Woke this morning and turned on my computer. No access to my external hard drives - seems as though Windows had an update and no longer recognised the USB 3.0 Driver after much trial a error I am not quite sure what I did but I seemed to have hit the computer factory default setting. After an endless wait the refresh restored my hard drives but all my applications were gone, my favourite links Google Chrome all gone. So I am sitting here chatting on my MacBook as I reinstall Windows 10. Fortunately most of my files are backed up on external drives. But it would seem all my installed Apps are gone, To make matters worse they changed the login for TablEdit so when I tried to reinstall that the login was blocked and I now need to apply for a new key. 2 hours now and windows 10 is stuck on 80%. I am tempted to stop the install and try again but I fear Iāll be up all night - again - this is not the first time I have had issues with Windows. Oh! an audio alarm just sounded windows has rebooted. looks like we are making progress again. I am glad I started writing this rant because for sure I would have stopped the last install and tried again, We are now at 2% hm did I say we were making progressā¦ Yes itās up to 4% I am getting all excited ooh 5% were on a rollā¦ Will let you know the outcome later. Just gone 6%ā¦ Oh now this MacBook wonāt let me see the submit button
Disaster Day
Oh no!!!
A lot of your chrome links and settings should be stored in the cloud if you have a google account linked to the browser. Did you log back in to check to see if the chrome links were still missing? Or did you just launch the browser while signed out? Regardless heres something to try to get it backā¦
Also windows has a recovery option you can try to restore from a earlier date in case of a emergency. Look at this
(this would be the first thing to do. re-installing the operating system is not reccomended. You could have restored your PC to a day before the update which caused u issues. though theres a chance windows still saved a restore point for you. In which case you can revert back to a day before you wiped the computer. Its worth trying for the sake of a 'fix-it-all")
Also for the future. Turn off automatic updates. If everything with windows works for you and all your apps and hardware I dont see a need to update automatically. Only if needed. Some updates arenāt stable.
Better to rant here to us than with a baseball batā¦or I guess a cricket bat to your windowās computer. 
Seriously though thats awful Archie. I know folks in my generation are supposed to love computers but I honestly think they cause me more of a headache. I guess without it though I would be taking banjo lessons every day from Banjo Ben in personā¦wait would that be a bad thing 
On behalf of the tech world, I apologize. I first started playing with computers in the 1970ās. For decades, I was proud to be a nerd/geek/whatever. The last few decades have driven computing into what I feel are very bad directions. I am at the point where I am considering turning in my slide rule.
Things are starting to get back to some sort of order. Good news is I have all my Drives functioning again. I have lost some applications though just need to remember the important ones and reinstall. Itās a lot of time and effort so I may be off the Forum over the next few days. Thanks Trevor I donāt really use the Cloud for storage. I am kinda old school and store everything important on external hard drives. Itās just mostly the Mailer, Browsers, Media Players, Word Processers Contact List and a few other Apps I use that are all on the Main Drive. I know the routine by now been using Windows since 1994 so I know the drill.
I used to work for IBM & Xerox @Mike_R and like you I have been messing around with computers since the early 80ās Youāll remember DOS FidoNet and Packet Mail. Yup I was one of those Nerds too. I started out with the Atari 8 Bit then upgraded to the ST before moving to the PC.
Neither Baseball or Cricket Bat do I own. Cricket is an English Toffs Sport never interested me. Computers can be frustrating but so long as you work through the problems itās not so bad and you learn things along the way. Itās just that I would sooner be playing banjo than rebuilding my main drive from scratch.
Iām not very savvy when it comes to sports enjoyed messing around in the backyard or with friends but thatās about it. Itās a pretty common threat over here to say your going to take a baseball bat to something frustrating. I guess cause just bout everyone has one in their garage for some reason or another. I didnāt think yāall played baseball in the UK so thatās why I said cricket bat. 
I used to have a baseball bat when I was a kid. But we called it rounders and we used a soft tennis ball. It was kinda like your game of soft ball but we played in the streets. Back then there were few cars on the road. So relatively safe. Iāve never really been into sports played a little football (soccer). Spent most of my youth working on motorbikes and cars.
Interesting Iāve heard āroundersā before but didnāt know what it was. Mechanics sound more interesting to me though. I always liked getting my hands dirty helping my dad out with stuff.
Huhā¦ Iād be interested to know if you knew my grandfatherā¦ He was head of IBM operations in Franceā¦ than again I know IBM was a popular job he was just pretty high in the ranks so theres a chance. last name is āKroppā hes about 87 now. (so maybe before you?) he retired with a full pension and did a lot of years in the navy too.
I believe he had to travel to Manchester for work too sometimesā¦
Did you always live in UK? Or are you from USA originally?
Hi Trevor, No I canāt say I recall meeting anyone in IBM at that management level. I worked out of the Edinburgh ServicePoint (now closed) working mostly in retail and banking as a contractor. I attended a short retail course at Manchester prior to my appointment. I was with the company for about 8 years with a six month gap when I did some touring/ backpacking around Australia I have family out there . Never got to France with IBM but I attended two courses in Paris with Xerox on a new continuous feed industrial laser printer that had just been developed.
Yes I am a Scot but I lived in Germany for 6 years with the British Army. I visited California in the 1980s I spent a month out there with a youth group. We spent time at Oakland on the Bay Side, San Francisco, San Diego, LA & a day trip to Tijuana which was quite an experience.
Thanks for sharing a bit of your story. Thatās a incredible career path. IBM did so much for technology. We have more in common than I thought (or you do with my family I should say).
My sister just completed a 2 year term in Germany with the US army doing law. She absolutely loved it there and did not want to come back for anything. Thatās awesome that you have done so much travel. Really cool @Archie
Germany was a great posting my first 3 1/2 years I was in Herford, then shortly after my daughter was born 1971 we moved south to Dortmund. I did a six month operational tour of duty in Northern Ireland in 1973 at the height of the troubles and when we returned to Germany we did some R&R fitness training with 8th US Signal Battalion, 8th Infantry Division at Bad Kreuznach, Germany. I served with the Royal Corps of Signals. for 9 years and left the army in 1977 completing my last few years as a Military & Small Arms Training Instructor. I loved my time in the army but with a young family you have to do what was best for them.
I should add I am pretty sure I was with IBM when the first war with Iraqi began. We had to remove all the livery signage from our vehicles in case they were targeted by terrorists
When 911 happened I just got in from a meeting with my boss at Xerox and watched the events unfold live on TV we had an Engineer out in the States who was due to return home and I called my boss who was returning to England to alert him to what was happening. Luckily our Engineer had got out the day before. But I still have lasting painful memories of that day and the Lockerbie Air Disaster that will be with me for the rest of my days.
You know,with all your computer experience & tech savvy, you realize there is no point in worrying until the blue smoke comes out.
āTo err is human, but it takes a computer to really screw things up!ā
Sorry for your woes. I figure itās just a matter of time before Iām singing the blues, too.
Iāve had the blue smoke too @BanJoe just not today. Digital hard drives donāt have moving parts so less chance of one burning out.
@Archie, happened to me once. I know it would be frustrating but when back to the factory state, hope it would perform better for you!
Thanks @JohnM most of the apps have been recovered. Many of the apps I had on my computer were free open source apps, Now they want to charge me for the upgraded versions. No sure I want to upgrade since I didnāt use them too often.