"Couldn't update to Windows 8.1" - XPS 8500

Updated link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2013/10/17/windows-8-1-upgrade-not-working-after-3-attempts-on-2-machines/

Unfortunately not without a Windows 8.1 .iso and Microsoft has made this almost impossible to obtain legally for those with Windows 8.0 or Windows 8.1 OEM hence the warning in my signature.

They also made unnecessary difficulties with the retail install but we found a workaround for that.

Having the same issue on the same model machine. I just end up with blank screens, then it re-boots and gives me the error. I've done a significant amount of messing with the thing, there's definitely a fault or conflict in the graphics drivers as changing the screen setup can also result in the same black screen and disable the whole machine. If I hear of anything concrete I'll try and remember to update this thread. There's a wider discussion on the MS Answers site: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1_pr-windows_install/error-0xc1900101-0x30018-couldnt-update-to-windows/eb193a43-acb5-4bfa-a3ec-1ea2ee4f90b4

Surely somewhere in the "Panther" directory used by the upgrade, is information on what specifically went wrong.  Without knowledge of what specifically was identified as wrong, we are all just guessing.

This issue is still not solved for me but based on the Microsoft forums there are many others suffering the same fate with 8.1.  I have tried many things short of a full refresh or new install.  If I knew that would work, I would do it but many have tried this to no avail.

I did check my log files. As Bob notes, it would be nice if they would tell us how to decipher the cryptic messages.  I checked $Windows.~BT\sources\Panther\setuperr.log and setupact.log and from the best I could tell I was getting errors connecting to my user folders.  I do have an mSATA SSD with the OS migrated and my user drives mapped to the 2T HD.  With more research I found that that is a problem with the 8.1 install.  At this point I don't have a solution.  I actually tried to do the install with the HD unplugged internally but now I have created another error that occurs at bootup in normal operation not trying to update.  I am going to fix that (hopefully) and then give this effort a break for a while.  My time is more valuable than this!

Well, I have a solution to this issue.  I don't like the solution but it works.  Buy a full version of Windows 8.1 and perform a fresh install.  

As I stated in my previous post, I kept making small problems bigger in my attempt to upgrade 8.0 on my machine.  I got to the point where I had to do a clean install using my Dell provided Windows 8 recovery disk.  The problem is that during the first reboot the display would go completely black like the NVIDIA card was not even on.  I spent endless hours trying to find a solution to this.  From searching forums I was not the only person to every experience this although it was normally in notebooks.  I eventually saw a suggestion that the Dell recovery disk might be the problem.  To test this I downloaded the free 90 day trial of Windows 8.1 Enterprise and installed it fresh on the XPS.  It worked perfectly the very first time!!!!!!

After that I was done wasting my time and bought the full version.  I did the the install last night and the machine is working perfectly now.  In fact I really like having vanilla Windows with zero bloatware.  I probably should have have gone with my gut and built my own machine from scratch but this XPS is good and I will stick with it now.  Windows 8.1 is free and should be a painless upgrade.  I am not sure who to blame for the upgrade mess but in the end Microsoft won and got more money out of me.  Oh well...

Last night at my friend's PC the error says "Couldn't Update to Windows 8.1" during update of windows 8.1.

Solved: Couldn't Update to Windows 8.1 Error 0xc1900101-0x20017

Last night at my friend's PC the error says "Couldn't Update to Windows 8.1" during update of windows 8.1.  Solved: Couldn't Update to Windows 8.1 Error 0xc1900101-0x20017

The WIXNIX post is not asking a question its spam / malvertizer.:emotion-14: