[mo713]

Update:

 

Father reports that he turned on the laptop one morning about 2 days ago, and it said it was installing 8.1. He left and returned a few hours later and it was still installing. A little while longer it was finally finished and he was booted into a new windows 8.1 environment.

 

1. I thought it just told him that he must grab 8.1 manually if he wanted to go further with receiving the latest updates and get back into the update track? Then they decide to give him 8.1 anyway? Even though he didn't request it, and even though they specifically told him they would not do this?

 

2. Do you guys still want me to check the HDD with CrystalDiskInfo and report back? Is that item still in the discussion and will it help to figure out this issue?

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That pretty much confirms what I said here:

The Windows Update applet will pause in between updates found and will tell you there are no more to download and install. The Windows 8.1 update did finally appear, though only after KB 2919442 was installed which is a pre-requisite for the installation of the Windows Update 8.1 (KB 2919355) which will not be offered till all pre-requisite are installed. I do have a feeling there are many more updates to come. I am pretty sure that once all the pre-requisites are downloaded and installed, the 8.1 update (KB 2919355) will appear.

I knew that his computer was not finished updating. It appears that all the pre-requisites finally caught up so that the Windows 8.1 could be downloaded and installed. I can almost bet there were or still are more to come after the Windows Update 8.1 (KB 2919355) was completed.

In order to prevent the 8.1 update to download and install you would need to do a possible registry tweak or hide the update which I would have done neither. Just allow it to fully update.

Not being there to see what he saw in regards to having to grab the 8.1 update manually from the Windows store, I have no idea what to say, except maybe to say that what he thought he read is not what he read after all. I just don't know. I had never heard of that before. 8.1 was a forced update put out by Microsoft and to prevent it from downloading and installing you have to know what you're looking for to stop it.

As for question #2., I'll let Phill answer that question for you, but honestly, I don't think it has anything to do with a faulty HDD.

Posted by Phillpower2;
Thanks Donna

You're welcome, Phill.

[DonnaB]

That pretty much confirms what I said here:

The Windows Update applet will pause in between updates found and will tell you there are no more to download and install. The Windows 8.1 update did finally appear, though only after KB 2919442 was installed which is a pre-requisite for the installation of the Windows Update 8.1 (KB 2919355) which will not be offered till all pre-requisite are installed. I do have a feeling there are many more updates to come. I am pretty sure that once all the pre-requisites are downloaded and installed, the 8.1 update (KB 2919355) will appear.

I knew that his computer was not finished updating. It appears that all the pre-requisites finally caught up so that the Windows 8.1 could be downloaded and installed. I can almost bet there were or still are more to come after the Windows Update 8.1 (KB 2919355) was completed.

In order to prevent the 8.1 update to download and install you would need to do a possible registry tweak or hide the update which I would have done neither. Just allow it to fully update.

Not being there to see what he saw in regards to having to grab the 8.1 update manually from the Windows store, I have no idea what to say, except maybe to say that what he thought he read is not what he read after all. I just don't know. I had never heard of that before. 8.1 was a forced update put out by Microsoft and to prevent it from downloading and installing you have to know what you're looking for to stop it.

As for question #2., I'll let Phill answer that question for you, but honestly, I don't think it has anything to do with a faulty HDD.

Posted by Phillpower2;
Thanks Donna

You're welcome, Phill.

[phillpower2]

Thank you for the additional support and information Donna   

 

mo713,

 

Please check the HDD with CrystalDiskInfo 7.0.0 Standard Edition which you can download from here once done grab a screenshot (possibly two) of the results and attach to your next reply for us.

 

To capture and post a screenshot;

 

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... Click on the More Reply Options tab then after typing in any response you have... click on Choose File...desktop...find the screenshot..select it and click on Attach This File...on the lower left...after it says upload successful...click on add reply like you normally would.

 

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.

[mo713]

DonnaB wrote:

"Not being there to see what he saw in regards to having to grab the 8.1 update manually from the Windows store, I have no idea what to say, except maybe to say that what he thought he read is not what he read after all."

---

I tend to feel the same way. I have to believe he remembers it differently or incompletely

---

 

"I just don't know. I had never heard of that before. 8.1 was a forced update put out by Microsoft and to prevent it from downloading and installing you have to know what you're looking for to stop it."

---

I have never heard of this either, but what really baffles me is that after forcing 8.1 in the first place, it later makes it possible to roll back to 8.0, and not just possible, but seemingly EASY !! As evidenced by the fact that Dad had no trouble hitting a particular button or key sequence that made this happen. Seems like rolling back to 8 is very drastic and MS would not want you to normally do this.... and if you really insist, you should have to actually TYPE something special, or go into the registry manually, or go to some hidden screen or advanced setup page, etc.

[mo713]

Sorry for the delay... I have the results from the CrystalDiskInfo.

 

 

What is next step?

 

 

Attached Thumbnails

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[phillpower2]

No problem, was aware that you never had instant access to the computer so there could be a delay between replies 

 

The HDD is in perfectly good order looking at CrystalDisk info so that is good news at least.

 

I have never heard of this either, but what really baffles me is that after forcing 8.1 in the first place, it later makes it possible to roll back to 8.0, and not just possible, but seemingly EASY !! As evidenced by the fact that Dad had no trouble hitting a particular button or key sequence that made this happen. Seems like rolling back to 8 is very drastic and MS would not want you to normally do this.... and if you really insist, you should have to actually TYPE something special, or go into the registry manually, or go to some hidden screen or advanced setup page, etc.

 

 

Having no conclusive proof of what actually happened it would not be wise to speculate, there is no way that I for one can or would risk offering any opinion on this as it would be baseless.

 

What is next step?

 

 

Depends, from your OP;

 

My father has a Toshiba laptop which came with Windows 8 and it had been upgraded to 8.1 some years ago. 

 

 

Any original recovery partition on the HDD is for Windows 8 and the only way to change this is to do a full format of the HDD and clean install of Windows 8.1 or above, let us know what you decide and one of us will help you.

 

Edit to add: A fresh installation of Windows on a separate partition on the HDD would be best, the benefits of this are that Windows and personal data are kept separate and the same when you create a back up image of the HDD.

[mo713]

As this is not my personal computer, and my dad is not very technical or a heavy pc user, I would like to proceed with as little manipulation as possible. I have already been able to salvage most of the personal settings from firefox, and the refresh and subsequent upgrade back to 8.1 and software updates has taken care of itself thru the windows update system. Whatever else has been lost can mostly be handled with reinstalling a few minor applications that were added, nothing significant.

 

I suppose my preference would be to find some way to prevent this same thing from happening again, or at least to easily recover if it does.

 

1. would setting a restore point do anything?

2. is there a simple backup application that could at least preserve the state of the o/s and accumulated updates and installed apps?

3. is there any way to "lock" the setup so that an errant keystroke or crash/reboot will not reload 8.0 from the recovery setup as it appears to have done this time?

[phillpower2]

Best Answer

A 1: Restore points are continually overwritten, how often depends on the amount of space allocated to system restore points either manually by the user or automatically by Windows, a system restore point therefore would not be a long term answer.

 

A 2: Macrium Reflect (free) see tutorial provided courtesy of Essexboy here

 

A 3: You can hide the recovery partition, see guide here

 

 

Please note, if not already aware, a full back up should always be done before making any system changes such as this, you already plan to do so and I am including this guidance for any other folk that may happen to read your thread.