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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2018 October 18

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October 18

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Updating: please do not turn off your computer

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I didn't get an answer on the other web site. When Hurricane Michael was coming through, my computer went off three times. The first time, I had already been told my computer needed to be restarted for updates (Windows 10) and I told it to wait until I was through. When I turned it back on, it was updating. I do have a second question: why does it tell me it is 100 percent complete when it is taking a long time to do whatever it is doing? There should be a progress report with percentages going up. But Michael turned the computer off while the message "Please do not turn off your computer" was there. Is this a problem?— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 14:34, 18 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Unless you were unlucky and windows was just updating the registry at a critical point, the system will remember where it was when the power failed and will continue the update when power is restored. If you think there was a problem, you can roll back the update (from the last good registry backup) and start again from the beginning. I don't understand Microsoft's percentages, either. Dbfirs 21:15, 18 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
[ec][Re: turning off the computer: This is usually OK; when an engineer writes update software he tries to spend a bunch of time setting something new up, checks to make sure the new is good, then either does a switch from old to new as fast as possible or tells the computer to use the new the next time it boots. However, it is impractical to test for a power outage after every tiny change, so don't turn your computer off on purpose, hope that it still boots if a power failure turns the computer off, and do a checkdisk and a fresh attempt at updating the system if it still boots.
Re: 100% complete: Laziness. You put up a percent counter for the part that takes a long time on your development system and ignore anything that takes a tiny fraction of a second. In the field that tiny fraction of a second sometimes tales far longer. --Guy Macon (talk) 21:18, 18 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I haven't had any obvious problems. What is the best way to determine if everything is all right?— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 16:50, 20 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Well, backup all data to another reliable external data storage and reinstall Windows which would solve software failures. All data is lost! and filesystem(s), registry and Files are renewed. Another question is for hardware damages. After using messy power supplies, I had more hard drive failures. This would be a permanent damage, caused by over and under voltage levels. I did not recognize this cause due hard drives were improper handled and stored by a retailer. But it simply may by caused by another configuration of the restored backup like file versions or obsolete or missing files, as well of used third party application software. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 06:56, 21 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
That would be a last resort to be used only if you experience serious problems. I would just run CHKDSK and continue as normal. You could roll back the update (click Start and then Settings; Click on Update & security; In the sidebar, choose Recovery) but this will only be necessary if something went seriously wrong with the update. Dbfirs 07:14, 21 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Confirm, repair file system first. But, backup files to external media first to avoid losts. When not solved, the question will be, spending time for reengineering the failure or simply renew the software. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 08:22, 21 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]