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I installed some patches recently.
I forgot exactly what they were, but one was a cumulative security update for R2.
Now, I can’t login. Everytime I restart it says preparing for updates, configuring windows module installer, and reboots.
Every single time, I tried 5 or 6 times. I also tried safe mode and last known good configuration – the same thing happened. Which means I can’t get in to uninstall the update.
Any ideas?
remove pending.xml from winsxs dir using repair mode
Ahh, this didn’t help.
I used repair mode, and then opened a command prompt.
It showed X drive, while the normal files and C; were not accessable, which should be correct.
I removed the pending.xml from the winsxs dir on x:, rebooted, and the exact same thing happened.
no remove it from c:windowswinsxs
not x:
if u dont have access
take ownship and permissionHow can I access C: from a command prompt?
The repai option from f8 which has the options for a command prompt and system restore…only shows x: from a command prompt. Some sort of ramdisk I suspect, with no access to c:
The rest of the options don’t allow any access….do I need to boot from the cd?
OK, my C: is renamed to D: so I was able to access it. I was unable to find this documented anywhere and just started trying different drives, and it was the next one up.
However, deleting pending.xml did not work. I made sure it was deleted by trying to delete it a second time, and it didn’t exist.
The same thing happened when I rebooted…just a reboot loop.
What else could I try?
OK, my C: is renamed to D: so I was able to access it. I was unable to find this documented anywhere and just started trying different drives, and it was the next one up.
However, deleting pending.xml did not work. I made sure it was deleted by trying to delete it a second time, and it didn’t exist.
The same thing happened when I rebooted…just a reboot loop.
What else could I try?
Still no luck here, any ideas anyone?
You can find out which updates were installed by running the following command where you replace %SystemRoot% by your Windows installation directory:
type %SystemRoot%WindowsUpdate.log|find "Title ="|moreMaybe using that information it’s possible to see which files were updated (lookup the KB number and look at the files within the archive) so you can restore them with the original files from the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation DVD.
By the way: why not just backup your files using a PE CD like BartPE or a Linux Live CD and reinstall your system?
Anyway, Good Luck! 🙂
You can find out which updates were installed by running the following command where you replace %SystemRoot% by your Windows installation directory:
type %SystemRoot%WindowsUpdate.log|find "Title ="|moreMaybe using that information it’s possible to see which files were updated (lookup the KB number and look at the files within the archive) so you can restore them with the original files from the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation DVD.
By the way: why not just backup your files using a PE CD like BartPE or a Linux Live CD and reinstall your system?
Anyway, Good Luck! 🙂
Hi Arris,
thanks, I will try this as well as the dism command if R2 has it.
Why not to just reinstall? Because I don’t want to have to download and install all my applications as well. It is….a pain.
I also have a deep need to understand problems and not just take an easay solution….which is not really a solution at all. 😉
Hi Arris,
thanks, I will try this as well as the dism command if R2 has it.
Why not to just reinstall? Because I don’t want to have to download and install all my applications as well. It is….a pain.
I also have a deep need to understand problems and not just take an easay solution….which is not really a solution at all. 😉
It seems KB980182 is the offending update, which is a cumulative security update for IE.
Oddly enough I can’t find any problems with this update and a reboot loop.
I tried using dism to revert the pending updates which apparently worked, although this made no difference to my problem.
Is there a way I can uninstall a particular update?
It seems KB980182 is the offending update, which is a cumulative security update for IE.
Oddly enough I can’t find any problems with this update and a reboot loop.
I tried using dism to revert the pending updates which apparently worked, although this made no difference to my problem.
Is there a way I can uninstall a particular update?
@JingoFresh wrote:
It seems KB980182 is the offending update, which is a cumulative security update for IE.
How did you find out that KB980182 is causing the problem?
Anyway, usually updates can be removed by clicking the View installed updates link the Programs and Features applet in the Control Panel, however you can’t get into Windows so that is not an option.
Updates and Hotfixes can also be uninstalled using the Microsoft Recovery Console of the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation DVD. To do this boot up your PC from this DVD and after selecting the correct keyboard language start the Recovery Console by the key-combination Shift + F10. In the Recovery Console enter the command below where the values of the /up parameter separated by the tildes (~) can be found in the .xml (in your case Windows6.1-KB980182-x64.xml) within the .msu (expand to get the .xml) you want to uninstall. The /o parameter specifies the OS drive path and Windows directory path seperated by a semicolon ( ; ).
pkgmgr /o:"C:;C:Windows" /up:"Package_for_KB980182~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.1" /l:"KB980182_Uninstall"After running the command see if the update was uninstalled succesfully by running:
notepad KB980182_Uninstall.txtMore information about the pkgmgr command can be found at TechNet: Package Manager Command-Line Options.
Finally reboot your computer and see if it has worked! 🙂 This method also works for Windows Server 2008 / Vista / Windows 7.
Good luck! 😉
@JingoFresh wrote:
It seems KB980182 is the offending update, which is a cumulative security update for IE.
How did you find out that KB980182 is causing the problem?
Anyway, usually updates can be removed by clicking the View installed updates link the Programs and Features applet in the Control Panel, however you can’t get into Windows so that is not an option.
Updates and Hotfixes can also be uninstalled using the Microsoft Recovery Console of the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation DVD. To do this boot up your PC from this DVD and after selecting the correct keyboard language start the Recovery Console by the key-combination Shift + F10. In the Recovery Console enter the command below where the values of the /up parameter separated by the tildes (~) can be found in the .xml (in your case Windows6.1-KB980182-x64.xml) within the .msu (expand to get the .xml) you want to uninstall. The /o parameter specifies the OS drive path and Windows directory path seperated by a semicolon ( ; ).
pkgmgr /o:"C:;C:Windows" /up:"Package_for_KB980182~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.1.1" /l:"KB980182_Uninstall"After running the command see if the update was uninstalled succesfully by running:
notepad KB980182_Uninstall.txtMore information about the pkgmgr command can be found at TechNet: Package Manager Command-Line Options.
Finally reboot your computer and see if it has worked! 🙂 This method also works for Windows Server 2008 / Vista / Windows 7.
Good luck! 😉
Hi Ariss,
I had thought that KB980182 was the offending update, because when I used dism to get a list of packages, that was the only update set as pending.
I removed it with dism, however it made absolutely no difference to my problem.
There were only two other updates installed that day, both hotifxes for office.
Those updates were KB978380 and KB978382, and of course I cannot find anyone having problems with them either.
These do not show with the dism /get-packages command, and instead seem to be MSP patches. I have the location of the .msp files themselves, but am unsure if I have access to msiexec to remove them.
Would you know how to remove them as they do not show with dism /image:d: /get-packages?
My next thought was to try and use a DART CD…but of course I need to be able to access windows installed to make it….
Also I am not sure as I have not tried yet, but I don’t think pkgmgr will work as it needs to be run from a live system? This is why I must use dism instead and access my windows install as an image – Is this correct?
I am eager to know if I can uninstall those two patches which dot not appear as packages. If that does not work…time to reinstall I guess.
Thanks for your assistance so far 🙂
Hi Ariss,
I had thought that KB980182 was the offending update, because when I used dism to get a list of packages, that was the only update set as pending.
I removed it with dism, however it made absolutely no difference to my problem.
There were only two other updates installed that day, both hotifxes for office.
Those updates were KB978380 and KB978382, and of course I cannot find anyone having problems with them either.
These do not show with the dism /get-packages command, and instead seem to be MSP patches. I have the location of the .msp files themselves, but am unsure if I have access to msiexec to remove them.
Would you know how to remove them as they do not show with dism /image:d: /get-packages?
My next thought was to try and use a DART CD…but of course I need to be able to access windows installed to make it….
Also I am not sure as I have not tried yet, but I don’t think pkgmgr will work as it needs to be run from a live system? This is why I must use dism instead and access my windows install as an image – Is this correct?
I am eager to know if I can uninstall those two patches which dot not appear as packages. If that does not work…time to reinstall I guess.
Thanks for your assistance so far 🙂
@JingoFresh wrote:
Those updates were KB978380 and KB978382, and of course I cannot find anyone having problems with them either.
I don’t think those can be the problemen because these are both Security updates for Microsoft Office (Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System / Security Update for Microsoft Office Excel 2007) whose shouldn’t result in an unbootable Windows. @JingoFresh wrote:
My next thought was to try and use a DaRT CD…but of course I need to be able to access windows installed to make it….
Can’t you just create it on an other [virtual] PC and use it to look in the Event Log and at your automatic-startup items/services/drivers? @JingoFresh wrote:
Also I am not sure as I have not tried yet, but I don’t think pkgmgr will work as it needs to be run from a live system? This is why I must use dism instead and access my windows install as an image – Is this correct?
I haven’t used dism before, but at least I’m sure you can use pkmgr from the Windows installation DVD to remove updates from your currently installed operating system.
Anyway, I think in your case the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) is the most useful option as you can use it to view the Event Log and startup settings of your installed Windows.
@JingoFresh wrote:
Those updates were KB978380 and KB978382, and of course I cannot find anyone having problems with them either.
I don’t think those can be the problemen because these are both Security updates for Microsoft Office (Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System / Security Update for Microsoft Office Excel 2007) whose shouldn’t result in an unbootable Windows. @JingoFresh wrote:
My next thought was to try and use a DaRT CD…but of course I need to be able to access windows installed to make it….
Can’t you just create it on an other [virtual] PC and use it to look in the Event Log and at your automatic-startup items/services/drivers? @JingoFresh wrote:
Also I am not sure as I have not tried yet, but I don’t think pkgmgr will work as it needs to be run from a live system? This is why I must use dism instead and access my windows install as an image – Is this correct?
I haven’t used dism before, but at least I’m sure you can use pkmgr from the Windows installation DVD to remove updates from your currently installed operating system.
Anyway, I think in your case the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) is the most useful option as you can use it to view the Event Log and startup settings of your installed Windows.
@Arris wrote:
I don’t think those can be the problemen because these are both Security updates for Microsoft Office (Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System / Security Update for Microsoft Office Excel 2007) whose shouldn’t result in an unbootable Windows.
Well, I wouldnt have thought so either…
However, once you eliminate all the probably, all that remains in the improbable…
(bad paraphrasing of a Sherlock Homes quote)
I suspect that these updates indirectly botched the MSI service somehow. The problem appeared after they were installed…I have nothing to lose by seeing what happens if I remove them.
Can’t you just create it on an other [virtual] PC and use it to look in the Event Log and at your automatic-startup items/services/drivers?
Nope. I’m using my Linux install at the moment, which has not enough space. I have free space on my windows partition, but it is NTFS so I can’t write to it, and I don’t trust ntfs-3g.
I haven’t used dism before, but at least I’m sure you can use pkmgr from the Windows installation DVD to remove updates from your currently installed operating system.
Upon further investigation it appears dism replaces pkgmgr in R2.
What I need to use is the wusa tool, which allows me to remove any updated just by using it’s KB number, although wusa does not seem to ship with WinRE…
Anyway, I think in your case the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) is the most useful option as you can use it to view the Event Log and startup settings of your installed Windows.
[/quote]
Yup…it is just unavailable to me. I will keep trying to find a way to use wusa….
@Arris wrote:
I don’t think those can be the problemen because these are both Security updates for Microsoft Office (Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System / Security Update for Microsoft Office Excel 2007) whose shouldn’t result in an unbootable Windows.
Well, I wouldnt have thought so either…
However, once you eliminate all the probably, all that remains in the improbable…
(bad paraphrasing of a Sherlock Homes quote)
I suspect that these updates indirectly botched the MSI service somehow. The problem appeared after they were installed…I have nothing to lose by seeing what happens if I remove them.
Can’t you just create it on an other [virtual] PC and use it to look in the Event Log and at your automatic-startup items/services/drivers?
Nope. I’m using my Linux install at the moment, which has not enough space. I have free space on my windows partition, but it is NTFS so I can’t write to it, and I don’t trust ntfs-3g.
I haven’t used dism before, but at least I’m sure you can use pkmgr from the Windows installation DVD to remove updates from your currently installed operating system.
Upon further investigation it appears dism replaces pkgmgr in R2.
What I need to use is the wusa tool, which allows me to remove any updated just by using it’s KB number, although wusa does not seem to ship with WinRE…
Anyway, I think in your case the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) is the most useful option as you can use it to view the Event Log and startup settings of your installed Windows.
[/quote]
Yup…it is just unavailable to me. I will keep trying to find a way to use wusa….
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