Windows 8.1 installation error 0x80070004

Anonymous
2013-10-17T12:56:28+00:00

I got the following message while updating Windows 8 to 8.1 from the Store (translated from hungarian):

An error had occured and the installation of Windows 8.1 was unsuccessful. Try again. Error code: 0x80070004

The event log shows the following:

"Telepítési hiba: A Windows 0x80070004 hiba miatt nem tudta telepíteni a következő frissítést: Hungarian ESD Bundle Parent."

In english: Installation error: Windows could not isntall the following update: Hungarian ESD Bundle Parent, with error 0x80070004.

What should I do?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Install and upgrade

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2013-12-10T01:08:25+00:00

Hi,

If you receive error 0x80070004 when you install Windows 8.1, please first check the following:

1.      This error may occur if you are using symbolic links (via the mklink command) to redirect your user profile to another drive.  If so, you can resolve this by restoring your user profile to the system drive by following the steps in KB 2876597.

2.      This error may also occur if you have a corrupt user profile.  To check for this:

·         Open the System Properties (Type “System” at the Start screen, and then select “System”.)

·         Select Advanced system settings.

·         In the Advanced tab, under User Profiles, select Settings.

·         Try to log into any profiles you see listed here.  If you’re unable to log in, that profile may be corrupt.  Return to the User Profiles in Advanced system settings and delete the corrupt profile.  If you see any profiles listed as “Unknown” or that otherwise look corrupt, delete those profiles as well.

·         Try creating a new administrator profile and try installing Windows 8.1 from the new profile.  You can find steps for creating a new profile and copying the old profile to the new one at Fix a corrupted user profile.  (This was written for Vista, but the steps are similar.  You can find Folder Options for displaying hidden system files in the Control Panel, under Appearance and Personalization.)

If you’ve confirmed that you’ve tried all of these steps and you’re still receiving error 0x80070004 when installing Windows 8.1, we would like to collect more information to try to identify additional causes.  Please run this automated utility, which will collect log files and send them to Microsoft.  (You can also choose to save the information to your desktop.)  If you get a message that says the utility has already expired, that means we have already collected enough sample files. 

This log analysis may take some time.  We will post a fix or solution as soon as additional sources for this error are confirmed.  We appreciate your help in collecting this information.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-10-23T06:45:08+00:00

    C:$Windows.~BT\Sources\Panther\setuperr.log

    terrific thanks using that I solved the problem - despite deleting my account the folder was still in C:Users - once I'd copied it to my new admin account and deleted the folder entirely - I was able to install 8.1. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-24T12:27:45+00:00

    Hi Folks,

    I ran into the same issue. It appears that MS update of windows 8.1 is not supported.

    • If you have used the registry hack to point your profiles to the new location on the hard drive the system will tell you during installation that installing Windows 8.1 with the /users directory on a different drive than the system drive is not supported.
    • If you moved the /users directory to a secondary hard disk and created a hard link the installation errors out with 0x80070004 and write the log files which have been posted above.

    I have solved it after some hours. I basically created a secondary users directory and moved the largest libraries to this new place with windows standard functionality. Moved the /users directory back to the system drive. Install Windows 8,1 with no issue.

    Not nice and lot of work but it worked for me.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-24T23:35:29+00:00

    Hi Pinaki Mohanty,

    Sad to say, but I absolutely gave up trying to install 8.1.  I tried all the suggestion in MS Community and never found any fix that worked for me. 

    I finally became aware of the basic problem with the installer and this was mentioned by some of the MS Community blurbs but the difficulty was often sketchy and did not fit my skills.  It involved the links to multiple incidents of user profiles on HD's other than the boot drive.  This confused the installer and resulted in various error pop-ups of a very broad and generic nature or just not definitive.

    So, I tried to move some of the offending profiles and this just killed many of my installed Tiles/Apps.  This required me to REINSTALL Windows 8 PRO by making my boot path to include my CD/DVD of Windows 8 PRO.

    Then, after installing about 68 Windows UPDATES, that required a restart, then Windows 8.1 completed the installation flawlessly.  Yes, all my install programs were gone and as you can imagine what a major task to begin to rebuild my PC.

    I don't know if MS will even fix the problem that the installer found on my PC but I am sure that the issue of multiple user profiles was the culprit in my case.

    There are no detailed explanations in the MS Community, that I could find, that dealt with moving, deleting, or otherwise handling this issue of multiple user profiles that are all linked with something called "symlink".

    Wow! what a mess I experienced and I am so disappointed that MS could not find this problem with all the time of "beta testing" they reported.  Or, they found the issue but just did think it was important enough to put the fix in Windows 8.1?

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-10-25T12:36:02+00:00

    So far none of Microsoft's suggested solutions work. Tried uninstall Avast antivirus, restore health, multiple Microsoft app troubleshooters, Chkdsk in safe mode and sfc  /scannow in safe mode and full Win 8 mode, WSreset, and several third party reset routines,  but after working at this since Oct 17 the 0x80070004 Win Store installation error code persists.  Win 8.1 downloads, goes through several steps and quits.  Why not fix the Microsoft troubleshooters to fix this for everyone instead of one PC at a time. Clearly something in Win 8 store amiss as nothing opens, nothing updates.  Its a failed approach to only provide this update via the Store.  Time for an alternate means of downloading and installing the update.

    The only routines I have not tried is Windows refresh and reinstall.  One very frustrated user!

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