Windows 8.1 installation error 0x80004005

Anonymous
2013-10-17T19:35:19+00:00

I tried to update my Win8 Pro via the Win8 Store and it downloaded, proceeded to Applying Changes > Gathering info > Preparing to restart

and than : error 0x80004005; install cancelled.

No explanation why it did not do the restart. I tried it several times because initially I started everything while continuing work in a desktop application. Than I tried it with a restart w/o desktop. Same result.

So I am stuck with Win8 until there is a solution that does not require a clean install where I have to re-install all my software again. No way...

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Install and upgrade

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-11-13T06:38:23+00:00

    Thought went through my mand as well!

    I hated Apple from the first one as I was a Trash80 user (mod1 4kB) so it is very difficult to "love" Crapple - Even refused a White Nokia 920 in case it was mistaken as a iPad I was using!

    Old habbits are ingrained & difficult to overcome!

    E

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-13T06:12:29+00:00

    Maybe the time has come to ask Apple to support MS Products ;) :)

    I understand they dont have these sorts of issues???

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-13T06:02:38+00:00

    Finally the update was a breeze the last week...

    FWIW, these "workarounds" didn't work for me:

    1. Updating to 8.1 via Store.
    2. Updating through 8.1 ISO disc.
    3. Making active the boot partition (created by an old W7 installation and used by W8, I think).
    4. Disabling every single 3rd party services and apps, even uninstalling all of them altogether.
    5. Cleaning faulty registry entries.
    6. Deleting the small System partition and making a single partition that holds everything (system, boot, dumps, etc).
    7. Clean boot.
    8. etc, etc, etc

    None of the above things worked (because I tried hard to keep all my applications untouched while updating)

    The following "workaround" was the trick to update:

    -Refreshing Windows 8 from its ISO disc (and consequently losing all my programs and apps) prior to update to 8.1 through the Store.

    As someone said out there, it seems that 8.1 needs to see a perfectly clean 8.0 boot files which appears always gets messed after "months of use" (no matter how careful you are with maintenance). And that's why my friends that got their systems just updated to 8.0, no one of them got errors while updating...

    Hope it helps :)

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-12T19:08:26+00:00

    Thank you both. Think I'll stick to Windows 8 until Microsoft fixes the problem: which could be sometime / never? As the Store-based offering doesn't work for me, I'd be quite happy to fork out for a LOW COST traditional-style upgrade.  I'd certainly not countenance the current expensive Windows 8.1 offering, which seems to be the only option available to non-technical people (and who knows if it would work anyway?): some option!  

    Hm, just been through an OSX Mavericks update which went without hitch. Interesting comparison.

    Best wishes

    John

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-11-12T04:40:49+00:00

    "Timely" ?  That would have been that the upgrade worked 1st time on the 17th last month!

    Most of us either:

    1.    Gave up and are back on 8.0 or even on 7,

    2.     Mucked around and by chance got it to work by a unique means ("Luck"?) that does not work elsewhere!

    1. Clobbered our whole sweetly running system and re-installed 8.0, hacked the key, installed to 8.1 and changed the key to our original legit key.

    and now rebuilding our s/w installation, fight with UAC that can either work one way or another but not all the ways.....

    Should be done by Xmas!

    Thanks MS, Wasted a few months of actual productive work time on this system!

    Learnt a lot! (Don't ask what, but learnt a lot!)

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