Windows 11, version 24H2 won't install

I don't think you're reading the comment properly. I said it's downloaded but won't install. I've got 2.3 GB of space left because it's downloaded, but I can't install. There's absolutey nothing else that I can delete. Solution for that please?

Hi Ron,

Know that I'm not a tech and know almost nothing about windows other than what I need to know to use it on a day-to-day basis. Whenever I need to do anything with the command prompt or regedit, it requires searching for instructions online. However, I'm responding because you probably won't get this kind of answer from people who ARE actually knowledgeable and experienced on the tech side. Take what I just said into consideration when deciding whether or not to pay attention to what I say.

Tech people find all of the instructions sprinkled throughout these threads to be simple and relatively quick. For those of us who don't know/understand these methods or how the underlying systems work, these things are confusing and extremely time consuming.

My issues were unrelated to insufficient disk space, and I didn't find any potential tech-savvy solution in 7 months of searching. I took the atomic way out which, if you have any chance of updating, will probably be necessary for you if you have less than 3 GB of free space right now. It may not have been necessary for me to go this route, but I didn't find a decent discussion about the 24H2 update issues until AFTER going nuclear.

Based on the issue of insufficient free space, BEFORE considering the windows upgrade, be sure you know the CAPACITY of your hard drive. I'm not talking about FREE space.

A lot of space is used/wasted in the process of updating/upgrading windows that isn't actually needed to store and run windows. You also have a lot of space being used for your existing version of windows. A lot of the space used during the installation process will free up (or can be freed up) after installation. That means if it takes nearly your entire hard drive to install windows, you can still have space for personal files after you accomplish this flawed update.

In any case, you certainly don't have enough space to update as your PC is set up right now and it seems unlikely you'd be able to free up enough space by being selective about what can/can't go.

If your disk CAPACITY has the space, you may still be able to accomplish this without upgrading your hard drive or purchasing a new computer. Although, even if you succeed with this update, if you have a hard drive typically running close to its capacity, you will need to upgrade to a larger capacity in the near future. You're going to run into issues even with less robust updates, and keep in mind that windows 12 is right around the corner. I'm sure this update was intended to be part of the windows 12 update, but had even more issues with the full upgrade and this was what we were left with. That's only a hunch.

So, the difficult part for you is recommended that you have 64 GB of FREE space. I've seen that you may be able to complete an install with only 40 GB of FREE space, but there are likely a few steps you'd need to take during installation to make that work. I've also seen ways to use external drives to handle the temporary files, meaning you don't need nearly as much space, but you need more than one available USB port and more than one USB drives withat least 16 GB from what I saw. However, your drive still needs a lot of space. It looked like you could test this method without formatting the drives so that the old windows files are maintained in the event it still doesn't work.

I would not suggest attempting this unless your drive capacity is at least 40 GB. That's the lowest number I've seen. Most alternative methods don't mention what would be required for space. What I'm going to suggest will mean that you don't need to worry about what is free and what is used. It will only matter what the capacity is.

No matter what you try, be sure to make a full disk image backup of your drive, not just your personal files. If you know your system easily meets all of the system requirements, you can get away with only backing up your personal files, but if you remove your existing operating system and can't install the new operating system... you don't have a computer.

It's a better idea to back up to an external hard drive, but if you don't have one and money is very tight, you can get 128 GB thumb drives for under $20 on Amazon these days. That's insane to this old guy, but it's true. Personally, I don't have as much faith in flash drives, so if I were backing up to flash drives, I'd make two backups on separate drives. This is an extra step (and time), of course, but for most people, it would be a very minimal inconvenience compared to attempting to restore that data and finding out it's corrupt or unreadable.

IN YOUR SITUATION DO NOT DO ANYTHING UNTIL YOU HAVE A FULL DISK IMAGE.

The solution for me was to do a clean windows install while deleting partitions and "quick" formatting the drives during that process. It's important to note that a clean install while maintaining my partitions and preserving old windows files did NOT work for me. Since you need all of the space that stuff is taking up, I can't imagine that would work for you either.

This was the absolute last thing I wanted to do because of the effort and time involved in getting my system and apps back the way I need/want them. HOWEVER, after seeing what people are going through, especially those of us with limited tech experience, I believe starting from scratch was faster, easier, and less frustrating.

About a page up in the thread is my original answer with more details and some steps to be aware of in the process, along with links to instructions and a step by step walkthrough video for the last resort option.

This is definitely not the solution any of us want, but in order to correct your situation, you will need to go through a process to remove the windows files for the new version AND the backup files created as part of the installation process that are both wasting your disk space, which is likely to be a detailed process that is a lot without tech knowledge/experience, because it must be done without affecting your necessary files, and it's not like deleting a folder from the file manager. THEN if you pass the hardware requirement checks, you will seemingly have about a 50/50 chance of having the compatibility issues we're all having with the update. If so, you'll need to go through all of the steps you see people discussing in threads like this to find the problems and try to fix them. THEN install the update.

What I'm trying to say is that the one possible solution you would probably try to avoid at all costs because of the time and effort involved in setting everything up again, may be easier than doing EVERYTHING else required to avoid it.

I'm also guessing that this would be the only way to free up enough storage and unallocated space to install this heap of **** update.

To be clear, upgrading security isn't a bad thing, and my system is running just fine with the update. It's the way they rolled it out and the process they programmed for all of these changes that is the heap of ****.

Not that you were asking for a rant about the new Microsoft business model, but you're going to get one anyway.

I'm also going to get into way too much detail about how to ensure you control your data when using windows, since they control your data if you set up your system the way they try and force you to and/or follow their constant prompts and popups (ms adware).

It's the lack of care in their product and the lack of respect for their users that infuriates me. Not just the update itself, but the way they are handling the support side for the overwhelming number of users having issues. Support is pretending they don't know about the issues and they are only providing solutions that would solve the issues people have with the general update process with typical updates. That simply wastes everyone's time and they KNOW it's a waste of time. They just don't care.

After about 30 years of being an intensely loyal windows/microsoft user, this experience has made me eager for replacements for windows and ms office. I've never even looked at alternatives, but now I am.

This all proved to me that microsoft is not the same kind of company, and there is no longer an overarching convenience to using their products like I used to perceive. In the past 7 months of frustration, time, and energy trying to update, I could have learned a new operating system and software.

In addition, throughout this process I realized the forced integration with a Microsoft account, and the intrusive nature of the new backup/sync (OneDrive); they are quietly making their systems a seemingly accepted form of ransomware/aware/malware.

The scariest part of this is that if you set your system up the way they try to force you to, if you lose access to your Microsoft account, you lose access to your computer and your data. They do all of this by making it all seem like improvements and added layers of convenience and protection without explaining what these things are truly doing to your system and data, and without providing any statements or warnings about what these changes/settings actually mean for the user. Windows installation requires that you log on with your ms account which means you have no local account on your pc. To bypass this requirement, you must jump through hoops, bypass your internet connections, and use the command prompt to make system changes -- none of which are provided as options during the setup.

More scariness...

OneDrive removes the files and folders you are "backing up" or "syncing" from your PC -- that's NOT a backup or a sync.

Another is the single sign-on overrides any settings you have and forces all microsoft apps and processes to integrate and connect to your Microsoft account in the background, even though it's presented only as an option for signing in. It makes no mention that it removes your ability to use local apps without logging in, or to login with a different account.

Since I was now starting fresh after failing to get any helpful assistance from MS support, it gave me an opportunity to learn how to install windows without connecting to a ms account.

Since I needed to set up my system and apps again, I knew not to set it up with OneDrive, and instead use a 3rd party backup/sync option that truly backs up and syncs my data. You know, having data locally stored on my PC, and simply backs up that data to an external drive on a schedule and keeps it synced to a cloud account that isn't trying to take over my system and data.

If you go through the process of a clean install, I highly recommend installing windows with a local user account.

I also recommend finding a backup/sync option other than OneDrive. You can still use OneDrive for storage, but absolutely DO NOT set up the sync options. Just use it as basic cloud storage and do a true backup by copying your local data to the cloud rather than using the automated features that remove the files from your local computer and replace your local folders with links to the cloud. Also be sure you DO NOT set up the single sign on option, which is a check box at setup, in the app settings, and sometimes at sign-in. Be sure that anything saying "Single Sign-on" or "Seamless Sign-on" is not checked. It may also say something like, "Use this account to sign into all Microsoft apps and services". That is a very bad idea.

I'll leave a 2nd reply with tips for maintaining control of your data while still using Microsoft.

I have done everything suggested in this reply, and the update still will not install. It is impossible to actually reach a Microsoft technician. Please advise. This is truly a major Microsoft failure. I get a prompt to restart my computer daily. I restart it, and the same error message 0xd0000034 appears every time with the notice that the update failed to install

I don't think you're reading the comment properly. I said it's downloaded but won't install. I've got 2.3 GB of space left because it's downloaded, but I can't install. There's absolutey nothing else that I can delete. Solution for that please?

You have got to free up a lot of storage space to get it to install which is really your problem. You might have a recycle bin that needs cleaning out but other than that you are stuck. If it's a system where you can install an additional drive then is a possibility. On mine I store music files on a different drive. If you can do something like that or is it a laptop with limited expansion then you have stuffed it full of stuff to a point where you can't update or as I suggested you might have a lot in your recycle bin than can be cleaned out.

I don't think you're reading the comment properly. I said it's downloaded but won't install. I've got 2.3 GB of space left because it's downloaded, but I can't install. There's absolutey nothing else that I can delete. Solution for that please?

Thanks, Terence.

@ErikKecse

The error looks like a driver migration error and is comparatively easy to fix. Please click Ask a new question and post the details there. The setup logs are required for troubleshooting.