Windows 10: Windows 10 Feature Update 1709 Install Error - VirtualDrive 10

Windows 10 Feature update 1709 will not install with the error that first I need to uninstall VirtualDrive 10. The problem is I am not aware of having such a programme on my system. I uninstalled all Roxio products and also uninstalled Ashampoo burning studio 16 in case that had something to do with it. I am not aware of having any such a programme called VirtualDrive 10 on my system. I ran msinfo32 and search for the words Virtual, VirtualDrive and Virtual Drive and can't find anything. I did a registry search and there are some instances of "VirtualDrive" on my system probably relating to Roxio or maybe Faststone Virtual Drive but I am not aware of having any of these programmes actually installed. This is a great mystery to me. I am not sure where to go from here. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Kind regards
Chris

:)

 

Windows 10 Feature update 1709 will not install with the error - Uninstall VirtualDrive 10.

I have solved the problem. On a hunch I suspected that Windows update was looking in my personal storage drives for evidence of incompatible programmes instead of just my C drive. I went to disk management and selected to put my two storage drives offline
so I was just left with my C drive. I went to settings/update and security and ran windows update in the normal way and feature update 1709 installed without any problem. After rebooting to finish the update I put both drives online again and all is well.
One of the drives had a "Foreign" status so I right clicked to select to get it back online.

Troubleshooting Disk Management

So basically there is a bug in Windows Update that causes it to look in other drives instead of just the C drive for evidence of incompatible programmes. I hope this information will be useful to others who encounter a similar problem.

Kind regards

Chris

 

Windows 10 Feature update 1709 will not install with the error - Uninstall VirtualDrive 10.

Hi Chris,

You may encounter difficulties in installing the new feature update (1709) due to missing traces of your previous installation and corruption of the Windows Update components. For us to completely remove this,
you may utilize and install the update via Windows 10 installation media. See this link to get it:
Download Windows 10 ISO. For detailed instructions, it is best to check the forum article created by
MVP Andre Da Costa:
How to: Perform a Repair Upgrade Using the Windows 10 ISO file.

If you encounter any difficulties, do not hesitate to inform us.

 

Hi Chris.

This product (Farstone VitualDrive 10) appears to be a product for circumventing copy protection on games.

By forums rules we cannot provide assistance with these tools or Windows issues that may result.


Ken

 

But we are permitted to provide help to uninstall it so OP is not using such stuff.

 

Agree but now that he knows what it is I'm hoping he knows how.

 

Thank you both for your replies. Of course I wish to respect the forum rules. I was not aware that Farstone VirtualDrive had such a negative reputation. Its basically a virtual CD/DVD emulator programme that allowed a user to run a programme from the hard drive instead of having to put the CD/DVD in every time. I used it for legally purchased software for personal use. I uninstalled it years ago from my Win 7 machine before upgrading to Win 10. So there may be some dead registry entries left over.

However, I am not entirely convinced that Farstone VirtualDrive is the culprit here. The Windows error message may be alluding to other Virtual Drive software like Roxio Virtual Drive or something else that I am aware of. If I delete the wrong entries in the registry I could mess up something. Windows has its own Virtual Drive modules somewhere. If there was a way to find out exactly what Windows Update doesn't like I could delete it. I will look inside the registry a bit more and see if I can find anything that should not be there. Thanks again.


Kind Regards
Chris

 

I would not be messing with registry, one members opinion.

I've seen what you are describing, recently there is a posting on TrendMocro, where uninstalled products come up as an issue.

I would start with the vendor and see if they have a removal tool.

If they don't I would try a tool like Revo Uninstaller.

In any case I would create a backup before i did anything with a toll like Macrium Reflect.

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

 

I agree with Ken... don't willy-nilly go messing with the registry...

I know this is not gonna be popula... but use CCleaner to clean up those registry fragments ( make sure to affirm the back up prior should you need to restore)

 

If you only have leftover registry entries, Revo won't help 'cos it won't have anything to identify as an installed program. The Ccleaner scan suggested by @Superfly may well help, but I suggest you only delete the minimum number of registry entries.

Otherwise you have two options:
- reinstall the program to which Virtualdrive 10 relates, and then uninstall with Revo or Geek Uninstaller.
- If you aren't sure of the program, back up the registry, then search it using a tool such as O&O registry editor which searches the whole registry rather than stopping on each found item, and delete selectively.

There's one other possibility:
Use a free tool such as Everything by Void Tools, Locate 32 or Ultrasearch which provide excellent find as you type results for a selected disk or partition after a quick index scan, and search for anything related to Virtual etc.

If you can find an exe or dll, then use Revo Uninstaller, browse to that and then 'uninstall'.

 

Thank you all for your comments. I regularly use ccleaner to clean up unnecessary files and clean the registry but that did not stop the Windows update error (I must say that in all the years I have used ccleaner it has never caused me any problems; it has actually solved many issues for me).

I found the old setup file for VirtualDrive10 and tried to install with the intention of immediately uninstalling but the setup would not launch with the message that this programme was incompatible with Win 10 (no surprises).

I went to a Microsoft forum and was advised to download a fresh copy of Win 10 and perform a repair install and to select the option to check for updates.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softw...load/windows10
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...7-f40096ec3085

That failed with the same error message.





In the meantime I have managed to solve the problem. The solution was quite simple. On a hunch I suspected that Windows update was looking in my personal storage drives for evidence of incompatible programmes instead of just my C drive. I went to disk management and selected to put my two storage drives offline so I was just left with my C drive. I went to settings/update and security and ran windows update in the normal way and feature update 1709 installed without any problems. After rebooting to finish the update I put both drives online again and all is well. One of the drives had a "Foreign" status so I right clicked to select to get it back online.Troubleshooting Disk Management
So basically there is a bug in Windows Update that causes it to look in other drives instead of just the C drive for evidence of incompatible programmes. I hope this information will be useful to others who encounter a similar problem.
Kind regards
Chris

 

Thanks for posting this. Very helpful and great detail other should be able to follow.

 

Yep, don't always take MS derived comments at face value- that said, their support resolved my failure in upgrading to 1709 quickly and accurately today- to my surprise!

Another peculiarity.. good thing you made progress.

 

Nice one Chris - makes sense, as Storage Spaces are an extension and Windows sees it as part of the same drive...good thinking on your part *Wink