Upgrade from build 10061 to 10074 fails (Inaccessible Boot Device)

0x6A7232 · 15 May 2015

Hi all,

I keep getting the Inaccessible Boot Device error when trying to upgrade from 10061 to 10074. I *think* this may be due to my symlinking the \Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository folder to another partition on the same hard disk.

Why did I do such a thing? Well, that folder is 16 GB sitting pretty all by itself, plus Win 10, plus the update file(s), plus the new install, plus the temp files as stuff is transferred, and my 48.7 GB partition that I created is too full to update without that folder residing somewhere else.

I just wish MS had bothered to say "hey, you will need about 60 GB on the Win 10 partition if you want to actually use it as your daily driver"... I started with a ~20GB partition, resized it several times, and I'll be dipped if I have to go move to the 'left' and reconfigure all of my partitions yet again...

I already have:

1) symlinked my documents, pictures, videos, music etc to my data partition

2) told Steam to use the Steam library on my data partition

3) erased older Win 10 builds + drive cleanup of previous restore points, log files, etc, etc.

4) compressed the Win 10 partition (using the OS, not 3rd party)

I can't move the FileRepository folder back into the Win 10 partition or I won't be able to update due to a lack of ~10GB of drive space to play around in.

What do I do?

EDIT: Currently, I have 17.0 GB free on the Win 10 partition. I believe there's a Win 10 10074 update sitting in there... $Windows.~BT is there but only 200 MB, RecoveryImage is ~3 GB.

EDIT2: If I disable hibernation I can get ~4.75 GB back from the hiberfil.sys file. I still don't think that will allow a successful update if I move the FileRepository back though... maybe it could, now that I have compression enabled on the drive.

Does anyone have a way of getting an estimate for how much disk space Win 10 needs to upgrade?

banger · 17 May 2015

I am having the same problem but I tried to update from a mounted ISO on another drive. Found a folder taking up 25 gb of my 50 gb drive space so just deleted it and trying again from windows update.

0x6A7232 · 17 May 2015

banger said:

I tried to update from a mounted ISO on another drive.

How?

banger · 17 May 2015

Download 10074 ISO x86 or x64 version, save to another drive, while in Win 10 right click on appropriate version in file explorer and click mount. Once mounted run setup.exe

Edit: Allow 25gb free space for install I have just extended my partition again, now will have to delete backups and start again as Windows backup doesn't like partition size changes.

topgundcp · 17 May 2015

Why did I do such a thing? Well, that folder is 16 GB sitting pretty all by itself

I found it very interesting that you have such a huge FileRepository Folder as I look in mine, its size is only ~700 MB.
Surfing around in the internet, there some people who are having the same problem as yours and was advised not to remove the contents of this folder.

Every single Driver installed in Windows will first be placed in this Folder so perhaps some of the Drivers are old and become orphaned and since Windows 10TP_1074 is just my test Windows, sit by itself in a separate SSD and here's what I do to reduce the size of this folder.

First, make a backup image using : Macrium Reflect Free
From Admin command prompt, create a folder called Drivers on another Drive or USB stick type:
Dism /Online /Export-Driver /Destination:X:\Drivers
where X is the drive to save the current installed drivers.
Delete the contents of FileRepository Folder. Skip those that cannot be deleted.
Copy back the contents of the backup in Drivers folder to FileRepository

The FileRepository is now reduced to 352MB from ~700MB as shown:

Upgrade from build 10061 to 10074 fails (Inaccessible Boot Device)-2015-05-17_15-22-51.png

In addition, If you have Windows Search option turned on. The Search Index (Windows.edb) database can grow up to many GB's.
Use this link to clean it up: Windows.edb file in Windows 8

NOTE: The way I did to clean up the FileRepository was just my testing and not sure if any body has done it. So try it at your own risk. FYI, I've done it and nothing is broken.

EDIT: The above just to answer your question but why don't you just do a fresh install of Windows 10 build 10074 which will be a lot cleaner and avoid instability as I saw lots of people are having.

0x6A7232 · 17 May 2015

topgundcp said:

EDIT: The above just to answer your question but why don't you just do a fresh install of Windows 10 build 10074 which will be a lot cleaner and avoid instability as I saw lots of people are having.

I know. I just hate setting everything (programs settings, User profile symlinks, etc) back up again. :headdesk:

Thanks for all the replies so far, looks to be helpful, I'll try soon and post back.

EDIT: Huge size is probably due to Windows attempting repeatedly to install nVidia drivers, which fail because my GT 540M is Toshiba - branded, so only Toshiba drivers will work. I modified the .inf to get it to install, but then a new version came out and Windows update started installing that again and again. There was another driver that did that too, can't remember which one.

banger · 17 May 2015

I too hate setting up everything again. I have a FileRepository of 33GB, an effective way of cleaning this store up other than deleting would be appreciated. Are all these files necessary?

topgundcp · 19 May 2015

banger said:

I too hate setting up everything again. I have a FileRepository of 33GB, an effective way of cleaning this store up other than deleting would be appreciated. Are all these files necessary?

If you don't want to try what I did then use DriverStore Explorer - Home . Right click to run as admin, click on enumerate then you can selectively delete items in the Driver Store.

0x6A7232 · 19 May 2015

Eh, exported with DISM and \drivers is now down to..... 15.6 GB Blah.

I've used RAPR before when I tried to slim down my \DriverStore folder but I put them all back as I thought that that might be why I was getting Inaccessible_boot (I thought maybe I accidentally deleted a storage driver so I copied the DriverStore from my wife's identical laptop).

I'll try slimming it down and then put it back on the Win 10 partition, hopefully that works.

I think why I get the BSOD is because the symlink only works when the drive letter is the same -- e.g., when booted into Win 7, the symlinks in the Win 10 partition became invalid, as Win 7 had assigned a different drive letter to my data partition. When I realized this, I assigned the same drive letter to my data partition in all of my OSes, and then all symlinks always worked, no matter which OS was booted.

Here's the problem: I have no way to change the letter assigned to my data partition by Windows setup when it boots into its pre-install environment, thus making all symlinks invalid, thus meaning the DriverStore\FileRepository directory becomes a dead link for the duration of setup.

EDIT: Here's my drivers (.csv file exported from RAPR, shared on Google Drive, should open up in a Drive spreadsheet).

Drivers.csv - Google Drive

As you can see, I have like two dozen of each of certain drivers (nVidia, Realtek are the worst).

EDIT2: Here is a .csv of the drivers loaded currently by my system. (Nirsoft DriverView)

drivers2.csv - Google Drive

banger · 20 May 2015

Apparently the large size of the Driverstore is a bug from previous builds. MS are aware of it and have updated Disk Cleanup to take account of this fact, but having just tried it in Build 10074 it doesn't work! Also Build 100122 will fail to upgrade if too many drivers are in the store, as it hits an internal limit and rolls back the install. So I have just deleted the contents of FileRepository as I want to see if I can upgrade to 100122 without problem. Fingers crossed, otherwise I will have to selectively restore drivers from a backup.

Tim