If win 8-> 8.1 keeps failing, will I have problems going from win 8 -> 10?

D

doug_7506

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I've tried several times to get my win 8 pro installation to update to win 8.1 pro, but everytime I try, the update fails at Setup 82%. I get the install Error code 0xc1900101-0x20003. Then if I keep trying windows will eventually become unstable and i'll have to reinstall windows due to a recurring BSOD Critical Process Died. I've spent way more than i have available right now.

So i've decided to give up for now an just run win 8 until win 10 comes out in three weeks. I am just wondering if the win 10 installer will be less buggy than the current win 8.1 installer. Or if I need to keep trying to figure out the problem.
 
Did you use Microsofts error code database to see what the problem is. Might be a corrupt download
 
noorkhan92 said:
Did you use Microsofts error code database to see what the problem is. Might be a corrupt download
Click to expand...

Yeah i tried a few fixes, none of which would work for me. The error code kept point to peripherals causing the error, but I stripped it down to bare drive + mouse and keyboard.

Rig is in sig.

Snowknight26 said:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...39df0455?page=2&rtAction=1402428516137&auth=1
Click to expand...

i'll give it another shot, but I am performing a clean install. So no windows.old file.
 
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StaticShoes said:
Are you doing a clean install of 8 direct from DVD? You might want to try installing 8.1 Pro directly using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool. I was having some problems with an upgrade edition install and this tool allowed me to make a USB install that went flawlessly.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media
Click to expand...

I've always wanted to know where you could get the install media direct from MS. However, I wonder if you will be able to install win 8.1 and then activate the key. A lot of times, when I try to use media that wasn't acquired with the key, the key will not work for the install.

But yeah, I am using an old Win 8 pro 64 bit install DVD.
 
 
Perhaps I'm ignorant...but I always wonder why people stress so much about upgrading windows from a current install instead of just doing a clean install....

I mean, it's a pretty painless process

1) Backup anything crucial (app specific) using fucitons within the app. If none are provided, you'll probably be covered by....
2) Go to c:\Users\YourUserName\Appdata and rip the whole damn directory to a backup RAR or 7Z or ZIP archive
3) Backup entire registry. Some keys may need restored to get certain app settings to mirror to your new install.
4) Wipe and install windows fresh.
5) Drivers...get what hasn't been resolved in device manager....usually Intel RS or etc...
6) Install the most essential apps you need
7) If you heavily tweaked the settings of an app (like a CAD modeling environment) then use your backups of the registry and APPDATA to restore your settings....
8) Boom, up and running within an afternoon.

Or is it just a liscencing thing...? If so, at some point, windows 10 is going to 3 years into it's current state of never ending updates....and if you need to do a full wipe, are your really going to want to go back to Win8 and do another upgrade from there? Will they even allow an "upgrade" by that time?
 
It takes me a week or two to update everything Origin alone is a good two days or so with my connection =)
 
You can't not wipe the drive that steam / origin / gog is on and restore pretty much seamlessly on the new OS?
 
The issue usually is a corrupt patch through windows update there are tutorials on how to fix it, but basically delete the files in here
C:\Windows\Installer

and sometimes here C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution and INF but those second two are a last resort after backing up your data as you can toast the os deleting those files.

There is no way to go from win 8 to win 10 though it has to be through a fully updated service pack version of win 7 or win 8.1 though once you do apprently we get access to an iso image we can download and key linked to our microsoft accounts. but any way it works for you go luck.
 
Well the OS is on the SSD and everything else really is on my HDDs. I don't care about reinstalling windows, as the computer is still really bare and I plan to update to windows 10 on release and perform a clean install (also hoping to snag a very nice deal on a 500gb ssd on Amazon's Prime day).

Thanks for pointing out that you cant go from win 8 to win 10. I will download the win 8.1 iso from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media and try a clean install tonight.
 
Rock&Roll said:
Or is it just a liscencing thing...? If so, at some point, windows 10 is going to 3 years into it's current state of never ending updates....and if you need to do a full wipe, are your really going to want to go back to Win8 and do another upgrade from there? Will they even allow an "upgrade" by that time?
Click to expand...

Just a licensing issue. I have a valid win 8 pro disc and install key. So I can't use a win 8.1 pro disc which requires the key when installing. My win 8 pro key wouldn't work with that disc. So i'm left having to install win 8 and update to win 8.1 from there.
 
This is old as hell - no clue how much still applies (don't know the source either...)

The issue I ran into personally requiring a clean 8.1 install from 8 is the system partition.

w7 clean install makes a 100MB system partition >upgrade to w8 works
w8.1 requires a larger system partition (500MB?). since the upgrade cannot resize the existing one, it just fails.

but hey:
-------------
Downloading Windows 8.1

- Go to: Upgrade Windows with only a product key - Microsoft Windows Help
- Choose Windows 8 and enter in your upgrade key.
- Once it starts downloading, cancel it. Click on the Windows 8.1 button from link above. It will download Windows 8.1
- Choose to create media and then save it as ISO for later. I don't know when MS will patch this or if they will just leave it. Save the ISO somewhere for safe keeping later.


Installing Windows 8.1

- You have your BIOS setup with EFI and Secure Boot. Make sure it's setup correctly.
- Boot into USB and choose to install.
- Use generic key to install. XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB
- Please note, you cannot activate Windows with this key. This is just to install Windows 8.1. It's a generic key. That's it.

Activating Windows 8.1

- Go into elevated Command Prompt. Windows Key + X. Then A.
- slmgr -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX (XXXXX is your Upgrade Key!)
- Check in System Overview. Right click Windows Start button and choose system.
- If it is not activated just follow the instructions to activate over the phone. Reboot after doing phone method and it will work! Don't sweat it if the command above didn't work.
- Also note, once you activate once with the phone, you won't have to do it again. Usually the phone method is needed if you change a HDD or a SSD. Windows thinks you are installing your single key on multiple machines.
----------
Again, this is a copy/paste of an old ass post I emailed myself. Maybe something useful to you in it...
 
strend said:
This is old as hell - no clue how much still applies (don't know the source either...)

The issue I ran into personally requiring a clean 8.1 install from 8 is the system partition.

w7 clean install makes a 100MB system partition >upgrade to w8 works
w8.1 requires a larger system partition (500MB?). since the upgrade cannot resize the existing one, it just fails.

but hey:
-------------
Downloading Windows 8.1

- Go to: Upgrade Windows with only a product key - Microsoft Windows Help
- Choose Windows 8 and enter in your upgrade key.
- Once it starts downloading, cancel it. Click on the Windows 8.1 button from link above. It will download Windows 8.1
- Choose to create media and then save it as ISO for later. I don't know when MS will patch this or if they will just leave it. Save the ISO somewhere for safe keeping later.


Installing Windows 8.1

- You have your BIOS setup with EFI and Secure Boot. Make sure it's setup correctly.
- Boot into USB and choose to install.
- Use generic key to install. XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB
- Please note, you cannot activate Windows with this key. This is just to install Windows 8.1. It's a generic key. That's it.

Activating Windows 8.1

- Go into elevated Command Prompt. Windows Key + X. Then A.
- slmgr -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX (XXXXX is your Upgrade Key!)
- Check in System Overview. Right click Windows Start button and choose system.
- If it is not activated just follow the instructions to activate over the phone. Reboot after doing phone method and it will work! Don't sweat it if the command above didn't work.
- Also note, once you activate once with the phone, you won't have to do it again. Usually the phone method is needed if you change a HDD or a SSD. Windows thinks you are installing your single key on multiple machines.
----------
Again, this is a copy/paste of an old ass post I emailed myself. Maybe something useful to you in it...
Click to expand...

Edit: w8.1 System Reserved partition and w10 are the same size - 350MB.
 
What strend posted. Install 8.1 with a generic key and change the key later on. It will work. I've done it myself a few times.
 
Thanks guys. I'll give this all a shot tonight and let you guys know what happens
 
So I think the error I was getting may be related to a bigger problem.

I downloaded the win 8.1 install media and performed a clean install. During final setup (the part were it says we are getting things ready) I received a critical process died error.

Rebooted, removed overclock. Booted fine. Thought maybe my OC wasnt stable.

Got into windows same thing happens again.

Rebooted again, log in, no clue what's going on. Open up my drivers folder (a folder of all my drivers for my setup I downloaded and put on my raid array before reinstalling) to install chipset and nvidia drivers. BSOD again. Same critical process error.

Reboot again. Go into control panel then action center and I see a message that I need to scan my drive for errors. Scan then I see it says that errors were found, please restart to fix error. Restart and go check action center and the message is still there. Download crystal disk info, and go to check drive info and as soon as I click on the drive in crystal disk the computer freezes, followed by same BSOD.

Reboot again, check crystal disk again. Doesn't freeze, so I have some time to read the drive info. Says healthy 97% and here is the snap of the drive.

BSOD happens again.

So is it possible my ssd is going out even though it says healthy?
 
Going to try another clean install. Will report back.

EDIT: Same BSOD at getting devices ready 50%

EDIT x2: was able to install windows fully this time. Even got the prompt to reserve windows 10. Made sure to format both the system reserve partition and the main partition. Didn't get a chance to do anything else though as o had to leave for work. Will run some additional test tonight.
 
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Yeah, when doing a clean install, I prefer to delete all partitions on the drive and then have the OS automatically partition it during the installation. Less chance of things going wrong that way.
 
Alright, so I'm about to bang my head against my desk....

I spent about three hours last night reinstalling all my regular programs. Everything worked great. Got on this morning an played gw2 for about three hours. Everything great. All of a sudden, the same BSOD critical process died came back. Not I can't go more than five minutes without it happening. I removed all overclocks so it can't be any oc doing it. Crystal disk still reports healthy. SSD problem?? Could my processor be dying?
 
You didn't have any such issues or symptoms when you were on win8?

To be 100% clear, you're trying to install win8.1 from scratch, not win10?

If you didn't have these issues on win8, I would question drivers first..and where you sourced them. Most of the time windows default drivers are good enough...but there are exceptions where you want to go out and get the manufacturer specific drivers.
 
Indeed, everything about this screams "data getting corrupted" to me. Bad RAM, bad SATA cable, bad SATA port, bad media (SSD), all of those are possible and should be tested one by one. You may also want to make sure to have motherboard BIOS updated to most recent version in case they resolved incompatibility between RAM and mobo.
 
Rock&Roll said:
You didn't have any such issues or symptoms when you were on win8?

To be 100% clear, you're trying to install win8.1 from scratch, not win10?

If you didn't have these issues on win8, I would question drivers first..and where you sourced them. Most of the time windows default drivers are good enough...but there are exceptions where you want to go out and get the manufacturer specific drivers.
Click to expand...

Yeah, no issues on Win 8. The problem occurs when I tried to go from win 8 to win 8.1. I ended up using win 8.1 install media. Which worked for about 6 hours.

Yeah I am starting to think maybe windows update while I was playing GW2 was the culprit.

All drivers came from the manufacteurs website. i.e. MSI.

Tsumi said:
Try HCI memtest? Maybe you have bad ram.
Click to expand...

Ram Memtest last night. Passed all 13 test. No errors.

evilsofa said:
Indeed, everything about this screams "data getting corrupted" to me. Bad RAM, bad SATA cable, bad SATA port, bad media (SSD), all of those are possible and should be tested one by one. You may also want to make sure to have motherboard BIOS updated to most recent version in case they resolved incompatibility between RAM and mobo.
Click to expand...

I booted it in safe mode a little while ago, and everything seems to be going good so far. I thought that I may be good on hardware also. Looks like windows just got corrupted somehow.

I tried reinstalling windows, again. And I'm still getting process died BSOD. Data is definitely getting corrupted. Im just not sure how or what is doing it. It is weird that once it does get corrupted that I an get into safe mode and use the computer.

I will try switching the sata port and the sata cable and reinstall windows. If I still get the critical process error BSOD I will know it is neither of those two.

Edit 1: Tried installing windows 8.1 pro using the windows usb creation tool and booting from usb. (This was with new sata cable and different sata port.) Got the error "cannot format the selected partition 0x80070057" After this the ssd disappeared.

Edit 2: Tried installing again. Same method as above. GOt all the way to insert account info and then I got the "critical process error" BSOD.

Edit 3: restarted, got the same BSOD error.....

SO it has to be the ssd?
 
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HCI memtest is a better memory stress tool than Memtest86.

If the SSD disappeared... that's a pretty big red flag right there. Perhaps it was marginal on Windows 8, just avoiding the bad areas, but going to 8.1 had things moved around and into the bad areas?

As a final test, try installing 8 again and see what happens. Unfortunately, the critical process died BSOD can be caused by multiple hardware failures.
 
Tsumi said:
HCI memtest is a better memory stress tool than Memtest86.

If the SSD disappeared... that's a pretty big red flag right there. Perhaps it was marginal on Windows 8, just avoiding the bad areas, but going to 8.1 had things moved around and into the bad areas?

As a final test, try installing 8 again and see what happens. Unfortunately, the critical process died BSOD can be caused by multiple hardware failures.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Seems like a smart move. I'll try going back with a clean install of W8 tonight and I'll report back.
 
Have you tried googling it? No, I'm not being a dick. I've run into update errors plenty of times with Win8 and Win10. Usually googling the "WinX update fails XX%" will get you an answer. It's not uncommon. Replace X with relevant data.

There's a lot of posts regarding Win8 to Win8.1 and 82% on Google, I'm sure you might find the solution by browsing those. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
 
Just another thought to add to the fun..

I've had one motherboard start giving me data corruption and random crashes when the BGA under the south bridge started having a marginal connection. The BGA needed to to be reflowed...it was a old out of waranty board which I finished killing by trying the reflow myself....IME, pay a pro.

Now, I've not heard of this being an issue on newer boards. But it could be possible.
 
If you have any other drive around, even an old HDD, you might try using that; even if it's slow, it might rule the SSD one way or the other.
 
unbelievable.... of course w8 is working fine...

So things ive tested:
  • new sata cable
  • new sata port
  • using w8 disk and upgrading to win 8.1 - fails at setup 82%
  • using usb and windows w8.1 creation tool - BSOD critical process error

However, windows 8 runs like a champ. :confused: This would seemingly rule out hardware issues.

Spidey329 said:
Have you tried googling it? No, I'm not being a dick. I've run into update errors plenty of times with Win8 and Win10. Usually googling the "WinX update fails XX%" will get you an answer. It's not uncommon. Replace X with relevant data.

There's a lot of posts regarding Win8 to Win8.1 and 82% on Google, I'm sure you might find the solution by browsing those. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have searched. Haven't had much luck with finding anything. I've tried what several people have suggested and have not been successful.

Rock&Roll said:
Just another thought to add to the fun..

I've had one motherboard start giving me data corruption and random crashes when the BGA under the south bridge started having a marginal connection. The BGA needed to to be reflowed...it was a old out of waranty board which I finished killing by trying the reflow myself....IME, pay a pro.

Now, I've not heard of this being an issue on newer boards. But it could be possible.
Click to expand...

Board is only a month old. Picked it up from NewEgg. Have never ad w8.1 working on it, but w8 works on it like a champ.

evilsofa said:
If you have any other drive around, even an old HDD, you might try using that; even if it's slow, it might rule the SSD one way or the other.
Click to expand...

I have an 80gb lying around. Now that W8 is working again fine, i'll likely try that tonight to be on the safe side.

Since i cant upgrade from w8, just may install the old w7 ultimate i have laying around so that I'll at least be able to upgrade.
 
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