Packing up for the trip to Reno and Las Vegas I decided to take advantage of the Verizon FiOS network here at home to make sure that all software was up to date, thus avoiding crawling downloads on America’s creaky public/hotel WiFi.
The Windows 10 laptop hadn’t been powered up for about four days so it needed two hours of operating system updates from MSFT. I returned to find a plain text notice on the screen: “An operating system wasn’t found. Try disconnecting any drives that don’t contain an operating system.” BIOS tools show that the hardware is all working perfectly. My files are still there on the hard drive as well.
The iPhone and iPad were updated to iOS 10. The iPad upgrade went smoothly. The iPhone hung indefinitely in an “updating iCloud settings” screen. Power cycling did not help. I was able to get the phone working by power cycling and skipping setting up iCloud.
The iPads that we use in the aircraft needed to get updated with the latest version of ForeFlight plus some data. The new iPad that we use to send text messages and email (“Hi, Mom”) via Iridium from the aircraft needed some app and data updates.
Software is supposed to drive our cars over Massachusetts roads with lane markings that were worn away back in the 1990s yet somehow it can’t update itself without hours of human intervention? (Maybe “days” in the case of the Windows 10 machine that is now a brick?)
[Speaking of Windows 10, the computer in question is about 4.5 years old. So HP isn’t responsible for it anymore, right? What about Microsoft? Do they have to fix this under a warranty if I bring it into one of their stores? Maybe the answer is “no” because I paid them for an OS 4.5 years ago. But maybe the answer is “yes” because they broke it yesterday with software that they distributed yesterday? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus/ doesn’t say if there is a time limit on Windows 10 support starting on the date of purchase (does that even make sense with Windows 10 since it is free? How does it work in the Apple world? If an OS update from Apple breaks a 5-year-old computer can you bring it into the Apple Store and they will fix it for free?]
I once brought in a three month old bricked $3000 mac book pro at an apple store. The guy had me come back the next day and then came out to tell me that it was water damaged, with a big grin, and therefore out of warranty (the laptop had never been pour liquids on it, but it was in a closed backpack while it rained a few days earlier. Not only that, but they refused to take my data off (“it’s the user’s responsibility to backup”), though they were nice enough to show me the $400 SSD to USB interface I would have to buy if I wanted to do it (to be clear, they had an unpackaged physical exemplar in the store to show me, not sure why, since apparently they don’t use it for getting user’s data off).
I came back to Moscow, brought it to Garbushka (shopping mall of electronics resellers and fix-anything people). $30, some solvent, and a toothbrush later it works. Been doing fine for the last 8 months.
Download the media creation tool here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10/
Put it onto a usb drive.
You should be able to reinstall windows 10 with no charge because it had already been installed and microsoft has registered your hardware.
I picture hell as a place where sinners spend eternity endlessly installing Windows updates, thinking they’ve finally installed the last update, then rebooting to find infinitely more updates pending.
Still have Linux boxes running flawlessly from 6 years ago. The idea of an operating system which doesn’t need babysitting is long gone. Millenials can’t comprehend not having to reboot every week. Unfortunately, Linux can’t run any modern programs like Autodesk, Netflix, Kindle & upgrading a program more than a year old requires reinstalling the whole operating system to upgrade libc.
I am not a fan of major upgrades of operating systems for phones, computers, or tablets. There is a 100% chance of system slowdown. And a non-trivial chance of major problems. Not worth it. Major time waster. For me, I only get new operating systems when I upgrade the hardware. Your mileage may vary.
The desktop Chrome browser is one of the few auto-update success stories. Updates happen in the background while you’re using it, and are swapped in at next launch. Works great – always up to date, never gets in your way.
One obscure CAD program I use is at least smart enough to start the upgrade when you exit the application. This make so much sense, because at that point the upgrade is not interrupting your workflow.