Windows 10 upgrade (1607) failed to install (8 times)

[JimmyB21]

Windows 10 upgrade (1607) automatically downloaded and tried to install. Received error message "installation failed".  Option on the screen shaow a "Fix It" button which Itried.  It downloads and atempts to install with the same results.  This has been happening for at least 10 days. 

[WAWood]

JimmyB21

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

I wish I had good news for you -- but I don't ...

For you see, the Anniversary Update (AU) is a whole NEW version of Win10. The previous was 10586; this is 14393 -- and the community Win10 forums are awash with folks whose machines, which had previously been running Win10 without problems, SUDDENLY developed problems either trying to install this Update, or after installing this Update.

My desktop has been running Win10 without problems since the earliest days of the Insider Preview over a year ago and it's sailed through Update after Update without problems. So, you can imagine my surprise when the AU trashed my PC -- to the degree that I restored it from an image backup.

I, too, tried the Upgrade using Windows Update, and like with the original Upgrade, it has proven to be the least reliable way to do it. So, I used a different way -- that worked!

Before doing this, to be SAFE, I strongly recommend that you do an image backup of your PC to a large USB stick or external drive BEFORE you attempt this Update:

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR)
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 10 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry. This allows you then to boot into WinRE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

Regarding applying the AU, what worked for me, and many others as well, is the following:
1) Use this MS link to download and create Win10 install media: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install?ocid=ms_wol_win10
2) Insert that media in your PC while Win10 is running -- do NOT boot from it!
3) Open the drive containing the media, right-click on setup.exe and run it

This will start the Update -- which can take 45 minutes or more.

Good Luck