I recently upgraded my work laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 build 9926. The upgrade went quite smoothly and there was no issues during or even after the upgrade. I didn’t have to enter a new product key for Windows 10. The same products key of Windows 8.1 was used for Windows 10 upgrade.
Things went smooth until the next upgrades of Windows 10 build 10041 and build 10049. Windows Update would download the updates successfully and start installing the updates after restart. But the update would hang in the middle and I would need to restart the PC after sometime. After restart, Windows would restore to the previous build of Windows 10.
The error message would read like this:
Couldn’t update to Windows 10 Technical Preview
Sorry, we couldn’t complete the update to Windows 10 Technical Preview. We’ve restored your previous version of Windows to this PC.
0xC1900101 – 0x2000C
There are two possible solutions that I have found out. Let’s go through each solution:
1- Make space for Windows installation in the system drive
0xC1900101 – 0x2000C may refer to a limited space issue in the system driver where Windows is installed. Make sure you have sufficient space in your C drive (system drive). If we look at Windows 10 requirements, the space needed for Windows 10 32-bit clean installation is 16 GB while 20 GB is needed for 64-bit installation. Although these requirements are for clean installation of Windows, you should have at least the same amount of free space in your system drive in order for the update to be successful.
You may use utilities like CCleaner to cleanup junk and unnecessary files from the system drive.
2- Rename Windows.old folder to something else
Another reason for 0xC1900101 – 0x2000C error could be the Windows.old folder. If you have a folder named Windows.old in your system drive (C drive), you will need to delete it before upgrading Windows 10 using Windows update.
If you can’t find Windows.old folder, you should run CCleaner and check Old Windows Installation under Advanced and run the cleanup. This will make sure that all the old Windows installations files will be removed from the system. This will clear some space in the system drive as well as making way for Windows 10 update to be installed successfully.
Please note that Windows.old folder contains all the files of your previous Operating System. If you need those files, just rename the Windows.old folder to something else.
Please let me know if you were successful in solving 0xC1900101 – 0x2000C error using the fixes and solutions given in this article. These fixes also apply to Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 issues with the same error code.
6 comments
Barry Stocker
Well, I’m about to start try #6 at downloading Windows 10
Have done lots of trouble shooting on many error codes and also did a restore on my comp.
I’m about to trouble shoot the new error by trying to find a file called Windows.old folder and see what happens! Been working on this darn thing for four days now and starting to get a bit irritated!!!
Valentino
Same issue in my packard bell tj65.
Konstantin
Hello guys,
I’m from Germany, so this might only work for Germany/Europe.
I solved this problem, i think.
I had this problem with my girlfriends Laptop for about a week i couldn’t find a solution.
But at least i just put the HDD of the Laptop in my own Desktop PC after i took all Harddrives out of it. I booted her Windows 7 on my PC and started the Update. Successfully. After that i put the HDD back in her Laptop and Windows 10 booted. It worked for me. Try it Out. I had no driver problems after it on both systems.
Konstantin
Chuck Sears
I’m having this error as well. HP Pavilion 23, plenty of disk space, no Windows.old folder. I’ve tried the upgrade four times now and it blows out with the 0xC1900101 – 0x2000C error every time and rolls back. I’m at a loss. The other two computers upgraded without a hitch.
Any suggestions?
Taddy
Unfortunately neither one of those tricks worked (>400 GB of hard drive available). No windows.old folder or file found using cleaning or search process (the computer just had a new Hard disk with new WIN 8 installation). Using the Windows 10 multiple computer installation approach does not work. The installation process keeps getting stuck at either the “Getting updates” portion (if network ON), or crashes after initiating the installation process and shuts off the computer. The error code highlighted above is what shows up upon rebooting the machine.
Caio
Im trying using this method. I live in a far, so i dont have a good connecting to update online, only CD at this moment. My internet is 3g limited a traffic above 4Gb a month. I will install a good internet whithout trafics limit when i starter working.