Fall Creators Update v. 1709 Keeps Restoring to Previous Version

orlando1974 · 08 Nov 2017

Hi, I've never had a problem updating my Win 10 Pro up til now. But for some reason, I am unable to go from current version 1703 to latest version 1709. I'm using the Windows 10 Update Assistant - which downloads the files and runs the installation. The computer then signs out and restarts - I see the blue Windows screen with the % going up... but once it reaches 18%, it flips to a black restart screen that tells me it's "Attempting to Recover..." followed by "Restoring previous version of Windows..."

And what a long process to try again all over to get to this point.

I have alot of programs installed on my PC and don't want to lose any of these... Has someone else encountered this issue, or can provide an alternate way of installing?

As a side note I have less than 12GB remaining on my C: would this be the problem????

Word Man · 08 Nov 2017

orlando1974 said:

...As a side note I have less than 12GB remaining on my C: would this be the problem????

It's very likely that it is.

Do you have a windows.old folder on your C drive and how much space does it occupy? Can't remember if checking that requires setting explorer to show hidden or protected operating system files/folders or not.

orlando1974 · 08 Nov 2017

Thanks for quick reply... i think windows.old gets created once the update is complete, but not sure. All i know is it's not there - here is my file/folder structure with everything exposed:

Fall Creators Update v. 1709 Keeps Restoring to Previous Version-temp-win-update.png

Word Man · 08 Nov 2017

Understood. I asked on off chance that a prior failed update left something there.

Have you done a Disk Cleanup (including system files option)? I think 12 GB is not much room for this.

f14tomcat · 08 Nov 2017

orlando1974 said:

Thanks for quick reply... i think windows.old gets created once the update is complete, but not sure. All i know is it's not there - here is my file/folder structure with everything exposed:

Space available could easily be the issue. You can delete that hiberfil.sys, which will also turn off Fast Startup, and if needed turn it back on after all is done.

Don't just try to delete it, use the proper command. At an Admin Command prompt, copy and paste the command, and hit enter. You will instantly get back 13GB of space. Try your update again. To turn hibernation back on, use the second command.

powercfg -h off

to turn back on:

powercfg -h on

orlando1974 · 08 Nov 2017

Brilliant! In doing so I was able to have 20GB of free space, at least temporarily. Rebooting seems to have recreated the hiberfil.sys - do i still need to run the command prompt to reactivate it or is it already active if the file is showing?

Also, in looking that the list here, are there folders I can safely delete? I tried manually deleting windows.old but something about SYSTEM wont allow me to get rid of it completely. There are a few hidden folders that start with $ which I don't think were there before - can those be deleted? (even the recycle bin one?)

Fall Creators Update v. 1709 Keeps Restoring to Previous Version-temp-win-update-2.png

Word Man · 08 Nov 2017

If you know that you will not need to revert back to the prior build of Win 10, you can run the extended disk cleanup - here is Brink's tutorial: Open and Use Disk Cleanup in Windows 10

From what I can see, windows.old and the $windows.~WS folders are there to enable rolling back to the prior build.

Unless you have complete disk images from before and after, you may want to wait until you're sure you won't need to roll back or until 10 days have passed after which those 2 folders shoud go away.

I'm going to guess that the major update you just did reset the hiberfil.sys status to default (i.e., re-enabled fast startup) and that's why it reappeared.