Windows 10 Bad Timing, now a big problem?

MikeHawthorne

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Microsoft Community Contributor
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Hi

Today one of my friends called and we were trying to fix his computer throwing a critical error every time he boots up.

Microsoft's solution it to boot into Safe Mode and then reboot back into normal mode again.

So I told him over the phone how to boot into safe mode using msconfig.

Unfortunately Windows took this time to do an update.
The update couldn't complete because he was in safe mode and not connected to the internet.

The problem came when he had to boot back in and didn't remember his password.
He has been using a pin number to boot in, but that's not an option in safe mode.

Even though he was sure that the password was correct, it kept saying that it was wrong.

So he booted up his laptop to see if it excepted his password.

He got a message that said his password expired, talk about hitting every problem at once.

He reset the password for his Microsoft account on the laptop, but he still can't log into his PC because, I guess it's not connected to the internet.

Anyone have any ideas how to get out of this mess?

He does have a system image file so as a last resort I can reset his computer.

Is there a way to make the computer boot into normal mode at start up, without having to get back into the computer and change the boot options inside Windows?

Mike
 
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Solution
Hi, Mike,
Referring to your first posted question, if I understand it correctly, is being locked out of windows
because of a password issue? I had a similar problem using the user account.
So i found this tool using Ubuntu live disk at Reset Windows 7 Admin Password with Ubuntu Live CD/USB - chntpw
I did enable Administrator with the tool and clear password option. (screenshots at link given).
Worked like a charm for me. Hope this helps. Worked with Win 10 Home.
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Hi

One of the things I really miss in Windows 10 is the old boot menu.

The one that had options to boot into normal, safe mode with networking, safe mode, the command prompt or last good configuration.

Not being able to tell your computer what to do when you have a problem is a big drawback.

If I could do that here, I could just tell it to boot into safe mode and he could boot in using his pin number.
Or at least be online so that it could detect that he is using a new password.

It's something I'd really like to see them bring back.

Mike
 
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Hi again.

It appears that there is a way to get the old menu back.

Start reading after step 6.

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2569556/safe-mode-windows.html

I'll try this and see if I can get his computer to start in Normal Mode.

I'm still open to other suggestions if anyone has one.

Mike

I just tried this on my computer.

In spite of the fact that it said that the command had been executed successfully when I rebooted and went to the boot menu I still see the standard Windows 10 boot menu that only lists the drives that you can boot into.

It would not bring up the old boot menu that gave you options as to how to boot?
 
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Upvote 0 Downvote
Hi, Mike,
Referring to your first posted question, if I understand it correctly, is being locked out of windows
because of a password issue? I had a similar problem using the user account.
So i found this tool using Ubuntu live disk at Reset Windows 7 Admin Password with Ubuntu Live CD/USB - chntpw
I did enable Administrator with the tool and clear password option. (screenshots at link given).
Worked like a charm for me. Hope this helps. Worked with Win 10 Home.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
After re-reading the first post a couple of times, i see that the password issue was fixed,
but is not booting normally, sorry 'bout that.
 
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Hi

The problem is fixed.

Fortunately after upgrading to Windows 10 we created a System Image using EaseUS Todo back up.
Today after trying everything I could think of to get it to boot into normal mode (ran boot repair etc.) I gave up and we restored the image file.

It took about 40 minutes, about twice as long as my computer it's all up and running again.

I wish they had a real boot menu like they did in the old days, would have saved a lot of time.

Mike
 
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Hi

We couldn't find any access to the restore points from the boot screens.
We booted to the Windows disk, but none of the processes available helped.

If there is an option to use a restore point we couldn't find it.

Also replaced the boot sector only but it still tried to boot into safe mode afterwards.

The system image file saved us, other wise we might have had to use Reset.

Mike
 
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Chnptw can't find my windows partition on Ubuntu. Any suggestion? thanks
 
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Hi

I really don't, the truth is that I never save anything on my C:\ drive, the whole drive only has about 50 gigabytes of stuff on it, mostly Windows.

I don't even remember if my C:\ partition was visible in Ubuntu but it seems to me that it was.

But I always had access to the other drives so I could move delete of backup anything that I needed to.

This may relate to what you are seeing...

Windows 8.1 Partition not visible in ubuntu 14.04 installation

Mike
 
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Ubuntu should be able to see Windows partitions just fine. It may not auto mount them but they should be there. You can use the command blkid to list all available block devices (drives) and then add an entry into /etc/fstab for the Windows partition if you want it available on boot.
 
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