Solved Upgrading win10 to win11: error during APPLY_IMAGE operation during SAFE_OS phase of installation

I'm running a windows 10 system. My sole usage of the system is to run Intuit TurboTax. The system was originally a windows 7 system; Microsoft eventually required that I update to windows 10, which I did in January 2020.

Intuit announced that for TurboTax 2025, they required windows 11, and I am now attempting an upgrade. I ran Windows Update > Check for updates, and installed all of the remaining windows 10 updates available, then rebooted to make sure that everything was running ok. I also ran PC Health Check > Check now, which reported "This PC meets Windows 11 requirements"

I downloaded Win11_25H2_English_x64.iso, mounted it, and ran setup.exe. I attached an extra USB drive for use by the update (empty, 100GB available). The setup started and started counting percent complete, at about 38% per hour. Sometime around 2.6 hours, it rebooted, then displayed a screen (with a rotating "busy" icon) reading:

Working on updates 0%
Please keep your computer on

Click to expand...

I left it running for 10 hours, at which time it had progressed to ... 0%.

I found advice on the web suggesting a reboot. I did that, and the installation reported

Undoing changes made to your computer

Click to expand...

and it had indeed returned to windows 10.

A dialog reported:

We couldn't install Windows 11
We've set your PC back to the way it was right before you started installing Windows 11.

0xC1900101 - 0x2000C
The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during APPLY_IMAGE operation

Click to expand...

I ran Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot > Additional troubleshooters, then under "Get up and running", selected Windows Update > Run the troubleshooter. It reported

Troubleshooting has completed
The troubleshooter has made some changes to your system. Try attempting the task you were trying to do before.

Click to expand...

I'm going to try it again, but I'm pessimistic.

My question: what does the dialog reporting the error in the APPLY_IMAGE operation of SAFE_OS mean? What needs fixing?

Hello @mgfrobozz

Probably the easiest way to do it, is to just do an In-Place upgrade from Win 10 to Win 11.



That's the way I did it.
I used Option Two (ISO method).
No USB stick necessary.


And... here's ten points for filling out your computer specs.

when the Windows 11 upgrade window opens you can disable getting updates.
as long as your current system is fully updated their is no need to get updates while upgrading.

best of luck Steve ..

You must have at least 30G of free space on your MAIN drive (C:)
How many free space you have on your MAIN drive (C:)?

Thanks for the tips, @Ghot
I took a look at https://www.elevenforum.com/t/repair-install-windows-11-with-an-in-place-upgrade.418/#Two. It describes quite well what I did up to Step 9, but I didn't change handling of updates in that step (in bold, below). I'll give that a try.

• I was logged in, and I'm an administrator
• System Information shows (and still shows, after the unsuccessful upgrade to win11) "Microsoft Windows 10 Pro"
• Go to option 2: ✓
• Step 1: ✓
• Step 2: ✓ (not encrypted)
• Step 3: ✓ (got to Step 4)
• Step 4: ✓ (download and mount Win11_25H2_English_x64.iso, go to step 6)
• Step 6: ✓ (run setup.exe from mounted Win11_25H2_English_x64.iso)
• Step 7: ✓ (allow Microsoft to make changes to my device)
• Step 8: ✓ (description of installation in "preparing" phase)
• Step 9: ✓ (I didn't click on "Change how setup downloads updates; I checked "I want to help make the installation better", and then "Next")

Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software
d) Unhook all USB devices except mouse and keyboard


Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper Standard
Making a backup is optional, but always a smart move.
Macrium Reflect
AOMEI Backupper Standard (free)
Hasleo Backup Suite (free)



Get the Windows 11 ISO (Option #2), and save it to your desktop...


Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will "look" like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.
Tell it NOT to check for updates.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.

Hi @Megahertz

Re disk space, I have 23.23 GB free. I could get another 7 GB if I could delete Win11_25H2_English_x64.iso, but that's probably in-use during the upgrade. I did get a notice that during the unsuccessful upgrade that it needed more disk space, and it accepted a USB drive with 100 GB free space, then ran to 100% completion before the reboot.

mgfrobozz said:

Hi @Megahertz

Re disk space, I have 23.23 GB free. I could get another 7 GB if I could delete Win11_25H2_English_x64.iso, but that's probably in-use during the upgrade. I did get a notice that during the unsuccessful upgrade that it needed more disk space,

Click to expand...

You can move the Win11_25H2_English_x64.iso to the USB drive and run setup from there.

mgfrobozz said:

and it accepted a USB drive with 100 GB free space, then ran to 100% completion before the reboot.

Click to expand...

Please explain. Did you successfully upgrade to win 11?

@Ghot and @XxXxX, thanks so much for your help. The detail regarding this choice is key:

Download updates, drivers, and optional features (recommended)
Not right now

Click to expand...

I changed the choice to "Not right now", and then continued the setup exactly as I had before. Not only did it successfully install, but it did everything far faster: the first phase (preparing the system before reboot) required only 20 minutes, and the second phase (rebooting and completing installation) required only 5 minutes

System Information now shows ...

OS Name ... Microsoft Windows 11 Pro

Click to expand...

... and I'm now ready to install TurboTax 2025

mgfrobozz said:

I changed the choice to "Not right now", and then continued the setup exactly as I had before

Click to expand...

Yep... updates during installs or upgrades are...

@Megahertz, re "Please explain. Did you successfully upgrade to win 11?"

No. It ran ok (albeit very, very slowly) up the reboot, and after the reboot was stuck at 0% progress for 10 hours. I forced a reboot, and the installer then removed all the changes, and reverted to the old (windows 10) OS.

The key detail in getting it to work correctly was preventing other updates from occurring during the upgrade to windows 11 (step 10 in option 2 of Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade). I can't understand why the default choice is to allow asynchronous updates; that's an invitation to disaster!

mgfrobozz said:

I can't understand why the default choice is to allow asynchronous updates; that's an invitation to disaster!

Click to expand...

If you have tons of free space on the drive... then including the updates won't be a problem.
Lately MS has been making updates one size fits all. They are around 3GB each.
Your computer only takes what it needs from the update, but it needs room to work, to be able to do that.

Please run > post share links




1) upgrade_failure_info








2) whynotwin11





3) V2 log collector:





4) Open administrative command prompt and copy and paste:

dism /online /get-drivers /format:table >c:\drivers.txt

Post a share link.



5) List all attached devices except for one mouse and one keyboard
(port replicator, docking station, joy stick, etc.)

mgfrobozz said:

Intuit announced that for TurboTax 2025, they required windows 11, and I am now attempting an upgrade

Click to expand...

mgfrobozz said:

The key detail in getting it to work correctly ...

Click to expand...

So you have now succeeded?


Denis

@zbook,

He got it to work.
He was just figuring out why it worked the 2nd time.


See the 3rd paragraph in post #11



Short version...

He only had about 23GB free space. When he tried the 1st time and failed, it was because the installer was set to include updates.
He then did it again and chose: not to include the updates in the install, and it then succeeded.

Keep in mind that the updates these days are around 3-4GB.

[Windows only grabs what it needs for the machine the update is being installed on. At the same time though, it needs "room" to work.]


For example...

mgfrobozz said:

reverted to the old (windows 10) OS.

The key detail in getting it to work correctly was

Click to expand...

Ghot said:

@zbook,

He got it to work.
He was just figuring out why it worked the 2nd time.

Click to expand...

ok.

@Try3, re: "So you have now succeeded?"
Yes, by blocking updates during the upgrade

@mgfrobozz
if you require a little more space on your drive this maybe of help.

it can give you back 6 or 7 GB in total.
please note. it works better using an elevated (Admin) PowerShell.
best of luck Steve ..

Please mark this thread as Solved

Today i helped my nabour upgrading his Windows 10 to Windows 11
His system does meet the requirements for updating, but he had postponed it in windows update for weeks,
because he had heard about many problems. He has som software on it, that might be troublesome to re-install.

But now his system also told, that is was out of service, so had to do something.

I activatede secure boot and updated it from Windows update and all went well. However, it installede WIN 11 22H2,
which i thougt were odd and tryed if I could get it to upgrade further, but without success. It was stuck on Win 11 22H2.

I then decided to try at repair install via guide mentioned in this tread, but wasn't quite happy with it, because of the
software that was a litle important for him to save.

I chose to go for WIN 11 24H2, because of problems i have been reading in this great forum and found an ISO marked that
on my drive with a lot of windows stuff. In the same folder i saw a file "Windows11InstallationAssistant" and thought it might
help med getting further, without using repair install and the possiblities for doing something wrong.

Windows11InstallationAssistant denied doing anything before i had run WindowsPCHealthCheckSetup, which confirmed
the system was eligible for Windows 11 - funny enough (was alredy Window 11 H2) I then ran the Installation Assistant
again (with PCHealthCheckSetup open in the background) and this time it game me the possibility to install Windows.

It didn't say anything about what version it intended to install, but started immediately download when I pushed "Install"
and whent trough a upgrade process which took about an hour on the laptop. After that i had WIN 25H2
Don't push "Install" before You are, ready, because it is one process from there ! and shut down what You are able to of
running applications.

I didn't have to interact even one time in the process and all system, software and personal files were intact - no problems.
Very easy to force an upgrade to latest.

I tell, because some people either fear the upgrade, have problems or event don't know how to. I think this way is rather
foolproff and easy for anybody to do. Mine was from 11 22H2 to 11 25H2

I can't tell if any difference when from Window 10 to Windows 11 and this notebook had the C-drive partitioned as GPT

Windows 11 Health Check

Windows 11 Installation Assistant