Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Boxerfan

(2,533 posts)
Tue Jan 28, 2020, 06:26 PM Jan 2020

I would avoid the windows 10 upgrade-My hard drive failed

And this seems to be a common occurrence.

I'm not sure what to do but lucky I saved my old PC-that is how I'm posting now. The unit I was using was a refurb but worked fine & had good specs. But after the windows 10 upgrade I started having crashes & boot problems. Then it just bsod'd & never returned.

I've lost a lot of photo's but not all-I had them on a CD. And joy of joys the thumb I had EVERYTHING on got wiped somehow. It can be recovered for a fee.

So I just ordered a cheap hard drive with windows 10 pre-installed. It is what I can afford to do for now & I hope it works.

It is probably too late but I would not try to get an old system to work with windows 10. From what I hear it even kills brand new PC's on a regular basis.

Correct me if this is wrong but from Google searches I see a big problem. Hope I'm wrong.

14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
I would avoid the windows 10 upgrade-My hard drive failed (Original Post) Boxerfan Jan 2020 OP
Problem is, you can't "avoid" the upgrade, only delay it... regnaD kciN Jan 2020 #1
Yes you can! canetoad Jan 2020 #4
I was able to completely avoid a Windows 10 upgrade. PoindexterOglethorpe Feb 2020 #14
I have external hard drives plus 2 removable thumb drives lapfog_1 Jan 2020 #2
You really don't have to sweat an internal HD failure if you plan ahead. OAITW r.2.0 Jan 2020 #9
I just had the hard drive on this laptop replaced under warranty. The laptop was new out of the box. rzemanfl Jan 2020 #3
Upgrade or Update? Gidney N Cloyd Jan 2020 #5
Free windows 10 upgrade as described in a thread here. Boxerfan Jan 2020 #11
I consulted a tech friend 2naSalit Jan 2020 #6
All I can say is KT2000 Jan 2020 #7
My main desktop is win7 and will stay that way until it dies - OhZone Jan 2020 #8
Very hard to say Midnightwalk Jan 2020 #10
Hard drives are known to fail over time. ManiacJoe Jan 2020 #12
No connection I'd think. Aussie105 Feb 2020 #13

PoindexterOglethorpe

(26,607 posts)
14. I was able to completely avoid a Windows 10 upgrade.
Tue Feb 25, 2020, 02:28 PM
Feb 2020

Forget now how exactly I did it, but eventually the stopped pestering.

More recently I got a new computer and it has Windows 10. But I always thought overwriting one operating system with another did not seem like a very good idea.

lapfog_1

(30,059 posts)
2. I have external hard drives plus 2 removable thumb drives
Tue Jan 28, 2020, 06:30 PM
Jan 2020

The thumb drives have all of my personal data... on them... and I copy one to the other every night... the external hard drives have my data that I can reconstruct (with a lot of pain) from CDs and DVDs, etc.

OAITW r.2.0

(28,228 posts)
9. You really don't have to sweat an internal HD failure if you plan ahead.
Tue Jan 28, 2020, 06:55 PM
Jan 2020

My current method.

Download and Schedule a BU utility (I used Back-up free software.

Create a single filefolder on your C rive than saves all your collected data in that folder....include shortcuts on the desktop to this primary folder.

Back up folder weekely (or more often, as needed).

I have 20 years of business data that I BU to 2 different hard drives, using the same BU software.

rzemanfl

(30,272 posts)
3. I just had the hard drive on this laptop replaced under warranty. The laptop was new out of the box.
Tue Jan 28, 2020, 06:31 PM
Jan 2020

The hard drive lasted two and a half months.

Boxerfan

(2,533 posts)
11. Free windows 10 upgrade as described in a thread here.
Tue Jan 28, 2020, 09:13 PM
Jan 2020

I had a windows 7 PC refurbished. I got "skeered" into the windows 10 "upgrade" and for a while it worked. Then I had video issues. Then yada yada yada as described above.

2naSalit

(92,341 posts)
6. I consulted a tech friend
Tue Jan 28, 2020, 06:39 PM
Jan 2020

and she said that even with the factory upgrade option, never do it, just buy something with it installed. I'm on WIN7 but I think I might bail on windows and go to some other popular OS. But I need more info before making the change. I hope this computer lasts until I can make that change.

KT2000

(20,797 posts)
7. All I can say is
Tue Jan 28, 2020, 06:46 PM
Jan 2020

that I got a new Dell computer with Win 10 two months ago and I hate it. It hangs often, and there are so many features it is difficult to do many of the tasks.
I had Win 7 and it was easy to use.

OhZone

(3,216 posts)
8. My main desktop is win7 and will stay that way until it dies -
Tue Jan 28, 2020, 06:47 PM
Jan 2020

I bought it in 2015 after my cousin Gabby got forced into Win10 against her will.

I actually have a cloned HD for it. So even if the HD dies from a virus, ransomware or whatever, I can pop the cloned drive in and be back in a few minutes! Ha!

I also have all my important data backup up to a couple of different destinations, one I lock up in a firesafe. Ha

I do have a WIN10 laptop, and it's Oh-k so far.

But I understand your sitch.

Midnightwalk

(3,131 posts)
10. Very hard to say
Tue Jan 28, 2020, 07:42 PM
Jan 2020

Last edited Wed Jan 29, 2020, 02:15 AM - Edit history (1)

Without actual failure rate data. Which is very hard to get in this case particularly because from the os point of view there is nothing it can that should be able to cause a hardware failure. Microsoft is going to blame the hardware like software people do. And in this case that may be fair.

But drives do wear out. Near end of life, extra workload from the os could be the straw that breaks the drive. Maybe more so with spinners with all the mechanical issues and media issues that occur, but flash wears out too.

A new OS likely has a bigger memory footprint so paging is more likely, particularly as software is loading. But any increase in read write rates will make the arm move more which can show up latent issues.

It might he interesting for someone to note the memory footprint size in task manager and the size of the swap file before and after the upgrade. Even better would be looking at the disk monitor (forget what it’s actually called)

Edit to add that just installing the new os will put a lot of new work on the drive. Think of it as an ild guy. Extra work can always trigger something

Good health to all

ManiacJoe

(10,136 posts)
12. Hard drives are known to fail over time.
Tue Jan 28, 2020, 10:43 PM
Jan 2020

Do you have any links to info on the failures being linked to win10 updates?

Aussie105

(6,193 posts)
13. No connection I'd think.
Mon Feb 10, 2020, 06:04 AM
Feb 2020

Have hard drive, will fail. (Eventually)
Have Windows 10, will update. (hard to avoid.)

Seriously - been on 10 since it first came out, insider fast ring, on 5 different computers.

Not a single drive fail. They are all SSDs, some use a HDD for data, never for the OS though.


Latest Discussions»Help & Search»Computer Help and Support»I would avoid the windows...