PSA: A weird Windows Update loop cost me a whole afternoon

Had a client's PC stuck in a 'preparing to configure Windows' loop after a failed update. Spent 4 hours trying every fix I knew before a clean install was the only fix. Anyone have a better method for breaking that specific loop?

3 comments

3 Comments

spencerm461mo ago

Four hours is a brutal amount of time to sink into that loop. Did you try pulling the drive and running the update repair from another computer, or was it just a lost cause at that point?

james_singh71mo ago

Ugh, that loop is the worst. Actually, pulling the drive to fix it from another PC usually doesn't work for that specific "preparing to configure" hang. It's stuck in a system process on that machine.

alice_kim24d ago

Wait, for real? I thought pulling the drive was like the go-to fix for everything. So you're saying it's basically bricked on that specific machine until it finishes doing its thing?