Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Last night the power went out.
I went to shut down the computer and
when I hit "shut down," it started installing
Windows updates. The screen says "Do not
shut down or power off your computer."
It installed 15 updates and some of em
seemed to take forever. What wouldda
happened if my UPS ran out while these
updates were installing? I got lucky; they
all installed and the machine shut down.
What wouldda
happened if my UPS ran out while these
updates were installing?
I've had a situation or two where the pc went off while an update was in progress. The next time it was on and I checked "View update history." the status showed that the install Failed. A short time later (same day or within a day or so), the same update was re-installed, this time with the status showing Successful.
Honestly, of the hundreds of computers I've worked on, I've never seen that actually cause a problem. I've seen more successful updates cause problems then failed ones.
Probably the biggest issue it can cause is if power is cut while it has the registry files open for writing. That leads to a corrupt registry and a completely blown installation of Windoze. It can happen - I know from experience. I don't know if newer versions have mechanisms to mitigate this potential problem; it happened to me on an NT4 Server machine some years back.
Probably the biggest issue it can cause is if power is cut while it has the registry files open for writing. That leads to a corrupt registry and a completely blown installation of Windoze. It can happen - I know from experience. I don't know if newer versions have mechanisms to mitigate this potential problem; it happened to me on an NT4 Server machine some years back.
Enter System Restore, which Windows Vista and newer automatically handles with its built in recovery software.
Not saying it can't happen, I'm sure I've tanked some XP machines that way, but nothing modern is really in any serious danger.
Probably the biggest issue it can cause is if power is cut while it has the registry files open for writing. That leads to a corrupt registry and a completely blown installation of Windoze. It can happen - I know from experience. I don't know if newer versions have mechanisms to mitigate this potential problem; it happened to me on an NT4 Server machine some years back.
Vista & 7 have the "last known good configuration" boot option, and also system restore points (which include registry backups) that can be accessed by booting off the installation media or using the built in F8 recovery options, Win8 has an "improved" version.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
