How to removing a pending update that is preventing a successful boot
Hi, For an unknown reason (my guess is an update was automatically applied and automatically restarted), my computer rebooted overnight and in the morning was stuck in a failed boot loop. When trying to boot I get the message: "Preparing to configure windows" "Do not turn off your computer" Then after a few seconds the computer reboots and does the same thing. Safe mode yields the same result. Using the F8 option to restore last known good configuration doesn't change anything. I can boot into the recovery console. I have tried running SFC /SCANNOW in a command prompt in the recovery console and get the message: "There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again." Restarting of course doesn't change anything. So it seems something happened to an unfinished update and is still pending. I think if I can remove this pending update I might be able to boot normally, or at least run SFC and hopefully then boot normally. Does anyone know what I should try to remove this pending update that appears to be preventing a successful boot? Thanks!
November 30th, 2010 6:05am

Hello deuce_mn, This is the command to run when booted offline at a recovery command prompt dism.exe /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions This is supposed to revert all pended updates, however if System Restore is not working, then there may be other issues as wellThanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
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December 2nd, 2010 4:21am

You can remove the file C:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml. After booting into the system, I recommend you run Windows Update again.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
December 2nd, 2010 8:40am

Hello deuce_mn, This is the command to run when booted offline at a recovery command prompt dism.exe /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions This is supposed to revert all pended updates, however if System Restore is not working, then there may be other issues as well Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en I'm thinking this may help with a similar problem I'm having with SP1 (fatal error applying update during boot). I noticed that when I'm at the recovery command prompt, the system image is moved to E: vs. C:. Will DISM work in this case & will it restore my System Image, pre-SP1 failure, to C:? Also, does it matter whether I run the recovery command prompt from the current installation or do I need to start from the original install media? Oh, one more question... When I installed Windows 7x64, I used a minimal unattend.xml file to force all User Profiles to another, non-system, disk drive, currently D:. Both my system drive & user profile/data drive appear unharmed so far.
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February 24th, 2011 12:20pm

You can remove the file C:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml. After booting into the system, I recommend you run Windows Update again. Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. ” How does this suggestion differ from the DISM solution? Is the end result the same? In my case, the fatal error occurs after trying to apply the SP1 update. My User Profile/Data drive is D: & my System driver (previously C:) appears to now be moved to E:.
February 24th, 2011 12:23pm

This was great, Windows 7 would not boot after an update and this solved the problem. The error that came up on boot was "CQPFO is compressed" Thanks a million!!
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July 15th, 2011 10:59pm

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