Solved Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 gets stuck halfway through install

[VariousAardvark]

Symptom is always the same: the green bar gets about halfway along, and then it gets stuck. I left it going for 16 hours--nothing.

The one time it's done something different: the first time I tried to install from the download file, it gave me a BSOD (0X0000007a, 0xC0000185, ataport.SYS) but I haven't been able to reproduce that and I'm not sure at what point in the update process it happened.

Installation is only a week old. It's Enterprise, using a volume-license MAK key, and correctly registered.

I have use the SURT, it installed properly, and the CheckSUR log says no errors detected.
sfc / scannow reports no errors.
There are no error codes in Windows Update.
chkdsk reports no errors.

I have tried both the Windows Update installer, and downloading the SP1 pack to install - same result.
I have scanned for viruses and malware and then uninstalled my antivirus (yes, I'm being very paranoid about what sites I go to right now).
I have cleared out the Windows Update cache and re-checked for updates.
I have cleared out temporary files (used CCleaner, did not let it mess with my registry)
I have uninstalled drivers for everything except my NVIDIA graphics card.
I have disabled all non-microsoft services on startup and rebooted.

The CBS folder is 190 gig. It keeps making more and more timestamped CBSPersist.log files that are 15-55Gb each. My CBS.log file alone is 20Gb. I have an install trying to run at the moment, and the CBS.log file grew 2Gb in the ten minutes it took me to copy the folder. Surely that's not normal? It's chewed up all the remaining space on C:/. Literally reports 0 bytes free. I've copied the folder to another drive, can I just delete the CbsPersist files to get some space back?

 

[wben353]

Hi VariousAardvark & welcome to sevenforums.

You can delete everything in the CBS folder.
If CBS.log is in use, you won't be able to delete it.
Windows will recreate CBS.log. When CBS.log reaches preset max, persist.cab (compressed file) is created. It's just a compressed archive of CBS.log

Please post WindowsUpdate.log located at: C:\Windows

space on C:/. Literally reports 0 bytes free

can't install sp1 without free space

Installation is a week old & no free space? Something amiss here!

 

[VariousAardvark]

WindowsUpdate.log is attached. The update attempt was interrupted (by me) because C: ran out of space, (though the update process didn't complain about that, even though it surely would have still been trying to write to those log files?). It then went through the "Windows is configuring, do not turn off your computer" during shut down, which it was still doing this morning when I woke up. It booted without any updates / installing / rolling back notifications.

Seeing as it ran out of space, should I try another update and upload that WindowsUpdate log instead? There's nothing in the log before this attempt, I don't know how useful it'll be.

The lack of space wouldn't have been the issue in the earlier attempts. It's on a 300gb partition (I keep all my files on other drives), which I judged to be plenty because my previous installation had been sitting happily using only 192Gb for years. I removed the CBS logs and it's got 200Gb free again.

When CBS.log reaches preset max, persist.cab (compressed file) is created. It's just a compressed archive of CBS.log

I have two tiny .cabs, but what about all those datestamped CbsPersists[DATESTAMP].log files (screenshot)? Those are are 15, 20, 55Gb. They're not compressed at all, they're just more .log files. (If this is totally not relevant, you don't have to answer, I appreciate people are already spending their time to help me out, here. I think it's really weird that Windows is creating 200Gb worth of too-big-to-open log files, so that might be relaevant. I just like to understand things, and I haven't found anything on google about the persist .logs as opposed to the persist .cabs).

 

[wben353]

Have you tried installing SP1 in Safe Mode?

Check Windows Modules Installer

click start orb type services, click on services

Look for Windows Modules Installer, double-click, in start type choose automatic. apply, OK

boot into safe mode

try installing sp1 again.

If that fails, let's have a look at c:\windows\inf\setupapi.dev.log
Please upload setupapi.dev.log

 

[VariousAardvark]

Installing in safe mode makes no difference, exactly the same thing happens. It just sits there building a giant CBS.log file.

(Not sure if relevant: Resource manager has TrustedInstaller using a steady 13% of CPU, but pretty much the only HDD writing going on is to that CBS file, or a few other log files. There's very little activity happening.)

setupapi.dev.log (dropbox link) doesn't have any logs since yesterday, even though I've run installation attempts since then (It's the 28th here).

I haven't been able to get a "clean" shutdown, it goes into "Windows is configuring blah blah do not shut down" and stays there indefinitely until I do a power cycle. Not sure if those facts are related.

 

[wben353]

Still going over setup.dev.log

Lets look at cbs.log

don't need entire cbs folder just cbs.log

12:30 here in Michigan
Nite!

 

[VariousAardvark]

Thank you so much for all your efforts so far.

The CBS.log is 90 gig. (The install I tried since the screenshot I posted above added another 70Gb to the file in two hours). I don't have anything that'll open it, nor can I think of anywhere that will let me upload it.

I have a LiveCD, I could maybe cat the tail of the file into a .txt?

 

[VariousAardvark]

I was about to go find my LiveCD when it the CBS.log file "wrapped" - it siphoned off into another CbsPersist[...].log of 114Gb, leaving a 13kb CBS.log file (attached).

Also, when I booted just now, Windows told me it had encountered a critical error and would restart in one minute. I tried to open file explorer and I got an error message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path of file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."

At this point I'm wondering whether it's better to just wipe and reinstall, and this time make absolutely sure all updates are done before I install anything else.

 

[wben353]

I believe you can Repair Install win7 enterprise

Haven't located any directives otherwise.

Repair install preserves all your installed programs, files, folder, pictures, music, video, etc., just replaces windows. Also sometimes called In Place Upgrade.

Essentially what your doing is upgrading Enterprise to itself.

You have DVD & Windows product key. From within windows, open DVD & run setup.exe, follow instructions, choose>Upgrade

 

[VariousAardvark]

The disc won't let me do a repair install / upgrade. It goes through the compatibility report and then tells me that "Windows 7 Enterprise cannot be upgraded to Windows 7 Enterprise" and my only option is a full reinstall.

According to this site, my product key is for a Technet Plus Enterprise MAK (the company I work for provided the disk), which seems to be classified as an OEM, and therefore can't be used as an Upgrade or Repair Install disc.

I think I'll just wipe and reinstall, and make sure it has SP1 before anything else gets installed. All my important files are already on another drive, and I have a fresh copy of pretty much all my software installation files already from last week, so it shouldn't be too painful. Whatever is wrong with this installation, it has shown increasing instability with every attempt at a fix or install.

Thanks for your efforts, I really appreciate your time helping me out. When I have successfully installed SP1 on the new install, I'll come back and mark this solved.

 

[VariousAardvark]

Reinstalled with a downloaded SP1 ISO, and have successfully installed all the updates.Thank you for your help.