Repeated Install Failure of Windows 10 on Dell 660s 0xC1900101 0x30017

I have had 4 failures attempting to upgrade my Dell Inspiron 660s to Windows 10. I have successfully updated my Optiplex 380 and my Inspiron 1545. I mention this because all three machines were running Windows 7 Home Premium, all were up to the latest update level, and all three had the same application software installed. All use Microsoft Security Essentials as the antimalware tool, and I understand this should not affect the installation in any way. One significant difference is that the Inspiron 660s is running the 64-bit version of Windows. (The Optiplex 380 and Inspiron 1545 are running the 32-bit OS.)

The Dell Computers tested for upgrade to Windows 10 information page indicates the Inspiron 660s has passed W10 installation tests. So I obviously have a configuration-specific problem.

http://www.dell.com/support/article/...9/SLN297954/EN

Results of all the installation attempts:

We couldn’t install Windows 10
The installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with an error during BOOT operation
Error code: 0xC1900101 0x30017

The first time it failed was on the 29^th July introduction date using the download Microsoft provided automatically. The next two were done with about a week between each to see if things might have “healed”, and using the download tool. To make it worse, the failure is especially bizarre since it attempts to restore Windows 7 and fails miserably. (I keep hard drive images, so recovery takes time but is easy.)

During fter the attempt to restore W7, a popup comes up saying “The Recycle Bin on C:\ is corrupted. Do you want to empty the Recycle Bin for this drive?” The choices are Yes and No. Regardless of which you pick, a loop begins which keeps repeating the popup every 15 seconds or so. It seems to go away after a few cycles.

A version of Windows 7 does come up, eventually, but it looks nothing like the version I was running when I started the update. About the only thing that looks normal is the All Programs segment of the Start Menu. It appears as if all of the customization I have done has been removed. Nothing fancy, mind you, just having a few applications on the task bar, several most-used programs pinned to the upper left portion of the Start Menu, and choices of which icons show in the notification area

For the third try I removed every connection to external devices, as one poster has suggested on-line. I had a mouse, a keyboard, and the Ethernet connection. Of course, the installation tool was in a USB port.

The last was done after disabling a few background tasks to see if that might help. One thing I did catch the installer doing the last time was the equivalent of a chkdsk operation on C:\ after the install failed. Along with the message about the Recycle bin and the scan of the hard drive, I wonder if somehow the install is causing some corruption on the drive. I don’t know if that happened every time since I have not babysat the hour or so it takes the installation once it really gets started. But something seems to be destroying or seriously affecting the hard drive in a bad way. The drive does have one small NTFS partition which I created to hold some common uninstalled software, but both of the other computers have the identical partition.

I have not tried a clean install since I have many applications and it takes me about two working days to restore all my settings and applications, even with many step-by-step notes. I may do that out of desperation, but hate to spend the time if there is a solution that might let me keep my current setup as the installation did on the other two computers.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

I suppose you can call this "Solved" by skipping to the end of the post. But the mystery still persists. Good luck with this error!

Notes on the efforts to install:

1^st try:
Update keeping files and settings
Automatic download from Microsoft on the 29^th of July.
Search for updates during installation was used.

We couldn’t install Windows 10
The installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with an error during BOOT operation
Error code: 0xC1900101 0x30017

2^nd try:
Update keeping files and settings
Download tool on USB memory stick
Search for updates during installation was used.
Same error

3^rd try:
Update keeping files and settings
Download tool on USB memory stick
All peripherals disconnected – had only mouse, keyboard and Ethernet
Search for updates during installation was used.
Same error

4^th try:
Update keeping files and settings
Download tool on USB memory stick
All peripherals disconnected – had only mouse, keyboard and Ethernet
Several background tasks disabled
Search for updates during installation was used.
Same error

5^th try:
Update keeping files and settings
ISO image burned and booted
Kind of funny process since it reverted to making me boot the normal system then reload the ISO disk and run setup
Ethernet disconnected – had only mouse and keyboard
Update search bypassed (by choice, but Ethernet was disconnected anyway – this is also a very time consuming step and by now I was getting thoroughly tired of spending all my time waiting for the installation errors)
Same error

The install, even using an ISO image, still relies on the underlying Windows system installed on the computer. My guess is they use the old Registry files to at least verify the product key for the old version of Windows so you have a “legal” copy of W10 when you are done. I suspect some other information also survives and may be the cause these crashes. Most likely drivers, but who knows what else?

6^th try:
Update keeping files and settings
ISO image
Clean boot procedure followed
Run from clean boot W7
Ethernet disconnected – had only mouse and keyboard
Update search bypassed

Went through W10 front-end then a message about Recycle Bin being corrupted comes up in an endless loop. Pick Yes or No, it goes away, and comes back in about 15 seconds.

Windows 10 finally came up but the message about the corrupted recycle bin still comes up repeatedly. (I found a solution on-line – delete C:\$RecycleBin.)

This installation was a total disaster! Many applications not only would not run, but could not be reinstalled.

These were tested and ran:
Autoruns, Delphi (fairly complicated Pascal compiler with multiple libraries), Process Explorer. Did not check any others except for a few card games which did not run, but which were not consequential. It appears ownership/user conflicts were the most prevalent errors with those. Then there were those listed in the next section, which are consequential.

These failed but were not able to be fixed:
Office would not run, would install, but not run after reinstallation. Some messages were in an Asian writing, some involved ownership, i.e. something like “this user is not authorized”. Other authorization messages came up with other software. I am the owner, administrator, and only user on the computer. Who “owns” the stuff then? I believe it is just a general corruption of the system due to having 32-bit and 64-bit software installed at the time of the upgrade. I am going to do a clean installation and see if either Office or Adobe Reader will install. Those seem to be major chokepoints. If they work, I may try to install all my software again, but that is essentially a 2- to 3-day job.

Adobe Reader XI – Would not run, uninstalled and tried to reinstall. A message “A later version is already installed” appears and the installation aborts. Even after wiping out all evidence of Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe ARM and AdobeARM in the registry, the message still appears and the install aborts. At this point I determined the system was unusable.

I have to wonder why these same problems did not occur on either of the “pure” 32-bit installations.

7^th try:
“Clean Install”
ISO image
Clean boot procedure followed
Run from clean boot (restored) W7
Ethernet disconnected – had only mouse and keyboard
Update search bypassed

This one is kind of fascinating. And it becomes kind-of try 7 and 7a. I moved the computer in question to another room to get it out of the way of normal work. It was easiest to just swap the two towers. The computer was now attached to a standard CRT, an HP mx705. The corrupted version of Windows 10 described in 6^th try would run.

I wanted to see if I could install our software to a “clean” installation without encountering the ownership conflicts. I tried an install keeping no files or software. But when I started the installation it crashed the monitor with a message on the monitor “Out of frequency range – Set resolution lower or see monitor user’s guide” and then the monitor shut down. There was a similar suggestion in the manual to reduce the screen resolution. I was puzzled, changed the screen setting to 800x480 and tried again. It blew the monitor again. I then tried the entire download using the download tool. I naively hoped maybe that version would run on anything. Nope. Same message. So far, I have spent nearly the entire day trying to get the clean system installed. I just swapped monitors for the next try. Why in the world would there be an image sent by the installer that a standard CRT can’t handle? To make it even more bizarre, that CRT was used when one of the 32-bit W10 updates was done successfully. Again, 32/64 bit problem?

To tell the truth, I don’t even like Windows 10 very much. This has just become a Y-chromosome thrill-of-the-chase process. I probably have over 100 hours in this now, if I include all the research I have had to do to chase each problem. Most of which, by the way, were useless.

8^th try:
“Clean Install”
ISO image from a full-up Windows 7
Everything connected
Update search bypassed
Same error

I lugged the monitors and reconnected them to their original computers. This was another attempt at a clean install. I had hoped the clean install would ignore whatever was causing the crashes earlier. Apparently not. (It did get past the Windows 10 display which crashed the CRT. I was watching and had a camera ready just to find out what was taking out the CRT. It may be the “Windows 10” in a small black or blue rectangle.) Anyway, after several hours, this try crashed again, with the same boot-time error message. Apparently, even to do a “clean” installation you also have to do it from a clean-boot. Maybe with everything unplugged, too. The Whole Monty”. Again, I suppose the register and scheduler of the underlying Windows system which is installed during even a “clean” install is causing the crash, and after expending about 3 hours again.

9^th try:
“Clean Install”
ISO image
Clean boot procedure followed
Run from clean boot Windows 7
Ethernet disconnected – had only mouse and keyboard
Update search bypassed

Installed properly. Still used some old information such as computer name, and left the hard drive partitioned as it was, so not really a completely clean install. Actually to my advantage in this case. My backup software, Office, and Adobe Reader XI installed properly. There were some unexplained glitches like a spontaneous crash after the software was installed which auto rebooted. Also, my “desktop wallpaper” started out as the picture I chose from the standard ones. But after an hour or so, it turned solid black. I can select any of a number of standard colors but cannot get the picture back no matter what I do. This happened on another of the computers a few days ago when I had W10 installed and was doing some evaluation of whether or not I liked it (I guess I really don’t, but may wind up using it eventually anyway so as not to look like a Troglodyte to all my peers.)

Please don't mind because i did not read your whole post and replying here.

I was also stucked with such situation related with 64bit thing. But for what i am assuming, can you tell me, did you try to re-download the .iso file? What is the size of the .iso file that you're using to create Bootable USB Disk?

WindowsUser said:

Please don't mind because i did not read your whole post and replying here.

I was also stucked with such situation related with 64bit thing. But for what i am assuming, can you tell me, did you try to re-download the .iso file? What is the size of the .iso file that you're using to create Bootable USB Disk?

I don't blame you. It is long and it took a long time to come up with the only thing that worked for me. That was a "Clean" install from a "clean-boot" version of Windows. That is a real nuisance if you have a lot of applications to install, like I do. But it was my last idea, and it worked.

Take a look toward the bottom of the post for the 9th try and you will see what I did there. If you are not familiar with doing a clean-boot you can find instructions here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

I did download and burn the ISO twice. The current version I have is dated 07/10/2015 and is 3.11gB on a DVD.

Good luck!

I forgot one big point. I wouldn't do anything without first making a full image of my hard drive on an external device either with Windows Recovery or a 3rd-party program. Also be sure to make a recovery boot disk.

I restored my system several times between tries and you may eventually want to go back to Vista or Windows 7. I may. My experience is that Windows 10 says it can restore your previous system, but it did not restore it the way I had it set up. It would be easier to reload a saved image if you decide to go back.

Repair recovery - Windows Help