I had this problem on a customer machine for a couple of days and in the end I turned off Windows updates as this seemed to be interrupting the Anniversary update, where it would stop at about 97%.
Control Panel > Administrative Tools>services. In the Services window, scroll down to Windows Update and turn off the process.
This worked for me.
Thanks for the suggestion Marc, I'll give that a try. However, probably not until a few weeks time. I've used up so much of my download quota I'll have to leave it now until the quota refreshes.
Why MS can't just plonk the downloaded files into a temp folder somewhere and refer to that folder at each attempt, I don't know. This business of having to re-download all over again each time is a pain in the ass - not only does it take a looong time on my slow connection, it also eats into my monthly download quota.
UPDATE ON ATTEMPTS:
Even though sfc /scannow is reporting my system as 100% okay, I downloaded the latest 1511 ISO and performed a repair installation (merely chose the upgrade and keep everything option). That all went perfect but then another attempt at installing the Anniversary Update failed with the exact same result.
Mr Jim
If you have the 1607 ISO burned to a DVD or USB stick then you already have the Anniversary update since it is part of the ISO. I have it burned to a DVD and I just pop it in and open the DVD and run setup from the DVD. My shop PC and my Wife's PC was updated to the Anniversary update this way, and neither one was connected to the internet.
OK, is your W10 boot on the W10 partition, and not in the system reserved or the recovery partitions. I know mine booted from the W10 partition and after the anniversary update I no longer have a system reserve partition. Just did the anniversary update on an old Dell PC and it no longer has a system reserve partition.
What I am thinking here is that your PC is trying to second boot from that system reserve and not from the W10 partition. If you will notice when I cloned W10 today all I cloned was the W10 partition, the recovery partition is still on my SSD. If you have an unformatted drive you could use Aomei to clone just the W10 partition and if it doesn't boot then boot from a DVD or USB drive and run bcdedit and write the MBR to the W10 partition. If that works then you could reformatt your SSD and clone back to it, that way you would not lose any files, hopefully. I believe I would get rid of all the $folders that MS seems to like before doing a clone.
Am getting better but still not able to put full weight on my left leg. I'm hoping I did not tear a tendon that might require surgery. Trying to help. Daniel.
Windows 10 boots from the System Reserved partition, the Windows 10 partition is not marked as active.
I think you are definitely on the right track Daniel. What I was thinking of trying was to delete the System Reserved partition then use MiniTool Partition Wizard to convert the Windows 10 partition to GPT, then restore an image of the original Windows 10 partition to the new GPT partition. However, the GPT file system is rather complex and I'm very doubtful that the system would still boot.
What I've decided to do is just admit defeat on the upgrade route and clean install Windows 10 1607. 🙂
I know W10 is supposed to boot from the reserve partition but you really do not need that partition, I have deleted that partition and I think I would use the system recovery and choose the command prompt and run the bcdedit /fixboot and the bcdedit /fixmbr and it would write a new MBR to the W10 partition. That is if you are comfortable playing with deleting the reserve partition. If you, and I know you do, have backup you really do not need the reserve or the recovery partition to get W10 booting. That is why I suggested cloning W10 partition to a HDD you might have and get it booting first and then you can deal with your SSD. If you change the boot tables from MBR to GPT using Diskpart it is going to wipe that partition anyway, GPT tables is their for the UEFI boot anyhow and think one can have more than 4 primary partitions with GPT.
W10 is just like W7 when you do a clean install. If the partition or HDD or SSD is already formatted with NTFS then the reserve partition will not be created and the MBR will be installed on the C drive but the recovery partition will be created.
You can also use Easy BCD and use the BCD Deployment to write the MBR to the W10 C drive.
Been trying to upload a couple of screenshots but I keep getting URL doesn't exist.
Sucess!!!
After reading a recommendation on MajorGeeks, I downloaded and installed DriverBooster (from IObit) which reported 17 drivers that needed updating. DriverBooster automatically downloaded and installed all the updated drivers, after which the Anniversary Update installed without a hitch.
I am generally not a fan of IObit software but DriverBooster really got me out of trouble.
Woot, woot!!
That is good news!!!! Three cheers for Iobit!!!!!
After reading your post I downloaded Driver Update and it found 8 out of date drivers. I just went into device manager and let windows do the driver updates. Got a clean bill of health on my PC just wish I could download a driver for my left leg.
We always jump to conclusions and start blaming someone or something else, and then we find out it is just a lack of PC maintenance of our own fault, I know I'm guilty. Glad you finally worked it out.
Lack of PC maintenance?! I am probably the most OCD user ever regarding a clean and tidy system.
Daniel, this machine is barely 12 months old and has been running Windows 10 1511 successfully for almost all that time.
As part of my attempts to get the AU installed, I went through every single listing in Device Manager and clicked the driver Update button but MS identified only 6 drivers for which updates were available.
Lack of PC maintenance had absolutely nothing to do with it.
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