Alright, so a little context:
I am the type of user that likes to stop automatic updates, thinking I'll manually update, and then never does. So I haven't updated Windows 10 in probably a year, and only recently did because of that WanaCry virus. I decided to go ahead and update to the
Creator update (since it didn't automatically do that), and now I am having a myriad of issues.
The current one being the classic boot loop. I have been stuck in a boot loop for nearly an hour now with no progress. I was able to use my PC perfectly fine all day yesterday, and have been enjoying the update for around 2 weeks now with only minor yet
annoying issues. I did not change anything regarding windows yesterday, didn't update or install any programs, didn't buy any new hardware or install new drivers. I only watched YouTube videos and that's about it. So I have no idea as to why now I'm stuck
in a boot loop, when nothing has changed.
I have already tried the usual suspects. I restarted my pc a few times, didn't work. I unplugged all USB devices and rebooted, didn't work. I booted into safe made (after forcing a crash) and uninstalled the drivers for my mouse, keyboard and USB wifi adapter
and rebooted, didn't work. I tried automatic repair, didn't work.
I would also like to point out that during restarts, it will randomly play the Windows 7 startup sound. This is very odd to me, because I have NEVER owned a PC with Windows 7, my PC originally had Windows 8 on it which I then updated to 10. So I have no
idea why it's playing the Windows 7 sound.
Windows will start, and seem to load. I see the windows logo and the spinning dots, and that's fine. It loads PAST that. Then it boots into an all black screen with ONLY spinning dots. And gets stuck spinning infinitely. If I wait a while (usually around
30 minutes, my mouse shows up and I can see that. But then nothing. Sometimes it crashes with a blue screen of death, sometimes not.
I should note that I bought this PC several years ago, with Windows 8 installed already, and have since lost my disk that has windows on it. So a recovery from a disk is not an option. I would also like to avoid doing a clean install of Windows if at all possible
since I have precious data and files on this PC that I can't afford to lose. I would also prefer to not revert to before the creator update since one of the programs I use while working now (Adobe Xd) only runs on the Creator update, not to mention I'd like
to keep up with updates now to stay secure (reverting to an older version puts me at risk)
Do I have any solutions? Or is my best bet to just buy another hard drive, try to backup my precious files (over 400GB worth of data) and then just completely reinstall Windows (this is an option but would like for it to be a last resort :/ )
I apologize for the lack of technical information here, I don't know any of it off the top of my head however if someone could direct me on how to get any info that would be helpful here I'd be more than willing to do so.
