OS Update killed WD H-Drive link, now I'm in HP Sys Extensive test need boot files for USB

[Jhooah]

HP Pavilion 15-au018wm

Windows updated on 13 Jan 21, then blue screen error, tried rebooting several times, I removed HD and checked cables, had it recover once, downloaded a lot of files but not all, then she went back into black screen for boot, and finally today hit HP System Extensive Test and came up with: 

Hard Drive SMART check: Failed

Failure ID: MBQBVL-8JPAGG-MFPX6K-60FD03

Product ID:  X0S49UA#ABA

Hard Drive 1 Primary HDD Bay*

When she was up and running I removed most of the 13 Jan updates and noticed a 14 Jan update (likely a fix for killing the HD's, it's a stock HP with WD Hard Drive saw someone that had an issue with WIN 10 and WD Drives with link, but I need to get around the startup or software to get the system "Up" to install a fix.

V/R 

[WAWood]

@Jhooah 

I've been doing Windows Update for well over 15 years, hundreds of times, across dozens of PCs of different kinds and ages and NOT ONCE, have I had an update "kill" a hard drive.

Windows Updates, especially recent ones in late 2020, have been know to corrupt Windows so the PC won't boot anymore, but that is a file system error and has nothing to do with the drive itself.

This is purely a coincidence in that the drive was failing anyway -- as evidenced by the error code you provided -- and the stress of doing an update was enough to push it over a threshhold.  Using a USB boot stick is not going to get the PC working.

If you want the stick so you can boot the PC and try to retrieve files from it, the read the material below ...

If your PC can not boot into Windows, a way around that is to follow the instructions below to create boot media from Macrium Reflect (MR) that can be used to boot your PC even if the hard drive is not working:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from this link: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

That will create MR bootable media. Then, you can boot your PC into WinPE using that media.

Have patience, as that can take a while to start and bring up the screen.

Once the screen is there, read this thread about using PE Explorer -- a simple file explorer: https://forum.macrium.com/PrintTopic15803.aspx

If your disk still works, you might be then able to retrieve some files and folders from it.

Good Luck