Windows 7 Windows 7 will not update...... Help PLEASE.........

Hi Chris,

Good suggestions here from both Holdum & Neemo. I would also add a comment or two after reading through your attempts at fixing.

First, it is NOT adequate to reformat a drive with a Win7 reinstallation (or any other windows version) without wiping out the RECOVERY PARTITION. Unfortunately, this has to go also, as many viruses/malware and spyware viruses specifically like to hide .bin copies (executables) in those areas as well as the Boot Sector (Rootkit). If you fail to format that part of your hard drive, you may not have eliminated all copies of a possible virus, and there are hundreds that attack the Windows Update applet out there. Malwarebytes, AdWare, and even most anti-virus programs cannot read or access those 2 areas of your hard drive. This is unfortunate, as most folks are not aware of this.

You may have already solved your problem with one or more of the above methods, so you can stop reading if that's the case. For you or other forum peeps reading this who may have a similar problem, I also will mention that if you don't have factory Windows Recovery or Reset discs or usb media, I encourage you to make it before WIPING out that RECOVERY PARTITION. Once you make a Recovery disc or Recovery usb stick, when you reinstall your base windows (Win7 in your case here), a complete format of the hard drive is done (as long as you remember to select CUSTOM on the install screen); and as part of the normal reinstallation process the factory Recovery disc/usb stick WILL ACTUALLY RESTORE THE RECOVERY PARTITION TO YOUR HARD DRIVE JUST AS IT WAS WHEN IT WAS OOB (Out-Of-Box) BRAND NEW!!!

Lastly, it's important to know that in some cases, this Recovery Partition may be restored, but when you go to perform another Windows Reinstallation or Reset down the road from some other windows problem, it may not work if your hard drive is damaged. This is usually not done by a virus (in most cases), but rather from the drive aging process causing it to develop bad sectors that cause unrecoverable read/write errors. Process of elimination can lead you to determine whether or not the drive has failed or not, by simply buying a brand new sealed hard drive of the correct size and capacity for your computer, and running the Recovery Media (Disc/USB stick) on the new drive. Once the factory Windows and apps are reinstalled along with the RECOVERY PARTITION, you can run Windows Recovery from the Recovery Partition and test it. It should overwrite the Windows install you just did, and put everything back to OOB condition. If the Recovery Partition option now works, and it did not before as described above, then your old hard drive is defective from aging or it was damaged by the virus. In either case, you can see it's a good idea to make sure your Recovery Media and your Hard Drive are capable of resetting your Windows to OOB condition. If your computer is 3 years old or older, this is a VERY GOOD thing to do, as then you know for a fact that both your Recovery Media and your Hard Drive are actually capable of restoring your PC to OOB condition, especially when you have lots of GB's or TB's worth of data and apps installed on it and need to get it all working again. [Hard drives begin to fail > 3 years of use.] That's often 1-3 weeks for most of us experienced users. Knowing that your Recovery Procedure actually works BEFORE you have a windows crash or hardware crash can cut that rebuild time down considerably!

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