Windows 10 Update on a USB

I got locked in one of those update loops. You know what I mean, probably. My Windows 10 would start an automatic update, then fail, and then reset itself to a previous version. This would happen all of the time.

I eventually decided to back everything up on an external drive and simply reinstall Windows 10 from scratch. Then I found out that the CD (or maybe it is a DVD) was lost in our move. I have the ("OEM"?) sticker but the actual product CD has been lost in the move and I can not find it. Does anyone know how I can reinstall the OS with just the product ID etc.?

Someone suggest this link as a way to fix the problem:

https://www.alphr.com/microsoft/1001...ecomes-stuck-1

So I tried the option on this page that uses

"net stop wuauserv"
and
"net stop bits"

and for a while, I thought I was successful in stopping the update cycle.

But I was wrong. It came back and the computer was again performing an update only to, at the end of the update cycle, automatically reset the OS to en earlier version after it recognized an error.

So, now I am at the point where I want to find a way to back up my system (I have already done this with one of those high capacity external drives) and installing a fresh Operating System. But this takes me back to the problem of not having the CD. Is there some way of doing this with using a USB Thumb Drive? Please advise. Also, what sorts of things do I need to look out for? I imagine I should also back up the registry.

I had this problem of the auto-update continually failing. From memory I did a manual update of Windows 10 and that solved the problem. The saga of finding out how to do a manual update took some time.
The last update (December) downloaded and installed without hiccups other than two restarts during the process.
Where possible I have auto-updating disabled or only active when I get to the update settings so it does not affect my program processes.

I have a vague memory my problem stemmed from using older hardware from last decade. This might also be your issue. I think there is a different update for the 'older' machines.


Sorry but I cannot help myself but saying this. I come from a Mac environment. MacOSX updates can be selectively chosen. If any one update fails, the other updates are still applied to the system after a reboot. For this reason I find MS Windows updates clumsy and poorly thought out. With Windows, if any one part of the process fails, the entire set of update packages can fail. Since system updates are so important for security reasons, MS should be offering alternative approaches for successful installations of security updates.

I have not attempted to create a USB Thumb Drive boot drive for Windows, but it is relatively easily done for MacOSX. I should imagine it can also be done for Windows with just the basic system skeleton and most important personal files such as settings files. Sorry to talk off-topic about a different type of system.

That is very interesting! In a variety of ways. There are so many re-do's and do-overs in updating MS junk (required sadly) just to operate its system. I have been wanting to switch to Mac for more than 15 years now. Unfortunately when shopping for my latest laptop in this area I must have been talked out of buying a Mac more than a dozen times.