Ok, what's the best way to format the drive and reinstall windows?
Should I do that from the THIS PC menu? And just right click on the drive and press format? Or is there another particular way recommended?
I have Windows 10 on a USB that I can boot from. I assume I can tell Windows to install...
Ok, I downloaded and ran that Crystal Disk program, though I'm not sure how to interpret the results.
This is what it says about the M.2 drive (which is called the E drive on this install, though it's the C drive with Windows on it normally).
"Critical warning" doesn't sound good. :oops...
Oh also, during the copying of parts of the C drive there were about 10 or 20 files that would not copy over. Mostly they are just some irrelevant image files part of some old projects of mine. A few were PDFs. The reason the system gave was "cannot find source of file", or something like that...
Ok, guys I actually solved the problem!
I had googled a bunch of possible solutions (most of which were complex), but one suggestion was to simply start the computer in Safe Mode.
I did that and what do you know? All 700+ GB of files in the user folder were there and accessible! :) No more...
The "rossc" folder shows up as being 0 bytes, 0 files, 0 folders when I click on it in properties. But the drive has 1,227 GB of data on it, and only 490 GB are on the other parts of the drive (I clicked on properties on the other, accessible folders to get that number), so there is definitely...
Ok, probably doesn't matter, but done.
I think the only folder that is locked is the User folder, which for me is called "rossc".
Every single other file and folder on the drive is accessible and seems to be operating normally.
When I press on the User folder, it gives me the message "You don't currently have permission to access this folder. Click continue to permanently gain access to this folder".
When I hit continue (which has one of those administrator icons on it), it loads for a while and then gives another...
I tried that one already, but I can't get it to work.
This is the result when I try to take ownership of the "Users" folder...
It stops doing the change of ownership and give a message saying
"An error occurred when applying security information to
E\Users\All Users
Failed to Enumerate...
Hi, I've had some big PC problems over the last week. My computer somehow got into a state where it wouldn't boot up, I was talking to the PC Specialist tech support people several times and we worked out what to do... sort of. They recommended reinstalling Windows on the C drive, because the...
Hey wow, it is there! Calc.exe indeed.
I can't open it though. I get the error message "You'll need a new app to open this ms-calculator link" when I try to run it.
Yeah, it doesn't appear on my computer. There's Windows Accessories alright, with Notepad and Paint, etc. But no Calculator app in that list and it doesn't appear anywhere else on the PC (that I can find).
EDIT: I may also have to ring up Microsoft, see if there's a way to fix things or reset...
It's not there. The only thing listed in C in the start menu is Corsair (the cooling system). Nothing comes up when I type Calculator.
Is the program installed anywhere specifically on the C drive?
Well, it's not on my current WIN10 install, and it didn't come with my earlier clean re-install of WIN10 on my older PC. I had to specifically download it on the Microsoft Store. Except now Microsoft Store won't let me download it on the new PC.
Ok, I looked up https://account.microsoft.com/devices/content and only my old PC is listed as being linked to the Microsoft Store.
Though the new PC is linked to the same Microsoft Account, along with the old PC.
Not sure how to proceed.
This is what my Windows activation screen looks like.
When WIN10 installed on the new PC, I don't think it asked for a product key. But I definately logged into my existing Microsoft account. I have a separate copy of WIN10 for the old PC. So is it possible that the new PC is incorrectly using...