Stuck at Version 1511

Laptop is an HP Celeron N3050 with a 32 GB SSD. Rarely used. Works fine.

Winver gives Version 1511, OS build 10586.1176. I am having extreme
troubles installing future versions, due to lack of space on the SSD, even
though I can delete files to get more than 8GB room. Windows Update tells
me I need only 5GB to install the next version (it wants to install 1607),
and if I don't have enough, it tells me to insert a (flash) drive with at
least 10 GB, which I do, and it recognizes, but still no luck. The system
grinds away to install the update, but always comes back saying I need
more room. I've given it room on the SSD and on a falsh drive, but the
update just won't install.

When purchased, it came with the original version of Win10. I bought it
to see if I'd like Win10. Do I? Ehhh...

When I look at Update History, I see the first update listed is:
Feature update Windows 10, version 1607
Failed to install on 2/16/2017

Not sure why it tried to jump from the original version to 1607,
ignoring1511.

Next up the list is:
Windows Malicioua Software Removal Tool for Windows 8, 8.1, 10 and Windows
Server 2012, 2012 R2, 2016 x64 Edition
Successfully installed on 3/6/2017

Going up the list are lots of updates for 1511 that are all successfully
installed. The most recent is:
Update for Windows 10 version 1511 for x64 based Systems (KB4023057)
Successfully installed on 11/3/2017
Funny, I don't see this KB on the Windows 10 Update history list on
support.microsoft.

After that, I see 16 failed install attempts of 1607, all of which are my
attempts at interacting with the update process by providing enough disk
space.

Between purchase of this machine and today, there are other numerous
automatic attempts to install 1607.


When I look at Storage, I'm told:
This PC (C):
25.3GB used out of 29.1GB

USB Drive (D):
64.0KB used out of 14.5GB

Temporary files:
6.72GB with
Previous version of Windows, 5.70GB
Of course, there is a note here that says:
"These files give you the option to go back to your previous version of
Windows. They'll be automatically deleted a month after you upgrade. To
free up space, you can delete them noe."

Well, it's been more than a month, The first update for 1511 was installed
on 4/1/2017.

I can go ahead and delete Previous version regardless, and get to 19.6GB
used out of 29.1GB (9.5GB free), but I still cant' get 1607 installed, and
this 5.70GB keeps coming back with the same message.

As I sit here now, Windows Update says:
Updates are available.
Feature update to Windows 10, version 1703.
Preparing to install update 41%...
I'm just going in circles.

I am willing to do a factory reset and try again, but will this work? If
so, will automatic updates take me directly to version 1709?

Boris wrote:
Laptop is an HP Celeron N3050 with a 32 GB SSD. Rarely used. Works fine.

Winver gives Version 1511, OS build 10586.1176. I am having extreme
troubles installing future versions, due to lack of space on the SSD, even
though I can delete files to get more than 8GB room. Windows Update tells
me I need only 5GB to install the next version (it wants to install 1607),
and if I don't have enough, it tells me to insert a (flash) drive with at
least 10 GB, which I do, and it recognizes, but still no luck. The system
grinds away to install the update, but always comes back saying I need
more room. I've given it room on the SSD and on a falsh drive, but the
update just won't install.

When purchased, it came with the original version of Win10. I bought it
to see if I'd like Win10. Do I? Ehhh...

When I look at Update History, I see the first update listed is:
Feature update Windows 10, version 1607
Failed to install on 2/16/2017

Not sure why it tried to jump from the original version to 1607,
ignoring1511.

Next up the list is:
Windows Malicioua Software Removal Tool for Windows 8, 8.1, 10 and Windows
Server 2012, 2012 R2, 2016 x64 Edition
Successfully installed on 3/6/2017

Going up the list are lots of updates for 1511 that are all successfully
installed. The most recent is:
Update for Windows 10 version 1511 for x64 based Systems (KB4023057)
Successfully installed on 11/3/2017
Funny, I don't see this KB on the Windows 10 Update history list on
support.microsoft.

After that, I see 16 failed install attempts of 1607, all of which are my
attempts at interacting with the update process by providing enough disk
space.

Between purchase of this machine and today, there are other numerous
automatic attempts to install 1607.


When I look at Storage, I'm told:
This PC (C):
25.3GB used out of 29.1GB

USB Drive (D):
64.0KB used out of 14.5GB

Temporary files:
6.72GB with
Previous version of Windows, 5.70GB
Of course, there is a note here that says:
"These files give you the option to go back to your previous version of
Windows. They'll be automatically deleted a month after you upgrade. To
free up space, you can delete them noe."

Well, it's been more than a month, The first update for 1511 was installed
on 4/1/2017.

I can go ahead and delete Previous version regardless, and get to 19.6GB
used out of 29.1GB (9.5GB free), but I still cant' get 1607 installed, and
this 5.70GB keeps coming back with the same message.

As I sit here now, Windows Update says:
Updates are available.
Feature update to Windows 10, version 1703.
Preparing to install update 41%...
I'm just going in circles.

I am willing to do a factory reset and try again, but will this work? If
so, will automatic updates take me directly to version 1709?

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...(v=ws.10).aspx

"When a failure occurs in Windows Setup, review the entries
in the Setuperr.log file, then the Setupact.log file, and
then other log files as appropriate."

This log file is used during the initial copy-files stage.

C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log 19,068,030 bytes --- "correct" timestamp

Subsequent stages dump here. Have a look for a setuperr too.
The logs should open in Notepad or Wordpad and are text. How many
logs, and where they are, their relative size, may hint at
how far along it got.

C:\Windows\Panther\setupact.log 75,017,518 bytes --- Redmond time

The triage steps go something like this.

1) Review video driver situation. Is there a WDDM driver
suitable for the job ? What I do here, is a "force" install
using a downloaded ISO file. If no video driver is available
within Windows, I manually install the "good" driver I managed
to find myself, over top of the Basic Display Adapter driver.
For an Intel driver, it might mean using downloadcenter on intel.com.
Yes, the site is very annoying, and the odds of figuring out the
driver situation are poor.

2) Check that WinSXS is in good shape. From an Administrator
Command Prompt, the three commands are (sequentially):

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

/CheckHealth - This switch option only checks to see if a component
corruption marker is already present in the registry.
It is just a quick way to see if corruption currently
exists, and to inform you if there is corruption. It
does not fix anything or create a log.
This should be finished almost instantaneous.

/ScanHealth - This switch option does not fix any corruption.
It only checks for component store corruption and records
that corruption to the log file.

This is useful for only logging what, if any, corruption
exists. This should take around 5-10 minutes to finish.

/RestoreHealth - This switch option checks for component store corruption,
records the corruption to the log file, and FIXES the
image corruption using Windows Update. This should take
around 10-15 minutes up to a few hours to finish depending
on the level of corruption.

Once WinSXS is healthy, check System32 with this. Since
this can present "resistance", treat this as an optional step :-)

sfc /scannow

That command frequently needs a reference file set. You would
want it to match the release you're running now. This is probably
an entire topic unto itself, so let's just hope the
previous command works.

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows

I have to mention those two command concepts, to give
a more thorough treatment of "providing a good baseline".

3) Clean out SoftwareDistribution, while offline and after
a fresh reboot. If using Wifi, switch off the router or
something, or turn off the radio on your device. With no
networking, Windows Update cannot mess with stuff while
you're cleaning house.

In the TroubleShooting control panel, you can use the
Windows Update troubleshooter, to clean out SoftwareDistribution.
The script on this page, shows the four services the Troubleshooter
would be switching off, before it cleans SoftwareDistribution.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html

*******

There is C:\$Windows.~BT, which is a staging area for
installs. You could clean that out.

The C:\$Windows.~WS is used for the creation of media.
Perhaps MediaCreationTool uses it as a staging area.
Normally, Windows zaps the folder not being used at the
moment, so an attempt to create media, deletes the contents
of ~BT, and an attempt to upgrade the OS would zap ~WS
if anything was in it.

You want to use CleanMgr.exe, and use the system button in
the dialog (does a second scan) to identify things to remove.
As it can remove a Windows.old if one is still there.

I don't know the eMMC layout all that well, so cannot advise
what the overlay file system method is "today" on the thing.
An approach at one time, was to keep the install.wim compressed
on the eMMC drive, and write any modified files as an overlay.
Microsoft has changed aspects of that, which is why the space
required to do an install has changed from one OS release
to another. Using CleanMgr presents the safest way to clean
out the file system, without being too aggressive.

Note that one of the CleanMgr options, causes compression
of less-used files in WinSXS, which is a giant waste of time
and can take three hours or more to complete. Most other
CleanMgr options just delete stuff. If your CleanMgr takes
three hours to run, it's compressing a portion of files in
WinSXS. Of course, after the OS Upgrade, all that work will be
wasted, as the compressed files will then be sitting in
Windows.old (and deleted in ten days or less by the OS).

4) At this point, you can go back to trying Windows Update
for your OS upgrade. But I think I'd just download an ISO
for the current release, mount it as a virtual DVD (Windows
has its own ISO mounter, so no third party one is needed).
Run Setup.exe off the virtual DVD, while Win10 is booted.

The first phase file-copy step, gets all the necessary files
off the virtual DVD drive, so there is no need for the user
to re-mount the ISO on subsequent reboots. The installer uses
the files it copied, to finish the job.

This is not without its risks. You might still end up doing
a Factory refresh to get out of this mess. Doing tablets is
probably the most demanding thing the OS Upgrade installer
ever has to face. And in the past, it was more likely to fail
than to succeed (i.e. if the user needed to meddle with it,
something might actually have been "blocking" the install).
But they're getting better at it, in terms of not bricking
things. Brickage for a tiny device like that, would probably
be your worst nightmare - you might be able to boot a Win10
installer USB stick, to try to bring it back, but I don't
know the steps involved. I don't own anything with 32GB
eMMC, so have no hands on experience doing stuff like that.
Can you backup such a device with Macrium, and restore it,
with any chance of success ? Dunno. These are topics only
ownership of such a device would reveal.

It's too bad the installer couldn't just come out and
say what the problem is. For all the whizzy "research"
Microsoft does, not much of it involves working with
the user to resolve problems. And who wants to wait
six months for them to data mine and fix millions of
machines in one go ? I certainly don't. As a test, I've
waited for certain problems to be fixed, and... I guess
I just wasn't patient enough :-/ Your machine has slipped
too far back as it is. And it doesn't look like their
whizzy approach has done a damn thing for you.

Paul

Paul wrote in news
Boris wrote:
Laptop is an HP Celeron N3050 with a 32 GB SSD. Rarely used. Works
fine.

Winver gives Version 1511, OS build 10586.1176. I am having extreme
troubles installing future versions, due to lack of space on the SSD,
even though I can delete files to get more than 8GB room. Windows
Update tells me I need only 5GB to install the next version (it wants
to install 1607), and if I don't have enough, it tells me to insert a
(flash) drive with at least 10 GB, which I do, and it recognizes, but
still no luck. The system grinds away to install the update, but always
comes back saying I need more room. I've given it room on the SSD and
on a falsh drive, but the update just won't install.

When purchased, it came with the original version of Win10. I bought
it to see if I'd like Win10. Do I? Ehhh...

When I look at Update History, I see the first update listed is:
Feature update Windows 10, version 1607
Failed to install on 2/16/2017

Not sure why it tried to jump from the original version to 1607,
ignoring1511.

Next up the list is:
Windows Malicioua Software Removal Tool for Windows 8, 8.1, 10 and
Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, 2016 x64 Edition
Successfully installed on 3/6/2017

Going up the list are lots of updates for 1511 that are all
successfully installed. The most recent is:
Update for Windows 10 version 1511 for x64 based Systems (KB4023057)
Successfully installed on 11/3/2017
Funny, I don't see this KB on the Windows 10 Update history list on
support.microsoft.

After that, I see 16 failed install attempts of 1607, all of which are
my attempts at interacting with the update process by providing enough
disk space.

Between purchase of this machine and today, there are other numerous
automatic attempts to install 1607.


When I look at Storage, I'm told:
This PC (C):
25.3GB used out of 29.1GB

USB Drive (D):
64.0KB used out of 14.5GB

Temporary files:
6.72GB with
Previous version of Windows, 5.70GB
Of course, there is a note here that says:
"These files give you the option to go back to your previous version of
Windows. They'll be automatically deleted a month after you upgrade.
To free up space, you can delete them noe."

Well, it's been more than a month, The first update for 1511 was
installed on 4/1/2017.

I can go ahead and delete Previous version regardless, and get to
19.6GB used out of 29.1GB (9.5GB free), but I still cant' get 1607
installed, and this 5.70GB keeps coming back with the same message.

As I sit here now, Windows Update says:
Updates are available.
Feature update to Windows 10, version 1703.
Preparing to install update 41%...
I'm just going in circles.

I am willing to do a factory reset and try again, but will this work?
If so, will automatic updates take me directly to version 1709?

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...(v=ws.10).aspx

"When a failure occurs in Windows Setup, review the entries
in the Setuperr.log file, then the Setupact.log file, and
then other log files as appropriate."

This log file is used during the initial copy-files stage.

C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log 19,068,030 bytes ---
"correct" timestamp

Subsequent stages dump here. Have a look for a setuperr too.
The logs should open in Notepad or Wordpad and are text. How many
logs, and where they are, their relative size, may hint at
how far along it got.

When clicked on these log files, Notebook opened, but gave Access Denied
when loading file. A PropertiesSecurityAdvancedContinueAddSelect a
principaltype in BorisOKFull controlOK on the log files gave access,.
but had to be done for each log file, and the ability to access was
removed each time a new log was built.

The setuperr.log had three errors, all related to not enough disk space.


C:\Windows\Panther\setupact.log 75,017,518 bytes ---
Redmond time

The triage steps go something like this.

1) Review video driver situation. Is there a WDDM driver
suitable for the job ? What I do here, is a "force" install
using a downloaded ISO file. If no video driver is available
within Windows, I manually install the "good" driver I managed
to find myself, over top of the Basic Display Adapter driver.
For an Intel driver, it might mean using downloadcenter on
intel.com. Yes, the site is very annoying, and the odds of figuring
out the driver situation are poor.

2) Check that WinSXS is in good shape. From an Administrator
Command Prompt, the three commands are (sequentially):

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

/CheckHealth - This switch option only checks to see if a component
corruption marker is already present in the registry.
It is just a quick way to see if corruption currently
exists, and to inform you if there is corruption. It
does not fix anything or create a log.
This should be finished almost instantaneous.

/ScanHealth - This switch option does not fix any corruption.
It only checks for component store corruption and
records that corruption to the log file.

This is useful for only logging what, if any,
corruption exists. This should take around 5-10
minutes to finish.

/RestoreHealth - This switch option checks for component store
corruption,
records the corruption to the log file, and FIXES
the image corruption using Windows Update. This
should take around 10-15 minutes up to a few hours
to finish depending on the level of corruption.

All attempts at above three commands gave this type error::
Error 87: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth, option unknown


Once WinSXS is healthy, check System32 with this. Since
this can present "resistance", treat this as an optional step :-)

sfc /scannow

That command frequently needs a reference file set. You would
want it to match the release you're running now. This is probably
an entire topic unto itself, so let's just hope the
previous command works.

"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."


sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows

I have to mention those two command concepts, to give
a more thorough treatment of "providing a good baseline".

3) Clean out SoftwareDistribution, while offline and after
a fresh reboot. If using Wifi, switch off the router or
something, or turn off the radio on your device. With no
networking, Windows Update cannot mess with stuff while
you're cleaning house.

Yep. Done many times, with each try.


In the TroubleShooting control panel, you can use the
Windows Update troubleshooter, to clean out SoftwareDistribution.
The script on this page, shows the four services the Troubleshooter
would be switching off, before it cleans SoftwareDistribution

Yes. Stops and restarts four services, and detected "One of more of
Windows Update components were configured incorrctly. Fixed."

This error shows up after every new attempt to update..

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...indows-update-
window
s-10-a.html

*******

There is C:\$Windows.~BT, which is a staging area for
installs. You could clean that out.

Deleting Previous Versions of Windows in the StorageTemporary files
window deletes C:\$WINDOWS.~BT folder. Of course, it reappears after
every 'update' attempt.


The C:\$Windows.~WS is used for the creation of media.
Perhaps MediaCreationTool uses it as a staging area.
Normally, Windows zaps the folder not being used at the
moment, so an attempt to create media, deletes the contents
of ~BT, and an attempt to upgrade the OS would zap ~WS
if anything was in it.

You want to use CleanMgr.exe, and use the system button in
the dialog (does a second scan) to identify things to remove.
As it can remove a Windows.old if one is still there.

Less than 1/2 GB is identified to delete.


I don't know the eMMC layout all that well, so cannot advise
what the overlay file system method is "today" on the thing.
An approach at one time, was to keep the install.wim compressed
on the eMMC drive, and write any modified files as an overlay.
Microsoft has changed aspects of that, which is why the space
required to do an install has changed from one OS release
to another. Using CleanMgr presents the safest way to clean
out the file system, without being too aggressive.

Note that one of the CleanMgr options, causes compression
of less-used files in WinSXS, which is a giant waste of time
and can take three hours or more to complete. Most other
CleanMgr options just delete stuff. If your CleanMgr takes
three hours to run, it's compressing a portion of files in
WinSXS. Of course, after the OS Upgrade, all that work will be
wasted, as the compressed files will then be sitting in
Windows.old (and deleted in ten days or less by the OS).

4) At this point, you can go back to trying Windows Update
for your OS upgrade. But I think I'd just download an ISO
for the current release, mount it as a virtual DVD (Windows
has its own ISO mounter, so no third party one is needed).
Run Setup.exe off the virtual DVD, while Win10 is booted.

The first phase file-copy step, gets all the necessary files
off the virtual DVD drive, so there is no need for the user
to re-mount the ISO on subsequent reboots. The installer uses
the files it copied, to finish the job.

This is not without its risks. You might still end up doing
a Factory refresh to get out of this mess. Doing tablets is
probably the most demanding thing the OS Upgrade installer
ever has to face. And in the past, it was more likely to fail
than to succeed (i.e. if the user needed to meddle with it,
something might actually have been "blocking" the install).
But they're getting better at it, in terms of not bricking
things. Brickage for a tiny device like that, would probably
be your worst nightmare - you might be able to boot a Win10
installer USB stick, to try to bring it back, but I don't
know the steps involved. I don't own anything with 32GB
eMMC, so have no hands on experience doing stuff like that.
Can you backup such a device with Macrium, and restore it,
with any chance of success ? Dunno. These are topics only
ownership of such a device would reveal.

It's too bad the installer couldn't just come out and
say what the problem is. For all the whizzy "research"
Microsoft does, not much of it involves working with
the user to resolve problems. And who wants to wait
six months for them to data mine and fix millions of
machines in one go ? I certainly don't. As a test, I've
waited for certain problems to be fixed, and... I guess
I just wasn't patient enough :-/ Your machine has slipped
too far back as it is. And it doesn't look like their
whizzy approach has done a damn thing for you.

Roger that.

Thanks.


Paul

So much for the Windows Update method on this machine. I will probably
download an ISO for the current release, with the instructions he

http://tinyurl.com/y96k9zbu

snip of great post.....

Paul,

File this under the "For what it's worth department":

Since you said you haven't experimented with the small tablets with eMMC, I
thought I would throw this tidbit out to you so that when you do, you may
find this helpful.

I'm assuming a tablet with a (micro) USB jack as the only connection as
typically is the case on most tablets. You will need a USB OTG (USB On the
Go) connector to act as a host so other USB devices such as flash drives,
keyboards, etc. can be connected to them. I use an Amazon Basics, powered
USB hub so I can make multiple connections with a USB DVD/CD RW, flash drive
and keyboard and mouse to do an upgrade. The OTG connector plugs into the
tablet micro port, the the USB hub plugs into the other standard USB port.

I'll emphasize that you really should use a powered USB hub to insure
everything connected works as expected. I've had to reinstall Win8 (several
times) on my Asus MC400 Smart Tab while exploring if it can be upgraded to
Win10. It can't but that’s a whole other story. Makes experimenting way
less stressful when you have a keyboard and mouse instead of trying to make
touch screen selections on a small tablet.

As for getting an OTG connector, stop by one of your cell phone dealers at
the mall and ask to buy one from them ($1). They use them all the time to
transfer files from cell phones when a customer upgrades. Amazon, eBay and
probably many others carry the device and they come in several
configurations. There's also the option of buying a SanDisk Ultra USB
flash drive with micro connector on one end and standard USB connector on
the other so you have the flash storage for the install files plus the
built-in OTG connectivity.

Bob S.