Dear Chuck, Thanks for your continued suppor. Ultimately I did the following as a last resort: -Installed my pre-windows 10 configuration ( Win 8.1) image "thanks god I had it" -Downloaded the whole ISO file for Win 10 from Microsoft -Proceeded to an upgrade install keeping all my files and apps All I can say at this point is that everything is working OK now and I already made an image of the base Win 10 installation. My advice for other readers, keep your system in a separate physical disc or at lease on another partition and make frequent images (Macrium Reflect). This setup is screw u