PC Tech Any way I can avoid a refresh or fresh install of Windows?

[dualhunter]

I can't install the version 1903 of Windows 10 and support is about to end on the previous version (turns out that it's 2 versions back that support is ending on so I wasn't able to install the previous version either). The likely culprit is the driver for my sound card, specifically the file ha20x2k.sys. I couldn't uninstall it normally so I tried IObit uninstaller but it wasn't able to completely remove it. Next I went into the registry to try to manually remove references to it and delete the file (had to use administrator command line to do it) in a subfolder in system32\drivers. However there is another copy in a subfolder of system32\driverstore and I can't delete it and can't delete the registry entries for it either. I even put the drive in a dock to try deleting it on another computer but I still couldn't delete it. The sound card is physically removed from the PC as well. Even with all that attempting the upgrade will eventually BSOD and roll back.

 

Any way I can avoid a fresh install of Windows? Most of my files are on other drives but I'd prefer to avoid having to set things up again. Is there another way to either delete the file or render it inert? I tried msconfig but didn't see anything that could stop it from loading.

[rossi_84]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

i used this update 2 days ago, not sure what was holding me back. 

[dualhunter]

I've tried through Windows Update, the update assistant and using the media creation tool to put it on a flash drive but it always gets a BSOD during the upgrade.

[cusideabelincoln]

Perhaps try running CHKDSK (at startup command line) or Disk Error Checking (under Windows environment) first, then trying to delete the file and/or updating.

 

That being said, doing a fresh install isn't so bad anymore.  Most things are saved in the cloud, and if you sign into Windows with your Microsoft account it'll remember your background and wallpaper settings.

 

The two folders you might want to manually back up, just in case you need to recover saved data or configuration settings, are your Documents (assuming you didn't move it to a different drive by changing the Target folder) and AppData folder.  Doing a fresh install on my older PC did smooth out my gaming performance.

[AbsolutSurgen]

Fresh installs get everything running better.

[dualhunter]

My best bet is probably a fresh install on a different drive (just checked it and there wasn't anything that need backing up) just in case any other drivers have issues. In which case I can go back to the current drive until Black Friday/Cyber Monday. My work computer is even older though and the update worked on it so it should work.

[dualhunter]

Did the fresh install on the other drive and it seems to be working great. There was something I forgot to back up but I think I have it backed up on a portable drive and if not I still have everything on the now disconnected drive so I can get the files there if needed. Still have stuff to reinstall over the next few days.

[Keyser_Soze]

Windows is interesting now you can copy your program files over and can run them without having to re-install them (However you need to make shortcuts for them in order for you to get them to show up on the start menu) - I would have suggested this if before your fresh install since you were feeling lazy about reinstalling everything.

[dualhunter]

Most of the programs were games and most files were on my hard drive so it wasn't too bad. Also I installed Windows on my second SSD and just unplugged the first one (so everything on my old C drive is still there). Everything since January was installed on a third SSD so all my recent games were ready for Steam and Origin quickly restore. Basically I just had a few things to transfer and then check each installed game whether it used cloud saves. After I just had a bit of other software to install so in the end it wasn't that big a deal though I had been hoping to avoid it until my next hardware upgrade. All I "lost" were games that were installed on the older SSDs so if I want to play them again I'll have to redownload them. One annoyance though is while Steam restored Quake II RTX it wants to check for Quake II to enable the full game. I uninstalled Quake II after using it to enable Quake II RTX. The RTX version still works, it just asks for the location of the Quake II files every time it loads so I have to cancel and the game will still load maps from late in the game.