Reverting Changes - Win7 64 Bit - Desperate Help Needed

[linuxgirl]

Hi Everyone,

I have a long story to tell here, so I already thank in advance anyone who has the patience and time to even read it...even more so help me in any way...

Story is as follows:

1 - I had an installation of win 7 64 bit Professional which I didn't turn on for about 1 year.
2 - When I turned it on, first thing I wanted to do was to install windows updates.
3 - It took 3 days for it to even find the updates, so I ran them and got to "Failure to Configure, Reverting Changes", which also took a couple of days.
4 - I browsed the net for solutions and tried absolutelly everything I found, including everything described here (deleting windows update cache, etc): How to Fix ''Failure Configuring Windows Updates'' Issue - and more, can't even remember what.
5 - NOTHING worked. So I decided to completely re-install windows from scratch. Defraged the hard disk, then completely wiped it and re-installed win 7 from scratch from the original CD.
6 - When the installation finished, I tried to search for updates. It again took 3 days and came back with about 241 updates.
7 - Again following advise from around, I started updating them in batches of 5 updates at a time. You can already count the amount of times I sat by the PC rebooting it...
8 - After each successfull update batch, I created a system restore point (successfully).
9 - When I got to the last 5 - low and behold - PC got in a loop of cannot configure windows, reverting changes. And I remind you - it is a brand new installation with nothing in it from a couple of weeks ago.
10 - I tried to do a system restore via f8 - but for some reason it didn't find any of the system restore points I had saved (can anyone explain that?).
11 - I went to f8 again and tried last known good configuration, just so I can log into the PC again. Don't know how, but it worked.
12 - Obviously all the 200 and so updates I had installed were no longer in the history.
13 - Now before I start searching for updates again (it currently shows only 13 updates available, 12 of them optional) and wait another 3 days for it to find - I need to know how not to fall back into this loop again.
14 - I wanted to post this a couple of hours ago, but there is an exlamation mark at the start button in windows and each time I shut down the PC, it tries to install those 12/13 updates and fails.
15 - So I am attaching here 2 different results of the windows update fix tool and CBS Log files, from both times I shut down the PC.
16 - Now I obviously will not shut it down again until someone answers me because it will again try to install these 12 updates and will fail again. And if it is failing with 12 updates, imagine what will happen after it finds the 200 other updates that need to be installed.
17 - I can't understand why this is happening on a brand new installation of windows. I am also not sure the troubleshoot results will help you help me because every time it gives a different result. I tried to upload here the folder CBS compressed as requested by your instructions but it 109MB after compression and the max here is 8MB, so I can't upload them here.
18 - Also important to note - windows gets to 99% installing updates and only then it starts the reverting changes thing.

Bless any help you can give me, I am almost giving up

Cheers!

 

[linuxgirl]

Forgot to add a screenshot of the current update history, here it is.

 

[torchwood]

Hi LinuxGirl,
Thats a catch all error code usually ends up in a re-install

But some good news
Can you run this tool, copy/paste the output,
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=52012
if it comes back clean i can post a link for a
W7 Pro SP1 X64, (what language please)

Now to save you a lot of time, you only need a few updates
Read POST 2 (Thrashzone's) in this thread >>carefully<<

Windows Update will not update and I've tried multiple fixes

Roy

 

[linuxgirl]

Hi torchwood,

Thank you for taking the time to read my saga and answer me.

I can't understand how I got to a situation where I have to re-install the system when I just re-installed it two weeks ago

Regarding Service Pack 1 that you kindly offered, I have it installed (came with the installation CD) - so do I still need to run the Microsoft tool?

I read the post you advised me to and I did that procedure before I did the re-installation - but it does not solve the problem. The problem is not that it doesn't find the updates. It does, but then it gets to one or two that get stuck in that windows update reverting changes thing. If I do this procedure again, I will still be left with tons of updates that I cannot update. I understand I might not need all of them and those in the post are the most important, but I don't want to be in a situation where I can't update the security updates that come in regurlarly because of this problem.

I am just thinking that re-install might be the way to go, but it didn't help me before, so not sure it will help me now

Any other suggestions?

Cheers!

 

[MeOnMine]

Hi, I would also suggest that you not rely on the restore function and initiate yourself with Imaging.

Macrium Reflect

Image your PC at the point before it all goes belly up and then you can return to that position in 10 minutes when needed.

 

[linuxgirl]

Thanks MeOnMine - will definitely do that. I used to use Acronis on the distant past but I forgot to it this time. I will try the tool you advised. But at the moment the system is "broken" and there is nothing to image, it will become relevant only if I re-install the system or if I manage to fix the windows update problems I am having.

If anyone has any other suggestions, even far fetched ones, on how I could try to fix this reverting changes thing without the need to re-install I will be eternally grateful.

 

[torchwood]

Hi LinuxGirl
If youve got SP1 disks fine, no need for tool.

READ THAT THREAD CAREFULLY.

YOU WILL ONLY NEED TO INSTALL 5 or 6 UPDATES IN TOTAL TO BRING YOU UPTO DATE
the 3 specifically mentioned, then the rollups.

Roy

 

[linuxgirl]

Thanks Roy! I will do it and let you all know how it went!

Cheers