Help - Registry question - what went wrong

[John Smith]

Friend accidently turned off his computer when it was in the middle of
Windows updates.

From then on he could not get into Windows and the screen just kept
presenting the words

“ Configuring updates 3 of 3 – 0 complete, Do not turn off your computer.â€

He rang HP technical helpdesk and by switching the computer back on and at
the same time pressing F11 he was able to check the hard disk. There were no
errors so they advised he take it to a computer shop for repair as it was a
software problem.

PC was duly repaired. He asked the man at the shop how he fixed it and was
told they used a separate software package that bypassed windows, so was
able to fix the registry.

So..friend is wondering what went wrong..presumably corruption of registry
somehow?
...and further, if it should happen again (he did say he will try not to
switch it off during updates!), what could he do do to effect a repair
himself instead of having to pay the pc shop man?
Any ideas/advice welcome.
Thanks.

 

[Nil]

So..friend is wondering what went wrong..presumably corruption of
registry somehow?
..and further, if it should happen again (he did say he will try
not to switch it off during updates!), what could he do do to
effect a repair himself instead of having to pay the pc shop man?

There are too many possibilities to give one definitive answer.

I will guess that the repairman started Windows in Safe Mode and
chose the "last known good configuration" option. This will replace
the current registry with a backup copy. It doesn't always work, but
sometimes you can get lucky.

Here's a more complete discussion:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ll/proddocs/en-us/boot_failsafe.mspx?mfr=true

 

[glee]

There are too many possibilities to give one definitive answer.

I will guess that the repairman started Windows in Safe Mode and
chose the "last known good configuration" option. This will replace
the current registry with a backup copy. It doesn't always work, but
sometimes you can get lucky.

Here's a more complete discussion:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ll/proddocs/en-us/boot_failsafe.mspx?mfr=true

Last Known Good Configuration is not gotten to from Safe Mode, it's
accessed via the boot menu (where Safe Mode is another option)..... and
it's unlikely it would have any effect on an incomplete or stuck update
unless it was just a driver update, as LKGC only restores the info in
one Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet

More likely to help would be if the tech had used System Restore to go
back to the restore point just prior to the update. However the tech
supposedly booted with a "package that bypassed Windows", which sounds
like a CD boot. That sounds like the hard way to handle the problem,
but I guess it depends on exactly what tools were in the package. I'd
like to know what he used.

 

[Paul]

Friend accidently turned off his computer when it was in the middle of
Windows updates.

From then on he could not get into Windows and the screen just kept
presenting the words

“ Configuring updates 3 of 3 – 0 complete, Do not turn off your computer.â€

He rang HP technical helpdesk and by switching the computer back on and
at the same time pressing F11 he was able to check the hard disk. There
were no errors so they advised he take it to a computer shop for repair
as it was a software problem.

PC was duly repaired. He asked the man at the shop how he fixed it and
was told they used a separate software package that bypassed windows, so
was able to fix the registry.

So..friend is wondering what went wrong..presumably corruption of
registry somehow?
..and further, if it should happen again (he did say he will try not to
switch it off during updates!), what could he do do to effect a repair
himself instead of having to pay the pc shop man?
Any ideas/advice welcome.
Thanks.

System Restore, keeps good copies of the Registry. You can
fix a Registry problem, by just taking the system back a day
or two with System Restore. The repair process is a two step
thing. First, putting empty registry files back, so the
computer will boot. But then, empty registry files are not suited
for actual computer usage. But then replacing the "empty" registry
files with the fully populated ones from a Restore Point, you
can get back a set of Registry files, that contain all your
current preferences (minus any changes you made in the last day).
In the case of a malware attack, this technique may not work,
because all the Restore Points may be tainted and unusable.
This works best, in a "malware free world". In other worlds,
there are no guarantees.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

And there are likely procedures for cleaning out Windows Update,
which I'm not familiar with. For dumb guys like me, this is
what I'd reach for. This is better than some recipe with a
ton of steps in it.

http://support.microsoft.com/mats/windows_update/

Before any of my little "home experiments in computer repair",
I back up the disk first. That way, if I discover a recipe
is "taking me too far in the wrong direction", I can restore
back to the original messed up state. So that in fact,
is the very first thing to do. Learn how to make
forensic quality copies of the system to be repaired.
If you're ever going to work on someone else's computer,
this is the very first skill to learn. If you can't fix
it, you can assure your friend "I put it all back"

Paul