Windows 10 update weirdness

RyzeCooker

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I think most of us have a dual boot setup between macOS and Windows 10. I have one for gaming. It means I am very irregularly in Windows but now it started to complain I really ought to install the 20H2 update. Fine, let's get on with it.

It then threw up these curious error messages:




Windows and macOS are on their own two drives with their own EFI partitions. I can boot both without error, either through the bios boot or the OpenCore menu picker. I'm on version 0.6.8. Microsoft forums and help documentation are very (but not unsurprisingly) unhelpful.

Anyone run into this problem at some point? There is a 2017 suggestion on Tom's Hardware how to fix this error, but that doesn't work, nor does running the MBR2GPT program. I found a lot of references to error 0x80070003 (from Windows users and people with dual boot setups) but I found no clear cut fixes.

Windows loads and I can get onto Steam but I can imagine at some point in the future I might get too far out of step.
 

Shaneee

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Did you use OpenCore to boot windows when you received this error? Windows will see your system as a Mac when you do this. Try booting to Windows from the BIOS and updating if you haven't already or disconnect your macOS drive and try again.
 

RyzeCooker

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Either through the bios boot menu or OC picker, the error remains the same. I've tried every solution I've come across (deleting Windows Update logs, stopping/starting services, running dism in Administrator CLI et cetera). Came across this Reddit thread from someone with a Ubuntu dual boot setup (basically just reset the PC while retaining personal files) but I might save that nuclear option for when I really have to. :) What I haven't tried is disconnecting the internal nvme with macOS on it before updating, so I'll do that.
 

Shaneee

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RyzeCooker

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I managed to completely b0rk then restore the EFI partition from a backup I had (yay Ubuntu) and it seemed that MSR partition was indeed missing. I recreated it following the guide but it still throws up an error after centuries "of getting things ready". Even without the macOS drive and only keyboard/mouse connected it's breaking off the upgrade.

For now I've managed to amass enough Microsoft-hate to start contributing to global warming, so I'll leave it for a while. (Thanks for moving this thread to the correct forum, I never knew we had one! Should've scrolled some more...)
 

Shaneee

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Have you tried making a USB installer with the new version and installing over the current one? Not sure if Windows will keep your files in place with that though. I know it used to back with Win7 and used Windows.Old for that.
 

RyzeCooker

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When I unplugged all drives while Windows was loaded, stopped the Windows Update service, removed old logs and re-enabled, it started installing but half way through still decided to quit.



All partitions are GPT and honestly look fine so it must be something very specific to my setup, though Windows itself works great. I might have to do a complete wipe to squash this bug. In that light I have already made a Ventoy stick with the latest Windows ISO for when that time comes. ;)

I use my Windows almost exclusively for games, it's mostly just a pain in the ass to have to download all that data all over again. (Thankfully on a gigabit connection at home)
 

Shaneee

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I'm the same. Windows is used purely for games. Occasionally it'll crap out and I'll need to install again. I actually link the Windows SSD into a VBox setup in macOS and install from there :D Makes my life easier lol
 

RyzeCooker

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Holy **** that's really clever! :D
 

RyzeCooker

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Final update: in the end I just disconnected the macOS drive again + all other drives formatted for use in macOS and nuked the entire drive. Every Windows boot was a "installing updates / can't / removing updates" loop, so I formatted the drive and installed with the latest ISO of Windows. Just now done the regular song 'n dance of removing some of the bloat Windows reinstalls but it seems to have done the trick with update weirdness.
 

Bansaku

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Final update: in the end I just disconnected the macOS drive again + all other drives formatted for use in macOS and nuked the entire drive. Every Windows boot was a "installing updates / can't / removing updates" loop, so I formatted the drive and installed with the latest ISO of Windows. Just now done the regular song 'n dance of removing some of the bloat Windows reinstalls but it seems to have done the trick with update weirdness.

Windows can kiss my ass! Clean install, only used for gaming, and had to reinstall Windows 10 3 times over the past year after updates, including the latest. I initially got the weirdness you had, but it seemed to have fixed itself after I used the Windows Boot manager to boot over O.C. (which always worked in the past). Update went smooth, played Sunset Overdrive for a bit, and restarted into Mac OS. The next day (Monday) I boot into Windows and I have lost all internet and firewall services (no GamePass), despite showing that internet and the device working. Many a command prompt later I ended up re-installing Windows. At the very least I was able to copy the Users folder so my saved games not on the cloud will be intact.

P.S. Windows will never install if any Mac formatted HFS+ SATA drives are present, which is a pain. I just remove the SATA power from the PSU which isn't too bad. Luckily the main Mac OS boot drive (with O.C.) can remain connected. Probably the APFS caused the installer to look the other way, which is handy as my main Mac OS drive is an NVMe, whereas in the past it wasn't too bad when it was HFS+ on SATA. Windows.... :poop:
 
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