Vista - Important notice about failing updates

I just wanted to relate a recent experience I had with Windows Update.
Hopefully, if any of you also have experienced this problem I can save you
some headaches and heartaches.

I recently had to do a reinstall of my Vista Ultimate OS due to corrupted
files or errors in the OS that could not be repaired. The corruption caused
any and all keyboards, usb or wireless, to fail to function. The problem was
not caused by out of date drivers or firmware, interference from another
application or a software incompatibility. It could not be fixed using sfc
/scan now, chkdsk or by using the repair option on the OS installation disk.

As you know, reinstalling an operating system purchased in February of this
year entails a lot of updates. During the tail end of the installation
process many updates were automatically installed, as is normal. These
updates installed effectively. However, when I attempted to install the
remaining updates that show up after the reinstallation I had problems.

The updates would install, and show up as successfully installed when
viewing "Installed Updates" or "View Update History". They would subsequently
uninstall themselves or be uninstalled upon the next reboot or after appx.
20-30 minutes after the installation without a reboot, but would still show
as being successfully installed. I would then see them mysteriously reappear
on the list of available updates.

I spent four hours on the telephone with three different Microsoft support
agents. The same thing happened over and over and over again. Microsoft
determined, after checking just about everything, that my C Drive was in the
process of failing. Microsoft then had a conference call with Dell technical
support and Dell agreed with Microsoft's decision.

The hard drive failed as I was speaking with the Dell agent. The computer
could not be made to boot in any mood by any method. I did not worry about
anything because I back up my system, data and media on three additional
drives by using Acronis TrueImage (best investment I ever made).

A field technician arrived two days later and installed a new Dell hard
drive complete with the operating system and software already installed (just
one more reason I will buy a computer only from Dell, and I have purchased
four of them in the past three years). I had to reinstall only a few software
programs to get back to where I was before the failure.

So, if any of you experience the same problem I had with the
installing/uninstalling updates, please back up your operating system and
data immediately. I now use the hard drive diagnostics software included with
both of my 500GB WD MyBook external hard drives (I would also use their
backup application but I had purchased Acronis before I bought the WD hard
drives). I should have run the diagnostics much sooner. Although hard drives
can certainly fail without any notice whatsoever they usually will give you
indications of their pending failures.

Although I am not a "fanboy" of Microsoft, I must give the technical support
personnel credit for everything they did to try to help me. They were very
patient and polite, their response was not initiated in or transferred to
another country for troubleshooting and they were very knowledgeable. I
couldn't be more pleased with the manner in which they accommodated me.

Have a nice day.

C.B.