Member Avatar for JacobBrown

Hello, guys. When I ran my PC running Windows 10, there was an error saying Windows 10’s ‘Start Menu and Cortana aren’t working’. Besides, before that, All of my files from D dish got lost. It was running windows 7 x64 and I did the free upgrade to 10.
Any ideas? I freaked out by Windows 10.

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This thread documents a common post-upgrade scenario: Start/Cortana failing while a secondary drive appears empty (reported by ). Posts from , and already point to useful causes — user-profile or app-registration corruption, rollback as an option, and third-party AV interference. The checklist below adds practical, non-destructive steps and troubleshooting details to help recover the Start menu and verify the D: drive contents before doing anything destructive.

Non-destructive quick checks that often fix the Start/Cortana error:

  • Restart Windows Explorer from Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc -> Processes -> Windows Explorer -> Restart).
  • Run system-file and image repairs from an elevated command prompt (open Task Manager -> File -> Run new task -> cmd, tick admin). 
sfc /scannow
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow

If that does not restore Start/Cortana, re-register built-in apps (run PowerShell as Administrator):

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Also check whether the problem is profile-specific by creating a new local administrator account; a working Start menu in a fresh account points to a corrupted user profile (data can be copied from the old profile afterwards). Look in Event Viewer (Windows Logs -> Application/System) for errors mentioning ShellExperienceHost, StartMenuExperienceHost or Cortana for exact failure clues.

For the “missing” D: files: confirm the disk and letter in Disk Management (Win+X -> Disk Management), enable hidden items in File Explorer, and if the filesystem might be damaged run:

chkdsk D: /f /r

Follow ’s AV warning: uninstall third-party security tools (boot Safe Mode if necessary) before retrying repairs. If rollback is desired and still available, the Settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery -> “Go back to Windows 7” path can be used (only within the rollback window). For critical data, avoid writing to the affected disk and consider a recovery tool or professional recovery before doing an in-place reinstall or clean install.

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Member Avatar for rubberman

Upgrading from Win7 to Win10 right now? HUGE mistake! Mostly, it doesn't work... :-( Try running the recovery option and revert back to Win7 first.

FWIW, the Win7->Win10 upgrade messed up my brother-in-law's computer and that is what he had to do. He got all of his data back then.

Member Avatar for jwenting

I've upgraded 4 computers to Windows 10, 2 each from Win7 and Win8.1, no problems with any of them.

The files on that disk aren't lost, they're still there. But if they are programs any registry entries they need to run may be lost, especially if you upgraded to a different language version of Windows 10 from the original Windows version you had installed. The installer will have warned you about that...
Cortana is only available in a very few places, this may change in the future.

Member Avatar for rproffitt

There are now so many priors on this error (the one about the Start) that I worry when you read a new post about it.
http://www.tenforums.com/general-discussion/8823-critical-error-start-menu-cortana-arent-working-wll-try-fi.html found it could be the AV.
For me, now with dozens of W10 upgrades done without a single hitch I think MSFT has done well EXCEPT expecting folk to practice safe computing.

All my W10 upgrades were done run of the mill methods. I know that old AVs and such can be trouble so I uninstall those before the upgrade begins. Your new PC users may have much feat about running a PC without an antivirus or firewall. Not much you can do for those that fear.

As to the other drive. I wonder if the usual happened. I find that apps on other drives may lose their entries in the start menu. To me that's no big deal. And yes it's a big deal to new computer users.

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