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Windows 8 hangs up on boot after installing updates

bout couple hours ago I decided to install updates on my Windows 8 desktop. I had about 12 or so. Can't remember which ones now. My update settings are to notify me of the updates but not to install them. So I manually clicked, yes, install. Then after a little while the updates window showed up in red telling me that some updates did not install. So I decided to reboot the desktop to clear it up... Bad idea!

The desktop now hangs up on this very screen:
(New windows logo and a spinning thing)


That spinning thing keeps spinning, no matter how long I let it run like this. The HDD light first blinks but then about half a minute in, it stops doing so. I believe that the fan inside spins audibly louder too.

OK, so if I reboot by holding down the power button for a few seconds, it begins rebooting again. For the second time it showed something like "Automatic repair" or something. (I need to say that my solid state drives have Bit locker set up on them.) So after entering the bit locker keys I was presented with an option to do repairs. Since I didn't feel like I needed to do system restore I declined and chose to keep booting into Windows.... again nothing.

So I repeated the process above, but this time it did not offer me to do system restore and instead, it showed something in the tune of "Repair windows". So I chose it, and it then showed this window:


Now I tried it two times already, and no matter what I choose, it hangs up just like I showed on the screenshot above -- with that white border around whatever I choose...

Anyone, any idea how do I get my desktop back?

Addition:

I was able to boot from a recovery USB that I made before and started a console. Here's what I get for drive C:


That is a 256GB Samsung 830 Series SSD, that the OS, Windows 8 was installed on.

Ding it!

Does it mean that it's all lost now?

Hi,

 

Please answer these questions to get more clarity on this issue.

-          Did you get any error message when some updates failed to install?

 

This issue could occur if the system files associated with the user profile is either broken or corrupt.

 

As you have a recovery USB drive, let us follow these steps to use that recovery usb drive and perform a system restore. Once this is done, let us check if we are able to get to the desktop screen.

 

Perform a system restore by booting form the recovery usb drive.

 

a. Boot from the Windows 8 usb drive.

b. Once you get the welcome screen of installation with the option “Install now”.

c. Click on Repair your computer.

d. On the next page click on Advanced Options.

e. Select System Restore and follow the on screen directions to complete the system restore process. Once this is done check if you can login to the computer.

 

Important: System Restore will not revert any of the non-system files like documents, email, music, etc. to a previous state. These types files are completely unaffected by System Restore. If your intention with this tool was to recover a deleted non-system file, try using a file recovery program instead of System Restore.

 

Reply with the status of the issue and we will be glad to offer our assistance.

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Thanks for the answer.

1. As I said above, I did not look at the error message when updates failed. All I remember was that the Windows update window had something displayed in red.

2. When I try to do system restore from the recovery USB drive, as soon as I pick the restore point my computer freezes up, the HDD light doesn't blink and the only way to bring it back is to press and hold down the power button.

Interestingly enough (I discovered it by accident) if I plug in this SSD into my other Windows 7 desktop, when Windows 7 boots up, the chkdsk utility pops up and does some checks on this SSD, saying that it needs fixing, or something of that nature. After that I can access files on this SSD drive from Windows 7, and they seem to be intact. But if I plug it back into my Windows 8 desktop, the story above repeats again...

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A quick follow-up:

I found out that I had a previously created image of the C: drive. So I tried to restore from it using the recovery USB, but the restore process hung up almost at the last stage. It's been sitting on this screen for several hours for sure:

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Last updated January 28, 2018 Views 207 Applies to: