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I have a company laptop (a Lenovo T540) running Windows 10. I am using a domain user to access the computer. That user has administrator privileges. A few days ago, Windows did a Windows Update, rebooted and then failed to start. After the Lenovo splash screen the screen stays black with no further progress.

Holding Shift+F8 during boot shows the Windows 10 recovery menu. However, trying to do any action gives the following error:

You need to sign in as an administrator to continue, but there aren't any administrator accounts on this PC.

Using a recovery USB created from another Windows 10 machine does allow all of the actions from the recovery menu to start, but they all give an error.

At best I would like to use the System Restore to go back to before the Windows Update was installed.

I have some important files still on the drive of the laptop, and would rather not have to do a clean reset of the Windows 10. Is there a way to work around that error?

G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'
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Eli Iser
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1 Answers1

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I'm not 100% sure if Windows 10 recovery drives are machine related so I'm not sure if it will help at all, but you can try to repair computer using Windows 10 installer. Just click Repair your computer instead of Install now.

Setup Image

If that fails too, you can install Windows selecting Custom: Install Windows only (advanced). If you just select drive where you had your previous Windows installed, it will move Windows folder to Windows.old and leave rest of your data.

Installation type

I've tried this and it works, but if you are really paranoid you can try any Linux LiveCD (for example Ubuntu). Without any installation you can try this OS and you will be able to browse files on your hard drive.

Tithen-Firion
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