Windows 10: Win10 Update Problems

These are some USB booting troubleshooting optionsL


Boot from USB Drive on Windows 10 PC Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials: Boot from USB Drive on Windows 10 PC Installation Upgrade Tutorials


If you have fast boot or ultra fast boot enabled in your UEFI firmware settings, then you may need to temporarily disable fast boot or ultra fast boot to be able to boot from a USB.


How to Enable Fast Boot or Ultra Fast Boot in UEFI Firmware Settings for Windows: Enable or Disable Fast Boot in UEFI Firmware Settings for Windows Performance Maintenance Tutorials


1. Try another USB stick
2. Try all USB ports (2.0 and 3.0)
3. When using UEFI Bios you may have to temporarily switch to Legacy in BIOS settings
4. Turn off temporarily fast boot, secure boot, CSM if enabled

 

Kyhi's image is good. I apparently had a coaster, even though ImgBurn reported normal verification after the burn. Burned a second one, and it works, as does the flash drive I made of the ISO using Rufus while burning the DVD. Duhhh!
I used the brute force method of restoring the EFI partition. I re-installed 1511, then restored the image into the OS partition. I then checked the SSD with Minitool, and found a 760 M unallocated partition prior to the OS partition, and a 9.4 G unallocated partition after the OS partition. Whether wise or not, I simply expanded the OS partition to incorporate those two. Here's Minitool after all that.





Of course, sfc /scannow still fails, pretty much as expected. Windows still boots fine and runs as expected. Windows is still trying to upgade, and I've had to kill the Upgrade Assistant with task manager. I really can't leave the machine unattended lest I return to find it in the middle of a 4 G upgrade download.
Am I correct to assume my next move should be a repair install of 1511?

 

Well, I tried booting the 1511 installation disk, and selecting "repair your PC" rather than installing Windows. Unless I failed to drill down far enough in the various selections, I didn't find anything that looked like "repair and keep everything working as-is". I don't have a recovery image other than the macrium image, so far as I know.
Reagentc /info reports that the RE status is disabled, and reagentc /enable states the Windows RE image was not found.

 

Well, I tried using SFCfix, and thought it was going to save my bacon. It apparently ran DISM, which had my internet download maxxed out for 20-30 minutes before it gave me a message that the source files could not be found (looked like it made it about 60% before ending). I am unfamiliar with DISM, and certainly unfamiliar with reading the log file, but it appears to me that it did find a bunch of the source files, just not all of them, based on my reading of the end of the log. The log file can be found at: dism.log - Box . Would the Windows 1511 disk be an appropriate source? And would I have to provide a path for each individual feature? Guess I'll have some reading to do at the listed Microsoft site.
Here's the DISM screen results:

 

Hi, great work.. the easiest path is an in-place upgrade repair with your 1511 - the sledgehammer approach- rather than trying to analyse the cause.

Before that please do this if you've not already:
Now check your file system:

From an admin command or powershell prompt
[Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)]
chkdsk C: /F
Your PC will need to restart.
Post back the result, which you can get after a restart as follows:
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials
or
How to read Event Viewer log for Chkdsk in Windows 10 [Tip] | Reviews, news, tips, and tricks | dotTechdotTech
or
How do I see the results of a CHKDSK that ran on boot? - Ask Leo!
Make sure the result is clear or fixed- else do not proceed.

Naturally it's unfortunate upgrades can be difficult sometimes, I guess for the minority of the sum total of Windows users, and I also find the available support for resolving problems significantly lacking, not to mention the usual obscure error messages or logs.

Once you've done an in-place upgrade repair, again create a new disk image to preserve that. (Use disk imaging to preserve each achieved stage).

When you then attempt the upgrade, disable or uninstall any 3rd party AV, use directly connected rather than wireless peripherals, and disconnect anything unnecessary.

Other possible precautionary steps:
You may also find it helpful to do a clean boot, although that should not be necessary. Make sure you have nothing running or installed that modifies the GUI.

 

Chkdsk found no errors. The text of the logfile is here: chkdsk.txt - Box .

I may need some help with the in-place upgrade repair. I had planned on doing that earlier (see post after the last Minitool image). When I booted the 1511 installation disk, I first got a screen asking about language and keyboard language (3 items). After filling those out, the next screen is to start the installation -- in small print down in the left lower corner was some hypertext with something about repairing Windows. I clicked on that, and got a screen with 4 or 5 large icons. Don't remember exactly what they were now, but I explored most of them. I either didn't see one for an in-place repair, or I didn't recognize it for what it was. It sounded like whatever I chose was going to install Windows without saving my current configuration of programs. Other icons did other things that didn't seem applicable. Didn't have any way of saving screen shots so you'll have to forgive my very poor paraphrasing (and memory).
Assuming I was in the right place, any help you could give me on what option to select would be appreciated. If that isn't how to do an in-place repair, any suggestions on what I need to do would be appreciated. I'm feeling a little invulnerable since I have that image I can restore from. <VBG>

 

The method to perform an in place upgrade requires a working operating system.
There is no boot to the bootable windows 10 iso.
Instead the computer is booted in the normal fashion to the desktop.
File explorer is opened.
The Windows 10 iso is inserted into any USB port and the iso is then identified within file explorer.
Click on the iso and look for a file named setup or setup.exe and launch this file.
Then look in the left lower corner for repair your computer.
For the rest of the steps follow the text and images in this link:
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Installation Upgrade Tutorials

 

Naturally it's unfortunate upgrades can be difficult sometimes, I guess for the minority of the sum total of Windows users, and I also find the available support for resolving problems significantly lacking, not to mention the usual obscure error messages or logs.

You are exactly correct about the un-"available support". I've been in contact with Microsoft technical support repeatedly over about the last year about a broken Windows store and the inability of this machine to take, and keep, updates. These weren't brief conversations, either., and I had even less success with their online support. All I managed to get out of them were a couple of links to fixing a broken Windows store that I had already found, and that did not work. They were either unable or unwilling to even address the inability of the machine to properly take updates (gee-I never heard of that).
Your first response to me was more informative and helpful to me than all the calls to Microsoft were. I truly appreciate all the help that you've offered, and the patience you've shown.
I believe I've got all my ducks in a row for the in-place upgrade, but won't have time to do it until this evening. I'll report back after it's done.

 

I LIKE your sledgehammer approach! It worked a treat! I have imaged the latest drive C after the successful in-place upgrade. I expected to find some windows quirks, but haven't found any yet. I couldn't be happier! SFC /scannow can find no problems, to the point that it finds no need to create a logfile. Thanks expecially to dalchina for all his excellent advice and his special patience. I hereby name him an honorary Texan, simply for coining the sledgehammer approach, something any Texan can appreciate. This also fixed the Windows Store, which hasn't worked on this machine for over a year, and for which Microsoft had no solution.
So for further updates/upgrades, what would you suggest? Just allowing nature to take its course, or should some sort of forced update be performed?

 

Hi, thanks - visited a bit of Texas many years ago..

So you've a working 1511, and an image, and your partitions are ok; you have more awareness of some tools and approaches; the question is whether the upgrade will work... The safest thing to try is to manually check for updates if you want to- there's a check every day anyway.

Having done an in-place upgrade repair install, you may well get updates for 1511... or you may be offered the upgrade.

Of course you can also download the FCU iso and upgrade manually.

One thing I found with the CU and the FCU- they reversed the disk numbers allocated to my SSD and SSHD- so whilst the manual upgrade worked, it meant I could not use my Recovery partition. MS seems to have changed something in those builds. (Your system disk should be disk 1 when using the installation disk). However, my experience of this is very unusual, but true and consistent for both. That took a long time to identify.

 

When you perform an upgrade if it works you will have completed the troubleshooting.
If there are problems with the upgrade we can troubleshoot the Panther logs.

Consider making a backup update image with Macrium and a brand new restore point before the upgrade.

 

Consider making a backup update image with Macrium and a brand new restore point before the upgrade.

Already done.
Rather than approach this from a direct upgrade with the disk, I simply downloaded the upgrade assistant and set it to work. It's currently downloading and we'll see how it goes.

 

While I'm thinking about it, the upgrade install appears to have added a NTFS (?recovery) partition to the C: drive. Normal?

 

Quite normal... Windows is messy in this respect, although it can be argued that the old Recovery partition is needed should you 'Go back to the previous version'. What doesn't happen automatically is the deletion of a redundant Recovery partition.

I've yet to see a case where (without a failed upgrade) there are more than 2... but I can't see any reason why that might not happen.

 

Okay, now on Windows version 1709, Build16299.64 . I've not noted any major glitches, but I note that a few things will have to be reset. Just housekeeping stuff like turning the trackpad back off, re-adjusting the keyboard backlight, stuff like that. There are still only the 2 previously noted recovery partitions on C: I've got a new restore point and I'll do a new image of C: tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see if this update has messed up the usual culprits and caused problems with hibernation and sleeping. That's been a problem with this machine and prior minor updates. It has been an issue with an IMEI driver, but I think I may have gotten that resolved in the past. We'll see if the fix survived the update.