Stuck on welcome screen after latest update, can't log in

I don't know if this is the right section to ask this in, but my machine refuses to let me log in now -- because it won't even show the the prompt. This also means I can't look up my actual specs, so what I have is of a computer that should be the same as mine.
A couple nights ago, it wanted to update. I gave it the okay and told it to shut down afterwards. I wish I knew which update it was, but I can't tell you, because now I have exactly zero access to the entire computer. I booted it up the next afternoon, and it came up like normal. It shows the time, the date, and a wifi symbol. Clicking should bring up the login prompt, yes? Well, now it doesn't. It doesn't bring up anything. It acts like it's transitioning, but then it snaps right back.

- Booting in any safe mode setting results in a black screen with a cursor. The cursor responds to movement, but nothing else.
- Using a restore point from before the update didn't work.
- It refused to uninstall any updates. (I may be dumb for using the restore point first. But I was just following someone's instructions!)
- Ctrl-alt-delete didn't work.
- Yes, I tried turning it off and on again.

I'm at a loss. I'd rather not have to wipe the machine over its own update failing. I mean frankly, that just isn't fair.

dalchina said:

Could you clarify- did you in any way interrupt the update/upgrade by shutting down your PC?
I.e. Is there any possibility the update/upgrade was interrupted?

I used the option "Update and Shut Down." I didn't interfere with anything after that, except for turning off the monitor.

I seem to have a setup I can reinstall Windows with, but it's from about a year ago. Someone else led me to a Linux-based troubleshooting boot disc that is supposed to check for issues, but I haven't done that yet.
I did try uninstalling the updates, but both options (quality and feature) gave failure messages.

Hey Sorry to hear about the problem you are having. By the looks of it, I had kind of similar problem with my wife's laptop when after an update, it didn't go into the profile, it seemed to mess the profile. I had to recover the files and document through cloning the drive with ddrescue, I wish I knew earlier, but each time I tried to log in, it overwritten the prior data.

In your case, It is different from what I had experienced, though I would suggest not to use it, as you may have harder time retrieving those data.


I came across data-medic forum when I had the problem, especially their data-recovery tutorial which was essentially was mainly for cases like bad sector, using the ddrescue to clone the drive to another new disk/ssd and with a use of tools like r-studio to recover.

How to Clone a Hard Drive With Bad Sectors Using ddrescue - Data Recovery Forum Home