Repair Install Windows 10 fails at restart point

Dark Eyes · 28 Jul 2023

I am trying to do a Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade, and have followed Ghot's post Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

I'm on Win10 Pro 22H2, and MCT offerred my that ISO in my default language. I have tried running it from an iso mounted as another drive from my documents folder, and from a USB stick, both with and without the internet connected. It goes through the process until it reaches the stage, where it is on the blue screen and wants to restart, then fails, and goes back to the current windows screen with the failed pop-up window. I have removed Avast antivirus, and have 40GB of space available on the C: drive.

Does anybody have any suggestions about what I can try to make it work?

dalchina · 28 Jul 2023

Welcom to tenforums. Essentially that's an upgrade failure.. and those are really hard to diagnose. You can find example threads.. only a couple of experts were good at tackling those over some days.

You have provided no specs on your PC so I know nothing about what sort of disk(s) you're using.

the failed pop-up window

Is there any message or error number? If so, post the exact text.

History: (so often not provided by posters)
What problem(s) led you to want to do this?

First start with basic integrity checks.
a. Disk check
Crystal Diskinfo (free) - instant result- SMART check- check result for all disks.
b. If ok, from an admin command prompt run
chkdsk c: /scan
c. If ok, likewise run
SFC /SCANNOW
Check that passes.

As for analysing the log files produced:
Start with
setupdiag.exe
(free from MS).

This attempts to pick out key things from the log files and compare against some known cases.
Post the result. Thanks.

For reference:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...upgrade-errors

Dark Eyes · 28 Jul 2023

Thanks for your reply.

I think that the least painful option (for everybody) will be to do a clean install with an up to date to ISO.

dalchina · 28 Jul 2023

First do the first disk check - no use building on sand.

Then, as soon as you have a user account set up and BEFORE you start installing and configuring like crazy, create your first full 3rd party disk image of at least all Windows partitions (e.g. with Macrium Reflect, Aomei Backupper..) saving the image file to large enough external disk.

Keep that image updated e.g. with periodic differential images as you configure your system.

Then, should something go badly wrong, and you have a disk image created before that, you can restore your system (and any imaged partition) to as was, potentially avoiding a clean install.

Many other advantages.

zbook · 28 Jul 2023

An additional option is to have Windows save files and install a fresh version of Windows (custom install)

Custom Install Windows 10

Running setupdiag may explain the failure to repair / upgrade.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...rade/setupdiag

Try3 · 29 Jul 2023

Did you remove all non-essential hardware as suggested by the tutorial?
Repair Install - TenForumsTutorials

Did you follow dalchina's suggestion of running SFC?
SFC - TenForumsTutorials
Use Option 3 including, if there are irreparable errors, going online to run the DISM command explained at the end of Option 3.

If you are going to
Clean Install - TenForumsTutorials
or
Custom Install - TenForumsTutorials
then do, in your preparations, back up your drivers
Backup and Restore Device Drivers - TenForumsTutorials
so you will have the option of restoring them all in one fell swoop.

Best of luck,
Denis