A number of problems after OS SSD was used on another computer

[emgray]

Hey everyone,

I removed the ssd which had the OS a couple of weeks ago but because some information needed to be accessed my sister attached a SATA to USB cable to the ssd and plugged it into her computer. She said that it asked permission to access the files and that she clicked yes.

I just came back today and installed my drive back into the computer but as soon as I logged in all I got was a black screen and the errors "taskhostw.exe application error" & "DeviceCensus.exe application error"

This happened a number of times and after I long pressed the power button to shut down I checked over all the cables to see if everything was ok. Once that was done windows did a scan and repair at the boot screen after which I could login and see my desktop but now my taskbar applications didn't show and the start button as well the things like volume control and notifications could not be clicked. I could open notepad files but when I tried to open an image file it would time out. I opened my recycle bin to see if I could and it did open but when I went to open my downloads folder it said that I don't have permission to open the folder.

I tried to restart but it just shows "Restarting" for a very long time which forced me to long press the power button and shut down. Now when I turn on the computer I can get up to the login screen which shows the date and time but when I click space so I can enter my password that screen never shows up, it just shows my login background with no other information.


I wanted to try and open command prompt to run things like sfc/scannow but now that I can't even login I don't know what to do.

Some help and advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Wolfie]

HI emgray,

did your sister "Safely remove" the device from her pc?, if she didn't, that might explain why you are having problems!.

https://www.howtogeek.com/118546/htg-explains-do-you-really-need-to-safely-remove-usb-sticks/

 

[Tim Locke]

This drive was the boot drive on YOUR computer? Your sister plugged it in as a non-boot drive on hers and accessed the drive ? and then you plugged it back as the boot drive on yours?

 

[emgray]

HI emgray,

did your sister "Safely remove" the device from her pc?, if she didn't, that might explain why you are having problems!.

https://www.howtogeek.com/118546/htg-explains-do-you-really-need-to-safely-remove-usb-sticks/

My sister says that she removed the drive after the computer said that it is safe to remove. She knows enough about computers that I trust what she says.

If the issue is being caused by unsafely removing the drive then is there a way I can confirm this? and can it be fixed?

This drive was the boot drive on YOUR computer? Your sister plugged it in as a non-boot drive on hers and accessed the drive ? and then you plugged it back as the boot drive on yours?

Yes, this is what happened.

 

[emgray]

As an update, I've been able to login to the PC using safe mode now.

 

[Trouble]

I've been able to login to the PC using safe mode now.

That's good news. MIght be a good time to copy your critical data to a safe external resource.
Have you had an opportunity to try Safe Mode with Networking?
OR
Have you tried rebooting the computer normally after your Safe Mode boot?

 

[emgray]

That's good news. MIght be a good time to copy your critical data to a safe external resource.
Have you had an opportunity to try Safe Mode with Networking?
OR
Have you tried rebooting the computer normally after your Safe Mode boot?

Yep, I'll be copying my personal data.

Safe mode with networking seems to work fine with the only issue being that I need to give permission to open folders like downloads, pictures &videos.

I also did try rebooting into normal windows but the issue persists.

I have some more info regarding what my sister did. This is the prompt that she clicked when she needed to access a file on my ssd:

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yl3XL8xZH44/UZ15y9-HdiI/AAAAAAAACeM/5ETqZYqX_fo/s1600/permissions.PNG

 

[Trouble]

As a test try option number eight ( #8 ) to see if that makes any difference.

IF that seems to work then you may have a problem with a third party security suite.

Failing that you might try using Safe Mode to configure the machine for a clean boot.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

Easily done, easily undone.
Basically you're just disabling all the Startup Items and All non-Microsoft services.
Be sure to check the box to hide Microsoft Services, as you don't want to accidentally disable any of those.

After which try booting normally.
Those settings may expose whether or not you have some third party software launching at boot causing the issue.
It could be an actual program or an associated service or process.

 

[emgray]

I haven't done a clean boot yet but I did create a new username with admin privileges and after the welcome message it basically gave me a clean slate where everything works.

So the windows instance for the new user account works fine it's just that my personal instance of the OS is messed up.

 

[Trouble]

That's certainly an issue we've seen on multiple occasions where something corrupts the current or active user profile and creating a new user as a member of the local administrators group helps overcome the issue.

Not a particularly elegant solution as now you are stuck having to move the contents / data of your old user profile over to the new one, but never-the-less a viable option / alternative.