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The dialog box is helpless as to saying which password. I was using my Windows password. Should I be using my Windows 10 username password? That is the only one I know of which is related directly to Windows 10, but I didn’t realize that it might have any connection with Microsoft’s Web site. Actually, that it might is a bit scary. Or is there another password?

The software runs but it doesn’t find the drive (though File Explorer does). The Seagate GoFlex, Backup Plus and Expansion external drives have a special interface or code (probably embedded in firmware) which the software is supposed to recognize.

Problem solved, another problem created and solved. The problem was either the mouse or the driver. The third mouse I tried installed a new driver and now the problem has gone away. I had tried a system restore and that caused a problem with Firefox which i’ll describe in another post.

Yes, I tried a different mouse. I also tried system restore back to before the problem happened. No dice, and that lost all my tabs in Firefox. I have the sessionstore file backed up but Firefox doesn’t find it. That may have something to do with the recent Firefox update which was rolled back by the system restore. The keyboard isn’t working until Windows boots, so I can’t get it to start in Safe Mode to check that. Software problem? Hardware problem? Don’t know.

Well, back up everything, no matter what drive you are using. … I’ve been running a 480 GB SSD as the boot drive in my desktop for several months now and I’m happy with it. All in all, it saves me a lot of time. I did crash it once, with a loose cable connection. I also had an HD crash in the past year, YMMV. The rub is that I’m not sure what the recovery process would be for data on a crashed SSD. I found that my video editor was storing all its voiceovers there…though that was changeable, as I learned after losing some, etc. I don’t know whether data recovery services are up to speed on SSDs. I reformatted and reloaded the SSD but I lost some program data.

Program data is an issue in either case. You can reload the OS and apps from distribution disks and files (I keep downloaded apps on a separate HD just in case), but many apps store working data (configuration files, browser bookmarks and history etc.) in the ProgramData folder which at least by default is on the boot drive. So, you want to keep this backed up. or possibly put that folder on a different drive — though I’m not sure how to do that. Maybe someone here can give advice.

An SSD connects to a SATA port. An older computer with only PATA ports won’t work with an SSD except if it is on a USB connection or possibly with a plug-in SATA card, but there isn’t much of a point to this and as I said in an earlier message, there are configuration issues too.

>”Assuming you can’t fit all your data on the new SSD, what should you transfer and what should you leave behind on the old drive?”

Some software demands faster file acces. You could check disk read-write rates in Task Manager’s Performance applet. Surprisingly video editing software doesn’t require fast access, because the processing is intense and the data streams. This is good, because video files are huge. (However, I use different drives for video input files and render files, to avoid lots of head motion and file fragmentation).

>On laptops, you’ll need a SATA-to-USB enclosure (or docking station or connector kit) to set up the new SSD as a temporary external drive.

An enclosure with a fan is preferable, to keep the drive cool — mostly an issue though with a 3.5″ drive. Also, an eSATA connection is fast. With a desktop that doesn’t already have eSATA, you only have toan internal SATA port to a bracket on the rear panel. I have had no luck adding eSATA using a plug-in card: to of them froze my computer on startup. I don’t know how many laptops support eSATA without an adapter or docking station. And USB cables are more flexible. eSATA is more suitable for an office setting.

>On a desktop, launch BIOS setup and change the boot order so that the SSD is higher on the list than the old HDD. I won’t tell you explicitly how to make the change because it varies with the brand and version of BIOS. If you need a refresher, the PC’s manual should have instructions.

Check motherboard specs. SATA ports on a desktop motherboard may not all run at the same speed. You want the SSD on one of the faster ports.

What about speed and burden on the computer?

When you have lots of data, that can be a major concern.

I restarted the laptop in the hope that would solve the problem. Instead now the tower has disappeared from the HomeGroup listing on the laptop, though the laptop appears in the Network listing. And on the tower, its own name appears multiple times and its former name also appears multiple times. Gag.

One correction: the long wait occurred when I shut the computer down, not when I started it. I’ve edited the original post to make that correction

I never selected these updates. They appeared unbidden. I usually set Windows Update to download updates and then have me select them, but this was a new installation and I hadn’t done that setting yet.

And — I finally noticed as I was going to bed — after about 15 hours — that the computer had completed what it was doing and shut itself down.

I am now using that computer — a 2009 HP Pavilion dv4 laptop. This morning, it booted into Windows after one restart, 35% of the way through the Configuring Windows routine. The configuring on restart took only a couple of minutes, but looking at Windows Update again now, I see that it has another 128 important updates for me. First time I looked this morning there were 4 but now I looked again and there are 128.

Moral of the story is: don’t expect to be able to use a computer with Windows for a couple of days after upgrading. And to Microsoft: it would be good to provide more complete information including estimated time to completion, with the option to update later if that will be long. Many of the updates affect security and it would be useful to warn of that.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea also to save a system image in case anything goes wrong in the middle of this long process.

Also — about the netbook which updated from the Internet using Windows Anytime Upgrade without losing the dual-boot Linux installation: the dual boot will automatically boot into Linux unless prompted on startup, so I had to do a couple of manual restarts during the upgrade. I’ve made that correction too in the original post.

Next I install Linux, dual-boot. Thenswitch between two different sets of problems

OK, here is the sequence that finally worked: I already had validation, using Internet Explorer. But the file I had downloaded in Firefox was outdated, and the information about a validation code was obsolete.

I had to click on the “continue” button on http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=91 also in Internet Explorer.

And that led to

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=91&hash=6byvTmkEWo0dOwv5d1KVNL8%2bJcmxUpuw7QLeCMc%2bReNF55F4PhHyKi%2bhQUQ3%2fYpQyleNdYMcJgWcbWyGtRaEuw%3d%3d

(which says “click on the download button”, only there isn’t any). However, a bar appears at the bottom of the screen and I can click on that to save or install the file:

“Do you want to open or save the file Windows6.1-KB917607-x64.msu…” (which is the winhlp32 update).

And finally after running the file, I got confirmation at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=91

There is no longer a code to enter. Microsoft’s information about this is outdated and misleading, and the failure to indicate simply that IE must be used for every step of this procedure also leads to wild goose chases.

All the drivers are the ones Windows supplies automatically. No drivers were supplied with the device. I assume 64-bit but who knows.

Actually I did reboot the computer yesterday without the camera and Disk Management didn’t load. But then again this morning after I started the computer once again, I was able to launch Disk Manager in the usual way, though Control Panel.

Thanks everybody for all the suggestions, though. Who knows, I might — or somebody might — need them sometime

Looking at the larger picture, it distresses me that there might be some tool or Windows feature that I only use occasionally, and then have to roll way back to recover, and not know how far I need to roll back.

Can anyone recommend a utility to help me check for such problems and possibly repair them without a rollback? I do run backups, and in the past I’ve used JV16 Powertools and CCCleaner, but I’m wary of them — I had to undo changes once after using one of them (don’t remember which).

By the way, I had a similar problem a week or two ago with Windows Media Player. It stopped working when I tried to load .AVI files encoded with the XVID MP4 compressor. Then mysteriously, it recovered.

Based on your description of how sound worked through the projector, the problem is very likely in the routing either in Sounds in Control panel or in the driver applet for the internal audio device. John-O’s answer would pint to a solution.