Windows update hangs - should I give up?

I’ve tried more than a few things to get windows update to work but none of them helped.
Should I try anything else or give up and switch to AutoPatcher?

Here’s what I’ve done so far.

I tried installing 122 windows updates after I installed a new hard drive and used an image backup from October 2015 to restore my win7 pro 64-bit system. Windows update installed none, it hung on downloading updates.

I tried the windows update standalone installer, which worked sporadically. But after installing one update, when I tried to install another, a message said "searching for updates" and wusa.exe hangs. Sometimes it worked again after a reboot sometimes it hung on searching. Once wusa hung, I could only close it from task monitor.

I ran Microsoft FixIt twice, it said the fix had been processed but windows update still hung.

A clean boot also didn't work.

I ran System Update Readiness Tool (CheckSUR) which created a large dism.log. It made some changes
and failed to make others. But it didn’t get windows update to work.

I ran system update diagnostic diagcab. It fixed some errors but not this one:
RootCause: RC_DataStore
ErrorCode: 0x80070057 (ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER)

I defragmented datastore.edb from an elevated command prompt. Instead of defragmenting the file, it removed all updates from the windows update control panel which now advised that I had never checked for updates.

I downloaded AutoPatcher which was able to get quite a few but not all updates.

I decided at this point to start over. I reinstalled the image from October. I ran SeaTools from DOS, which found no problems. I ran chkdsk, which found and fixed a few file system problems:
Cleaning up 1450 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1450 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1450 unused security descriptors.

The chkdsk log is beneath my signature.

After chkdsk ran, I opened windows updates. Instead of 122 updates waiting to be installed, there were only 56. I tried installing them and after an hour of the program being hung on downloading updates I stopped it. I tried checking for updates and after an hour of nothing happening, I stopped it.

I downloaded Autopatcher which was able to get some updates, but not install any. I’m not sure
I fully understand how the program works and if it’s recommended that that’s the way to go, I’ll ask about it in another post.

I tried a solution, which worked for Viscon, but not for me. Windows update continued to stall on checking for updates and on the test I did – trying to download one 2.2 mb update:
What fixed my windows update problems
- installed KB3138612 OFFLINE
- rebooted
- stopped WinUpade again and installed KB3145739 and KB3153199

Finally, I installed KB3161664, based on this suggestion, but when I tried to install the 2.2 mb update afterward, windows update got stuck on downloading again. I have a feeling installing individual patches won’t work on my very out-of-date system:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...9-ea9f567cb932

Should I give up and switch to autopatcher? Or should I try anything else, like running the fixit programs that didn’t work before I ran chkdsk or…..?

Any help will be most appreciated.

Ellen

--
CHKDSK LOG

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
475648 file records processed. File verification completed.
1403 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed. 74 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
629954 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
475648 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 1450 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1450 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1450 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
77154 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
140083144 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
475632 files processed. File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
29615979 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

210158591 KB total disk space.
90787768 KB in 367826 files.
218272 KB in 77155 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
688635 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
118463916 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
52539647 total allocation units on disk.
29615979 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 42 07 00 3f ca 06 00 0d 1d 0b 00 00 00 00 00 .B..?...........
bd bf 00 00 4a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....J...........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.
--

I decided to give up on windows update and ran autopatcher again. I had some trouble with it before running chkdsk but it now runs perfectly and downloaded the updates I wanted. I wasted days trying to fix windows update and suggest that others having problems give autopatcher a try. Autopatcher.net - Index page