Messing Windows Up Then Attempting To Fixing It, Part 1
I know, this is very much unrelated to this entire blog, but I am trying an experiment.
I call myself good with technology. I can program some stuff. If you remember from this post, I am a minor (under 18 where I live). I will give you a more precise age range without doxxing myself: 13-16. So, yeah, I am gifted.
Before we continue,
THIS ENTIRE EXPERIMENT HAS BEEN CONDUCTED IN A VIRTUAL MACHINE, SAFE FROM PHYSICAL HARDWARE, AND PREVENTIONS HAVE BEEN TAKEN, LIKE SNAPSHOTS.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVER, EVER, EVER TRY THIS AT HOME. EVER. YOU CAN AND WILL LOSE DATA. CLICK THE READ MORE BELOW TO EXPAND THE WHOLE ARTICLE.
Still interested? Ok. Lets go.
Im running Windows 10 Pro 22H2 in VirtualBox 7.0.14, on an old laptop, activated on a home license. The laptop I have has 8GB of DDR3 ram, and an Intel i5-2520m. Virtualization IS enabled. 4GB of ram and 2 of my threads are dedicated to the virtual machine. Windows is unactivated, but this is legal, although against the Windows TOS.
(please forgive me Microsoft i am just doing an experiment)
Lets begin.
So, Attempt 1: the classic "Delete System 32".
The age old fable: "DELETE SYSTEM32 TO SPEED UP SYSTEM"
NEVER DO THIS!
Anyway, I'm doing it.
Once again, I'm in a virtual machine made specifically for this purpose, so my hardware is safe.
As you can see, I put a file there, so I can see if I can fix the mess I will make without deleting data.
Here we go. I'm just running a couple of commands i found to delete it...
And i have been denied. Anyway, time to take ownership of the directory with
TAKEOWN /F C:\Windows\System32
Time to delete system32 again.
AND I'm denied again.
But... it actually started deleting stuff.
Then it denied me again.
Lets reboot, and assess the damage.
and it blue-screened. 3 times. Yep, I definitely messed Windows up. Afterwards, it prepared an automatic repair.
I assume it failed, since I was thrown into the recovery menu.
Ok. Now, lets try to recover this.
Whelp I had to pause for a while so I accidentally shut it down lol. Anyway, now lets recover this for real. Well, here's another automatic repair screen:
(Also, please forgive me for the small screen size,I am running this on my old laptop with a 1366x768 screen lol)
Now, I will try recovery locally, then if all else fails, recover from the ISO. Resetting will be done last for the local recovery (after snapshotting of course).
Recovery Attempt 1: Startup Repair
I clicked "More Advanced Options", then "Startup Repair". I signed in, then it began diagnosing my PC.
And it failed.
Whelp, it failed. I can't uninstall updates, and there is no way in heck I trust myself to fix it with the command prompt, but there is a system restore. Lets try that, and revert it back TO before Virtualbox Guest Additions.
(Note here, a system restore is not the same as recovering a snapshot. Recovering a snapshot is only done via Virtualbox, and system restore is available on any PC. Look it up, it is real.)
Recovery Attempt 2: System Restore
And no restore points. That failed fast.
There are no system images I manually made, so that's out of the question. Lets try startup settings.
Recovery Attempt 3: Startup Settings.
There are 10 of them.
Debugging won't do anything, boot logging is useless since windows cant boot, low-resolution is unusable since windows cant boot. Lets try Safe Mode.
Recovery Attempt 3A: Safe Mode
The VM froze before I was able to select it. Lets try again.
I waited for the Recovery Environment to boot, then
And it auto-repaired again.
That failed. Whelp, Windows is royally done for. Time to reset it! (I made a snapshot before doing this).
Recovery Attempt 4: Reset (The Final Local Resort)
Ok, a cloud download, at least to me, would be considered cheating since it downloads Windows again, but if all else fails (including USB), I will do that. Doubt it will work.
Lets do this.
We are now resetting. Sit back and relax, this will take a bit.
And a while. 20 minutes and its only gone up 36%. I might need to revert to right before the reset, save state, and try again tomorrow, since its late.
And I did that.
4/24/2024
Its tomorrow now, so lets try again. Its resetting for real this time. this time (still locally reinstalling)
And it failed... again. Well, that's all for local attempts, time to boot into the Windows 10 ISO and try recovery from there.
Welcome back to the Windows 10 22H2 ISO. I will begin the same steps from the ISO.
It looks the exact same, right? Well, time to do steps 1-4 again, although this time FROM the ISO.
ISO Recovery Attempt 1: Startup Repair
First step, Startup Repair. From the ISO, targeting Windows 10, not the Recovery Environment that was created during the reset.
Now its diagnosing... again.
Congrats me, it failed.
System Restore, System Image, and Safe Mode won't work, and Reset isn't there, so...
Windows 10 is done for.
Time to reset with a cloud download. I can't do anything else, so a cloud download reset, like I said I would, has to be done.
First, I enter into the recovery environment (with the "Exit and Continue to Windows Recovery Environment" option), then troubleshoot, then "Reset This PC." "Keep my files", of course, then I log into my user. I then select "Cloud Download", and it got my "Ethernet" (aka the Network Address Translation network) up and running. It failed the first time,
it failed the second,
And it failed the third. Well, time to cut my losses. It's over.
Moral of the story?
DON'T DELETE SYSTEM32!!!
Time to restore the snapshot for the next breaking of windows.
Thanks for reading this fancy thing I decided to do lol
I might do more, I might not. See all of you soon.
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