20H2 – Can’t Get There from Here

Topic

New Reply

I was looking forward to a quiet weekend and decided update Windows on multiple computers and let the PCs deal with whatever Microsoft had to offer.

On one workstation, that had been receiving the message that the computer was not ready to move from Windows 10 1909 two Version 20H2, the update announced, “Your version of Windows is nearing the end of service.” Then it indicated that Feature update to Windows 10, version 20H2 was available for installation.

In anticipation of installing 20H2, I uninstalled the system’s virus software and removed the Conexant – Media Driver from the PC.

I then restarted Windows 10 1909, went to updates, and Conexant -MEDIA -7/5/2019 showed up as being available Pending Restart. I did not restart the computer.

I then clicked the button to check for updates and Windows 10 version 20H2 appeared.

Started updating to 20H2 and let the system run overnight. In the morning, 16 hours later, 20H2 had reached 61% complete and stopped with a message, “Error Feature update to Windows 10, version 20H2 – Error 0xc1900104

Ran the 20H2 update several more times and in each case the update only reached 61% complete and the same error message appeared.

I have also run the Windows Update Troubleshooter on the machine and it reported no problems.

Any thoughts on how to update to 20H2?

Reply | Quote

Replies

Try using the Media Creation Tool at Download Windows 10. Susan Bradley has a short video on this method at video.

--Joe

2 users thanked author for this post.

Kathy Stevens, ctRanger

Reply | Quote

[Susan Bradley]

Your short post finally got me to 20H2 from 1909 this morning.
I had tried for weeks to get from 1909 to 2004.  Uninstalled and deleted Conexant.  Nothing.
Changed target to 20H2.  Nothing.
This morning, used Download Windows 10 site and selected “update now”.   Had to run it twice to get it to complete, but I’m on 20H2 now.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Susan Bradley.
• This reply was modified 4 years ago by b.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Coldheart9020, Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

The Download Windows 10 at  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 worked – sort of!

Started it up, Windows 10 downloaded and installed like summer lightning but then the message appeared “Chose what to keep”

Only two options were available:

• Keep Personal files only (Your settings and apps will be deleted, but your files will be kept) or
• Nothing (Everything will be deleted, including Files, apps, and settings.

The Keep personal files and apps option is not available!

The explanation at the bottom of the page indicates that, “Your files, apps, and settings can’t be kept because you’re installing an edition of Windows that’s different than the one you’re currently using.

I do not want to have to reinstall all of the apps that I use or set up windows again.

Where do I go from here?

Reply | Quote

Just realized that the link installs a fresh copy of Windows 10 not move to a newer version.

My mistake!

Reply | Quote

Just watched Susan’s video.

My experience with the The Download Windows 10 at  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10  worked differently than what she shows on the video.

Now I have absolutely no idea as to where to go from here.

 

Reply | Quote

Go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10, and click on “+ Using the tool to upgrade this PC to Windows 10.”
Follow the numbered instructions.
This should download the Media Creation Tool (MCT). Double click on it and use it to download the install media.
It will ask you if you want to upgrade the current PC, or use it for another time/computer.
If you choose another time/computer, it will create an .ISO you can save and use to update multiple PCs. If you choose the current PC, it will simply upgrade the one you are on.
If you use the latter, when it asks “Change what you want to keep,” You should get three choices: save apps and data, save data only, or nothing.
Choose to save apps and data.
This should give you a working up-to-date copy of v20H2.
After it comes back to the login screen, log in and let the computer sit without using it for an hour or so to complete the upgrade.

Word to the wise.: check your settings. They may get changed in the upgrade.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Coldheart9020, Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

Describe what you saw, because what I recorded is normal for me all the time.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

And P.S. make sure you click on “update now”

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

Susan

The last approach I used to move to 20H2 was  outlined in your video.

• Opened the Media Creation Tool (ISO site) as described in your video.
• Clicked on update now.
• Clicked on Open file.
• Said yes to update
• Clicked update now and found that the system was ready to update.
• Then started the download which only took a couple of minutes because the machine has SSD and high Internet down speeds.
• The download was verified
• Then the update process was started.
• The update completed and I rebooted the machine.
• After rebooting the computer and installation process screen came up that does not appear in your video. The screen asked the question “Choose what to keep” and gave three options
  • Keep personal files, settings, and apps
  • Keep Personal files only (Your settings and apps will be deleted, but your files will be kept)
  • Nothing (Everything will be deleted, including Files, apps, and settings.
• Unfortunately, the Keep personal files and apps option could not be selected. An explanation at the bottom of the page indicates that, “Your files, apps, and settings can’t be kept because you’re installing an edition of Windows that’s different than the one you’re currently using.

At this point I terminated the update.

In other words, what I was offered during the last part the update was different from what was presented in your video.

As a footnote, the system being updated experienced a C drive failure and I installed a new SSD and reinstall Windows using an HP recovery media.

Reply | Quote

“As a footnote, the system being updated experienced a C drive failure and I installed a new SSD and reinstall Windows using an HP recovery media.”

What version of Windows 10 is installed on your HP, now ?

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

The misbehaving system’s Specifications:

• Operating system: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Version 1909, OS Build 18363.1140
• Operating System Installed: 11/25/2020
• Microprocessor: Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz
• System memory: 16 GB
• Graphic device 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
• Audio Device 1: USB Audio Device
• Audio Device 2: NVIDIA High-Definition Audio
• Audio Device 3: Conexant HD Audio

Reply | Quote

Kathy Stevens wrote:

An explanation at the bottom of the page indicates that, “Your files, apps, and settings can’t be kept because you’re installing an edition of Windows that’s different than the one you’re currently using.

This could be the clue. Edition is Home, Pro, Enterprise, Education…
Are you trying to install Home or Pro over Enterprise? Home over Pro? enterprise over Pro? or one of the “N” types?
What you download has to be the same Edition as what you had before.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Coldheart9020, Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

PKCano

I have attacked the update to 20H2 in two different ways:

• From within the computer itself – Settings, Windows Update, check for updates and
• The “Media Creation Tool” at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Both failed and I assumed that both should have attempted to install the proper version of  20H2.

Reply | Quote

[EP]

AHA, Kathy!

One of your audio devices listed in your specs is a “Conexant HD Audio” device.

did you obtain the latest Conexant audio driver from the PC manufacturer that has a driver date of late 2020 or newer (a Conexant driver from 2019 & earlier is NOT good enough)? Win10 20H2 still has problems with some old or outdated Conexant audio drivers

can you obtain the Hardware Device ID number of the Conexant audio device in Device Manager (devmgmt.msc)? follow the instructions from this site to do this.

ex. the Hardware ID of a Conexant SmartAudio HD device begins with “HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1”

===

edit – before making another attempt to upgrade to 20H2, did you also run SFC.EXE /SCANNOW from a normal command window (cmd.exe) [not from Powershell]?

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by EP.
• This reply was modified 4 years ago by EP.
• This reply was modified 4 years ago by EP.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

The audio driver in question is a Conexant High-Definition (HD) Audio Driver (Windows 10 v1709/v1803) 8.65.282.54 Rev.A    76.3 MB               Jul 17, 2019

• Type:                                 Driver-Audio
• Version:                65.282.54 Rev.A
• Operating systems: Windows 10 (64-bit)
• Release date: Jul 17, 2019
• File name: sp98475.exeexe

Description:

This package provides the driver that enables the Conexant Audio driver in supported desktop models that are running a supported operating system.

This is the only Conexant driver that HP support makes available for the workstation in question.

I uninstalled the driver prior to the unsuccessful update attempt from within windows. An attempt that after running for 16 hours resulted in an error message.

Reply | Quote

[RetiredGeek]

Google: Windows Update error 0xc1900104

Lots of possibilities here.

From a cursory scanning of the results it looks like Joe’s suggestion would be the first thing I’d try.

HTH 😎

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by RetiredGeek.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

Kathy

please check the setupact.log file from the “C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\” folder. read something from this old MS forum thread for an older Win10 version made a few years ago. might be relevant in resolving the 20H2 upgrade problem

Reply | Quote

The setup log reads as follows:

2021-04-05 14:08:33, Info                  UI     Determining whether we should run ConX or legacy setup

2021-04-05 14:08:33, Info                  UI     Legacy setup.exe doesn’t exist. Continue to run ConX setup

2021-04-05 14:08:33, Info                  UI     Initializing Media class driver for audio support

2021-04-05 14:08:33, Info                  UI     Initializing media class driver status: 126

2021-04-05 14:08:33, Info                  UI     Launching ConX setup experience

2021-04-05 14:08:33, Info                  UI     Inspecting ConX Setup Cmdline

2021-04-05 14:08:33, Info                  UI     Launching C:\$GetCurrent\media\Sources\SetupPrep.exe /migchoice upgrade /showoobe none /Compat IgnoreWarning /eula accept /noreboot /postoobe C:\$GetCurrent\SafeOS\SetupComplete.cmd /CorrelationVector Uvku7KBro02JKwqa.999 /ClientId Win10UA:VNL:URL:9252:<1.4.9200.23258>:<1>:{97AD6E12-7BCA-4FBC-A1E3-EFA4E332E449}:[10.0.18363]:[2] /DynamicUpdate Enable /telemetry enable /UpdateMedia Decline /SkipSummary

I have no idea what it means.

 

Reply | Quote

Kathy Stevens wrote:

Audio Device 3: Conexant HD Audio

Have you deleted the driver prior to upgrading to 20H2 ?

Reply | Quote

Yes

Reply | Quote

“our files, apps, and settings can’t be kept because you’re installing an edition of Windows that’s different than the one you’re currently using.”

AH HA.. first make sure that your system is activated. You indicated that you reinstalled the operating system.

Start, settings, System, about, scroll down. What edition does it say and does it indicate that the system is activated?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

Type ‘Activation’.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

Susan

Under Activation it reads:

• Edition Windows 10 Pro
• Activation Windows is activated with a digital license

The workstation shipped with Windows 10 Home and I upgraded it to Pro using a digital key.

Reply | Quote

Hi, Kathy. As someone who just updated from 1909 Pro on almost the same build as you, I have the following question. The file you downloaded from here – is it Windows10Upgrade9252.exe or MediaCreationTool20H2.exe?

The former is the one you want to make an in-place upgrade from 1909 to 20H2. It took ages for me, since I’m still using an old-fashioned HDD, but it worked fine and I’m up and running with no issues that I can tell (so far).

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

Check your localization settings. Seems to be an issue.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/e4a8bf93-8dd7-48b2-ac84-266af3d14fa5/8220you-cant-keep-windows-settings-personal-files-and-apps-because-youve-chosen-to-install?forum=win10itprosetup

https://windowsreport.com/you-cant-keep-windows-settings-personal-files-and-apps/

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

Will do tomorrow.

Reply | Quote

It is possible that my VPN is getting in the way.

Reply | Quote

I would uninstall your vpn during this process. There have been historical issues with VPN software and feature releases. Get back to core Microsoft. Any third party a/v any VPN, temp pull it off.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Reply | Quote

After uninstalling the Conexant driver, ran Windows 10 Upgrade Assistant just now.

After running the update sequence, that took minutes, a popup screen asked the question “Choose what to keep” and gave three options

• Keep personal files, settings, and apps
• Keep Personal files only (Your settings and apps will be deleted, but your files will be kept)
• Nothing (Everything will be deleted, including Files, apps, and settings.

And went on to say, “Something went wrong” and indicated that it was Error code 0xc1900205.

The first option to “Keep personal files, settings, and apps’ could not be selected.

After terminating the update, I double checked to make sure that the Conexant driver had been removed from the system. It had.

So I looks like I will use the system as is and try to upgrade again next month.

Reply | Quote

Kathy Stevens wrote:

After uninstalling the Conexant driver, ran Windows 10 Upgrade Assistant just now. After running the update sequence, that took minutes, a popup screen asked the question “Choose what to keep” and gave three options

That seems odd, since I wasn’t prompted on what to keep when I used the W10UA (Windows10Upgrade9252.exe).

I do remember seeing ‘Choose what to keep’ in the Media Creation Tool, but the Update Assistant did not have such an option whatsoever; it is a straight-forward update to 20H2. See my attached screenshot to see if it looks familiar.

Reply | Quote

The assistant tool doesn’t do that.  Something is making her image be possessed.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

Coldheart9020

Reply | Quote

This isn’t due to Conexant, there’s something else making this little guy gobsmacked.

Can you do a DISM /restorehelath and then a  sfc /scannow and report back?

 

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Reply | Quote

[Kathy Stevens]

The saga continues.

Now Windows is trying to update itself!

A new icon has appeared on the tool bar that when clicked announces,

“Restart options

Schedule a time

We’ll finish installing updates when it’s convenient for you. If your PC isn’t available at your scheduled time. Windows will automatically find a good time for the restart.”

The icon is the square with circular arrows and an orange dot on the bottom left of the screen.

Also going to updates from the start menu gives me the following message related to 20H2, ” Your device will restart at 10:00 PM. Make sure to save any work before the start.

Stay tuned.

 

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Kathy Stevens.

Reply | Quote

Reboot.  See what happens 🙂

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

2 users thanked author for this post.

wavy, Kathy Stevens

Reply | Quote

Susan

I rebooted the system early this morning and a blue screen with the caption “Working on updates 0%” appeared.

It remained at 0% for a couple of hours. Four hours after rebooting the system all appeared well and the Conexant – Media Driver had been reinstalled.

I just rechecked the system (eight hours after rebooting this morning) and went to Settings – Windows Update an found that Feature update to Windows 10, version 20H2 has been installing over the last two hours and had reached 61% complete.

Earlier attempts to install 20H2 over the last couple of days never went beyond 61% and I anticipate that sometime in the next couple of hours another error message will appear.

If so, I plan to continue using 1909 and try to move to 20H2 early next month.

Will keep you posted.

Reply | Quote

After seven hours the 20H2 update remains at 61% complete!

Reply | Quote

Well we finally made it to Windows 10 20H2 – but it was not easy.

• Uninstalling the Conexant audio driver did not help,
• The Microsoft Windows 10 media creation tool did not work,
• Turning off the VPN didn’t help, and
• Running DISM /restorehelath and then a sfc /scannow found some operating system problems but did not solve the problem.

Out of desperation we cloned the C drive onto a new SSD, backed the system up to an external SSD drive using Acronis, and copied all user files onto a second external drive – then we used an HP system recovery USB drive to recover the system to an as new state.

Then, after a number of tries we were able to move from Windows 10 1909 to 20H2 and reinstall most of the apps that were on the machine.

However, we forgot to export our Outlook 2016 PST files to an external drive. Now we will have to either recover them from either an Acronis backup or put the cloned 1909 drive back into the system, fire up the machine, open Outlook, export the files, put the 2OH2 drive back into the machine, and import the PST files into Outlook.

Also, we are finding that the current version of Firefox is not compatible with our updated system.

And it feels as if the system is slower than before the update.

The question now is was moving to 20H2 worth the effort?

Reply | Quote

Kathy Stevens wrote:

was moving to 20H2 worth the effort?

Unfortunately it’s not a choice if you want patches to keep the bugs and miscreants at bay.

Did you try an in place repair before attempting the upgrade?

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

Well it is done – the month-long workstation conversion from an activated copy of Windows 10 1909 Pro to Version 20H2 Pro is almost finished – but at great pain!

The unsuccessful transition effort included:

• Using the Media Creation Tool that did not work even after removing the Conexant HD Audio driver,
• Disabling our VPN, and
• Running Ran DISM /restore helath and then a sfc /scannow with no luck no luck.

Then, as a last resort, we:

• Cloned the C drive to a spare SSD,
• Baked up the system using Acronis,
• Copied the Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos directories to another external drive, and
• Reinstalled Windows using an HP recovery disk.

The result, after uninstalling Conexant HD Audio driver, the system updated to 20H2.

But the time lost has been significant – we had to:

• Reinstall Microsoft Office 2016, Word Perfect. Adobe Acrobat, Dragon Professional, etc.,
• Fight with Outlook 2016 to recover our contacts and calendars,
• Setup and recover Dragon Professional’s microphone and profiles,
• Figure out our preferred setting for Acrobat,
• Unsuccessfully recover our TurboTax files, and
• The list goes on.

Now after nearly a month of transition the question remains, was it worth the effort to move to 20H2?

I think not. The computer was working fine before the transition and probably would have continued in service long after support for Windows 10 1909 Pro ended.

Your thoughts.

Reply | Quote

Some of the messages you got along the way felt like that system wasn’t quite happy. Given that you reinstalled the OS, you now have a clean happy system.

Yes it’s worth it. Next month is the end of line for 1909.  A working computer isn’t a safe computer these days.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

Reply | Quote

Susan,

I originally posted this question accidentally to the 20H2 subforum, but meant to put it in the Questions: Win 10 subforum. I think you’ve answered the question above, but I’ll repost it just to be sure (feel free to delete the topic in the 20H2 subforum):

I just upgraded to 20H2 using Susan’s recommendation of the Windows Update site; in the recent past, I upgraded to 2004 using a thumb drive installer created with MCT.

My question is: do either or both of these upgrade methods accomplish the same cleaning/optimizing as does an in-place reinstall? My current installation is ~3 years old, and I’m wondering if any performance or reliability improvements would be gained by an in-place reinstall, or if I’m already at that place with my 20H2 upgrade.

BTW, I was careful to turn Restore Points back on for my C: drive.

Thanx,

Zig

Reply | Quote