OK Anniv.update issues again - 93 % this time WITH ERROR

So,

I've been trying a dozen times to update windows since the anniversary update came out, with guides and help from here and other things.

Now I again tried to do an update via Windows update tool, as it seems the only thing that works a bit further, and now for the first time got an actual error message after it had gone thru the phases and was back in old W10 installation:

0xC1900101 – 0x4001E
The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase with an error during PRE_OOBE operation

Any ideas what to do next???

The easiest way is to download an iso or create a bootable win 10 medium with MS's media creation tool and then try the upgrade manually. This avoids Windows update issues which plague a number.

Do note that anniversary upgrade issues are being fixed by MS - widely reported. So take precautions- use disk imaging to back up what you have before trying the upgrade.

What you could try (other than researching the error message - which I assume you have done, so I won't- except this(!)
Possible Fix for error 0xC1900101 - 0x4001E and 0x4000D : Windows10

is
a. do an in-place repair install of your existing build
b. attempt the upgrade, ensuring your AV is disabled, any unneeded devices are disconnected. Uninstall any programs that modify the GUI.

Before doing that, do this:
From an admin command prompt
[Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)]
chkdsk C: /F
Your PC will need to restart.
Make sure the result is clear or fixed.
Post back the result, which you can get after a restart as follows:
How do I see the results of a CHKDSK that ran on boot? - Ask Leo!

and
create a disk image of what you have now - if you haven't already.
Disk imaging is a brilliant way to
- preserve your system (and your sanity)
- back up your data
- restore your system to a previously working state in a relatively short time



Recommended: Macrium Reflect (free/commercial) + boot disk/device + large enough external storage medium.

What you could try (other than researching the error message - which I assume you have done, so I won't- except this(!)
Possible Fix for error 0xC1900101 - 0x4001E and 0x4000D : Windows10

- went thru these. Update troubleshooter etc. find no issues.

a. do an in-place repair install of your existing build

- Did this; 93%

b. attempt the upgrade, ensuring your AV is disabled, any unneeded devices are disconnected. Uninstall any programs that modify the GUI.

- Nothing but keyboard and mouse, no AV nothing.

Before doing that, do this:
From an admin command prompt
[Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)]
chkdsk C: /F
Your PC will need to restart.
Make sure the result is clear or fixed.
Post back the result, which you can get after a restart as follows:

-Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
-No further action is required.

OK now once again trying to do the manual update...will report after it finishes...

Hi, if there's no way to upgrade, and you wish to clean install, then first create a full disk image of what you have now using (e.g.) Macrium reflect (free) + its boot medium + external storage medium for the image backups.

This will
a. enable you to return to how things are exactly as now, should you need to
b. provide a full backup from which you can extract any files or folders you need

Disk imaging as a matter of routine is strongly recommended here.

Then download an iso/create bootable medium for Win 10 build 1607.

All isos for all builds of Win 10 are downloadable. OR you can use MS's media creation tool and create, say, a bootable USB drive.

You can easily find these - or see the Tutorial (search that section for iso).

Then, as you say, delete all relevant partitions on your system drive: (if there are other partitions containing data you will want to leave those of course). Else you can just reformat it and clean install 1607.

Mm. I have never used disk imaging, because I feel it's better to really make things clean and neat instead of bringing back old problems along with the image restored. I have often copied hard drives (cloned) to new disks though; that's handy.

I only keep the OS and major programs I use on C: anyhow; I have separate hard drives for each different thing like games and audio and video data etc. as well as a big backup drive.

Installing W10 is quickly done, takes only 15 minutes or so after all, but the problem will be going through all the 3rd party software configurations, audio routing and configs and everything---that will take ages and cause big problems with licenses and such, it's a complete bore. But then again, at least it also forces to download the latest versions of each software and such.

Try as I might, I haven't ever been able to install Windows from USB drives, it seems a DVD from ISO is the only option that works, or then over the Internet directly. USB installations always fail at some point of the process - I have done it maybe ten times by now and it never works, never finishes, but DVD works fine. Which is kind of stupid, because that's the only thing I have used an optical drive in at least five or so years now. All my software, games and everything I purchase and download from the net rather than install from any physical media.

I suppose I have to try and jot down and copy what settings folders and plug-ins I can to my backup drives and download the latest W10 ISO and burn a DVD and then nuke the M.2 drive and reinstall everything. Sigh.

Feels like back in 98/ME days when it was a given you had to wipe and reinstall Windows biannually to keep it working fine.

What I usually do is physically disconnect all other SSD drives except for the M.2 and then install, and afterwards add all the HD's and hardware bit by bit. Makes for a couple dozen reboots and lots of setting to do but it's safe and secure that way.

That'll have to wait though. Maybe around Xmas holidays I might have the time and the enthusiasm to rebuild the whole system.

But I suppose if I disconnect all other drives and simply run the installation tool and select 'do not keep anything' that should be as good as format C of old...yeah, no need to download and burn ISO that way. It's so much faster to download too than load from a slow optical drive.

I've used Laplink programs to transfer settings and installed programs (which in a good number of cases includes the license too) from one OS build to another, or one PC to another. However this is $10s... but it's time vs money.

The cheaper option is to use a disk image + the appropriate Laplink program.

The usual point of disk imaging is to achieve what system restore does in a way. System restore allows you to restore your registry, drivers, installed programs to a previous point. Disk imaging covers the whole disk or partition.

People have experienced issues with the anniversary upgrade- MS is working on them- one update so far since the release to solve one problem- supposedly. So again, you want the option of reverting- which disk imaging gives you.

Imagine- worst case - your whole disk fails. What then? You can only clean install.
With appropriate images, you buy a new disk, using the disk imaging program's boot disk, restore the images and bingo- in perhaps an hour you're back up and running.

Same if you want to increase the size of your disk.

Say your PC suddenly becomes unbootable after having installed some new program.. or change you've made.. or you get infected with ransomware or some horrible virus.

Just restore from your disk image. Easy. Quick. No technical help required.

The point is to go back to a previous good state - quickly, in range of circumstances.

You mentioned writing down everything.. if you have a disk image, and you've forgotten sthg you can retrieve it from the image, everything is there. It's a full backup too- just mount the image file.

Yes, an image backup would be handy in some situations for sure, but the trouble of keeping it recent and all that seems like far too much work. I could back up C to an image, yes, but like in this case I doubt it'd help much since there is an issue with this installation. If I restore it from an image it won't work any better.

If my C suddenly dies, it affects little else but that I have to reinstall my main programs and redo all settings. All the data is elsewhere. I mean, if I do a full reinstall of w10 I can be playing fallout 4 in about 30 minutes again. Keeping an image would be far more work in my book, although some stuff is time consuming to return to normal state. Still, it does good to clean up now and then, gives a chance to leave out programs I found out I didn't need after all etc.

I wish these programs could be made to run from an USB drive without installing them it'd make things so much simpler.

I do like to do a yearly or so clean install anyway, I'll have installed probably 200 apps and such and it's always just easier to nuke tg e whole installation and start from scratch.

This time though I JUST got the machine running proper - everything is set real nice and I haven't even gotten a chance to use it properly...and immediately w10 refuses to update.