Restore point?

It can take some minutes to get past that.

Yes, why not? Although SR issues are nigh impossible to fix unless VSS-related.

I downloaded a windows iso from MS website and tried to install/reset from that. It got stuck on "making sure you're ready" I left it for hours, it didn't progress.

You did the right thing by waiting- can take 8+ hours exceptionally.. and also by not accepting updates. You could, I suppose, try disconnecting the internet and leaving it for, say, 10 hours...

Is your Radeon driver currently uninstalled? - just the MS basic one in use?