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

I have already changed half of my devices to apple :).

After months of frustration, I did a complete fresh install of 8.0, including deleting partitions and formatting my c drive. The update to 8.1 then worked flawlessly.  I have a Lenovo desktop.

I've already tried to reinstall and reset win 8.0 a couple of times but nothing seems to work. Not trying in safe mode, not disable the anti virus or updating the drivers. 

My computer is a brand new acer 5v-573G GeForce GT750, Core i5-4200U, 8GB RAM, 1000GB HDD/SSD. This is really frustrating since every time I try to update it takes about 1,5h before the error message 0xC1900101-0x40017 appears.

I have downloaded the Windows 8.1 update from the store but cannot get it to install. Each time I try, I get to the point where it is "getting my devices ready", then the PC restarts to a blue screen with error message. It then tries to recover the installation, fails, then restores Windows 8. When the system boots up after this, I get a message saying:

"Couldn't update to Windows 8.1

Sorry, we couldn't complete the update to Windows 8.1. We've restored your previous version of Windows to this PC.

0xC1900101 - 0x40017"

There is n o explanation as to why the update could be completed. Any ideas how to resolve this?

I never had any luck with just formatting and reinstalling - but when I did do a full delete partition, and let the setup create a new one, it worked.  other than that, don't have a clue.

So I did have the same issue as everyone else seems to be having, namely hanging on the "getting devices ready". I have tried doing the update every couple of months but it didn't seem to work. 

However, the other day there were a number of windows updates (to windows 8.0) that had to be done so I thought I might as well give upgrading to windows 8.1 another shot. 

Set it going, left it over night and in the morning there it was sitting happily with 8.1 running. All seems to have gone well since. 

I wish I could say what it was that had changed but apart from the windows updates and me updating some of the drivers (card reader, bios etc.) I can't say what worked other than it did work. 

So I guess there is some hope that it might decide to have a good day and work. Or that someone at Microsoft is slowly spotting bugs and fixing them and happened to sort the one that I had.