Windows 10 Forced Windows 10 update damaged my attached external USB hard drive

[Karen Grube]

I had a problem with a Windows 10 update process a couple of months ago that caused a USB-connected external hard drive to be corrupted and inaccessible. I was actually accessing the drive (searching for a file) when a Windows 10 update forced me to "shutdown and update." The system ground to a screeching halt, and when that happens, I know it's Microsoft forcing me to do a Windows 10 update. When I hit the Windows button, I saw that I was right; Windows was forcing me to update. I believe the forced shutdown while I was accessing the drive is what corrupted it.

I have exhausted all of Microsoft's technical support avenues, and the drive is now sitting at the Microsoft Store in Fashion Valley (San Diego) waiting for someone to authorize sending the drive to Seagate for data recovery at no charge to me. There is absolutely nothing more the store or technical support can do at this point except assist me in recovering the data assuming it's recoverable. I just won't let Microsoft damage my little external hard drive (1 terabyte) and then make me pay to get my data back. That's just not right.

I have been trying for about six weeks to get through to someone at a higher level at Microsoft who can authorize the store to send the drive out for recovery, but Microsoft makes that nearly impossible. I've even faxed the complaint department several times. Microsoft doesn't seem to have an executive level customer relations department at all, and no one at the store, at the Answer Desk, or in tier three tech support has been helpful beyond telling me there's nothing more they can do and no one else they can refer me to.

Every single person I've spoken with about this has refused to escalate my request to anyone higher beyond the level of the store manager and a tech support supervisor, neither of which can authorize the data recovery at no charge to me. I find that outrageous and unacceptable. I've even had Microsoft technicians tell me the situation I described is certainly possible. It would be just absolutely too coincidental for the drive to have failed at just the moment Microsoft was forcing me to update. As soon as the update was complete, the system rebooted. When I tried to access the drive again, it wasn't recognized. It was listed in the Device Manager, but Disk Management couldn't initialize it for some reason. So, I was told to take it to the Store, and they've been of no help. They even told me the drive is no longer getting power, although it certainly did the day I brought it in since it showed up in the Device Manager and Disk Management, though it couldn't be "initialized."

Has anyone else had a similar issue with not being able to access an external rive immediately after an update? Please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.

 

[ussnorway]

it boils down to which country you live as to what the legal options are but ime sue them = you get a new drive perhaps just to shut you up... post your complain on their facebook page

p.s, yes this senario of update not giving two fucks that a formate or firmware process is running is a major issue with the current Microsoft system... they know about it and it does happen to other people but the company line is "opps my bad" and move on with nothing getting fixed

 

[Karen Grube]

it boils down to which country you live as to what the legal options are but ime sue them = you get a new drive perhaps just to shut you up... post your complain on their facebook page

p.s, yes this senario of update not giving two fucks that a formate or firmware process is running is a major issue with the current Microsoft system... they know about it and it does happen to other people but the company line is "opps my bad" and move on with nothing getting fixed

Do you have any links or any specific references that show that Microsoft is aware of this issue? I'd love to know. Or, if you know anyone else who has experienced the same issue, please ask that person to post here or somehow let me know.

 

[ussnorway]

Do you have any links or any specific references that show that Microsoft is aware of this issue?

A lawsuit over an unwanted Windows 10 upgrade just cost Microsoft $10,000

 

[Karen Grube]

Thank you so much! That is really helpful!

 

[ragnarok1968]

Do you have any links or any specific references that show that Microsoft is aware of this issue? I'd love to know. Or, if you know anyone else who has experienced the same issue, please ask that person to post here or somehow let me know.

You should have a feature in the Settings>update & security>recovery> then click on "go back to an earlier build". I suggest you download the latest driver for your external drive then allow update to proceed as usual then reinstall the driver. might not work but this is why I use the feedback hub in the insider program (beta testing of new builds), But I've tried to pass along stopping forced updates

 

[Karen Grube]

You should have a feature in the Settings>update & security>recovery> then click on "go back to an earlier build". I suggest you download the latest driver for your external drive then allow update to proceed as usual then reinstall the driver. might not work but this is why I use the feedback hub in the insider program (beta testing of new builds), But I've tried to pass along stopping forced updates

Thank you. I wish I had seen that weeks ago. Now, the Store has my drive and they tell me it actually no longer gets power, although it did when I first brought it to them. I think something happened while it has been in their custody. At this point, I just want them to send it to Seagate to recover the data if it can be recovered. They won't even admit this is a known issue, though, and that's just plain stupid. I'm going to make a few more calls now that I have proof this is a known issue. I'm supposed to have a tier three support call back today, and I'm going to call Seagate to discuss what they might be able to do. I'll drop back by here later to let everyone know.

 

[ragnarok1968]

let's hope they rectify this mess for you. better yet, recover data and put it on a new drive

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi Karen,
Sorry to hear about all your problems. A couple of observations for you.

1.) Which version of W10 do you have? W10 Home or W10 Pro? This is important. Tell you why in a bit.
2.) Unfortunately, that lawsuit that Norway mentioned was for a Small Business user, and she got lucky. Lots of folks on this forum and several other tech forums I am on have not been that lucky-as most of them are home users. Microsoft pretty much ignores home user complaints, as far as litigation goes you have pretty much no chance of winning, unless you file a Class-Action suit with many hundreds of other people with the same problem and you have a really sharp attorney. To date, several folks have talked about doing this, but not a one of them has won, or even filed a home user Class Action civil suit to my knowledge! Sorry!
3.) I realize you didn't intentionally authorize this Update on your computer, and that's certainly a cause for concern. However, for the last 3 years or so it's been common practice to NEVER keep your external hard drive permanently connected to your PC; more due to virus/malware attack issues that lock all the files on your computer's main internal hard drive AND the connected external drive you had running. So this is a real no-no today! If you have a computer guy/gal and they failed to tell you this; you should fire them or ask them to pay for your hard drive recovery charge. They did you a real disservice by keeping that information from you! And now you are suffering and may have to pay the price (almost certainly!) for that lack of knowledge. If you didn't have a computer person during the time this happened, that's unfortunate and I suggest to remedy that by getting a new one now.
The advantage of doing that, is that they might be able to do the needed Data Recovery you are looking for, at a substantial cost discount than if Microsoft sends out your Drive for Professional Data Recovery. So you know, that's going to wind up costing you about $550 US. I did one on a failed external drive (750GB) my son had last May and that's what it costs now. Computer Tech data recovery in a repair shop or by and independent licensed Tech can run from $35-$165 or so. I do these regularly. When the hard drive is fried and is not spinning, as yours is, it's got to be sent out to a Data Recovery lab where it has to be disassembled in a Clean Room and that costs big bucks as you can see.

I am not siding with Microsoft at all; just telling you the realities of getting your drive recovered or replaced for free are not good. It does sound to me like a Tech at the Microsoft Store did screw up your drive since it was working when you brought it in. But, that's really hard to prove isn't it??

Getting back to my Question (1.); I just found out recently about 4 months ago that there was a known design glitch in W10 Home that PREVENTS you from disabling or deferring updates. There have been several threads here on Windows Forum (WF) about this and you can search the forum with the search box to find them. It turns out that Microsoft provided a method to disable or defer updates from coming into your computer in the W10 Pro and W10 Business Class versions (Business, Enterprise, Business Site-wide). For most home Users who are not doing business or home-business things such as movie-editing, graphics design or CAD, or web-programming, they are using W10 Home version which comes on most new W10 PCs in stores unless you are aware of the Pro versions from earlier Windows offerings such as W8 Pro, W7 Pro, Vista Pro, XP Pro, etc. and knew to look for it or ask for it. There has been a lot of press about this undocumented feature (or lack of a feature), and much litigation threatened on many forums as I said; but as yet no one with deep enough pockets or who has enough intestinal fortitude to go after Microsoft on this issue has been successful.
Further; if you do have to pay hundreds of dollars to get your stuff back, and possibly pay to replace the hard drive; you'll be less than $1,500 and since you live in California; you can attempt to take Microsoft to Small Claims Court to try and force them to reimburse you for your expenses you were forced to pay due to Microsoft's update debacle. BUT, and this is a big issue; even if you win a Judgment against Microsoft, you still have to get them to pay your awarded judgement amount; say $1,000. How long will you have to wait to get that, assuming that there are hundreds or thousands of other home users who have already won judgements against Microsoft for the same type of thing? You might not see that money for 5-10 years or longer. I'm not an Attorney, but if you haven't consulted one, it might be worth doing and see if what I'm telling you makes sense. And, I believe you'll have a difficult time getting any Attorney to file a suit against Microsoft for a Home User as I said above. Not impossible, just very difficult. This is only my personal opinion, but having done computers for 46 years; I learned a few things. So, what I am telling you is from me, not our Forum. Each person here has there own opinion on this sticky issue, so you will get different ones from different people. You'll be able to read through them and make an informed decision, hopefully.

Let us know which W10 you have, and then we can suggest some things you might have done differently or how to approach your goal of getting Microsoft/Seagate to pay for your problem so you don't have to.

Good luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I just wondered if anyone has removed your external hard drive from the case and plugged in into a computer directly or with a USB to hard drive converter?

I've had several drives that quite working because of the hardware in the case not working.

When I got hit by lightning I thought my external drive was dead, but once removed from the case and plugged into a converter that supplied the power for the drive it worked fine.

Mike

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Good idea, Mike! Retail stores often won't take that step especially if all of your personal data is ONLY stored on that device and you have no other backup. They won't do it because of the liability and exposure risks to their store. It sounds like this is the case with this OP; but only she can tell us what she told the Microsoft Techs she spoke with. Very often, those Techs aren't even knowledgeable enough to ask the Customer that question about their stuff being backed up somewhere else other than the failed drive they are bringing it for rescue!

This is another reason I mentioned hiring a licensed competent Computer Tech in my Post above; he/she could do that for you in 1-2 days and determine if that's the problem or not. If so, for probably under $100, you could get your drive back working again in a new enclosure and you'd be good to go!

Thanks for the assist, Mike!

<<<BBJ>>>

 

[ragnarok1968]

forced updates

Hi Karen,
Sorry to hear about all your problems. A couple of observations for you.

1.) Which version of W10 do you have? W10 Home or W10 Pro? This is important. Tell you why in a bit.
2.) Unfortunately, that lawsuit that Norway mentioned was for a Small Business user, and she got lucky. Lots of folks on this forum and several other tech forums I am on have not been that lucky-as most of them are home users. Microsoft pretty much ignores home user complaints, as far as litigation goes you have pretty much no chance of winning, unless you file a Class-Action suit with many hundreds of other people with the same problem and you have a really sharp attorney. To date, several folks have talked about doing this, but not a one of them has won, or even filed a home user Class Action civil suit to my knowledge! Sorry!
3.) I realize you didn't intentionally authorize this Update on your computer, and that's certainly a cause for concern. However, for the last 3 years or so it's been common practice to NEVER keep your external hard drive permanently connected to your PC; more due to virus/malware attack issues that lock all the files on your computer's main internal hard drive AND the connected external drive you had running. So this is a real no-no today! If you have a computer guy/gal and they failed to tell you this; you should fire them or ask them to pay for your hard drive recovery charge. They did you a real disservice by keeping that information from you! And now you are suffering and may have to pay the price (almost certainly!) for that lack of knowledge. If you didn't have a computer person during the time this happened, that's unfortunate and I suggest to remedy that by getting a new one now.
The advantage of doing that, is that they might be able to do the needed Data Recovery you are looking for, at a substantial cost discount than if Microsoft sends out your Drive for Professional Data Recovery. So you know, that's going to wind up costing you about $550 US. I did one on a failed external drive (750GB) my son had last May and that's what it costs now. Computer Tech data recovery in a repair shop or by and independent licensed Tech can run from $35-$165 or so. I do these regularly. When the hard drive is fried and is not spinning, as yours is, it's got to be sent out to a Data Recovery lab where it has to be disassembled in a Clean Room and that costs big bucks as you can see.

I am not siding with Microsoft at all; just telling you the realities of getting your drive recovered or replaced for free are not good. It does sound to me like a Tech at the Microsoft Store did screw up your drive since it was working when you brought it in. But, that's really hard to prove isn't it??

Getting back to my Question (1.); I just found out recently about 4 months ago that there was a known design glitch in W10 Home that PREVENTS you from disabling or deferring updates. There have been several threads here on Windows Forum (WF) about this and you can search the forum with the search box to find them. It turns out that Microsoft provided a method to disable or defer updates from coming into your computer in the W10 Pro and W10 Business Class versions (Business, Enterprise, Business Site-wide). For most home Users who are not doing business or home-business things such as movie-editing, graphics design or CAD, or web-programming, they are using W10 Home version which comes on most new W10 PCs in stores unless you are aware of the Pro versions from earlier Windows offerings such as W8 Pro, W7 Pro, Vista Pro, XP Pro, etc. and knew to look for it or ask for it. There has been a lot of press about this undocumented feature (or lack of a feature), and much litigation threatened on many forums as I said; but as yet no one with deep enough pockets or who has enough intestinal fortitude to go after Microsoft on this issue has been successful.
Further; if you do have to pay hundreds of dollars to get your stuff back, and possibly pay to replace the hard drive; you'll be less than $1,500 and since you live in California; you can attempt to take Microsoft to Small Claims Court to try and force them to reimburse you for your expenses you were forced to pay due to Microsoft's update debacle. BUT, and this is a big issue; even if you win a Judgment against Microsoft, you still have to get them to pay your awarded judgement amount; say $1,000. How long will you have to wait to get that, assuming that there are hundreds or thousands of other home users who have already won judgements against Microsoft for the same type of thing? You might not see that money for 5-10 years or longer. I'm not an Attorney, but if you haven't consulted one, it might be worth doing and see if what I'm telling you makes sense. And, I believe you'll have a difficult time getting any Attorney to file a suit against Microsoft for a Home User as I said above. Not impossible, just very difficult. This is only my personal opinion, but having done computers for 46 years; I learned a few things. So, what I am telling you is from me, not our Forum. Each person here has there own opinion on this sticky issue, so you will get different ones from different people. You'll be able to read through them and make an informed decision, hopefully.

Let us know which W10 you have, and then we can suggest some things you might have done differently or how to approach your goal of getting Microsoft/Seagate to pay for your problem so you don't have to.

Good luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

Good post BIGBEARJEDI!

I got started with Windows 10 since it all started as an Insider. However, I can attest since build 9926 that forced updates is a feature. I've posted in the feedback hub numerous times about this. Seems not many care as noone ever voted up on it.

But we are stuck in a vortex. I'm not entirely clear here so I'm running on assumptions that the REASON for this issue is because people don't update as they should. they could set it to "let me choose.." and never update possibly propagating viruses and take over of numerous PC's. But I'm still shocked they never added this. all that can be done is everyone band together and shout so to speak and get their attention. but another bigger problem is, Microsoft is also releasing updates without changelogs and this annoys not just me but many others. It seems a lot like Microsoft is the titanic, running full speed ahead with no one at the helm.

one piece of advice I can give others is, stay away from the insider builds -or- if you are on the insider program, stay on the "preview release ring." But only time will tell if Microsoft will change their minds.

Reason to stay on the "Preview Release ring" is, these are the builds as they will be upon public release barring any issues. Right now it APPEARS the final Redstone 2 build will be the "Creators update" coming out in early April. The mobile OS and PC OS are both on the 15031 build. Also, they are having a bug squashing event where people can earn rewards.

So be aware, it looks like the creators build will be here late next month or early April.

 

[Karen Grube]

Hi

I just wondered if anyone has removed your external hard drive from the case and plugged in into a computer directly or with a USB to hard drive converter?

I've had several drives that quite working because of the hardware in the case not working.

When I got hit by lightning I thought my external drive was dead, but once removed from the case and plugged into a converter that supplied the power for the drive it worked fine.

Mike

Hi Karen,
Sorry to hear about all your problems. A couple of observations for you.

1.) Which version of W10 do you have? W10 Home or W10 Pro? This is important. Tell you why in a bit.
2.) Unfortunately, that lawsuit that Norway mentioned was for a Small Business user, and she got lucky. Lots of folks on this forum and several other tech forums I am on have not been that lucky-as most of them are home users. Microsoft pretty much ignores home user complaints, as far as litigation goes you have pretty much no chance of winning, unless you file a Class-Action suit with many hundreds of other people with the same problem and you have a really sharp attorney. To date, several folks have talked about doing this, but not a one of them has won, or even filed a home user Class Action civil suit to my knowledge! Sorry!
3.) I realize you didn't intentionally authorize this Update on your computer, and that's certainly a cause for concern. However, for the last 3 years or so it's been common practice to NEVER keep your external hard drive permanently connected to your PC; more due to virus/malware attack issues that lock all the files on your computer's main internal hard drive AND the connected external drive you had running. So this is a real no-no today! If you have a computer guy/gal and they failed to tell you this; you should fire them or ask them to pay for your hard drive recovery charge. They did you a real disservice by keeping that information from you! And now you are suffering and may have to pay the price (almost certainly!) for that lack of knowledge. If you didn't have a computer person during the time this happened, that's unfortunate and I suggest to remedy that by getting a new one now.
The advantage of doing that, is that they might be able to do the needed Data Recovery you are looking for, at a substantial cost discount than if Microsoft sends out your Drive for Professional Data Recovery. So you know, that's going to wind up costing you about $550 US. I did one on a failed external drive (750GB) my son had last May and that's what it costs now. Computer Tech data recovery in a repair shop or by and independent licensed Tech can run from $35-$165 or so. I do these regularly. When the hard drive is fried and is not spinning, as yours is, it's got to be sent out to a Data Recovery lab where it has to be disassembled in a Clean Room and that costs big bucks as you can see.

I am not siding with Microsoft at all; just telling you the realities of getting your drive recovered or replaced for free are not good. It does sound to me like a Tech at the Microsoft Store did screw up your drive since it was working when you brought it in. But, that's really hard to prove isn't it??

Getting back to my Question (1.); I just found out recently about 4 months ago that there was a known design glitch in W10 Home that PREVENTS you from disabling or deferring updates. There have been several threads here on Windows Forum (WF) about this and you can search the forum with the search box to find them. It turns out that Microsoft provided a method to disable or defer updates from coming into your computer in the W10 Pro and W10 Business Class versions (Business, Enterprise, Business Site-wide). For most home Users who are not doing business or home-business things such as movie-editing, graphics design or CAD, or web-programming, they are using W10 Home version which comes on most new W10 PCs in stores unless you are aware of the Pro versions from earlier Windows offerings such as W8 Pro, W7 Pro, Vista Pro, XP Pro, etc. and knew to look for it or ask for it. There has been a lot of press about this undocumented feature (or lack of a feature), and much litigation threatened on many forums as I said; but as yet no one with deep enough pockets or who has enough intestinal fortitude to go after Microsoft on this issue has been successful.
Further; if you do have to pay hundreds of dollars to get your stuff back, and possibly pay to replace the hard drive; you'll be less than $1,500 and since you live in California; you can attempt to take Microsoft to Small Claims Court to try and force them to reimburse you for your expenses you were forced to pay due to Microsoft's update debacle. BUT, and this is a big issue; even if you win a Judgment against Microsoft, you still have to get them to pay your awarded judgement amount; say $1,000. How long will you have to wait to get that, assuming that there are hundreds or thousands of other home users who have already won judgements against Microsoft for the same type of thing? You might not see that money for 5-10 years or longer. I'm not an Attorney, but if you haven't consulted one, it might be worth doing and see if what I'm telling you makes sense. And, I believe you'll have a difficult time getting any Attorney to file a suit against Microsoft for a Home User as I said above. Not impossible, just very difficult. This is only my personal opinion, but having done computers for 46 years; I learned a few things. So, what I am telling you is from me, not our Forum. Each person here has there own opinion on this sticky issue, so you will get different ones from different people. You'll be able to read through them and make an informed decision, hopefully.

Let us know which W10 you have, and then we can suggest some things you might have done differently or how to approach your goal of getting Microsoft/Seagate to pay for your problem so you don't have to.

Good luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

Interestingly, one of Microsoft's attempted "solutions" to my problem was to grant me license for Windows 10 Pro. We installed it, but it didn't solve the problem. So, when this happened I was running Windows 10 Home.

My external drive is a Touro Mobile Pro, 1TB. I called Touro (HGST) and they referred me to Fry's Electronics for data recovery. I called them, and the first question I asked was whether they had seen others with this same issue after an update. The answer was a resounding "YES" All the time. They are fully aware of the problems these Windows 10 updates cause with external drives. I may even be able to get an affidavit or statement from them. They will perform a complete full, free diagnostic on the drive when I take it in to the local store and tell me exactly what the problem is and if any of the data is recoverable, and quote me the price of recovery.

I don't leave the external drive constantly plugged in. With all of the issues I'd been having weeks before this happened, I'd connected the drive that day to see what was on it and how much room I had to back up new files to it.

I'm told the senior tech at the Microsoft Store did remove the drive from the case and tried to get the motor to power up using different methods, with no luck. Still, Fry's says that retrieving data from a "dead" drive is a common procedure for them, and the success depends on the situation.

I did speak with an attorney who said my best, first attempt should be to file a formal dispute with Microsoft using their dispute form. That process prohibits me from taking Microsoft to court, however, but it does have the option of going to full arbitration with a national arbitration service if I'm not happy with the outcome. Before I decide, however, I'm going to see if I can get Fry's to provide me with some kind of written statement about their experiences with Windows 10 Updates.

The manager at the store did say he would replace the drive for me for my inconvenience. That will help.

I still have one last call in to Microsoft Support to ask if they will authorize recovering the data for me. If they say no, I will pick up the drive and consider either the Dispute process or Small Claims Court and see which I believe may have the better outcome. Honestly, that will depend partly on whether or not I can get a statement from Fry's or perhaps even Seagate Data Recovery Services.

 

[ussnorway]

I did speak with an attorney who said my best, first attempt should be to file a formal dispute with Microsoft using their dispute form.

if you live in the US I would talk to the BBB first as they add more power... even as a home user.
Microsoft will cover a reasonable claim ime (and they have already offered you a better software) ... the moral here is "don't allow automatic updates" but you already discovered that

 

[Karen Grube]

if you live in the US I would talk to the BBB first as they add more power... even as a home user.
Microsoft will cover a reasonable claim ime (and they have already offered you a better software) ... the moral here is "don't allow automatic updates" but you already discovered that

Thank you! I can actually do both: File with the BBB AND go through Microsoft's Dispute process. That is a terrific idea! Having said that, I tried filing a complaint against Yahoo once for allowing trolls in their children's games pages that lured kids to porn sites, and all they did was shoot back that they have a policy against censorship. I was appalled that the BBB let them get away with that.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I know this isn't helpful as to your present problem but I hope that you did learn a lesson that I pontificate about constantly.

Never have any important information stored in only one location.

I have all my photos, music, job files and anything that I really don't want to ever lose stored in multiple locations.

I have my data on my computer on a physical drive that doesn't have Windows on it, and on two external drives.

I should probably start using an online storage site as well, (my house could burn down I suppose) and then I'd still lose all my stuff, though in that context it might not be my major worry.

I've been hit by lightning twice, (I live at the 2nd highest spot in the county) and I still have all my stuff, because I did keep backups of everything, and I don't have my external drives turned on when I'm not using them to update or retrieve data from.

Also my other big thing to bug people about, Make a System Image File of your Windows installation, so that you can recover your computer easily in the event of a crash or major malware attack.

Sorry for being preachy. LOL

Mike

 

[Karen Grube]

Hi

I know this isn't helpful as to your present problem but I hope that you did learn a lesson that I pontificate about constantly.


Mike

No it isn't helpful.

 

[ragnarok1968]

I have heard here and elsewhere where things such as this do happen (Duh right? ) But do your file transfers first, then disconnect the drive. Now this might take some time by having you look to see if any updates are pending. if so, do your transfers then disconnect.

 

[Karen Grube]

I'm not asking for advice at this point. What I need is to find out if others have had this problem, but it can't be "I've heard . . .." I really need specific instances or situations if I am going to get Microsoft to help.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi Karen,
Thanks for your post back. I realize you are focused on your Lawsuit issues, but it would be helpful for us to know EXACTLY which version of W10 you have; Home or Pro. Would you mind taking a look at your computer and checking for us?? You can click on the Start button on your W10 desktop; right-click on System and it will popup a System Information box with logos on it and all and it will tell you which flavor of W10 you have currently running on your computer. If you do proceed with this lawsuit, you will certainly need to be able to tell the court or your Attorney this information. If you are running W10 Pro, which DOES allow updates to be disabled or schedule, be prepared for the Microsoft Attorneys or the Judge to throw out your case since you spent extra money for this premium feature--AND YOU CHOSE TO NOT TO USE IT TO PROTECT YOUR SYSTEM AND PERSONAL DATA!!
I know my responses can be wordy and sometimes too technical; people don't get it all in one reading, and often move onto other things, but this issue could be the difference between you winning and losing your lawsuit, IMO.

The next question you haven't specifically answered for us, is DO YOU HAVE SOME OR ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA THAT LIVES ON THAT BROKEN EXTERNAL USB DRIVE BACKED UP SOMEWHERE ELSE???
I don't mean to be pushy, but that's been the elephant in the room on this thread here. If you re-read my POST #11, I mentioned as an aside what you actually told the Tech in the Microsoft Store in regards to whether or not the data you had on the broken USB hard drive that got scrambled by your W10 update was actually backed up and protected somewhere else, such as backup DVD/CD discs, flash drive, or online Cloud Storage Account (such as Microsoft OneDrive, GoogleDrive, Dropbox, etc.), or on a family member's or friend's computer besides your computer. Can you tell us if you are backed up safely or not? If not, and ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL FILES are on that external hard drive, that would cause you all the angst about getting it back. This also prompted Mike Hawthorne's POST #16 warning you about proper backup file precautions in the future. Since no one, including me, didn't ask you this question directly, we are left to guess. But it certainly appears all your stuff you need is on that failed USB drive!! Yes/No?

I pontificated on this, because it makes a difference in the data recovery process you are now engaged in. This can be a very difficult process for you to navigate if you've never done it before. I have done it dozens of times. I apologize for not asking you this question earlier in the thread; but am asking you now. Regardless of your answer, you are still upset at Microsoft's new update policy in W10, and with good reason too. Most of us professionals here agree with you. We are simply trying to get you to understand that a Court or a Judge is quite likely to side with Microsoft against you, if you failed to observer proper data backup procedures--personally, I believe that's a lame tack for them to use, as very few Home Users are aware of how to do this or even that it's a critical computer ownership issue or not. By, the way, I've tried that particular line with Microsoft in a Civil Lawsuit years ago, and it didn't work for me; the Judge told me to sit down and shut up! But, hey, I'm not an Attorney as I said, so we lost that suit.

As far as seeking damages, goes, you are really now only going to be looking to reimburse your costs for the Data Recovery process, as it sounds like Fry's is going to replace your USB drive for free (hopefully!). The other thing you need to be careful of is "padding" your damages award you are seeking with lost time. For example, since you are a Home User and not a Business User (as I discussed earlier about the $10,000 lawsuit won by the Lady in WA.), how are you going to put a dollar value on say 2 weeks of lost peronal use?? Is that $100, $500, $1,000? And the Court or Judge or even Arbitrator is going to ask you to define an hourly value on your personal time; $10/hr., $20/hr. $30/hr.? And since you don't work 24x7 at home; how many hours a week would you typically be doing computer work at home; 20 hrs., 30 hrs., etc. If you value your personal time at say $20/hr. and you use your computer and that broken USB drive with your personal files on it 20 hrs./wk.; you could theoretically ask for another $400 in lost time!! However, due to much existing Case Law *which I'm very familiar with since it's my field*, the Court/Judge/Arbitrator can throw that right out the window with the bathwater, since you have no way of assigning a dollar value to your home time on the computer, since you are not an employee of a Company, or Individual, and there is no billing basis there. Of course, I could be mistaken on this, and you might get lucky and get a decision than includes that extra time hours as dollars awarded to you on top of the cost of the Data Recovery. But, I thought you should be aware that I know it's been tried before in California courts and lost every time.

Post back if you get a few minutes on those 2 answers to my questions, and even if you don't do that and let us know those answers, you should have them FOR YOURSELF, if you are going to file a dispute against Microsoft or Court or Arbitration. Microsoft Attorneys, if they are there or involved, will use these above responses to deny your Claim for any financial renumeration.

Best of luck,
Let us know how you get on.
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