When Windows Borks

I had occasion, recently, to do a *meh* “rescue” *meh* of a different flavor to the procedure(s) described in a previous post. A hard drive began causing Windows errors on a Win7 installation on my most-used Windows notebook and imaging the drive to a newer, larger drive seemed the perfect solution, once I determined there were no unrecoverable errors in the OS itself.

It was, except. . . As usual with Windows, the story didn’t end with complete success. When a Windows OS borks for any reason–even if it’s not actually the OS’s fault exactly, any fixes tend to complicate things.

And so it was. The Windows install booted just fine, and everything worked. Scans with a few low- and mid-level tools said all was well with the OS and the data.

Cool.

Except, next day: Windows popped up the “Windows Genuine Advantage” notice that my installation of Windows was bogus. It offered to resolve the problem online, which resulted in being notified that M$ would be MORE than happy to “fix” my problem. . . for $200 (by selling me a new license key).

*arrrgggh!*

Nope. Not going to happen. Ran other checks with built-in and add-on M$ tools (MGADiag, slmgr.vbs) and they returned reports saying various things, but nothing indicating the OS was not genuine. Windows property page noted no problem, and the watermark warning that a bogus Wininstall is supposed to place on the desktop didn’t appear. Nevertheless, I got the error message and Windows update reported the WU service was not running, even though services.msc did report it running. System file checker run in scan and repair mode reported corrupt files it could not repair. Ran it in Repair Mode/command prompt, pre-Windows. Again, no joy, but a more verbose response (added a coupla switches).

Dropped to an elevated command prompt and did numbers of things (stopping/starting services, checking key registry files, etc.). Nope. No useful info, so. . .For whatever reasons, I don’t see that kind of thing often, and it took me a while to recall “slui 4” to load the lil app to allow phoning for a code to eliminate the WGA notice. (The “slui 3” command would just allow re-entering one’s product key, and I already knew that would be a waste of time. Other parameters would do other also useless things.).

Finally, after a pleasant time visiting with a nice guy somewhere on the Indian subcontinent, I had my verification code and all is now well. I hope.

We’ll see, won’t we? 😉

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Yep. Message gone. Windows Update works. Other errors reported by MGADIag, et al (“tampered file” this that or ‘t’other, etc.), all gone.

All this might seem like a real PITA to some folks, but it was a little fun for me, especially since it got me back fiddling around at the command prompt for a while, banging on “the little grey cells” to recall appropriate commands, parameters, switches, etc. . . . and then “solve” the problem with a phone call and entry of a 48 numeral key. Toughest part was dealing with Indian accent, telephone speaker and my tinnitus. *heh*

UPDATE 2: Woke this A.M. to a WGA notice, no access to Windows Update, etc.. ?!? Rebooted a couple of times and *poof* No more notice, Windows Update available, etc. Needed more reboots? Oh, so tired of this silliness and almost ready to scrub this notebook (my most casually-used computer) and just use a ‘nix OS on it. Almost. I’d lose my 5,557-to-0 score in Freecell, though, so. . . *heh*