Win10 update will not complete

Hi, the forum prompted you at least twice for your version number- absolutely essential here- so we don't have to keep on asking.

As a next to last resort I was going to attempt an OS repair using my Win10 OS flash drive.

If you were going to attempt an in-place upgrade repair, and if this your flash drive was of an older major build than you have (see above) it would fail as you indicated:
"an unsupported directory"


Please post a screenshot of your Update History thus:

(Tutorials on screenshots available if needed).

0xc1900101 - with another code - may well indicate a driver-related issue. Full code needed.

The attempt at editing the registry for the ProgramFilesDir, ProgramFilesDir(86), ProgramFilesPath and ProgramW6432Dir in the HKEY LOCAL MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version to reflect the value of C:\Program Files & C:\Program Files (86).

Have you at any time modified the path to key system folders?

Please post a screenshot of your partitions using a 3rd party partition manager (not Disk Management) such as Minitool Partition Wizard.

Download and run
setupdiag.exe
free from MS.
Post the result. This attempts to analyse your log files.

I am also unable to restore a previous version.

If you mean 'go back to a previous (major) build, that option is only availabe by default for 10 days after upgrading.
Normally you can uninstall updates (to the current major build).

1.

My version of Windows 10 is 1903

- so you need a 1903 iso file.
You can get one by using the instructions in the tutorial for downloading a Win 10 iso file in the Tutorial section.

(-> use the Heidoc iso downloader tool - free).

2.

I do not seem to be able to get a History update

- wiped by your attempted upgrade, I guess.

3. Partitions look ok, if the order is rather strange. Free space on C: ok.

Possible risk of not being space if a larger Recovery partition is needed- there's one which is redundant.

4. Last screenshot: you can see the build there is 10586 i.e. 1511 - Windows 10 released in November 2015. Your build is from around April, 2019. As I suggested, the boot disk you used is of a much older version than you have installed, hence the path message.

I hope the registry edits you did disn't actually change anything...

Good; hopefully it's the corrrect one. That is, if your installation is x64, the iso has to be for x64. If your O/S's base language is US English, so does that of the iso file.

I believe I have made it clear, if you've been able to understand what I said, that it seems your bootable flash drive is about 8 builds prior to that of 1903. You can only perform an in-place upgrade repair with the same major build. It is not possible to use an earlier major build which is why you got that (misleading) error message.

Hope that's clear.

I really do not want to do a reinstall where much gets erased if at all possible.

Please note there's as much likelihood of losing programs and data as with any Windows 10 upgrade. It's the same mechanism.

That said, any wise and cautious person would already have made a full disk image using e.g. Macrium Reflect (free) as is endlessly recommended on tenforums.

And by way of a further check, run
chkdsk c: /scan
from an admin command prompt.
If that fails, post back.

If it passes , then, as I've told people many many times:
a. rt click the iso file
b. click Mount (available by default)
c. Open new drive letter created in file explorer
d. double click setup.exe

This will hopefully repair your current installation, and enable you to run Windows Update.

The re-install from the ISO file completed. I have since checked the Windows Update and noted that it has a feature update (which I had seen a day or two ago) as opposed to just the statement about missing security & quality fixes. I took a shot and let this update proceed. Unfortunately, after about 1 hour and 45 minutes it ended with the usual crash - page fault. Have also noted that it seems to me that I recently saw that I had 32MB of ram, and now it is indicating only 16GB. These are CORSAIR Vengance 16GB (2 x 8MB) RAM sticks!!! They are showing now in CPU-Z as only 8GB each. MEMTEST shows no issues. Is this possibly the cause of the Page Faults?? With the current update sitting waiting to be executed I may not be able to get any further updates until this issue is solved. Every time I try another suggestion and give it a try it takes about 2 hours to complete with the update to Version 20H2.. I have others but do not want to duplicate if possible. Sorry & THANX!!!

MorganBilbo said:

All I can say is: Back up. I use flash drives, happen to have a few 128GB. I use one for the basic stuff, that goes away by Windows. One for downloads. One for Documents. One for most everything else. And a few smaller flash drives for music, pictures, videos and some special stuff I consider valuable "only to me". But it takes a few extra minutes to save, but the "Documents" flash drive is in the PC and I simply back up the back up files when I save to the base PC. I find this to be cheaper than expensive HDs. And is somewhat more flexible. Hope this helps.

Good that you are making backups but using flash drives is risky. They have a nasty habit of going south without warning. You can get USB external SSD drives pretty cheaply now on Amazon. It would be a good investment.

You probably have two issues- one this page fault (but nothing shown about that in your screenshots) and RAM issues, the other the probably driver/ installed software- related issue indicated by 0xc1900101 for which more information is needed.

The first is a hardware issue of compatibility, integrity, possibly a hardware issue. I'm not going to comment on that further- I suggest you raise the page fault/RAM issue as a separate thread with an appropriate title so relevant people can see it.
Your PC is self-built- are you sure your RAM is fully compatible, and are you using over-clocking?

Once you have resolved that, return to the upgrade issue- good that you've completed the in-place upgrade repair.

Now you have log files related to the feature upgrade error, download and run setupdiag.exe (free from MS) and run that. It attempts to analyse your log files.
Post the result.

Then you can inspect the log files, particularly looking for more on 0xc1900101.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...8-e9c6714349b9

setupact, setuperr.log

Don't just post them for someone to spend time on- look through and try a few searches on what you see.