That time Windows Updates Corrupted your SSD and stuck it in time. Tried everything. What would you try next? April 2019 Failed updates Windows 10, 7, 2012. Didnt have AV!!!!

Background:

This is the oddest and worst corruption I’ve ever seen in 25 years of IT.

1. Thursday 4/12/19 – Client calls and says his newly install Windows 10 is in a Update reboot loop and he can’t get out. I tried to get him to a windows diag to restore previous point but he couldn’t get anything to work. It would do anything but go to update, fail, reboot and repeat.
2. I showed up thinking I’d just roll it back to a check point or uninstall the last feature update. I didn’t even bring my USB drive or anything because it’s so simple to fix Windows 10. I could even just reset the system and start over… or so I thought.
   1. I tried all know pre-boot / diag bypass options. Nothing at all worked. Shift, failed boot 3 times, F8, Ctrl F8, Shift F8, just shift, I tried them all.
   2. Borrowed a USB drive and made a USB recovery drive. Easy fix, I’ll just jump into safe mode and … wait, there’s no options for safe mode. What? So I googled it and everyone’s screens showed a safe mode but mine didn’t. On Recovery USB or Windows Media Creator Tool USB.
   3. Hmm, I tried all recovery options. Restore points, all of them failed, failed fast. I tried fix boot, tried them all.
   4. Ok, I love CMD let do some Sfc, failed! Yes, failed. I tied every /? flag I could. Failed!
   5. Screw it, I’ll come back tomorrow with my USB Windows 10 install drive and reset the system. Cut my loses
3. Friday 4/13/19 – Show up bright eyed ready to reload Windows 10 and have this system back up and running in 30 minutes. These are fast i7 machines.
   1. Put USB windows 10 in and start install. Install says it see a existing windows install and it’s moving it to Windows.old. Yes, perfect I think just like the old day before reset.
   2. I watch Windows install, step by step and reboot. I’m feeling it now, only 20 minutes and it’s solved. but….
   3. To my dismay, Windows Update comes up starts, fails and reboots.
   4. WTF! I reinstalled Windows fresh!
   5. Did I click the wrong drive (there’s only one) the wrong partition (only one large enough for Windows)
   6. Am I crazy, did I not just install Windows, is going through my head.
   7. I tried Windows Install again and recorded it with my Phone show I could show installing windows only to have it not be there after it said it was finished.
   8. Same thing. Install reboots and … Updating Windows…. Failed… Reboot and looped!!!! At this point I’m starting to worry and question my life choices.
4. It’s CMD war.
   1. I’m pissed now. I figure I’ll just destroy Windows.
   2. Attrib -s windows
   3. del /s /f /q windows
   4. deleted files flash past the screen
   5. yes, this might work I think to my self.
   6. I attrib program files, sys vol, recovery, back, $update all of them
   7. del /s *.*
   8. finished
   9. dir … it’s all still there, all of it!
5. F-it
   1. Formate C:
      1. Completed 240gb
      2. It’s all still there
6. Booted to Windows Installer, delete partitions but they won’t delete
   1. format them… finishes but they are still there.
   2. I’m starting to lose it and now I’m in hours. Hundreds of dollars for a $79 dollar device. WTF
7. I’ll take it to my office and use my USB bay on a workstation and format it that way.
   1. Finishes format… Still there. At this point I’ve started screen recording it. It’s blows my mind.
   2. Download SSD app, can’t find SSD
8. Ok if I can’t destroy it, it must be corruption
   1. Scan disk from CMD no errors found!
   2. Use all the flags
   3. Offline the drive and finally Windows 10 on my workstation gives me a IO error.
   4. I check event log and there are tons and tons of errors. I couldn’t get these before while onsite.
   5. The IO operation at logical block address 0x0 for Disk 3 (PDO name: \Device\00000053) failed due to a hardware error.
   6. The drive now reported by Windows is a SCSI and none of the Firmware or diag tools detect it. But the drive still mounts and show the data from the moment the Windows update corrupted it. Like a broken watch stuck in time.
9. Now what? Warranty support from PNY is a joke.
   1. What would you try next to fix the corruption?

You can watch the Videos I’ve updated so far and more will show up in this playlist as their done today.