Replies

FALSE ALARM!  My deepest apologies.

It SURE felt like I had isolated at least one major problem.

I added drive letters to all of the System Reserve partitions, and then

I tried Windows Update Assistant with WinUpdateStop both DISABLED and ENABLED.

Both ways produced the EXACT SAME ERROR CODES.

Man oh man, is this frustrating.

Plus Memorial Day is always an occasion for great sadness in my life.

Thank you, again, for your patience with my ordeal here.

 

More support for the theory above:

On the identical PC where 22H2 updated AOK the first time, most of the System Reserve partitions have drive letters assigned;  only one System Reserve partition is lacking a drive letter.

the first image below is a partial screen shot of Windows Disk Management;

the second image below is a comparable screen shot of MiniTool Partition Wizard:

WOW!

It’s no wonder why “DISCONNECTING ALL PERIPHERALS” was found to fix many of the problems that are occurring with Windows Update Assistant.

That system software fails to keep all Local and Network drive letters properly organized and assigned.

Network drive letters should remain TOTALLY OFF-LIMITS to Windows Update.

Here’s Network drive letter “T” when correctly mapped to the correct shared partition on the correct Network drive:

UNDIVIDED ATTENTION now 🙂

I feel as if I AM VERY CLOSE TO SOLVING THIS CHRONIC UPDATE PROBLEM:

Here’s more evidence to support the theory above re: drive letter confusions:

First, note how MiniTool’s excellent Partition Wizard does find drive letter G: assigned to the Recovery Partition, whereas Disk Management does NOT.

Secondly, the System Reserve partition presently has no drive letter assigned.

When I try to “Add” a drive letter to that System Reserve partition, NOTE WELL how Windows 10 version 1909 selects drive letter “T”.

HOWEVER, “T” has already been mapped to a shared partition on a Network drive !!!

When Windows Update Assistant has finished its total ROLL-BACK, drive letter “T” has a “boot” folder in it;  at that point “T” no longer maps to the correct shared partition on its network drive!

That’s clear evidence of one or more bugs in Microsoft’s Windows Update Assistant.

see 2 screenshots now …

 

I’ve also taken note of some Prosumers who recommended DISCONNECTING ALL PERIPHERALS — as an alternative to updating all active device drivers.

As such, one “ACID TEST” would be to disconnect all SATA cables, to disconnect all USB cables, and temporarily to remove all add-in cards EXCEPT FOR the one hosting the C: system partition.

Similarly, all Network Drive letters would need to be temporarily DISCONNECTED too.

Then, after a RESTART, Windows Update Assistant would be run with only 3 active drive letters:

C: for the OS stored in the primary partition on the RAID-0 array

E: for data stored in the secondary partition on the RAID-0 array

D: assigned to the USB flash drive with “setup.exe” etc. when it’s plugged in after RESTART

E: might also need to be removed temporarily, if doing so prevents any more drive letter confusions from happening

another trial / another error:

After running Windows Update Assistant several times now, I tried it again by choosing the “media creation” option, and writing the “setup.exe” file etc. to a brand new USB 3.0 flash drive.

I initially formatted that SanDisk 256GB flash drive in NTFS format and did a quick test.

The Media Creation Tool then re-formatted it in FAT32 format.

Windows Update Assistant failed again with the exact same error codes and total ROLL-BACK.

But, I’ve also noticed a very distinct pattern, now worth mentioning because it has repeated:

After re-starting, I’ve noticed that a Network Drive letter gets re-assigned during each attempt with Windows Update Assistant.

After total ROLL-BACK, this bug required DISCONNECTING that Network Drive letter, re-starting again, and re-mapping that Network Drive letter to the correct remote shared partition.

Moreover, during the ROLL-BACK, I’ve also noticed that the drive activity light has been frequently blinking on the PC’s front panel.  That would ONLY happen if one of the on-board SATA ports were experiencing I/O for some reason.

That may be an important clue, because the C: system partition on this PC is hosted on a fast RAID-0 array, and the integrated SATA ports host 2 x JBOD SSDs, 1 x JBOD HDD and 1 x ODD (4 x SATA ports total, designated  SATA0, SATA1, SATA2, SATA3).

The latter SSDs and HDD are only used for data now, but there are “dual-boot” OS partitions on all three e.g. the original OS shipped by the MAR seller was hosted on the latter JBOD HDD.

As such, Windows Update Assistant may be losing track of drive letters and consequently gets confused at some point about what is supposed to go where (still just another theory).

 

Re:  “you had a Windows 7 driver installed on a device that Windows 10 was trying to run. That’s probably why you were getting the yellow triangle”

Yes, that makes perfect sense.   🙂

The one website where I did find the latest driver for that former USB adapter must have downloaded the Windows 7 version;  and,

I must have tried to give Device Manager that driver file in error.

MANY THANKS for the confirmation.  That helps.

If Device Manager would merely UNINSTALL a device on demand, and NOT RE-INSTALL it after a RESTART.  This would help remove that “phantom driver” for PCI IDE devices.

FYI:  I already had a few of those Vantec UGT-PC345 USB 3.0 adapters:  from my experience to date, they are very reliable, and they support a 20-pin internal socket.

That 20-pin USB 3.0 socket can “branch” to 2 x Type-A USB females, with a compatible cable.

I’ve been buying a 6″ long Y-cable and inserting 2 x 256GB SanDisk USB 3.0 flash drives (cheap and plentiful storage for archiving systems-related files).

Those are also very convenient for storing working drive images of C: and they become part of the interior components that never need any maintenance, after being installed and formatted.

THANKS AGAIN!

Re:  “why not try updating from 1909 one more time to see if it somehow no longer encounters the error you’ve been encountering.”

Very sorry, I forgot to mention:

I already did that after installing and testing the new Vantec UGT-PC345:

SAME ERROR CODES!  ;-(

I might spring for this used PC at eBay:  lots of h/w + Windows 10 already installed

the photo of the inside shows a very clean interior

BIOS version is v02.05  <— will help to test presence of “phantom driver”

only ~$100 + free shipping:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364133007227?hash=item54c804bf7b:g:mxwAAOSw04xj3YHw&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8CFq%2FyaABwSSSm3UigfvGUE5Aai7xR1IFJ2js%2BEJo%2FI3yi0zcLh%2BWazvC4iB7PbZNIOVGgHO11hKe6JCrovtFUZxpw%2BfG%2FLI3yNRbdzF17Y0h8Gl5HN8Ec7ig5fAHg15rmEy2jJMJUpcODAsO441CjRRLPx3bip9slMCGyqxrXgduI7yGFRCmrwbiadhjME%2FTpUnxFeD%2BPxCYeRx%2BdO30BVVDiBSo91gZldPyFsNRWQs2Atb4ClR25Ke88qutqaPOuQa2IIQKjfMNuGvCrK7Vt6rWuyFfdyjNiq5%2BoqjEVVO4tzuAowDFakgmFZIufx0Ng%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4zI0sqMYg#readMoreDesc

Thanks!

I have not installed any other AVG software on this PC.

I use the integrated Windows 10 “Virus and threat protection” on this PC.

This AVG Driver Updater was only installed a few days ago, to do an independent check of installed device drivers.

I thought that would help, given the majority of Prosumers who suspect the error code in question is caused by driver problems.

AVG Driver Updater did find a newer driver version number for the ViaLabs DW-VL805-4 controller on our USB 3.0 add-in card, and the only newer driver I could find caused a yellow bang sign “!”;  so, I had to revert that driver to a older working version.

So, this morning I removed that add-in card and replaced it with a new Vantec UGT-PC345 USB 3.0 adapter;  Windows 10 configured it automatically and installed the correct device driver without requiring user intervention.

I ran AVG Driver Updater after installing the new Vantec UGT-PC345, and that AVG Driver Updater is evidently happy with the driver which Windows 10 installed automatically.

 

Google “0xC1900101-0x20017”

today finds e.g.:

Created June 16, 2021  <— TWO (2) YEAR AGO

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/all/windows-update-fails-with-error-code-0xc1900101/31c3d970-759b-4f51-9a4c-96879788df44

NB:

“EDIT: If the only solution is a clean install, I’m probably going to wait a little while and just live without major updates for a few months. Feature updates and quality updates and other minor updates have been working fine, so I don’t think I’ll run into any security issues.”

AND:

“I looked at the logs, but could not find anything constructive. Usually 20017 is resolved by updating BIOS, but it doesn’t look like there is any new update available for the machine.”

[… AND Paul’s PC here has the latest BIOS and it can NOT revert to an older BIOS.]

AVG Driver Updater reports drivers are updated:

Another option, not yet discussed, is a dual-boot system e.g. by doing a fresh install of the OEM DVD disc of 21H2 to a brand new SSD wired directly to the SATA0 port on the motherboard.

That DVD has been sitting in my spare parts, without being used, since August 2022.

That method will allow me to remove the RAID controller temporarily, so the 21H2 install process does not make any changes to the RAID-0 array hosting the current C: .

My best friend in Asia has adopted that approach:  dual-booting Linux and Windows 10

Re:  “Microsoft can’t force 22H2 on PCs with blocked updates (InControl, registry hacks…)”

Good news (for a change)!  I didn’t think they could, but I might be wrong about that.

As such, GIVING UP means I can continue to use a very reliable and productive Windows 10 version 1909 with WinUpdateStop ENABLED.

I also have plenty of prior drive images to choose from, if MS decides to play dirty.

Also, not previously mentioned are the following:

I have legal obligations imposed by 18 U.S.C. 4 to maintain proper custody of records acquired during 7 years of technical assistance to a complex USCG homicide investigation. 

There is no statute of limitations for murder.

And, reader questions about that investigation are still being asked at various Internet social media platforms re: Maritime Safety Detachment / Sector San Juan / Virgin Islands.

What triggered this ENTIRE topic was the recommendation to update Windows 10 to version 22H2.

Don’t forget that MS has announced their intentions to FORCE updates to 22H2.

All of the problems that arose for me by following that recommendation would NOT have occurred, if I had NOT followed that recommendation and stayed with 1909.

Here’s the OUTSTANDING / UNANSWERED QUESTION:

How is MS going to FORCE my PC to upgrade to 22H2, if every single attempt to do so has failed with the same error code and total ROLL-BACK?

Perhaps someone among their most experienced engineers will answer that question.

I’m not holding my breath.