Windows 10: Windows 10 fails to update

Okay. So, best to make an "image" of your operating system drive - all partitions - so you can put things back if anything goes wrong (although I've never had a repair install go bad yet, but there's always a first time, right?) *Wink

What program do you use? Many here in the forum use Macrium Reflect Free. But I'd definitely make an image, and not a clone.

Yes, basically, you right-click and mount the ISO, run setup.exe from within your current W10 OS, and it goes through the motions of what appears to be a complete install (and takes just about as long). Incidentally, I've used this method successfully to correct the problem of Start/Cortana/Notifications stopped working as well.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

I tried running the repair install but got an error message that setup could not start properly and I should reboot and try again. Three times and always failed. Please advise.

 

Please describe how you tried to run the repair, i.e.

1. download the correct ISO from MSTechBench; save to desktop
2. right-click the ISO and select MOUNT
3. from the mounted ISO, double-click setup.exe
Note: You must be in an administrative account

The repair install should begin.
Are these the steps you took?

 

At MSTechBench I was given the option of choosing Win10, Win10KN, Win10N, or Win10 Single Lanquage ISO accounts. I chose Win 10. Where they said to download both 32 bit and 64 bit I only downloaded 64 bit. The file that I downloaded onto the desktop is Win10_1511_2_English_x64. and when I mount the drive it reads: J_CCSA_x64FRE_EN-US_DV5. Are those values correct? I performed steps 2 & 3, my account is admin and I also disabled the AV. Probably somewhere in there I screwed something up but don't know what. Also, I did create another account which has the normal Win10 w/cortana but still fails to update those two files

 

Yes, those sound correct.
Please try uninstalling your AV completely, What AV are you using?

 

Perhaps these suggestions would help:

Windows Update Troubleshooter

Creating a new user profile to test if the current profile is corrupt in some way.
Run Windows Update manually from teh new profile. If it doesn't help, then delete the test profile.

Best of luck!

 

I use Avast Pro. I'll try uninstalling it next. Thanks again for the help.

 

I uninstalled the AV but it still gave the same error message. I also created a new user acct and tried running both the manual updates and the repair install from there; neither of which worked. I noticed that there were (2) other options to running the repair install, one of which used a USB stick. Would there be any chance that one of those options might work?

 

It would not hurt you to try booting from a usb stick at all. Just make sure your usb stick is formatted with Fat32, then copy all the files from your Mounted Windows ISO to your usb stick, then try to reboot to your usb stick , and run setup again.

 

I'm not sure, but be careful running from USB if it has you "boot to the USB" because I believe then you will not have a chance to keep your installed programs. (I can't remember for sure - just be vigilant with your options.)

 

Maybe first you could try putting your computer into a "clean boot state", and try running setup.exe from the mounted ISO?

 

The ISO files turned out to be >4GB so I couldn't copy them to a FAT32 USB stick. Is there a workaround?

 

Next I did a clean reboot, mounted the (desktop) ISO file and then ran setup using run as administrator, ...twice. But I still got the Setup couldn't start. Please reboot and do over.

 

Mount the ISO
navigate to sources
Open install.wim with 7-zip
Are there two indices (1 & 2)?
Index 1 is the Pro edition Index 1 is the 64 bit source
Index 2 is the Home edition Index 2 is the 32 bit source
of the bit depth you selected (32-bit or 64-bit)

Open the correct edition bit depth index (1 or 2) inside 7-zip file manger
Select all
Copy to a new folder

 

*Mad I don't understand why this is happening - I have never seen this before!

Please see if you can run the in-place repair using Step #7 here:
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

Try as in the tutorial, using the option to upgrade this pc, keeping all files and apps.

FYI: This method, using the media creation tool, is also the way to get a W10 ISO onto a USB stick - the tool will do that for you if you select create installation media for another pc. But please try Step #7 first, upgrading this pc.

EDIT: Or, Slartybart's method will work as well to get it on a USB flash drive.