I have had 3 failures upgrading my Inspiron 660s to Windows 10. I have successfully updated my Optiplex 380 and my Inspiron 1545. I mention this because all three machines are running Windows 7 Home Premium, up to the latest update level, and all three have the same application software installed. Perhaps the significant difference is that the Inspiron 660s is running the 64-bit version of Windows. (The Optiplex 380 and Inspiron 1545 are running the 32-bit OS.) There are no hardware changes to the Inspiron 660s.
The Dell Computers tested for upgrade to Windows 10 information page indicates the Inspiron 660s has passed W10 installation tests. So I obviously have a configuration specific problem.
http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN297954/EN
Results of all three installation attempts:
We couldn’t install Windows 10
The installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with an error during BOOT operation
Error code: 0xC1900101 0x30017
The first time it failed was on the 29th July introduction date using the download Microsoft provided automatically. The next two were done with about a week between each to see if things might have “healed”, and using the download tool. To make it worse, each time, the failure is especially bizarre since it attempts to restore Windows 7 and fails miserably. (I have hard drive images, so restoration takes time but is easy.)
First, after the attempt to restore W7, a popup comes up saying “The Recycle Bin on C:\ is corrupted. Do you want to empty the Recycle Bin for this drive?” The choices are Yes and No. Regardless of which you pick, a loop begins which keeps repeating the popup every 15 seconds or so. It can be killed and goes away by picking the X.
A version of Windows 7 does come up, eventually, but it looks nothing like the version I was running when I started the update. About the only thing that looks normal is the start menu and the program list. It appears as if much of the customization I have done has been removed. Nothing fancy, mind you, just having a few applications on the task bar, and choices of which icons show in the notification area. I am not even sure that Microsoft Security Essentials is running (I haven’t checked) but its icon is missing from the notification area.
For the third try I removed every connection to external devices, as one poster has suggested on-line. I had a mouse, a keyboard, and the Ethernet connection. Of course, the installation tool was in a USB port. One thing I did catch the installer doing the last time was the equivalent of a chkdsk operation on C:\. I don’t know if that happened every time or not since I have not babysat the hour or so it takes the installation once it really gets started. But something seems to be destroying or seriously affecting the hard drive in a bad way.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Special Dell Support note:
Several strange things keep occurring on the Dell Support site. Even though Dell System Detect is installed and listed in the installed programs, every time I try to do anything on the site that requires System Detect, such as look for updates or run the diagnostics, the system insists on downloading and reinstalling System Detect. Even if the elapsed time since the last install is 5 minutes.
When analyzing for Windows 10 updates, the following two drivers are recommended. If I use the auto install option, both are downloaded, but the first fails. Repeatedly.
Intel Management Engine Interface Driver - Chipset_Driver_8VHWT_WN_8.0.0.1262_A01.EXE (55MB)
Chipset_Driver_WWPR9_WN_9.4.0.1014_A01.EXE
If I scan for the same check for Windows 10 drivers, even after a restart as required by the second, it says I need to update both of them again. I wonder if all this somewhat bizarre behavior has to do with why I fail the Windows 10 update.
If I try to install the driver Intel Management Engine Interface Driver -Chipset_Driver_8VHWT_WN_8.0.0.1262_A01.EXE (55MB) manually, the installer tells me I have a newer version already installed. Could this be part of the problem? Should I overwrite the newer version? The manual installer offers that possibility. Is it possible that later version it is not compatible with Windows 10?
If I try to install the driver Chipset_Driver_WWPR9_WN_9.4.0.1014_A01.EXE manually, it installs normally. Interesting that the Dell website says reboot is necessary, the manual installation does not.
But if I run the Dell Support analysis for Windows 10 again, both are listed again. I am puzzled by this in addition to the failure of Windows 10 to install.