Infinite loop at boot after Win 10 install & attempt to return to Win7
I saw no reason not to accept Microsoft's offer to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. I figured if there were any hitches, I could work them out. I am reasonably computer savvy, though I have no certifications or licenses to prove it.
Anyhow, the installation went fine. Mostly. It took awhile, but eventually it appeared to be up and running. Then it requested to perform an update. I told it to go ahead. And then there was a problem.
I can't recall the specifics, but I know that I eventually told Windows 10 to take a hike and give me back my Windows 7. It said it would be glad to do this. It lied. I have ended up in an infinite loop where Windows 10 tells me that it is attempting to restore my previous version of windows, then after about 20 minutes it blinks and restarts, and then tells me it is still attempting to restore my previous version of Windows. It does this for hours, and nothing changes and nothing gets restored.
I have interrupted the process using Samsung's F4-at-startup to keystroke to review my restore options. It looks like I can save individual files to an external drive, but there do not appear to be any official backups or restore points to which I can return other than the one that was generated when I got the computer 4 years ago. When I access the command prompt, I am told I am in the X: drive and cannot access the C: or D: drives (which means I cannot run CHKDSK on either, because DOS seems to think they are not there. I am also told that I have zero operating systems on my machine. Which doesn't make me feel very good.
I have access to a second computer running Windows 8. I found the Digital River site which is supposed to allow me to download an ISO version of Windows 7 that I can install on a jump drive and use to complete a basic startup (my computer came with Windows 7 pre-installed, which means while I have a perfectly valid key, Microsoft wants nothing to do with me) but the Digital River has apparently "dried up" and when I click on the link for the Windows 7 ISO for my operating system I get a 404 error.
So then: I have an infinite loop promising me something it never delivers, I have a command prompt at a drive called X: with no access (apparently) to my old C: or D: drives, I have access to my BIOS and the Samsung recovery options (which are all pretty drastic and involve erasing everything on my drives), but I do not seem to have either a Windows 7 or a Windows 10 operating system. I've already shot the entire day trying to find a solution to this problem that DOESN'T involve me reformatting my entire hard drive, and, well, now, here I am, wandering in a desert...
...Someone please make it rain.
I saw no reason not to accept Microsoft's offer to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. I figured if there were any hitches, I could work them out. I am reasonably computer savvy, though I have no certifications or licenses to prove it.
Anyhow, the installation went fine. Mostly. It took awhile, but eventually it appeared to be up and running. Then it requested to perform an update. I told it to go ahead. And then there was a problem.
I can't recall the specifics, but I know that I eventually told Windows 10 to take a hike and give me back my Windows 7. It said it would be glad to do this. It lied. I have ended up in an infinite loop where Windows 10 tells me that it is attempting to restore my previous version of windows, then after about 20 minutes it blinks and restarts, and then tells me it is still attempting to restore my previous version of Windows. It does this for hours, and nothing changes and nothing gets restored.
I have interrupted the process using Samsung's F4-at-startup to keystroke to review my restore options. It looks like I can save individual files to an external drive, but there do not appear to be any official backups or restore points to which I can return other than the one that was generated when I got the computer 4 years ago. When I access the command prompt, I am told I am in the X: drive and cannot access the C: or D: drives (which means I cannot run CHKDSK on either, because DOS seems to think they are not there. I am also told that I have zero operating systems on my machine. Which doesn't make me feel very good.
I have access to a second computer running Windows 8. I found the Digital River site which is supposed to allow me to download an ISO version of Windows 7 that I can install on a jump drive and use to complete a basic startup (my computer came with Windows 7 pre-installed, which means while I have a perfectly valid key, Microsoft wants nothing to do with me) but the Digital River has apparently "dried up" and when I click on the link for the Windows 7 ISO for my operating system I get a 404 error.
So then: I have an infinite loop promising me something it never delivers, I have a command prompt at a drive called X: with no access (apparently) to my old C: or D: drives, I have access to my BIOS and the Samsung recovery options (which are all pretty drastic and involve erasing everything on my drives), but I do not seem to have either a Windows 7 or a Windows 10 operating system. I've already shot the entire day trying to find a solution to this problem that DOESN'T involve me reformatting my entire hard drive, and, well, now, here I am, wandering in a desert...
...Someone please make it rain.
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 7 Home Premium x64Intel Core i3-2330M8GB RAMIntel HD Graphics 3000
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
- Samsung NP300E5A-A01UB
- OS
- Windows 7 Home Premium x64
- CPU
- Intel Core i3-2330M
- Memory
- 8GB RAM
- Graphics Card(s)
- Intel HD Graphics 3000
- Hard Drives
- 640GB
