Upgrade to Windows 10 fails

[SteveDG]

Some weeks ago I upgraded my Win 7 Ultimate PC to Windows 10 Pro using the free upgrade tool that I've used for several other laptops and PC's previously. The upgrade was successful and I spent 15 minutes testing things before I restarted my anti-virus. Once I restarted the AV (Avast Free) the BSOD randomly appeared. I rolled-back the OS to Win 7 and investigated the problem which turned out to be due to the Avast AV so I removed Avast and tried to upgrade to Win 10 again but now the upgrade fails. It downloads updates and then starts installing Windows 10 but gets as far as 2% complete before an error message like "An error has occurred" pops up followed by "Attempting to recover installation" then it rolls back to Win 7. There's no error code that I saw. Once back in Win 7, the PC generally works OK but file permissions are different (Admin user can't access other user's files, web links don't open unless I select IE to open them with, Backup runs but Recoveyr doesn't, etc). In the course of investigating this inability to install Win 10 I've run SFC /scannow which doesn't report any issues, DISM /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth which does report a few errors, component scanner which reports 1 warning, SFCfix and CheckSUR which both report errors that they can't fix and chkdsk which doesn't report any errors. Prior to trying the upgrade the 1st time I checked that the BIOS and the drivers were the latest versions and that Win 7 also had all the available updates applied. Before running the Win 10 install the 2nd time I again disconnected all devices except mouse & keyboard (same as for the 1st time). Given the Win 10 upgrade worked the first time without any problem I 'm thinking the current issues stem from the roll-back.

My system is an i5-760 processor with 16Gb RAM and 1Tb SSD (100Gb free) running Windows 7 Ultimate.

I've attached the output from component scanner, SFCfix, Checksur and the CBS log as a text file version. I have a compressed file for the CBS folder but it's too large to attach.

 

[PeterJ]

Hello and welcome,

Provide the Components Hive
1. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\Config and locate the COMPONENTS file.
2. Please copy this file to your desktop.
Note: If you receive an error that this file is in-use, simply reboot your computer and try again. Note: If you find that you need to reboot and are unable to because this is a server then try Option#2 below.
3. Right-click on this file on your desktop and select Send To...Compressed (zipped) folder. This will create a file named COMPONENTS.ZIP on your desktop.
4. The file will likely be too large to upload here so please upload to Gofile or WeTransfer and just provide the link here.

---

Option#2 (only if you are unable to follow the previous instructions)

• Please download the Freeware RegBak from here: Acelogix Software - Download products
  You will find it at the bottom of the page that the link brings you to.
• Go ahead and install this program and accept all the defaults. After the last install screen the program should open.
• Click the New Backup button. Accept the defaults and simply click Start.
• When it says Finished successfully, click the Close button.
• This will bring you back to the main screen of the program. You will see one entry in this list with the date that you did it. Right-click on this line-item and select Explore Backup...
• This will bring you into the folder where the backup was made. You should see a Users folder and a Windows folder along with a couple other files. Double-click on the Windows folder to open it. Then open the System32 folder and then config folder. You should see around 6 files in here, one of which is named COMPONENTS.
• Copy the COMPONENTS file to your Desktop. If the COMPONENTS file does not exist, please fetch it instead from C:\Windows\System32\config\COMPONENTS.
• Now right-click on the COMPONENTS file that is on your desktop and select Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder.
• Then please upload the zip file (COMPONENTS.zip) to your favourite file sharing website (it will be too big to upload here). Examples of services to upload to are Gofile or WeTransfer and then just provide the link in your reply.
• You can close any open windows you have as well as the RegBak program now.

 

[SteveDG]

Compressed file attached.

 

[PeterJ]

The following fix will remove some Avast remnants.

Step 1:
Warning: This script was written specifically for this user, for use on that particular machine. Do not run this script on another machine.

1. Download the Farbar Recovery Scan Tool and save it to your Desktop:
   64-bit: Downloading Farbar Recovery Scan Tool
   Note: Your antivirus program may report FRST incorrectly as an infection. If so, disable the real-time protection when downloading and running FRST.
   
2. Download the attachment fixlist.txt and save it to your desktop.
3. Right-click on FRST64.exe and select "Run as administrator".
4. Press the Fix button.
5. The tool will now process fixlist.txt.
6. If for some reason the tool needs a restart, please make sure you let the system restart normally. After that let the tool complete its run.
7. When finished, a log called Fixlog.txt will appear in the same directory the tool is run from.
8. Attach the logfile Fixlog.txt to your next reply.

Step 2:
There are also some AVG remnants. Was that program ones installed and removed ?

 

[SteveDG]

Thanks for that.

Yes, AVG was once installed on the PC but was "removed" years ago.

 

[SteveDG]

Farbar tool reports the operation completed successfully.

 

[PeterJ]

Lets remove the AVG remnants also.

Step 1:
Warning: This script was written specifically for this user, for use on that particular machine. Do not run this script on another machine.

1. Download the attachment fixlist.txt and save it to your desktop.
2. Right-click on FRST64.exe and select "Run as administrator".
3. Press the Fix button.
4. The tool will now process fixlist.txt.
5. If for some reason the tool needs a restart, please make sure you let the system restart normally. After that let the tool complete its run.
6. When finished, a log called Fixlog.txt will appear in the same directory the tool is run from.
7. Attach the logfile Fixlog.txt to your next reply.

Step 2:
Install Update with DISM

1. Download the update MSU here: https://download.microsoft.com/down...EFD98858A6A/IE11-Windows6.1-KB2929437-x64.msu
2. Copy the MSU file to a convenient location (such as C:\temp).
3. Click on the Start button and in the search box, type Command Prompt
4. When you see Command Prompt on the list, right-click on it and select Run as administrator
5. When command prompt opens, copy and paste the following commands into it, press enter after each
   
   cd C:\temp
   replace C:\temp with your path if different
   
   expand IE11-Windows6.1-KB2929437-x64.msu -f:* C:\temp
   
   DISM.exe /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\temp\IE11-Windows6.1-KB2929437-x64.cab
   
   
6. You should receive the message:
   The operation completed successfully.
   Make sure to allow the computer to restart if prompted.
   
7. If you receive any other message:
   Post a screenshot of the Commandprompt window.
   Zip and attach the file C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

Please report the result.

 

[SteveDG]

AVG removal reported as completing successfully.

Likewise DISM process reported as completing successfully - see image attached

 

[PeterJ]

Okay. Not sure if dism completed as it shows only 99.6% but we see later.

Install Update with DISM

1. Download the update MSU here: https://download.microsoft.com/down...280E36296DF/IE11-Windows6.1-KB3049563-x64.msu
2. Copy the MSU file to a convenient location (such as C:\temp).
3. Click on the Start button and in the search box, type Command Prompt
4. When you see Command Prompt on the list, right-click on it and select Run as administrator
5. When command prompt opens, copy and paste the following commands into it, press enter after each
   
   cd C:\temp
   replace C:\temp with your path if different
   
   expand IE11-Windows6.1-KB3049563-x64.msu -f:* C:\temp
   
   DISM.exe /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\temp\IE11-Windows6.1-KB3049563-x64.cab
   
   
6. You should receive the message:
   The operation completed successfully.
   Make sure to allow the computer to restart if prompted.
   
7. If you receive any other message:
   Post a screenshot of the Commandprompt window.
   Zip and attach the file C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

 

[SteveDG]

DISM reports KB3049563 successfully added (100%)

 

[SteveDG]

KB4462923 is the last package that DISM reports having an error so repeat the above process for that ?

 

[PeterJ]

Yes please.

 

[SteveDG]

... and done.

DISM reports 100% complete and successfully installed.

Dism /online /cleaanup-image /scanhealth now reports "no errors detected".

What next ? Anything else I should do before trying to install Win 10 again ?

 

[PeterJ]

Start the System Update Readiness Tool (SURT) again.
On completion, attach the logfile C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CheckSUR.log to your next reply.

 

[SteveDG]

File attached. No errors reported.

 

[PeterJ]

Great. Try the upgrade to Windows 10 again and report the result.

 

[SteveDG]

Installation fails still. PC restarted and then displayed the blue installation screen, progress was at 8% last I saw when I can back a minute later the screen said the install was restoring previous OS.

Error code OxC1900101-Ox2000C - "The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during APPLY_IMAGE operation"

Windows Defender was disabled, all devices were disconnected (printers, mass storage, speakers, etc ... only mouse & keyboard were connected, 2nd HDD was disconnected.) I ran CheckSUR after the failed upgrade and the log still says no errors detected. SFC /scannow and DISM /online /cleanup-image / scanhealth don't report any errors. The C:\ SSD has 115Gb free space. Firewall is turned off for both private & public networks. Componet scanner report that the AVG components don't have registry entries (we removed them but the components are still there).

 

[SteveDG]

I tried installing after a clean boot but the upgrade still failed with the same error.

 

[PeterJ]

Warning: This script was written specifically for this user, for use on that particular machine. Do not run this script on another machine.

1. Download the attachment fixlist.txt and save it to your desktop.
2. Right-click on FRST64.exe and select "Run as administrator".
3. Press the Fix button.
4. The tool will now process fixlist.txt.
5. If for some reason the tool needs a restart, please make sure you let the system restart normally. After that let the tool complete its run.
6. When finished, a log called Fixlog.txt will appear in the same directory the tool is run from.
7. Attach the logfile Fixlog.txt to your next reply.

 

[SteveDG]

Done.

There was one error in the log i.e. ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.

FYI - I used the Media Creation Tool to create the Win 10 update USB with 22H2 but the result was the same. The update I was using is a few years old.