Window's 11 Update Rendering Bootdrive Unusable

[Eurimeee]

There's a Windows Update that I can't seem to avoid. It want's to update my computer from Windows 10 to Windows 11. The two times it has tried so far, the installation fails and my primary boot drive no longer is detected. This leads to my old back-up SSD being the only one available in the BIOS boot options. Windows has always been running fine on my primary boot until this Windows 11 update. Is there a way to revert back to Windows 10 on my primary boot drive and get it working again? I see a Windows and Windows.old folders if those can help.

I previously used Macrium Reflect to clone my old boot drive to my new one. My old boot drive is also almost out of space. It only has 2 gb left.

[PDifolco]

6 minutes ago, Eurimeee said:

There's a Windows Update that I can't seem to avoid. It want's to update my computer from Windows 10 to Windows 11. The two times it has tried so far, the installation fails and my primary boot drive no longer is detected. This leads to my old back-up SSD being the only one available in the BIOS boot options. Windows has always been running fine on my primary boot until this Windows 11 update. Is there a way to revert back to Windows 10 on my primary boot drive and get it working again? I see a Windows and Windows.old folders if those can help.

I previously used Macrium Reflect to clone my old boot drive to my new one. My old boot drive is also almost out of space. It only has 2 gb left.

I had an option to disable Win11 update request in Windows Update, you should have it as well ?

rgds

[SpookyCitrus]

8 minutes ago, Eurimeee said:

There's a Windows Update that I can't seem to avoid. It want's to update my computer from Windows 10 to Windows 11. The two times it has tried so far, the installation fails and my primary boot drive no longer is detected. This leads to my old back-up SSD being the only one available in the BIOS boot options. Windows has always been running fine on my primary boot until this Windows 11 update. Is there a way to revert back to Windows 10 on my primary boot drive and get it working again? I see a Windows and Windows.old folders if those can help.

I previously used Macrium Reflect to clone my old boot drive to my new one. My old boot drive is also almost out of space. It only has 2 gb left.

If the update has already gone through and you can no longer boot into the Windows on the drive, no. In order to revert 11 back to 10 you need to be within Windows. You'll either need to do a fresh install of Windows 10/11 on the drive or clone your old install back to the newer drive and set it to not update to 11.

[Eurimeee]

2 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

I had an option to disable Win11 update request in Windows Update, you should have it as well ?

rgds

I can attempt this. Just can't even boot into my main boot drive anymore. 

[Eurimeee]

Just now, SpookyCitrus said:

If the update has already gone through and you can no longer boot into the Windows on the drive, no. In order to revert 11 back to 10 you need to be within Windows. You'll either need to do a fresh install of Windows 10/11 on the drive or clone your old install back to the newer drive and set it to not update to 11.

 

That is unfortunate to hear. Are there any plausible reasons why the update is failing?

[SpookyCitrus]

4 minutes ago, Eurimeee said:

 

That is unfortunate to hear. Are there any plausible reasons why the update is failing?

Is the rest of your system and bios settings compatible/capable of running 11? What are your full system specs?

[Tan3l6]

25 minutes ago, Eurimeee said:

The two times it has tried so far, the installation fails and my primary boot drive no longer is detected.

You mean the drive is not detected as a boot device? Otherwise detected?

If so, you could try making an installation media of your OS version and try automatic startup repair.

 

Or create Rescue USB drive in Macrium Reflect and boot from that. It should have more thorough boot fixer.

[BillBill]

22 minutes ago, Eurimeee said:

There's a Windows Update that I can't seem to avoid. It want's to update my computer from Windows 10 to Windows 11. The two times it has tried so far, the installation fails and my primary boot drive no longer is detected. This leads to my old back-up SSD being the only one available in the BIOS boot options. Windows has always been running fine on my primary boot until this Windows 11 update. Is there a way to revert back to Windows 10 on my primary boot drive and get it working again? I see a Windows and Windows.old folders if those can help.

I previously used Macrium Reflect to clone my old boot drive to my new one. My old boot drive is also almost out of space. It only has 2 gb left.

After cloning an old drive to a new drive. The best way is to disconnect the power to the old drive.

[PDifolco]

16 minutes ago, Eurimeee said:

 

That is unfortunate to hear. Are there any plausible reasons why the update is failing?

There are plenty, but what should happen if W11 fails to boot after update is that it rolls back to W10

Happened to me, I think because I had a dual boot drive Win/Linux ...

[Eurimeee]

15 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Is the rest of your system and bios settings compatible/capable of running 11? What are your full system specs?

I believe it should be. Possible the BIOS needs to be updated? 

 

 

[SpookyCitrus]

1 minute ago, Eurimeee said:

I believe it should be. Possible the BIOS needs to be updated? 

If it hasn't been updated in a while(or ever) I would update it. It could have an update for Windows 11 support specifically. Usually though you'll need to check the security settings, make sure TPM 2.0 or Firmware TPM are enabled, secure boot, etc. Those are all required for 11 as well. The weird thing is that you say once it updated to 11 the drive doesn't even show up in bios. So I'd say a bios update is the next best step.

[Tan3l6]

I think it all depends - how is the 11 install failing?

Does the preliminary copy of files and then no boot after reboot or does it seem to hang on a logo or black screen?

Because usually if the install fails and boots and then something goes wrong it automatically rolls back to the previously working Windows.

As said before there might be few different causes why the problem occurs.