Irreparable corrupted files
Solvedbrucine Posted messages 24434 Registration date Status Membre Last intervention -
Hello,
A few months ago, I uninstalled several applications on my PC, and I recently discovered that there were still files left from those uninstalled applications. Obviously, when I tried to delete them, Windows prevented me from doing so. Being (very) inexperienced, I made a completely silly move (obviously, I wasn't aware of it at that time): I went into the Windows options that you find when you click "restart" while holding the Shift key, I opened a cmd, and with that cmd I managed to open the software Everything, and with Everything I deleted a large part of the files containing the words "edge", "clipchamp", "phone link", "copilot", "power automate", "family", "to do", "onedrive". In short, I deleted a large portion of the bloatware files from Windows 11, but also, unbeknownst to me, important files necessary for the operation of Windows...
I have tried several solutions to restore the stability of my OS, but none have worked.
I have tried sfc /scannow (there was the message "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.")
I also tried DISM using Windows Update as the source and an ISO of Windows that I downloaded. Neither worked, and the DISM test with Windows Update ended with error 0x800f0915, and I forgot to take a picture of the error code from the DISM test with the ISO (I can redo the test if needed)
I also tried to reinstall Windows while keeping my data (I downloaded an ISO of Windows, mounted it, and chose to install Windows 11 from the version of Windows 11 already installed on my PC), but the PC restarted with the message "Windows 11 could not be installed
We have restored your PC to the state it was in just before you started the installation of
Windows 11.
0x8007042B - 0x2000D
The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during MIGRATE_DATA operation"
For now, I haven't had any visible problems with my PC (except for the Windows + V keyboard shortcut that stopped working but has likely returned due to the sfc and DISM scans), but I would like to find a solution to repair my huge mistake as much as possible.
Any help is welcome.
1 réponse
Hello,
You have no other solution than to find a restore point if one exists, or to reinstall Windows over itself not by directly mounting an ISO but from a USB installation drive created, for example, with Media Creation Tool.
If the last procedure also fails, you need to format and reinstall Windows in the same way, but this means that you have backed up your data to an external drive if you have one or by creating a second partition on the disk if there is space, and you will need to reinstall your programs.
Thank you for the advice, a clean install seems inevitable… I know that after 3 uses of the product key, it gets blocked. This PC was originally running W10, and I did a clean install of W11 (which counts as 2 uses). I changed my mind, and I downgraded it to W10 (from W11, so without doing a clean install) since I hadn’t put any data on this PC, then I upgraded it to W11 because of the end of support for W10. Does the downgrade to W10 count as a 3rd use of the product key, and in other words, if I do a clean install of W11 again, will the product key for the PC work?
Only volume licenses have a limit on the number of activations, which is generally higher; those sold online and activated by phone cannot be reinstalled at all.
An OEM or retail license can be activated as many times as desired as long as it is on a single PC.