"Couldn't update to Windows 8.1 - 0xC1900101 - 0x40017"

For the last week I have been having the same problems as have been listed here and tried just about all the suggestions mentioned in the various posts. Out of frustration I lugged my desktop ( a bits and pieces machine)  up to the room where my modem/router is and connected it by Ethernet cable and disabled the wireless connectors, I also connected my old cabled mouse and keyboard and disconnected my wireless mouse/keyboard. HEY PRESTO the update worked after nearly 20 attempts using the wireless connection it work first time with the wired connection. The strange thing is all the wireless connections worked 100% after the update finished ( It does take a long time) without having to update any drivers and a Dell printer which had always refused to work with Windows 8 installed perfectly in Windows 8.1 just by plugging in the USB connector. I hope this experience might be of help to someone but why the install wouldn't work over a wireless connection when all the drivers were correct puzzles me.

Thanks for the heads up - which wasn't the first time I have read about this approach.

I'm glad it worked for you - unfortunately, it made no difference to me.  I disabled the wireless adapter and booted, updated and rebooted with a live LAN connection to no avail.  Same error.

MS, this problem seems to have been around for months, as identified in posts concerning the preview version.  I ask what has been asked before - what is the point of trialling software if you do not rectify the problems that are reported ahead of the release version?

To conclude my Windows 8.1 installation problems, I asked the tech how he was able to install Windows 8 fresh successfully.  Apparently in my failed attempt, it installed the ESD hidden folder on my root.  So, in order to install Windows 8 fresh (assuming the download won't install), you can run it by going to \ESD\Sources and run setup.exe from inside that folder.  I know this won't excite everyone, but if you've been through the insane ridiculous I have, there's the permanent fix (this deletes everything btw).  After that,  I installed the 65(?) updates, ran Windows 8.1 install, and here we are with a successful 8.1 machine.

So is spent another couple of hours taking out my nvidia card and any other unnecessary cards and rerunning the upgrade.

Perhaps unsurprisingly nothing changed and I still get the same error.

Come on Microsoft ... Time for a proper fix !

Hi

 

     Do a repair of your windows 8 (Inplace Upgrade). Once the upgrade is completed remove all the 3rd party antivirus programs. Install all the updates from store and windows update. Run a disk cleanup and cleanup all the files including the system files from disk clean up and then try to install windows 8.1 this works.

 

Thanks

Rakesh Jain

I thought I'd give this a try, as the inplace upgrade didn't seem like it would be too destructive or take up too much time. As it happens it didn't quite go according to plan and instead of simply repairing the Windows 8 installation while leaving everything else intact, it deleted all applications etc. and did a clean install.

The good news (for me) is that the upgrade to 8.1 now works perfectly well for me. unfortunately, I've no idea whether this is because my Windows 8 installation needed repairing or whether the clean install flushed out some dodgy drivers - I suspect the latter.

Good luck everyone else. Let's hope Microsoft can come up with a more user-friendly solution in the near future - and that future releases don't require a clean install to work.

i have the same problem. buildt my own computer;

z77 G1Sniper3, i5 3570k, ddr3 16gb ram, msi gtx680,

after this error, my computer freeze all the time! internet browsers works for 2-4min before "not responding". sometimes everything else, even w8 freezes as well:/