Fresh OS Install - Windows update switching drive letter from c: to d:

In order to do that, I did a fresh install from the Dell USB Recovery Drive.

-> How exactly did you do this?

After swapping in the new, unformatted drive, I popped the USB recovery drive into the laptop, and started the pre-installed recovery process.  The Dell process first checks to see if the operating system has errors (my drive is completely blank so it moves on), then proceeds to see if it can make repairs (again my drive is blank so it moves on) and finally re-installs the OS (Windows 7 Professional) from the factory image.

Everything went well with the fresh install of Windows 7 Professional.

-> Did you "recover" or "install" Windows 7?

I installed it using the recovery media supplied by Dell since they don't give you actual installation discs.

However, once I downloaded and installed all the Windows updates and the computer rebooted, I was booted into Windows Repair citing that recent changes to software or hardware have left Windows 7 unable to start up.

-> Did the machine work well for a while?

Sure, the machine worked fine after the fresh install of Windows 7, but I only used it for an hour or so to set up anti-virus software, and to update a couple of drivers from the Dell website.  I re-booted after each of those processes and had no issues using the computer.

I confirmed this by using DISKPART from the repair command line console.

-> The drive letters in Repair Mode are often different from those in Normal Mode. They are irrelevant.

Okay, that's good to know, and promising.  When the computer starts up into repair mode (and fails to repair), it generates a list of tests and error codes.  The first time it told me a file was corrupt in Windows\System32\Drivers.  I loaded a non-corrupt version of that file onto a flash drive and replaced it, however that did not solve the problem, which is when I became concerned it was something to do with the drive letters.

When using the command prompt option under advanced recovery options, it takes you to X:\ which is the recovery partition.

D:\ is the drive that had the windows installation, and if you're saying that doesn't matter, I'll ignore it.

Why you can't just use DISKPART to reassign the OS back to the C: drive letter, or what solutions exist to combat this problem.

-> To change a drive letter (if at all necessary) you would need to hack the registry.

I would do this:

1. Perform a destructive Factory Restore.
2. Disable automatic updates.
3. Customise the system to suit your requirements.
4. Create an image and store it on an external disk.
5. Burn a Windows Repair CD and test it to see if it will detect the image.
6. Apply 20 automatic updates once every few days.
7. Create another image after the first 150 automatic updates.

Could you provide a tutorial for steps 4 & 5 above?  Or a link to a step by step process.  I've already performed steps 1-3 and that's where I currently stand.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. It's greatly appreciated.

And I'm assuming you're using the terms "System Repair CD" and "boot from the DVD" to reference the same thing, which is the media I'm creating in Control Panel / Backup and Restore / Create a System Image or Create a Repair disk?

Correct. Sorry for my sloppy wording.

Also: Do not store the image on DVDs. They are unreliable. Use an external hard disk in a USB case.

It takes you to X:\ which is the recovery partition.

-> This is incorrect. While in Repair Mode, drive X: is a phantom drive that exists purely in this mode. It disappears when rebooting the machine.

Ah, okay, then the c: and d: that are referenced must be the OS and recovery partition.  Thanks for the correction.

Could you provide a tutorial for steps 4 & 5 above

-> Control Panel / Backup and Restore / Create a System Image or Create a Repair disk . . .

To check if you can access an image:

1. Set the BIOS so that the DVD drive is the primary boot device.
2. Boot the machine with your System Repair CD.
3. Press any key when prompted to boot from the DVD
4. Select country & keyboard language
5. Repair Options
6. Image Restore

Okay, great, thank you. And I'm assuming you're using the terms "System Repair CD" and "boot from the DVD" to reference the same thing, which is the media I'm creating in Control Panel / Backup and Restore / Create a System Image or Create a Repair disk?

Thank you,

Jim

It takes you to X:\ which is the recovery partition.

-> This is incorrect. While in Repair Mode, drive X: is a phantom drive that exists purely in this mode. It disappears when rebooting the machine.

Could you provide a tutorial for steps 4 & 5 above

-> Control Panel / Backup and Restore / Create a System Image or Create a Repair disk . . .

To check if you can access an image:

1. Set the BIOS so that the DVD drive is the primary boot device.
2. Boot the machine with your System Repair CD.
3. Press any key when prompted to boot from the DVD
4. Select country & keyboard language
5. Repair Options
6. Image Restore

In order to do that, I did a fresh install from the Dell USB Recovery Drive.

-> How exactly did you do this?

Everything went well with the fresh install of Windows 7 Professional.

-> Did you "recover" or "install" Windows 7?

However, once I downloaded and installed all the Windows updates and the computer rebooted, I was booted into Windows Repair citing that recent changes to software or hardware have left Windows 7 unable to start up.

-> Did the machine work well for a while?

I confirmed this by using DISKPART from the repair command line console.

-> The drive letters in Repair Mode are often different from those in Normal Mode. They are irrelevant.

Why you can't just use DISKPART to reassign the OS back to the C: drive letter, or what solutions exist to combat this problem.

-> To change a drive letter (if at all necessary) you would need to hack the registry.

I would do this:

1. Perform a destructive Factory Restore.
2. Disable automatic updates.
3. Customise the system to suit your requirements.
4. Create an image and store it on an external disk.
5. Burn a Windows Repair CD and test it to see if it will detect the image.
6. Apply 20 automatic updates once every few days.
7. Create another image after the first 150 automatic updates.

This controlled process should enable you to find out what goes wrong and recover gracefully from such an event.