Help with Windows update corrupting Hard Drive and preventing boot

E

ElectronicM

So I have a recurring problem with one of these 3 updates corrupting my hard drive and breaking its ability to boot:


2020-11 Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64 (KB4586878)

Feature update to Windows 10, version 1909

2020-10 Security Update for Adobe Flash Player for Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64-based Systems (KB4580325)


Windows wants to install all 3 at once so I'm not sure which one(s) is causing it. Installation gets to around %30 reboots its self and on reboot the BIOS posts something to the effect of "Missing operating system".

I made* new Windows 10 instalation USB and its troubleshooting menu was not able to restore bootability to data on the Hard Drive (even command line CHKDSK and SFC didn't help). The updates corrupted a boot sector, partition C: (the OS sector), and partition D: (data storage sector) based on what my troubleshooting and data recovery work has shown me.


*I had to make a new BIOS boot windows 10 installation USB since my PC does not support the UEFI boot Windows install USB I made and used on another newer PC.


I ended up reimaging the hard drive with a 6-month-old image (from when I upgraded to a 1TB SSD) copied off my old hard drive. That got my computer working again...But as soon as windows update caught up to those 3 aforementioned recent windows updates and tried to install them it corrupted the hard drive exactly the same as before. I have repeated this reimage, update, drive corruption cycle at least 3 times so far to verify the problem.


The PC in question is an 8 year old HP8560W with an I7 processor. This PC contains some important expensive software that I have lost the install keys for so wiping it and doing a scratch install is NOT an option.


Is there some way I can selectively prevent one or all of those 3 updates from installing to troubleshoot/prevent this problem? I've heard it's possible to turn off all windows updates but I would like to avoid that route and the security vulnerabilities it opens up.

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