Question What folders should I replace to fix Windows?

[Wheel in the Sky]

I recently got a BSOD (driver power state failure). After rebooting, my Windows Update seems to have been broken, maybe because I had pending updates waiting on a restart. When scanning for Windows updates, it says "Error Encountered." It gives the code 0x80080005. Sfc /scannow and dism /restorehealth both run into problems with corrupted files.

But I have a recent incremental system image. I can navigate to any windows files from before the BSOD, and replace current folders that apparently contain corrupted files. Which folders need replacing? This is a more ideal solution for me than any kind of full restore or fresh install, but I don't have any idea where the corrupt files would be.

 

[Gam3r01]

Chances are a full restore/install are going to be far easier than trying to repair the OS as it stands.

 

[Wheel in the Sky]

Chances are a full restore/install are going to be far easier than trying to repair the OS as it stands.

It shouldn't be too hard since I have a copy of the files from before they got corrupted, it's just a matter of knowing where the problem files might be.

 

[Gam3r01]

It shouldn't be too hard since I have a copy of the files from before they got corrupted, it's just a matter of knowing where the problem files might be.

Thats the problem, by the time you locate everything that may or may not be causing issues, you could have already done your backup restore.
Its going to be hard to tell if you got the correct files, or if there are more that arent causing issues yet. You could have corrupted files that wouldnt show up for months. What happens if you decide to make a backup of your OS again with these files still in place? Might as well get it right the first time.

 

[USAFRet]

But I have a recent incremental system image.

Then recover that.

Trying to manually replace whatever is hosed is a losing proposition.

 

[Wheel in the Sky]

The problem with recovering from the system image is that it's recent, but not fully up to date. Swapping out some windows folders is going to be a lot faster than figuring out what data wouldn't get restored. It was a long shot, but I thought someone here might know which Windows folders would be a likely culprit. Any suggestions on folders it would be harmless to replace, or folders to stay away from are welcome. I imagine trying to replace system 32 would crash the computer...

 

[USAFRet]

The problem with recovering from the system image is that it's recent, but not fully up to date. Swapping out some windows folders is going to be a lot faster than figuring out what data wouldn't get restored. It was a long shot, but I thought someone here might know which Windows folders would be a likely culprit. Any suggestions on folders it would be harmless to replace, or folders to stay away from are welcome. I imagine trying to replace system 32 would crash the computer...

There is no "likely culprit". It could be anything.

If you backup routine is such that you might lose some personal data, your routine is lacking.

 

[Wheel in the Sky]

You're the

There is no "likely culprit". It could be anything.

If you backup routine is such that you might lose some personal data, your routine is lacking.

You're the one who talking me out of disk mirroring lol. I don't see how else I could have protected myself in this situation. I can't make a clone or system image after every keystroke while I'm on the computer.

 

[USAFRet]

You're the

You're the one who talking me out of disk mirroring lol. I don't see how else I could have protected myself in this situation. I can't make a clone or system image after every keystroke while I'm on the computer.

My system runs an incremental every night.
Each drive individually.

If the C drive gets hosed, all my personal data is safe on other drives.
If my Windows needs to be recovered, I can do that drive on its own.

But your case seems to be one of not having a 'recent' image.
That is a problem no matter how many drives are involved.

Unless this is a physical issue on your C drive, a RAID 1 mirror might just have duplicated the problem on two physical drives.

 

[Wheel in the Sky]

Yeah I don't know if mirroring would have even helped in this case. So what happens to you if you work all day and a drive gets toasted before the nightly incremental? Seems like some data loss can't be protected against.

Technically I haven't lost anything, but if I revert to last night's system image, I lose today's changes. I just thought it would be easier to swap some post-crash Windows folders with pre-crash Windows folders that worked fine, than to track down every document and file I've created or modified today to back it up.

 

[DSzymborski]

Yeah I don't know if mirroring would have even helped in this case. So what happens to you if you work all day and a drive gets toasted before the nightly incremental? Seems like some data loss can't be protected against.

Technically I haven't lost anything, but if I revert to last night's system image, I lose today's changes. I just thought it would be easier to swap some post-crash Windows folders with pre-crash Windows folders that worked fine, than to track down every document and file I've created or modified today to back it up.

Again, that's the problem.

Imagine you've baked 12 blueberry muffins, and they're sitting in the kitchen cooling while you run to the bathroom. You come back, and your significant other informs you that he or she has poisoned exactly one of the muffins. Throwing away just one blueberry muffin would be the simplest, most direct solution, but if you don't have any basis for evaluating which exact blueberry muffin is poisoned, there's not much you can do other than throw away all 12. Sure, you could send the blueberry muffins away for forensic analysis, but that would be very expensive, and even if you got them to send back the rest of the muffins, they would undoubtedly be stale and inedible at that point.

So, rather than figure out which muffin is poisoned, you just make 12 new ones. And probably talk to a divorce lawyer.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah I don't know if mirroring would have even helped in this case. So what happens to you if you work all day and a drive gets toasted before the nightly incremental? Seems like some data loss can't be protected against.

Technically I haven't lost anything, but if I revert to last night's system image, I lose today's changes. I just thought it would be easier to swap some post-crash Windows folders with pre-crash Windows folders that worked fine, than to track down every document and file I've created or modified today to back it up.

Well, that calls for data being on a different drive than Windows.
If my Windows drive, or Windows itself, crashed right now....zero personal data is lost.

But, everything has a risk. A RAID 1 has its benefits, as well as its drawbacks.
It all comes down to how much risk you can tolerate.


As far as trying to swap in and out the problematic folders....you first have to determine which ones.
And how much time do you want to expend in trying to do that. And not making things worse.