Updates fail (e.g. KB4534273 -Err 0x800703f1) - COMPONENTS hive corrupt Win10 Pro

[JohnH]

Hi,

PROBLEM:

Updates fail:

2020-01 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1809 for x64-based Systems (KB4534273) -Error 0x800703f1

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 1809 for x64 (KB4486153) -Error 0x800703f1

No matter how often I try.

MY TESTING:

In multiuser mode:

> SFC /scannow

fails with:

Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.

In Safe Mode or Win RE

Fails with message that configuration registry database is corrupt.


> DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /scanHealth

gives:

[== 5.0% ]
Error: 1009

The configuration registry database is corrupt.

Checking the CBS and DISM Log files s7uggest to me that the "Windows\system32\config\COMPONENTS" database is corrupt.


I have no idea how to repair this so would love your help.

Thanks,

John

SFCFix output below and CBS.zip is attached.


SFCFix version 3.0.2.1 by niemiro.
Start time: 2020-01-15 16:55:28.423
Microsoft Windows 10 Build 17763 - amd64
Not using a script file.


AutoAnalysis::
WARNING: Failed to check store directories with return code 1 and error code ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND. COMPONENTS hive may be corrupt.

WARNING: Components hive failed load test and may be corrupt.

WARNING: Components hive failed final reload test with error code ERROR_BADDB and may be corrupt.


SUMMARY: No corruptions were detected.
AutoAnalysis:: directive completed successfully.


Successfully processed all directives.
SFCFix version 3.0.2.1 by niemiro has completed.
Currently storing 0 datablocks.
Finish time: 2020-01-15 17:16:44.422
----------------------EOF-----------------------

 

[JohnH]

SOLVED MY OWN PROBLEM!!

In my previous post I forgot to say that the PC (not mine) had no system restore points, no registry backups and my attempt to Refresh Windows (even from a new Windows Pro download) failed to complete.

Since ‘regedit’ or any other Windows tools failed to load (or scan) the COMPONENTS hive because it was corrupted, I searched the Web for any software which might read a hive file (as this is). I discovered an amazing tool called ‘RegFileExport‘ (by Nir Sofer) [RegFileExport - Export offline Registry file to .reg file of Windows] which will read a Windows Hive file and produce a text (.reg) file of its contents. So I ran this on my ‘system32\config\COMPONENTS’ file to produce a ‘COMPONENTS.reg’ file. Amazingly, as the author says, ‘RegFileExport‘ seems to properly handle Hive files which Windows software says is corrupt ;-)

[I was concerned that the file produced by ‘RegFileExport’ printed ‘hex(3)’ in its output, where the other Windows (.reg) files I had seen simply printed ‘hex’. So I used an editor (‘vi’ on MacOS) to replace each ‘hex(3)’ by ‘hex’ but, on later reflection, that might not have been necessary.]

I then discovered someone (Sergey Babkins) had written a Windows Power Shell script to create a brand new registry hive and populate its contents from a ‘.reg’ file. See:

How to create a brand new registry hive

(I knew nothing about Powershell scripts, so it took me a while to get this to work correctly!)

I then used this script to create a new COMPONENTS hive from the ‘COMPONENTS.reg’ file I had previously produced by editing the ‘COMPONENTS.txt’ file (as above) and copied my new hive to system32\config\COMPONENTS.

‘SFC /scannow’ now completed 100% but said some files were corrupted.

Running ‘DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth’ also completed 100% and said that errors found were fixed. Running ‘SFC /scannow’ again now gave no errors

I was gobsmacked that reconstructing the corrupt COMPONENTS file in this way actually worked first time - totally magic!

Other outstanding updates now installed but KB4534273 still failed but with a different error.

I solved this by updating directly to Windows 10 1909 (13/1/20) using a stand-alone updater but I’m confident that none of this would be worked had I not been able to fix the corrupted COMPONENTS store.

Hopefully this might help someone else stuck with frustrating Windows component store problems. I’ll go back to my less stressful life as a mainly Mac user ;-)

 

[Sysnative Windows Update]

Thanks for letting us know.