Disk Clean-up failure

sjc312 · 20 Oct 2013

Hi all

Hope I can get some help with this, especially as I have seen that a few people on the forum are experiencing somewhat similar issues. I decided to defrag and disk clean-up because the PC has been booting too slowly recently from the usual 35-40 seconds to 1 ½ to 2 mins. My boot sequence is SATA first. Defrag went OK (won't defrag in Safe Mode) but Disk Clean-up failed. Disk Clean-up said it could free up 4.7GB, of which 4.33GB was Windows Update Clean-up.

But the Clean-up failed with this message -

“Failed configuring Windows. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer...”

Even worse, 7.82GB of extra space has been taken up by System Queued Windows Error Reporting. So just trying to save 4.7GB I have now lost 13.7GB in total! How can I fix this?

A Guy · 20 Oct 2013

Was the message actually “Failed configuring Windows Updates. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer...”?

Where do you stand now? Have you rebooted the PC without error? If so, try booting to the System recovery options and choose command prompt

System Recovery Options

At the command prompt type

DISM /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions

Enter

Source

Try running the cleanup again, but this time uncheck the Windows update cleanup. See if it completes successfully. If so, it should also delete the System Queued Windows Error Reporting

You can then try again with the Windows update option checked. See if it now completes successfully. A Guy

sjc312 · 22 Oct 2013

Hi A Guy

I ran the command in Safe Mode and got the following message-

Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Error: 87

“The /Image option that is specified points to a running Windows installation. To service the running operating system, use the /Online option. For more information, refer to the help by running DISM.exe /Online /?.

The DISM log file can be found at C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log”

Also, you're right, the original message was -

“Failed configuring Windows updates. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer...”

The PC is currently booting OK. In fact it is now booting in the normal 35-40 secs. Which way forward?

A Guy · 22 Oct 2013

It sounds like you had updates queued when you tried to do the update cleanup. Also safe mode is not the same as booting from a disk as System Recovery Options method does. That's why you need to do it outside of Windows. I have yet to see anyone having issues with the new updates cleanup, but also have not been looking. A Guy

Troy6 · 26 Oct 2013

To diagnose the problem copy c:\windows\logs\cbs\cbs.log and c:\windows\logs\cbs\deepclean.log to your desktop, and zip them up and share them out.

sjc312 · 28 Oct 2013

Hi A Guy

Please accept my apologies as I misunderstood part of your advice. I thought you had said that if I'm unable to boot into Windows, then I should use the System Recovery option. As you predicted, I did have some updates pending – IE10 and a security update. I had been putting off installing IE10 as I'm already used to IE9's GUI. Anyway, to solve this problem I installed the pending updates and then used my W7 64bit disc and ran the command, and got another error -

Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Error: 87

“The clean-up image option is unknown. For more information, refer to the help by running DISM.exe /?.

The DISM log file can be found at X:\windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log”

As you had said that after running the command I could attempt the clean up again, I ran Disk Clean-up again (Safe Mode), and noticed that System Queued Windows Error Reporting had shrank to 1.72GB, and I had gained subsequent drive space. So I removed the remaining System Queued Windows Error Reporting of 1.72GB and then tried to remove the Windows Update Cleanup files.

It was a tense 15 mins with these messages -

“Configuring Windows updates. Do not turn off your computer...”

then a reboot into Normal Mode, followed by -

“Preparing to configure Windows. Do not turn off your computer...”

followed by -

“Configuring Windows updates. 100%. Do not turn off your computer...”

and finally -

“Cleaning up....Do not turn off your computer....”

The Cleaning up part took a full 10 minutes, and then the PC rebooted again into Normal Mode. So success! And many thanks.

Before I mark this thread as solved, there's 766MB of Temporary Files in Disk Clean-up. Is it safe to delete them also? There's also 920MB of Service Pack Backup files, but I probably shouldn't delete those.

P.S. Troy6, thanks for the contribution. All seems well now.

A Guy · 28 Oct 2013

Great, success

The temp files it is always safe to remove with disk cleanup. The only reason I can ever think of to not delete temp files is if you were trying to manually extract an installer for instance. But that would be a specific isolated incident, and running the installer would recreate the temp files in any case.

If you remove the Service Pack Backup Files, you will no longer be able to uninstall SP1

Windows 7 SP1 Disk Cleanup Tool

If your system is running fine with SP1, likely you are OK with this option. If your OS install disc has SP1 on it, there's no reason not to delete the backups. If the disc is pre-SP1, then there are very few instances when you'd want to remove SP1. However, this is unlikely. I long ago deleted my backup files.

A Guy

sjc312 · 31 Oct 2013

Hi A Guy

I have deleted the Temporary files. My discs (32&64) are pre-SP1 so I'll keep the Service Pack Backup files for now. Many thanks for your help.

A Guy · 31 Oct 2013

That will work, you always have the option, you can legally download the SP1 version if needed. You're very welcome. A Guy