Repair Install Fails, Then Reverts - "The upgrade was not successful."

NoelDP said:

- sorry - I didn't see that you'd posted the CBS.log file, but we still have no CheckSUR report, and no back data. The first run of SFC fixed 72 file problems, the majority of which were graphics (.ico .bmp .png). Some however, were xml files, and there was one .dll file where the hard link was broken - VGX.dll

I can't honestly see any of those causing your problem with a repair install, so the extra data from the CheckSUR will be important.

CheckSUR.log attached. Sorry about that.

thadius856 said:

Going to head to bed now. Very tired and have to be up early.

Launching upgrade attempt #4 now. It should only take an hour or so to know if it was successful or not, but I hope to be saw logs by then.

Will post back in the early morning.

This failed during the night again, but still managed to restore the existing installation at the end.

NoelDP said:

I'll have to do some research before I attempt to fix this!
back later/tomorrow - if you haven't heard by this time tomorrow, shout!

Sure thing. If it comes down to uninstalling and reinstalling those updates, just let me know.

Unplug all other drives before trying the Repair Install.

The drive you have plugged into Disk0 is not an OS drive yet it is marked Active. This is asking for trouble in many ways. The OS should be the only partition marked Active, and there should be no preceding Primary partitions and certainly not Active ones. Only an OS or its boot partition should ever be marked Active.

Have you considered doing the Clean Reinstall? If this is still the factory preinstalled Win7 then it is the worst possible install you can have. No tech enthusiast would tolerate such an install for a minute, much less try to repair it with great effort. This is a perfect example of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Everything you need to have Win7 reinstalled in an hour is in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. As it explains you should take your time reinstalling programs over days to monitor how they affect performance which will be perfect if you stick with the steps.

gregrocker said:

The drive you have plugged into Disk0 is not an OS drive yet it is marked Active. This is asking for trouble in many ways. The OS should be the only partition marked Active, and there should be no preceding Primary partitions and certainly not Active ones. Only an OS partition should ever be marked Active.

Understood. That drive was only plugged in last night so I could run 7 overwrite passes on it before degaussing and shredding the drive. It will be unplugged for the final time when it is proejcted to finish wiping. It was not plugged in for the previous 3 install attempts that yielded the same result. I'll unplug all drives except the SSD tonight and attempt again.

Sorry for not keeping up here. Had to fly cross-country for a family thing. Was really busy packing before I left.

Before I left, I finished wiping that 400gb drive, unplugged all other drives, and attempted to repair again. Failed again. Hooked it all back up and started wiping an old 1 tb drive.

Will post here when I get back. What was that crazy idea you had in mind?

Have you established a completely clean boot in msconfig>Startup and >Services, after hiding all MS Services? Include your AV if it's listed, and in its Preferences or uninstall it.

Is this a known-good installer of the same SP status, used to successfully complete an install recently? If not download and burn to DVD the latest official ISO provided in tutorial/

Have not tried a clean boot. Will do that when I get back.

I've been using the ISO from the tutorial. Yes, same SP.