Windows 10 upgrade from 1909 to 20H2 keeps failing

[atshafi]

Windows 10 upgrade (from preinstalled v1909 to v20H2) failed three times on Omen 15-en0xxx.

Uninstalled the antivirus that came preinstalled.

Only the second time it gave an error code 0xc1900101 during the troubleshooting.

It doesn't show up in check for updated anymore.

I tried installing the update through Windows 10 Update Assistant. The update failed again during installation.

I saw other posts here from August 2020 about same issue with v2004.

Anyone successfully upgraded Windows 10 on HP Omen 15-en0xxx yet?

[WAWood]

@atshafi 

I presume you're trying to do this through Windows Update, and that is most likely the issue.

If Windows 10 v20.04 or 20H2, is blocked on your PC, you can try to FORCE an update to the most current version of Windows 10 -- but that takes some work.

- Use Macrium Reflect to create a backup on a large USB stick or external drive (see below)

- Use this link to download and create Win10 install media: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

- insert that into your PC (do NOT boot from it), find the folder containing the media, select the setup.exe file, right-click that and select Run as Administrator.  This will start an in-place Upgrade which could then take a couple of hours to complete.

If you are presented with a window asking for a product key, down near the bottom is a entry you can click to skip that. Do NOT enter a product key, as it will reuse your existing key and when you finish and get back online, Windows will automatically activate.

--------------- Doing Image Backup ---------------
I personally prefer to use third-party Backup solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
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 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

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

[atshafi]

Thanks for the reply. You did remind me of another method to upgrade the system (i.e. with iso). I am giving you thumbs up for that. However I am not going to try that at the moment. Version 1909 still have a couple of months left before it's servicing timeline ends.

Since windows 10 was first released, I rarely needed to do that on a machine that has windows installed already. Only on brand new, bare metal hardware fresh out of box, I use usb stick to install windows.

While your method will probably work, it will not solve the underlying problem (which could be an SSD issue).

I am still trying to figure out if it's a hardware or software issue. 

Which brings me to your comment, "I presume you're trying to do this through Windows Update, and that is most likely the issue."

Could you please elaborate on that? Why exactly doing this through Windows Update would be an issue, while it worked for my other machines?