Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Fast+Skip Build 17017 for PC Insider

yadayada said:

After numerous failed upgrades due to 0xC1900101, just wanted to report that if you're still on 17004 or earlier, you can also create an ISO of 17017, extract the contents to your harddrive and then mount install.wim using DISM and replace the volsnap.sys in the mounted wim's Windows\system32\drivers folder with the volsnap.sys from your current Window's folder. Then just run setup.exe from your extracted ISO folder. That finally worked for me.

Thanks for that, yadayada. I was thinking of this, but didn't know how to go about it.

@magilla

You may want to try this.

slicendice said:

AHHAAH!!! Can we see a pattern here? I have had stability issues with USB too on many builds, especially with USB3 devices. Windows and USB has always been unreliable since release of Windows 8.0. I doubt it will improve much in the near future, though they may give it a bit of first-aid and then forget about it. :)

Strange thing is it's not just USBs. I had a USB thumb plugged in, but while unplugging it upon running the update again did not solve it. Had it plugged in during my work around. Mine was a interior secondary spinner that I unplugged, then copy the previous volsnap.sys that finally worked.

I had problems with USB thumbs in 8/8.1, but not like this. It was really a plug n play ejection problem that they finally got fixed. Some say that a drive can be unplugged at will, but I always use ejection, for if by chance the system is using it messes them up.

MS needs to get this right. Having enough problems with the new UUP method let alone this. The pattern I see is hardware specific. It's dwindled down to where a work around does not work but for a few. Estimating that 2/3 here don't have a problem at all.

Why the old volsnap.sys works and not the new is beyond me. Is this a system driver that manages drives' drivers overall?

volsnap.sys GSOD BSOD boot loop FIX(S):

I am aware of previous fixes described above but for me none of them worked, although one of the fixes that did eventfully work for me is a derivative from earlier suggestions. Firstly, though an insider, I am no expert and consider myself an enthusiastic amateur. If your scenario/experience of this error is similar to mine then by all means cherry pick from below and best of luck......and of course at your own risk!

Background:
3 x PC's (all W10 64) one on each release i.e. 1st on 16299.15 2nd on (Fast) 17017 3rd on (Skip Ahead (SA)) 17017
The Fast and SA both updated from 17004 to 17017 fine (no issues on 16299.15). The fixes below will only work if you have updated from an earlier installation at some point (look in your C drive for a Windows.old folder) or can access a previous windows 10 version via other media i.e. USB/DVD drive. The 1st FIX only works if you have a system restore point.

IMHO someone at MS made a boob by releasing 17017 to both the Fast and SA together. I know as insiders we can expect issues but again IMHO this volsnap error is at the extreme end of what we could be faced with and if the rational of the separate streams had been followed the error should not have been exposed to both streams at the same time......gross error by the team at MS imho! Enough ranting!

The Fast pc had only one hard disk and the SA had 5, none of which I disconnected whilst troubleshooting. Both fine for hours whist on but once powered off then back on both entered the blue/green loop with no recovery options presenting and blaming volsnap. Pressing Del into the bios and booting to a DVD drive with 16296 (from MS insider download page) to then explore recovery options also resulted in BSOD or GSOD before any options presented themselves. If you can get onto a W10 DVD which offers via "repair my PC" an option via Troubleshoot/Advanced Options to Startup settings, (and you have a System Restore point) then go down below to 1st FIX: NB. my experience of trying all the other options presented failed apart from the Command Prompt....more later - 2nd FIX.

If like me you couldn't get the W10 DVD to offer anything then try this: Boot pc as normal and when able press Del into the bios. Move the year date back a couple of years to 2015 save, exit to reboot back to your DVD drive by either pressing F8 or if that doesn't work whilst in bios make the 1st bootable device your DVD drive. Doing this enabled me to get to Startup Settings as described above. Again, if the Startup Settings option is not displayed (it wasn't on my SA pc) then go below to 2nd FIX.

1st FIX:
from Startup Settings select any safe mode boot option and reboot and hopefully safe mode will load. If it doesn't then it's likely your bios date has defaulted to 2017. Head back into the bios reset to 2015 save, exit and this time safe mode should load. (If you continue to get GSOD or BSOD here try 2nd FIX.) Head to System restore, pick one and run it. This fix worked on my Fast PC as it then booted into a working 17017. Don't shutdown at this point. Head to: C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers and right click on volsnap.sys then properties to change permissions to enable you to rename it volsnapold.sys Google - How to take ownership of files and folders on Windows 10 if you get stuck. Then head to C:\Windows.old\WINDOWS\System32\drivers and copy volsnap.sys from here to C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers If before copying volsnap.sys you hover the mouse over it, it should display what windows ver it's from....mine was from 17004. Reboot and all should be well. Perhaps delete volsnapold.sys and update software that the system restore affected. If this fix doesn't work try 2nd FIX. If it did work see NB. below.

2nd FIX:
My SA pc didn't show via the W10 DVD recovery options the choice of selecting Startup Settings. If you have the same problem then choose the Command Prompt option. Even deliberately crashing during loading 3 times didn't help. Your system drive letter C may have changed particularly if you have disconnected drives so via cmd locate your windows system drive .....mine became E: For this example I'm using ? to represent your drive letter. Next to ? type dir and you should see a two windows folders listed called Windows and Windows.old Type next to ?>copy Windows.old\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\volsnap.sys ?:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers enter and when asked to overwrite type yes then enter. This method for me did not lead to any "take ownership" file issues. Close window and reboot to hopefully 17017. It's worth hovering the mouse back over the new volsnap.sys and check it doesn't show 17017 etc.

NB:
The above is from memory as best recalled so apologies if I've not recalled quite correctly. Also, as others have suggested I would advise disabling system restore as a precaution until the next hopefully fixed Windows 10 Fast or SA ver is released.

Ian

duvl said:

volsnap.sys GSOD BSOD boot loop FIX(S):

I am aware of previous fixes described above but for me none of them worked, although one of the fixes that did eventfully work for me is a derivative from earlier suggestions. Firstly, though an insider, I am no expert and consider myself an enthusiastic amateur. If your scenario/experience of this error is similar to mine then by all means cherry pick from below and best of luck......and of course at your own risk!

Ian

Hi there, Ian/duvl. Welcome to Windows TenForums. Good to have you aboard.

Thanks for your input. Your fixes may help someone out. I can see you put a lot of work into them.

well ive have gotten to where one usb3 the newer easystore WD now works with skippy 17017, so was able to do a backup with Macrium to it.....woke up this morning backup was done...plugged in other one and got the GSOD death again. Will play around some more ....sometimes I wonder how much of my life I have lost rebooting windows over the years.

GSOD PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA volsnap.sys error with my USB 3.0 external HDD has now resolved by copying earlier version (17004) volsnap.sys to new 17017 version.