"An error occurred while installing updates, reverting changes."

Gum Sl · 07 Sep 2016

Hello, fellas. I'm using a laptop with dual-boot between Windows 7 Ultimate x64, and Linux Mint 17.3 (Rosa). It was working like a charm with these two together, but one day, I turned my computer on, and chose "Windows 7" as the boot option. The boot screen loaded fine, but then, I got to the logon screen, and it was saying "Please wait.." It said that it was configuring Windows, but then, it says "An error occurred while installing updates, reverting changes.". I just waited for 2 hours, and guess what? Bam. It got into a loop. I had to turn it off with the physical button, and tried to load in Linux Mint. It worked perfectly. I tried to go to Windows' Safe mode, and it didn't work. It got to the loading drivers thingy, and froze after it "loaded" the drivers, and a weird line appeared on the top of the screen.. Is it a virus, or did I screw something up? By the way, I'm using Mint to write this.

~Gum

MilesAhead · 07 Sep 2016

Do you have a backup image of the Windows partition? If so I would restore from that image and turn automatic updates off. The more stuff you have booting off one physical HD the more hassle when stuff goes wrong. In the old MBR days I had a 486 with a SCSI and an EIDE drive running Dos, Windows 3.0, OS/2 and Linux with several custom kernels. First it booted to Boot Magic, then if you selected Red Hat it loaded the Grub menu.

I juggled all that with no image backup program. It is much easier if you have image backups to bail you out. There are quite a few excellent free ones. These days the main fly in the ointment is GPT and if the Linux ones that say they support GPT really do in practice when you start doing multiple OS things.

Is your HD GPT based or MBR?

Gum Sl · 07 Sep 2016

No, I don't have any backup image. I still didn't try System Restore tho.. Also, I have no idea on which is my HD based on.

MilesAhead · 07 Sep 2016

This article shows how to see the GPT or MBR info on your HD. Unless you are adept using diskpart I would stay with the first option in the tutorial. Using Disk Management to see what is what:

How to Check if a Disk Uses GPT or MBR, and Convert Between the Two

Gum Sl · 07 Sep 2016

That is the problem. I can't go to Windows, because it stops me from logging in.

MilesAhead · 08 Sep 2016

Gum Sl said:

That is the problem. I can't go to Windows, because it stops me from logging in.

Duh! Slaps forehead. :)
From mint this command should show you:

hard disk - GPT or MBR: How do I know? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

Gum Sl · 12 Sep 2016

MilesAhead said:

Gum Sl said:

That is the problem. I can't go to Windows, because it stops me from logging in.

Duh! Slaps forehead. :)
From mint this command should show you:

hard disk - GPT or MBR: How do I know? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

Nevermind.. I tried to reinstall Windows, and it worked.. but I lost the Grub menu, and couldn't start Mint.. So, I tried to repair it, and.. yeaah, let's say I "slapped" Windows "off it" accidentally. No system appeared, AT ALL. So, I booted up my PC, and the Acer logo appeared. Then, I got the BkSOD.. Nothing more. The boot options (F2) still worked tho. So,I tried to install LM (18) using a bootable pendrive, and suddenly, the PC just shutdown itself at the middle of the booting up. I tried to turn it on with the button.. No response. I couldn't take the charger off, since it's directly into the pc.. I tried with the battery and without it (I normally use my pc without it), and, again, no response.. however, the battery light shines... This is weird..