Login Lockup

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I just made the mistake of upgrading Win 7 Pro to 8 Pro via download​. It went through all the initial setup and after the final reboot it took forever to get to the lame Seattle Space Needle screen with no login. I clicked on the screen and got my login finally entered (after waiting ten minutes for it to accept the characters) and now it just displays “welcome” with the spinner running next to it. This is my fifth attempt waiting at this juncture in excess of 30 minutes. No disk to do a reinstall.

Help? Please? Whimper, whimper.

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Something sounds seriously wrong. If you have a backup image of Win 7 Pro I’d suggest you restore it and then re-download and reinstall Win 8 Pro by using the link near the top of your Win 8 Pro Upgrade order confirmation email (this time making a DVD or USB copy in case you ever need to reinstall again).

If you don’t have a backup image of Win 7 Pro you could (if you have the original Win 7 Pro installation media) just reinstall Win 7 Pro and then reinstall Win 8 Pro as described above – but you first might want to preserve any user data in your current installation that you need (since reinstalling Win 7 Pro will over-write it).

It sounds as if either some Win 8 Pro file got damaged during the download or the installation or something in your Win 7 Pro system made the upgrade go badly (if the latter, you may have to save your important user data somewhere and choose to format the target Win 7 Pro partition during Win 8 Pro installation to keep the existing Win 7 Pro problem from tubing your Win 8 Pro install next time). Some kind of hardware failure is also possible (sometimes a disk going bad will take forever to do things because marginal data must be reread so many times before a successful read occurs; edit: however, if it was actually taking minutes to accept individual characters during login this would tend to point not to a disk problem but to a processor or memory problem – if you have a memory test you can run from CD, USB, or floppy it might be worth a quick try, but it’s kind of hard to imagine failures there that would slow things down so much yet not stop the system entirely).

Good luck (I hope you don’t need it, but you may).

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Thanks Bill, I right now I can’t do much of anything but will try in the morning.

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Just had another thought: if you have access to another computer you could re-download the Win 8 Pro Upgrade there, burn it to a DVD or USB drive, and then try a ‘repair install’ on your current non-working system just in case the problem was a file-copy malfunction rather than a problem with your previous system. The link in my confirmation email was http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=262204 – if that’s a generic link all you’ll need is your Win 8 Pro Upgrade product key to re-do the download, but you’ll need to do it on a machine which has the same operating system architecture (32-bit vs. 64-bit) as the machine you want to reinstall on, because that’s how the downloader determines which flavor to give you.

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Bill

First, thanks for the suggestions.

I left the locked-up login running last night (I can be cranky like that), and, of course, found everything locked up this morning. No screen saver on, no desk top, nothing but a blank screen – had to force a power down. Tried to reboot anyway with Shift | F8 and got Safe Mode (surprise!).

I didn’t really see much wrong there, so I just re-downloaded and burned Win 8 to do a re-install. When I booted again (just for kicks, and before re-installing) I got the Windows startup tune and then the login. What!? I actually logged in with my fingerprint reader and Metro showed up!! It’s actually working!!

My only issue now (and a bit worrisome) is that a Win 8 backup failed after 2 hours of running so I don’t have a current backup. Is “Image” the same thing? Should I try that (I have a 2T external drive).

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I would never rely on Windows Imaging. I would always go with a 3rd party app for this important chore.

I also always recommend making an installation Media, then booting to that media to Custom Install Windows, whether it be Win 8 or an earlier version. The Update, although working well in many cases, is very dependent on the previous installation. There is just too much that can go wrong. And when it does it creates very strange problems.

Keep your DVD close. With the problems you have already seen, you might very well see more.

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I used windows imaging for 3 years with win 7. Had to restore twice that I remember and both were successful. I still use windows along with easeus. Only thing I don’t like is that the restores take some time, not the 10 minutes Medico says he gets with Acronis. Unfortunately my pockets aren’t deep enough to keep buying software.

Rich

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@rlvt
I believe Medico has indicated in other posts that he moves data folders to another partition/disk which may account for the 10 minute restores he experiences. I’m sure he’ll respond/elaborate further. As for me, I don’t move the Documents folder but do save pictures/music to another drive. My Acronis backups/restores are usually in the neighborhood of 20-35 minutes.

Another Rich

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I ended up going with NovaBACKUP; not cheap, but I liked the UI (both simple and deeper – you choose). Took about 30 min, but that included an incremental Documents only backup as well. I had been using Easeus, but had some issue so I did the switch.

Thanks to all who chimed in! This is the ONLY place to go when you need a hand; way better than any support money can buy.

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Rich and another Rich. Yes, for many years I have moved all my data to a separate partition as I feel this isolates my data from the OS. Now I can “play” with the OS knowing I have Up To Date Images when I fudge something up, and knowing my data is safely stored separately. I also back up my data separately. This includes File History in Win 8 and copying my data folders to a separate PC on our network.

When I do restore from Image using Acronis True Image 2013 (as with earlier versions) it indeed takes approx. 10 minutes. This restores the OS and all apps, plus any customizations I have made (if you know me you know I like to customize).

Bryan, I’m glad you found an app and method that works for you. Just remember to keep your Images Up To Date by creating new Images regularly. I create a new Image on our PCs after each patch Tuesday. This is the other thing that allows restoration to go quicker. After restoration there is very little else I have to then update.

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Medico,
I also have all of my data on a separate partition. Just the os and programs on C. I guess Easeus is just slower. I have noticed that images and backups on my desktop, which are done through USB 3.0, seem to be much faster. Haven’t had to do a restore there yet but I’m sure that day is coming. Bought a laptop for experimenting after many, many reinstalls of XP. Still mess things up pretty regularly but rarely the same way twice.

Rich

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