Error 0xC1900101 – 0x20017 when installing Windows 8.1

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Anonymous

(Updated January 28, 2014)

Hello,

Microsoft is aware some customers are unable to install Windows 8.1 due to error 0xC1900101 -0x20017.

This error indicates a failure to boot Windows 8.1 occurred during the initial reboot of the update, causing the system to roll back to Windows 8. The most likely cause of this error is an incompatible driver or hardware defect critical for booting the intermediary environment necessary to perform upgrade actions. Unfortunately, due to the timing of this failure, there are often no logs, crash dumps or other diagnostic information available to investigate the issue easily, which makes it difficult to determine which, if any, of the drivers or system components are causing the update to fail.

We are currently working with the companies to help them update their problematic drivers whenever they are identified. Some of the identified drivers that are known to cause this error are listed here and are the first steps you can try to resolve the issue:

· Make sure you are not running any drive-encryption software. If so, you must decrypt your drive before updating to Windows 8.1.

· Check for and uninstall any desktop utilities you may have running. For example, uninstalling IOBit or Intel Desktop Utilities (including Extreme Tuning software, but excluding Managed Engine) has been observed to resolve this issue.

· Older NFORCE drivers may not be supported on Windows 8.1. If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, make sure they are currently supported and you’ve installed the latest NVIDIA drivers.

· Please remove any connected USB devices (except the keyboard and mouse) and then try the upgrade.

· Check that you do not have any SteelSeries products that support the SteelSeries Engine installed on your PC. The SteelSeries Engine software is currently not supported on Windows 8.1. Please uninstall the software before attempting to update to Windows 8.1.

· Try disabling or uninstalling your antivirus software and see if the upgrade will succeed. Problems have been observed updating to Windows 8.1 if ESET or AVAST are installed. Please see the following links for product further information

ESET - http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN3153
AVAST - http://www.avast.com/en-us/faq.php?article=AVKB97#artTitle

Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of drivers constantly being created by other companies all over the world, identifying every problematic driver is a daunting task. We understand that the inability to easily identify the incompatible driver can be incredibly frustrating and we are sorry for the inconvenience.

Make sure you’ve installed all the latest Windows Updates and latest drivers from your hardware and software manufacturers, and uninstall any unnecessary hardware or software prior to updating to Windows 8.1.

If your hardware and software manufacturers do not have updated drivers and you are experiencing this error, the best method for upgrading to Windows 8.1 is to clean install Windows 8, and then update to Windows 8.1 before allowing any additional drivers or software to install. Instructions to do this are provided below. If you still experience this error after performing a clean install, your hardware is not compatible with Windows 8.1.

To prevent the installation of additional drivers or software during a clean install:

Back up all of your personal documents and data to an external drive.
Disconnect your computer from the Internet.
Perform a clean install of Windows 8 using Windows 8 installation media (DVD or USB). For help performing a clean install of Windows, see How to perform a clean install of Windows. Note: If you do not have media and Windows 8 was pre-installed on your PC, please contact your PC manufacturer for assistance. Otherwise to get help obtaining installation media, contact Microsoft Support.
Once you’ve reinstalled Windows 8, change your hardware settings so that you do not automatically install driver updates.

From the Start screen, type “System”, and then click on “View advanced system settings” in the search results. This will open the System Properties dialog.
Click on the Hardware tab, and then click Device Installation Settings.
When the Device Installation Settings window appears, click the “No, let me choose what to” button, and then “Never install driver software from Windows Update”. Click Save Changes to save the setting.

Reconnect your computer to the Internet.
Install Windows Updates. Restart the computer when prompted.
Open Windows Store and install Windows 8.1.

Afterwards, be sure to restore your hardware settings so that your device drivers once again install automatically. (Repeat Step 4, but restore this setting to “**Yes, do this automatically (recommended)”**and Save changes.)

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91 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-08-23T14:58:55+00:00

Hi everyone.

Like SO MANY people, I too, was suffering this ongoing, frustrating problem. Today I resolved it. Hooray!!

For me, I update my laptop's (Toshiba Satellite) BIOS to the latest version, from their website, then tried the update from Window 8 to 8.1. This time SUCCESS!!

I hope this may help a couple of you who haven;t thought of this yet. I'm not a tech guy. Just an average user, and I don't even know how the thought to check my actual laptop's firmware even entered my mind. But I'm glad it did.

Good Luck to Everyone who is still dealing with this frustrating dilemma.

Not sure of people are monitoring this still, but I run a computer shop and MANY systems need a BIOS update for Windows 8.1 to work properly. I sell a lot of Acer systems (Z3-600 Bay Trail AIO, V5-552P AMD Richland touch laptop, W4 Bay Trail tablet, etc.) and they all have quirks with Windows 8.1 with the stock firmware. Bay Trail systems don't always power off at shutdown, or else take a long time. ASUS T100's also ship with buggy firmware too.

I haven't had problems INSTALLING Windows 8.1 on THESE systems, but I've seen numerous Toshiba and Gateway systems from customers that bought their computer elsewhere that need a BIOS/UEFI update before they can install it correctly.

Also on many Acer Group (Acer, Gateway) Windows 8.0 models, you need to update your Bluetooth drivers after the update to get rid of the incompatible Bluetooth Audio driver component. Acer has updated drivers on their website.

It seems that system manufacturers need to test their firmware more extensively. UEFI is still relatively new though. Remember that Microsoft pushed for UEFI to really get moving (Intel IA64 systems have had EFI for years) but look at their own Surface systems - they schedule firmware updates every month. This is just the way systems are going now.

I honestly haven't had a lot of issues installing Windows 8.1, but when I do, I either update the firmware and try again, or I use an install disc ISO with the Win8 ISO mount support, use a generic system builder key (available on the OEM System Builder site) for the install and do an in-place upgrade (keep files, apps, settings) and then use RWEverything to read the product key out of the UEFI if it's an OEM Windows 8.0 key (or PRODUKEY before the update if it's not) and re-activate with their own key.
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Anonymous

2014-07-30T06:37:11+00:00

Hi everyone.

Like SO MANY people, I too, was suffering this ongoing, frustrating problem. Today I resolved it. Hooray!!

For me, I update my laptop's (Toshiba Satellite) BIOS to the latest version, from their website, then tried the update from Window 8 to 8.1. This time SUCCESS!!

I hope this may help a couple of you who haven;t thought of this yet. I'm not a tech guy. Just an average user, and I don't even know how the thought to check my actual laptop's firmware even entered my mind. But I'm glad it did.

Good Luck to Everyone who is still dealing with this frustrating dilemma.
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Anonymous

2014-04-17T17:35:13+00:00

The reality is that nothing works, not the myriad possible resolutions offered in this ongoing, lengthy discourse, not the days, literally, that I've spent on the phone with several Microsoft techs, not anything. It is absolutely pointless for us, as consumers to attempt to resolve this issue that Microsoft chooses to ignore.

The maintenance of a Windows system has turned into a 40 hour per week job. That's just the maintenance of Windows, not what I had hoped to do with it. At this point, I want, not only a refund for Windows itself, but also payment for the countless hours that I have worked, with Microsoft techs and otherwise, to try to make Windows 8 work. I give up. I will do absolutely nothing else to try to make the upgrade to 8.1. Anyone who invests any time at all into that enterprise is completely wasting their time.

I figure that, at some point, Windows will become unworkable without the upgrade to 8.1. At that point, I will have to make the decision to revert to Windows 7 (which worked) or go to Linux (which presents problems because of the Windows-based software that I own and use). If it were not for the software that I need and use, it would be a no-brainer - it would be Linux in a flash. It may yet be, but I'm not going to waste another minute trying to maintain Windows 8.
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Anonymous

2014-04-17T17:07:21+00:00
I've done a little more of search to figure out what is wrong. This is what I know:
- Error message on boot BSOD is: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
- Error code of BSOD: 0x000000001
- The boot process can't find the hardrive (SATA, IDE, USB)
- The problem is with a windows driver, not a proprietary one
--

If anyone can relate to any of the following hardware, that might be the cause:
- ASUS Laptop F5 Series
- SiS 671 chipset
- Atheros/Azurewave Wifi + Bluetooth
- Realtek cardreader
--

I made a new install.wim with other pc with 8.1 + all updates + update 1 but it also fails to boot once applied to the faulty laptop. Same symptoms as before.

I was trying to replace some windows 8.1 drivers with windows 8 ones related to storage and usb devices (atapi.sys/pciide.sys/....) but the boot fails when those drivers are verified on the boot process.

I can't do more than this.

Your turn MS.
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