Unable to update to 8.1: automatic repair loop

dulpit

Hey all,

My laptop is originally a windows 7 one, I upgraded to 8 whenever it came out. Had never had issues, and had reinstalled OS at least once previously. I had Linux installed as a dual boot and decided last week to reinstall just windows. I downloaded the windows 8 iso and used that to clean install, no issues. When I downloaded the 8.1 update from the store though I got stuck in an automatic repair loop and I can't get into the OS proper unless I use safe mode. I have tried installing 8 a few times, I cleared my disk entirely (it had been partitioned) and still no joy. I reinstalled windows 7 (went fine), upgraded to 8 (also fine) but when I updated to 8.1 it broke yet again.

Any ideas? Ideally I'd like to be able to repair the install I have now, but if I need to reinstall I'll do that too...

Overheal

you've tried taking linux out of the equation?

dulpit

Overheal wrote: »

you've tried taking linux out of the equation?

Ya, I wiped the harddrive completely, so the linux install was blown away. I did actually re-install linux yesterday, I was stuck with only being able to get into safe mode in windows, but while in safe mode I was able to download an ISO for ubuntu and installed that, so at least I had a booting computer.

I did try a less legal route to install windows, it seemed to work okay. Am at work now, will check later this afternoon. If it did work, I will be switching the keys to my own one, very annoying if that was the only solution that did work.

danger_mouse_tm

i have a similar problem reguarly after doing a factory restore on a windows 8 laptop and progressing to 8.1 The trick is to immediately turn off automatic updates and clear out the update cache. Restart. now search for updates and only select three at a time (i organise by type leaving .net 4 till last). Works every time.

Overheal

That sounds painfully time consuming

dulpit

Jesus, that sounds like a pain. In the end I went with leaving laptop running windows 7, I can't be bothered pissing about with the laptop at this stage. Annoying, but what can you do?