subject: troubleshooting Vista SP1/SP2 installs posted: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:18:34 -0000
Below are some tips which might be useful if you have problems
installing a service pack on Windows Vista (probably 2008 and Windows
7 as well). They are listed in increasing order of desperation,
however you might wish to rearrange the order, depending on the
configuration/hardware/time available.
These are gleaned from Microsoft's KB article [1], PLUS a bunch of
research done whilst attempting to patch a Vista install to SP2...
NOTE: ensure to run ALL the tasks below as Administrator! Do this by
right-clicking the icon, and selecting Run As Administrator. If the
option is not available, run a command prompt as admin, then run the
program (it will inherit the elevated permissions of the parent
command prompt).
After each step below, retry the install. A log is generated by the
service pack installer, this is found at c:\windows\logs\cbs\CBS.log
1. close all unneeded open apps
2. chkdsk on all drives esp C:
3. spyware removal
4. virus scan on all drives esp C:
5. run the system update readiness tool [2] - log is in
c:\windows\logs\cbs\checksur.log
6. check update history of windows update for failed updates -
download any failed updates and install them manually
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