Desparately Trying to Upgrade Windows 10 (stuck on 20H2)

eLPuSHeR said:

You could give WSUS Offline a try. Just get a 16GB+ usb stick and put it there.

Run updategenerator.exe to download and build the needed files. After that, open CLIENT folder and run UpdateInstaller.exe

Using defaults is safe.

Just to update, I ran WSUS Offline and downloaded the updates package. Wow! What a whopper! It took up 10GB of space! Now I see why you reckoned a 16GB drive.

Now running the installer...

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dalchina said:

If I understand correctly, you took a Windows system disk from one device, when Windows was already stuck on 20H2 and failing to upgrade, and put it in another.

You then updated drivers.

1. Still await screenshot of your partitions
2. How did you update the drivers?

However, as your existing installation is damaged and apparently not recoverable, there is one more option open.

Considering:


There is a way to possibly recover your working environment and programs (depending on whether the corruption that exists doesn't interfere): that is to transfer your programs and accounts to a new installation.

a. Create a disk image of C: e.g. using Macrium Reflect (free).
b. Put a disk in your PC as the only disk - this will become your new system disk.
c. Clean install Win 10
d. Get a copy of either Easeus ToDo PCTrans or Laplink PCMover (1 off license fee - it used to be there was a lower cost version if you were using a disk image as the 'old PC'.
e. Install that program and use it to transfer your programs, accounts, settings and data from the disk image of your present ' C: ' to the new Win 10 installation.

I have done this a couple of times- years ago - with consderable success. Often even the licenses of programs were transferred- not all. A few needed reinstalling.

Don't use that for really big programs or security software. You can select what is transferred.

Yeah ur right, it was from a Laptop that itself was unable to update so I know this problem isn't hardware related as its the same when I ported over to my new PC. Its a 10 yo Ivy Bridge lappie that was originally on Win8, that got updated to Win8.1, then thru subsequent versions of Win10 until this 20H2. Since I'm not using that laptop anymore might as well reuse back the legit Windows and save me that cost.

Its also went thru a storage change from HDD to 128GB SSD and now this 256GB SSD. I used Macrium to clone that 128GB and port it installed new to the 256GB. In between it had also went thru multiple Windows hard crashes that could not boot no matter what I did, and I had to reimage the entire partitions back via Macrium.

Here is a better view of my storage partitions. The main SSD is divided to C drive (boot & Win10) and a storage E drive. That E drive was a legacy when I cloned over the previous 128GB SSD partitions.


Updating drivers & security updates seems to have no issues, just cannot update the Win10 to a newer revision.

Thanks for the tip for that Easeus & Laplink. But what do you mean by "big programs or security software" ?

Finally some breakthru success!

After a huge load of updates via WSUS Offline, it somehow managed to force an update to 21H1 now.

Currently it is downloading and installing further updates via Windows Update. I will update futher once my Windows is fully up to date and no longer have that stuck issue.

Thanks so much for your advice eLPuSHeR and also Try3 and dalchina!

Good day.

You are welcome. Now follow Dalchina's advice.

Arrgh! Just when I thought it was okay the problem still remained.

After updating, Windows Updates said I am up to date however it is only for 21H1 as it doesn't find 21H2 nor 22H2.

I tried to manually use 21H2 ISO to upgrade repair its version but again the installation failed at 62%. It seems like the update still did not fix the underlying system issue that prevented from updating as before.

I will attempt to run the WSUS Offline again as I find it weird it did not update the Windows version all the way to 21H2 even tho I selected for option to download; 2004/20H2/21H1/21H2. Is it set in way that I have to go thru incremental versions of WIndows until 21H2 or something? And is there a newer version to update til 22H2?

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dalchina said:

Once you do get it updated, immediately start a routine of creating disk images of at least all your active Win 10 partitions, e.g. with Macrium Reflect (free/paid) + large enough external storage for image file sets.

You can also investigate and tidy up redundant Recovery partitions.

E.g. start with

reagentc /info
from an admin command prompt to discover which one's in use, and confirm state is enabled.

Hint- you can check content of partitions via rt click, Explore with a 3rd party partiiton manager

Using reagentc /info gave me this below. Not too sure what I am supposed to be looking for

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19043.2364]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

Windows RE status: Disabled
Windows RE location:
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: d4e4a652-a6dd-11eb-82b0-d1b3974bf5a4
Recovery image location:
Recovery image index: 0
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

dalchina said:

Hi, if you had a Recovery partition in use, the status would be Enabled, and the location be given by a string including the partition number.

In your case, neither is true.

Umm okay. But what does it mean? Should it be enabled or disabled? And how do I see which partitions are being used?

If I understand correctly, UEFI will have 4 partitions and 3 of which is accounted for so there is a remainder 1 partition but it turns into 4 now

dalchina said:

As far as Win 10 is concerned, forgetting all else, there are two cases where Recovery features still function.

a. Win 10 with the wim file within the C: partition and no Recovery partition. This is relatively unusual and not the default case.
b. Win 10 with the wim file in the Recovery partition and the Recovery partition enabled.

You could try
reagentc /enable
then to check
reagentc /info

Whether this will help with upgrading at all is another matter. Unlikely I think.

Your other 3 partitions of interest are 99MB, 16MB and about 126GB.

It is curious that, having aparently upgraded, that you don't have a functional Recovery partition.
Please post a screenshot of your Update History.
It is also odd that having upgraded thus far you can't upgrade further. There shouldn't be a safeguard hold as your hardware seems relatively new- and anyway using an iso to manually upgrade typically bypassess a safeguard hold.


- with exactly what error message?

If you mean Recovery partition, the Disk Manage said it is healthy


Here is the Update history



And here is when I tried upgrade repair with 22H2 ISO. At around 61-62%

It will crash back to Windows and show this message