Update Version 1803 to 1809 Consistently Gets Error 0xc1900101

I didn't bother to download the batch file after I found that the dism call that was recommended woudln't run Investigating that, I found that the intent was to store an entire disk image, which will make a wim file that will fit in something like the example of 8 GB when a fresh installation, customized by adding users and personalization, but not if you have a large amount of user data on the system drive. I dropped the whole thing, until I realized that just putting the install disk in the Recovery partition was a good idea. Since I can boot from an install DVD and call an update from R: using Windows Explorer, I don't see a need to put booting from R:\Setup.exe on a boot menu. I would rather continue to boot to the lock screen.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.799]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk /scan
The type of the file system is <redacted>.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
1304064 file records processed.
File verification completed.
34248 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
41310 reparse records processed.
1588974 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
41310 reparse records processed.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
142456 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
34510896 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.

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

1942794311 KB total disk space.
1135853948 KB in 895673 files.
502512 KB in 142457 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
1477603 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
804960248 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
485698577 total allocation units on disk.
201240062 allocation units available on disk.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

A disk 0 recovery partition will have windows advanced troubleshooting features that are unavailable on a bootable iso.

There were times in which 3 customized windows driver settings did not cause BSOD.
Using all customized tests required restoring a backup image.
Were you able to determine which customized test caused the BSOD?
Was the computer in a boot loop that was not able to be stopped by the bootable DVD?
Or were the reset and bootmode commands not able to turn off the tool?
Was system restore points unavailable or did each system restore point fail?

chkdsk /scan is a superficial check that is performed on line.
ckdsk /f or /r or /b are deeper checks and are performed offline.
Please post the error message and or code using chkdsk /r /v

We have done multiple chkdsk C: /r /v on that HD and there are no bad sectors. I run Hard Disk Sentinel which monitors the SMART data on all my HDs and RAIDs that support SMART (one old RAID box does not). At the first sign of bad sectors, when the HD hardware starts blocking them and substituting from its reserve, this utility provides notification. You and drill down into pages and pages of SMART data for each HD, but it gives a summary health indication, temperature, total on time, start/stop count, and estimated remaining life (up to 100 hours, or, normally, "more than 100 hours"), and bar charts for each HD. It's fine. This main display comes up every time I boot, and is available by mouseover on hidden icons for each HD or RAID that supports SMART.

If you really need that information, I can go to Windows RE and do another chkdsk C: /r /v. That will add yet another day. At this point I have not saved any time over copying my C:\Data folder tree to another HD and doing a fresh install, and my main computer has been effectively down since May 24. I'm anxious to end this, either by completing the slash-and-burn and repairing my OS or by doing a fresh install of v1809 or v1903, hopefully today.

Please post setupdiag and Panther logs after an attempted upgrade.

If there is a problematic driver identified in the logs the it can be troubleshooted.

If not, then plan a clean install.

That is my plan.

Since neither Norton nor MBAM are known problems for v1803, and nothing has changed on my USB peripherals since I updated to v1803, and I have never done a clean boot with any Windows Update, feature or not, I don't see a benefit in the slash-and-burn. My thinking is that

• We have identified and removed one bad driver that was identified by verifier, AsUpIO.sys.
• All other drivers listed by verifier have passed testing by 15 of 19 tests by verifier.
• The Control Panel Reliability Monitor showed hardware errors code 141 as late as May 24, which a web search identifies as a likely video card driver problem. My updates to v1809 and v1903 failed due to an error most often traceable to old video drivers. I enabled automatic updates from NVIDIA and updated my video driver to v430.86 released May 26.

I do have a few very old devices on my computer:

• A Getrag Eye-One Mach 3, but its drivers pass verifier tests (or at least 15 of 19 verifier tests).
• An old Canon photo scanner for which Canon never released Windows 8/10 drivers that isn't connected, and the existing drivers apparently aren't installed. Verifier either didn't load these drivers or they passed 15 of 19 tests.
• One RAID box is over 5 years old, pre-dating Windows 10, but it is running using Microsoft USB HD drivers. This is the one that doesn't support SMART data, but the box runs very cool and is physically and electrically tough. It is well-supported now, in the Windows 10 era.

I think a reasonable course is to try an upgrade to v1803 from R:\Setup.exe, which is very similar to the original Windows Update process that originally updated my system to v1803. If that fails (or succeeds!), we can try an update to v1809 or v1903 and get the error code for information before a full install. I believe that v1903 has been released to me, so I can try it by repairing my Windows Update database using the wizard, which will then result in my OS attempting an update to the latest feature update available.

I've started an "update" to v1803 from R:\Setup.exe.

- - - Updated - - -

Yes, it failed, with the same error code:
The Troubleshooting Tips lead to a list of the same slash-and-burn suggestions, except for safe boot. I did see one thing that stood out: failure to add uicciso.dll, which turns out to be related to cell phones. One change between the original update to v1803 and the present is that my Windows phone died and was replaced by a Droid phone. Since I don't leave phones hooked to the computer and I don't have Bluetooth on the computer, I don't see how that would be loaded.

FWIW, I simply renamed AsUpIO.sys, I didn't use Process Explorer.

While I was looking at my network, apparently someone in an old Honda with a car phone tried to log on my WiFi. I have MAC address filtering and WEP security with secure password, but Car-7498 and its MAC address were visible to Windows for about a minute.

All relevant logs are attached. I didn't see anything with the file or folder name "setupdiag."

- - - Updated - - -

The Windows Update repair under Settings found no problem. The MS utility wu10.diagcab found no problems either; in the past it has rebuilt the Windows Update database.

At this point I may try the slash-and-burn approach, including safe boot. My plan is to simply go back to using v1803 until Windows Update starts failing, I have actual BSODs that I see and that interrupt computer usage (not BSOD log reports on shutdown or update failure or whatever). At that point, I'll save C:\Data on E: and do a fresh install with re-partitioning and get all the system partitions. I think that since this OS began with Vista and lives on with updates and upgrades, I never had these partitions. It's on its third motherboard and third HD. At one point I had to call Microsoft and tell them it's the same computer. Maybe it's time.

- - - Updated - - -

I looked at some of the files on R: to make sure that it was v1803 and found a build number that looked much older. It's possible that this isn't a good update ISO for my computer right now.

Windows Update wants to upgrade to v1903. I'm going to let it try; I probably must do that or I probably won't get any more v1803 updates.

I've already spent almost three weeks on working with my mangled OS. Yes, I did find and fix two drivers that weren't updated in Device Manager and some other things, but we are hamstrung by missing logs and dumps. Although there is some chance that the MS-recommended slash-and-burn one-size-fits-all plus your recommendation of working from a clean boot, but it seems almost certain that there are major problems inside the OS that won't be affected by any of this. And, it will take between one and three days to do this.

Copying C:\Data to E: again, along with anything in Downloads or Pictures or whatever that seems worth saving, then doing a clean install, will take about a day, including copying back C:\Data and reinstalling Norton Security, MBAM, and Acronis. The second day, I can begin using the computer again by reinstalling applications as I need them. This, to me, is preferable to continuing to do the same thing while expecting different results.

There is one thing that I didn't remember to do: turn off real-time ransomware protection in Acronis. This feature watches for large-scale copying or deleting files and stops the process, and gives a pop-up asking whether to continue or not. I wrote one program for my work that sometimes generates hundreds of output files, and has an option to clear the output directory before beginning. Once Acronis stopped the process and moved my exe file to quarantine instantly; I had to flag the pathname of the exe file as one to ignore. If this is invoked in a boot when I'm not at the computer or STDOUT isn't passed to the console or whatever during Windows Update, it could declare an error on the Acronis driver that accomplishes real-time ransomware protection. I'm assuming that if this was happening, it would have happened with previous Windows Updates and/or either MS or Acronis would have said something, though.

Right now I don't have a day or to to work on the computer. When I do have that kind of time, I'll do a fresh install.

Maybe Good News: Windows Update wanted to install v1903 after the disk image was restored, probably because I ran the Windows Update Diagnosis Wizard (which, for the first time after failed feature update to v1809 or v1903, announced that it did NOT find any problems). I let it, so that it could set a flag and not keep trying, and I would keep getting security patches for v1803. But this morning, it wanted to try updating to v1903 again, and I let it. I just checked the status, and I have this message:

"We couldn't install this update, but you can try again (0x8000ffff)."

Under Update History, which has been reporting the secondary code, the error 0xc1900101 is given, but not extended code is given. I presume that the extended code is 0x8000ffff. My plan:

• I let the Properties -> Tools -> check HD for errors look at C: first, probably a waste of time. I'll do chkdsk C: /scan when it's done, followed by sfe and dism system integrity checks.
• I'll go to safe boot.
• If Settings still works in Safet Boot, I'll enable the v1903 update to "download and run" and see what happens.

1) When performing Windows updates one of the advantages of using an iso versus the update assistant is the extend code.

2) Windows cannot be upgraded in safe mode when using the iso and performing an in place upgrade repair.

3) The error code:

Code:

Error code: 0x8000ffff  - Catastrophic failure

4) Consider clean install:
Clean Install Windows 10

You just dashed all my hopes that MS had made a change that dealt with my problem(s), like simply disabling problem drivers not associated with HD, keyboard, mouse, display, or Internet/WiFi. Or, perhaps naming any offending driver in the logs.
Now that you explain it, ffff is really all the error bits set. Having never seen it before, I thought that it was a special error code, because of "You can try again" message.

I always assumed that Windows booted in the equivalent of safe mode, probably RE, on feature updates - these are clearly OS reinstalls.

SFE is 99% done, MBAM did a full scan and gave the OS and files a clean bill of health, and Norton is running a full scan. I was thinking about running Norton Power Eraser but that does very little beyond MBAM and often finds false alarms because it is pretty much based on heristics. I'll go ahead and do a dism scan to feel that I've completed the BS.

It will take a couple of hours to copy C:\Data to my other HD. Do I really need to disconnect my USB RAID boxes and my internal HD? My HD with C: on it has a EFI partition and a 10 GB Revovery partition; I'm pretty sure I can recognize them when it comes time to select the destination of the installation.

Does it make any difference whether I use a DVD or a USB thumb drive to install v1903?