Fails to update to windows 1703

Barnaby44 said:

Hello Bree suggested I should start a new thread.............
My W10 updates all "offers" except for feature update to windows 10 version 1703?
It has had several tries at updating it but fails each time, while other updates come in and are completed.

Good! Where the automatic upgrade via Windows Update fails a manual in-place upgrade can sometimes succeed. Use the Media Creation Tool to 'Make media for another PC' and download the .iso. Double-click on it to mount it then run the Setup it contains to start the upgrade. Try turning off any 3rd-party AV before you upgrade.

Download Windows 10 ISO File

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

This may also fail, but at least it will report a reason and an error code. If so, post the results here for further diagnosis.

Your screenshot seems to keep disappearing :) but the glimpse I got of it suggests one possible cause of failure. You show two recovery partitions, the first at 11.72GB would appear to be an OEM restore partition. The second partition is C: and the third would appear to be the Windows 10 recovery partition. At 450MB this may be a little too small for the upgrade to complete successfully. If the in-place upgrade points to this as your problem then enlarging it with Disk Management or MiniTool Partition Wizard should help. Mine is 845MB.

If you have to take this step, it would be very sensible to make a system image of the current system before beginning. Most here recommend Macrium Reflect for that.

Thanks Bree will do.

One thing, looking back at the history I can see the first cumulative update KB4013429 installed first time straight off. However the next Cumulative downloading cumulative update KB4015438 manually didn't and tried many times to update, 23 times so far. A security update occurred and it has not tried since but now the feature update as I have said keeps failing.

So Bree there may be more to fix which hopefully doing your manual suggestion will get sorted.

Best

Hi, your partition structure would be the first thing I'd consider.

I presume your PC uses legacy BIOS (not UEFI) - a typical size of the recovery partition is 500Mb- you have one of 450Mb.

Now, sometimes Windows, when upgrading - and this includes in-place upgrades- creates a second recovery partition.
You have no unallocated space on your system disk.

I would suggest you shrink C: by, say, 1Gb, which should give you plenty of space.
You can do that by using an appropriate partition manager as mentioned above.

Now, a good way to do this is to download and save a Win 10 iso. If you have that you can
- potentially upgrade multiple PCs
- reattempt the upgrade if ti fails without downloading it again
- create a bootable medium you can use for repairs if necessary.

Also before upgrading, create a full disk image by way of protecting your PC, your time, your data and in the worst case your sanity.
(E.g. Macrium reflect (free) + external storage for disk image sets, option Backup, Windows Backup).
A few people find their PCs are unbootable after upgrading.

You may also want to run a disk check
(e.g. Hard Disk Sentinel (trial) )

then run
chkdsk C: \F
from an admin (elevated) command prompt to check your file system.

This makes sure there should be no disk or file structure problems. (Running chkdsk is routine maintenance).

When attempting the upgrade, disconnect any unnecessary peripherals, esp. wireless.

For more, there are log files you can inspect to determine the cause of failure.

1. Partition- Shrink C: by, say, 1Gb. (You can always change that again later).
You can install a partition manager such as Minitool or Aomei's, set up the shrink which I think you will fin will need a restart to complete.

2. Disk imaging:
Here's my write-up on the value of disk imaging.

Everyone who contributes regularly here uses and recommends disk imaging.

If you use it, you can recover from:
- a failed disk drive (restore to a new one)
- ransomware (which encrypts your disk)
- user error
- unrecoverable problems from failed updates to problem programs
- unbootable PC (hardware faults aside)

Images also act as a full backup- you can extract files too.

You can even use images to help you move more easily and quickly to a new PC.
Can be used with Laplink software to transfer your build automatically to another PC

Imaging can even help you sleep at night knowing you have a second chance.

Creating disk images lets you restore Windows and all your imaged disks and partitions to a previous working state from compressed copies you have created and kept updated on external storage media, quickly and probably without technical help.

Many here recommend Macrium Reflect (free) as a good robust solution and more reliable than some others. It’s
- more feature rich
- more flexible
- more reliable
than Windows Backup and Restore system images.

It's well supported with videos, help and a responsive forum.

There are other such programs, free/commercial, some with simpler interfaces, but Macrium R is one of the most robust and reliable.

How long does it take?
SSD+ USB3 - maybe 15 mins for the first system image, less thereafter
HDD + USB2 - maybe 40-50 mins
That’s with little personal data, few programs installed.
- of course, depends how much you have on C:
(You can and should image all your partitions and disks)

Once you've created your first image, keep it updated with e.g. differential imaging- which images just changes from the first image, more quickly, and creates a smaller image file.

You need a backup medium - say- twice as large as the total amount of data you are imaging to keep a reasonable number of differential images. This will vary dependent on the number of images you keep, so is only a rough practical guide.

Some comment that system restore isn't always reliable; if it works and solves the problem, great. But sometimes restores won't work or fail. And of course a restore point only covers a limited number of aspects of the system. That’s where disk imaging comes in.

(There's a tutorial on Macrium in the Tutorials section, and a couple of videos in the user videos section on this forum)
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials
https://www.tenforums.com/general-su...tml#post355809


3. When you have your iso (not on your system disk! and preferably as a bootable DVD/USB disk for future use, try upgrading again.