Help - windows 11 upgrade crashing

[AndHob]

Hi there,
Having turned on tmp & checked all fine with pc health check - windows 11 upgrade assistant keeps failing after the restart. No error codes given. Microsoft assistance as it a custom build they point towards an iso install from a stick but I’d love not to have to reinstall everything.
Any ideas?

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[SpyderTracks]

What anti virus are you using?

 

[AndHob]

Just windows defender

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just windows defender

That should be fine then.

What is it you want to avoid reinstalling? Most apps these days have the application and configuration layers separated so you can back up any config and just reload it from the d drive once you’ve reinstalled.

 

[AndHob]

It’s more that I’ve not done this before & am not super comfortable with the process

 

[SpyderTracks]

It’s more that I’ve not done this before & am not super comfortable with the process

An in place upgrade would never be recommended anyway, it will negatively affect performance.

But you’re going to have to learn how to clean install, you’ll need to do it at least annually with each major OS revision.

I’d strongly suggest just biting the bullet and taking a deep dive.

There’s not really anything you can do to damage anything other than the software which you correct just by a clean install. Only takes about 30 mins if you’ve got everything setup correctly.

 

[Martinr36]

Clean install instructions

Download a new copy of Windows using the (Second option on linked page) to an 8GB (min) USB. Media Creation Tool
Boot that USB and choose a Custom Install.
Delete all UEFI partitions on the system drive (EFI System, Recovery, MSR Reserved, Primary).
Select the unallocated space that results and click the Next button. The installer will create the correct partitions and install Windows.
Run Windows Update repeatedly, even across reboots, until no more updates are found.
You may need/want to download and install the latest graphics driver from the Nvidia/AMD website (they change so regularly the latest version isn't always in the Windows libraries).

This is also worth a watch