Oooh! not good
Unless something very strange is going on, I suspect that the contents of the file are corrupted.
This means that the only practical fix is going to be a repair install.
Back up your data to external storage first - there's a possibility it will fail irreversibly.
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html
Ya....kind of had a feeling a rebuild was coming soon to my PC. I've been backing up for the last hour. I did reset my UAC to the default and will reboot and try all this again after my backup is done.
So if I'm doing a rebuild does it make any sense to just upgrade to Windows 8? If so, would I be able to upgrade to Windows 8 without fixing this problem 1st?
NEVER upgrade a faulty system - you always run the risk of making the problem worse.
Unless your system has a touch-screen, I'd stick with Win7 - 8 is pretty good, but still needs a lot of work before its a great OS, and it'll never be as keyboard/mouse friendly as Win7
I enabled UAC, rebooted, ran all the ECP commands you provided with the same results.
My Windows 7 DVD does not include SP1 so I'm in the process of downloading of the Windows 7 with SP1 media refresh. I know I need this because when I tried to do this last night it told me: Your current version of Windows is more recent than the version you are trying to upgrade to. Windows cannot complete the upgrade. I'm guessing that my current Windows 7 Ultimate 64 key will be used for this install?
Yep - Keys are independent of SP level or bit-count.
I assume this is a Full Retail key/License?
I successfully created the Windows 7 disk with SP1. Following the instructions I get to Gathering Files, Settings & Programs where at 0% completed I get this message.
Setup cannot continue. Restart the computer and restart Setup. Where prompted try gathering the latest updates.
I've made 5 attempts at this upgrade. I'll start a new post in Installation & Setup if this has nothing to do with the Windows Update problem.
How did you start the process? - by booting to Windows, or booting using the DVD? You need to boot to Windows, and start the process from there.
I boot to Windows and click the Autoplay. I've tried upgrading by selecting the Go online and I've tried the Don't go online. Either way I get to Gathering Files, Settings & Programs and at 0% I get the message
Setup cannot continue. Restart the computer and restart Setup. Where prompted try gathering the latest updates.
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