Stuck in a loop where my laptop keeps freezing at 99 percent when updating, system restore fails

Anonymous

Nine months ago I faced a similar problem and posted about it here (

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/stuck-in-a-loop-where-my-laptop-keeps-freezing-at/04ce9357-a3b9-416a-a591-8abe67317fb8 ) and I was fortunate to get the help I needed. I went back to my old question post and followed the instructions but this time my laptop fails to complete system restore. The windows that pops up reads:

"System Restore did not complete successfully. Your computer's system files and settings were not changed.

Details:

System Restore failed while mounting the registry from the restore point. An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x800703f1)

You can try System Restore again and choose a different restore point. If you continue to see this error, you can try an advanced recovery method."

There was only one restore point available from the 20th, the day before this happened, so that last line is not an option.

Another instruction from the old post was "If you haven't set it up before, click on troubleshoot, click on uninstall updates and try to uninstall the updates you have installed, after that click on command prompt and enter the following commands in order..." however the laptop is also unable to uninstall these latest updates, both quality and feature updates. Should I go ahead and enter the commands anyway? Should I try startup repair? Reset PC? What should I do?

Also, Aaron, if you're reading this, I apologize that I hadn't marked your reply as helpful all those months ago, I was sure I had but judging from your repeated replies requesting I do so I apparently hadn't. I haven't been on this site since then so I never saw those replies. Again, I'm sorry.

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.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Ramesh 181.4K Volunteer Moderator

See if you can close Notepad.

To backup the files from Windows.old, run the following in Command Prompt:

robocopy c:\windows.old\users\oliver F:\Oliver /XD "appdata" /MIR

(Assuming F:\ is your 2nd partition on your USB setup disk.)

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Ramesh 181.4K Volunteer Moderator

Is there disk activity? If it's hung up/no disk activity, your best option is to clean install using USB.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Ramesh Srinivasan 87,615 Independent Advisor

Hi Oliver,

Sorry, I thought Windows was booting fine despite the Windows Update issue.

If you can start WinRE, open WinRE Command Prompt and run:

bcdedit | find "osdevice"

Note the drive letter of the OS partition from the above output. Suppose it's C:\

Run this command to revert pending servicing operations.

md C:\Temp

dism /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RevertPendingActions /ScratchDir:C:\Temp

ren C:\Windows\WinSxS\pending.xml pending.xml.old

Post the output here.

0 comments

78 additional answers

Anonymous

2025-01-24T05:57:43+00:00

Just to be clear, restart by shutting it down via holding down the power button and just turning it on again?
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Ramesh 181.4K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-01-24T05:54:09+00:00

I cannot close notepad conventionally, it is totally unresponsive. Is there a command I can use to close it?

Simply restart the system and re-enter WinRE? To do so, type wpeutil reboot in Command Prompt.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments