Windows 10 November Update (1511) freezes at 32%

Hello everybody.
Windows Update is performing an update to Windows 10 Pro , version 1511, 10586 from version 10.0 build 10240.
I have last version of Parallels Desktop installed (11.1.0 build 32202).
It' about 2 hours that Windows Update frozen at 32% "Preparing updates installation ..."

I remember that when I first updated my VM from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, Windows Update won't work (due to Parallels's drive incompatibility) and as suggested by Parallels I needed to run the upgrade from "MediaCreationToolx64.exe".

Does anyone have the same issue? Can someone help me with this problem?

Thank you and regards.
-m

 

Hi M,
I upgraded ok on two different systems and VM's to the lastest Windows 10 Pro, version 1511, 10586, from build 10240, but I had the previous Parallels update Version 11.0.2 (31348) installed before I did this. I was able to do this using the standard windows 10 update. This update does take an awful long time to complete and does reboot once or twice throughout the procedure. It did work fine though.
I have since upgraded one of these systems to the latest Parallels build 32202 and this seemed ok albeit 1 Blue screen of death (Bad Pool Caller)
This system has been ok since so not sure what that failure was. I'm monitoring before upgrading my other system.
Did your upgrade ever complete or have you aborted it?
Kevin

 

Hi Kevin,
thank you for your answer.

Upgrade has been aborted, I mean I waited up to 3 hours then I safety rebooted Windows. After reboot, Windows Update says that there were an error applying updates (but I cannot find more details about the error, even searching in Windows Event Viewer). If I force a new update, the progress bar goes immediately to 32% then freezes again (I waited some more time, but I cannot go over 32%). Reading some other threads on other forums, I understand that 32% is the percentage where Windows checks/installs drivers, that's why I was thinking to a problem with Parallels drives (in particular the Video Driver).

Do you think it make sense to downgrade my Parallels Desktop to previous version and try again?

BTW, I will open a new thread for this, but since I updated to PD 11.1.0 build 32202 I'm experiencing another strange yet critical problem: I have a Microsoft Outlook 2016 .pst file shared across a ".\pfs" folder that goes corrupted once a day. The file is 9 Gb in size, closing Outlook it is truncated to 6.6 Mb ... I'm still investigating on this, not sure it's a PD fault; of course, I started to have this problem after installing last version of PD (never had before and I mean ... many years before).

Thank you.
-m (m for Marcello)

 

Hi Marcello,
I agree at 32% is at the point of checking and installing drivers. You could check the Event logs for pointers, but I fear you maybe better to go back to the previous Parallels update which does work or worked for me.
Your BTW is interesting as I saw this but put it down to my complicated exchange and PST file setup. I got around this by going into Programs and features and selecting "change" on 365 then a online repair. This does not remove your email but re-installs your Office. I also did a scanpst on each of my pst files and my email is ok now.

There is one other thing to consider which occurred way back in the first release of W10 and this was email accounts i.e POP and IMAP failing to send emails. See:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-related/c4e5a73b-4191-4d8f-bf79-e4c50c36a8db
Now this was resolved by doing a sfc /scannow. I can verify I saw this and resolved it a few times, after W10 upgrades and not just in Parallel VM's. I just wonder if we have the same here after a further W10 update which is not copying all the required files.
I suggest you repair Office first and see if this helps before doing a SFC though.

Let me know how you get on
Regards
Kevin

 

Kevin,
please can you kindly point me to a link where I can download v. 11.0.2 of Parallels Desktop PRO?
I searched on Parallels's web site but I only found the last version.
Is that file stored in some folder on my Mac so that I can get it?

Thank you very much for your support and, of course, I will let you know how I get on.

Regards.
-m

 

Hi Marcello,
Yeah I can't seem to find previous updates on their site only prev versions. You should have a copy of the 11.0.2-31348.dmg in your downloads on your MAC?
If not see Box link below where you can download it. This is the Pro version. You will of course need your license
https://ashleycomms.box.com/s/94irskaffwibzs2j511elbmiw5hbad7t
Regards
Kevin

 

Kevin,
I don't know how to thank you! You saved my life ))

First: I cannot find previous .dmg files on my Mac (I searched on Downloads and on ~/Library/Parallels).
Anyway, thank you very much for the file you provided to me: I downloaded it!

Second point: I restored previous upgrade PD 11.0.2 build 31348 (thanks to Kevin who provided the .dmg file to me) and now everything works fine! I would like to point out the second issue: since I installed PD 11.1.0 (32202) I started to have a lot of problems with Outllok 2016 (local installation) and a local .pst file (size is 13 Gb) that is stored on a shared folder (\\Mac - .\psf). I know this is not a good practice but let me say that it worked for a long time ...

Outlook was unable to open the .pst file with personal folders crashing and cousing the .pst file to be corrupted/truncated to 6.6 Mb.

So after re-installing v. 11.0.2 and restoring my .pst file from the backup, Outlook started to work like a charm.

Last (but not least): in the next hours I will try to perform Windows 10 1511 update to verify if it works with PD 11.0.2.

Thank you again to Kevin.

Kind regards.
-m

 

Hi Marcello,

I'm very pleased you got things working again. It was/is very strange. You might want to raise a 'problem Report' of your issue so the lab can investigate this issue with Outlook and corrupting/truncating your pst files and also the W10 update.
I hope your W10 update goes ok now, as said mine was ok with PD 11.0.2 build 31348 installed.
Let me now how it goes.
Kind regards
Kevin

 

Here I am again Kevin (and everybody) and I would like to thank you again because the W10 update process ended successfully with PD 11.0.2.
It took 4.5 hours to complete, in my case, but finally it worked (W10 version is now 1511 build 10586.3).
I will report my case to PD Support.

Thank you.
Kind regards.
-m

 

Hi Marcello,
Excellent, I'm pleased it worked. 4.5 hours sounds long, but I guess the most important thing is that it completed and your Outlook and email are all working as expected.
You could do a file system check to be sure I.e in a cmd window
Sfc / scannow

Regards
Kevin

 

Parallels Desktop 11.1 corrupts Outlook PST files, and downgrading to 11.0 avoids the problem. See this detailed description of the issue: https://forum.parallels.com/threads...tlook-2013-and-outlook-2016-pst-files.330490/.

 

Thank you John to let us know.
Today I opened a ticket with Parallels, both for corrupted PST files and for "missing" availability of previous builds downloads.

Bye
-m

 

Thanks much.

 

Hi John and Marcello,

Yeah this is very bad! Simply because this same issue more or less existed in Parallels version 5 I think.. Which is essentially a shared folders related issue as I recall. They did fix it, but it seems to have been broken again now in V11.1 which is not acceptable.

The workaround is and no doubt they will recommend, is to move your PST files to C: I moved mine back to C:\users\username\AppData\local\Microsoft\Outlook, This seems to work ok for me as I only have a few PST files. I guess given you have a lot of PST files this is not appropriate at all.

I will also raise a problem report as this needs fixing ASAP.
Regards
kevin

 

Hi Kevin,
thank you for your always-interesting messages.

I agree with you and as I already wrote, I know that my usage of PST files is not a good practice.
Said that, there are a lot of good reasons why I need to keep my .pst files in a shared folder on Mac, as you can image.

*** Please note, the rest of this message does not add any information to the initial problem, I just want to share my scenario with you, maybe you can suggest to me better solutions than mine. ***

One of that "good reasons" is both a backup and a share problem. My main VM is a development machine and it was about 500 Gb in size. Configuring hard links in Windows that map to shared folders on Mac (i.e. "C:\...\Sources" is linked to "\\Mac\Home\...\Sources", and so on), I was able to strip away a lot of "dynamic data" (more than 300 Gb) so my VM is now about 200 Gb (and it contains only applications / temporary data / static files that I can reinstall whenever I need without problem).

All documents, images, sources repositories, databases and many other files are all on the Mac's filesystem. In this way, I backup the VM only when I need (for example when I do software updates or weekly/monthly) while I backup my vital files continuously, with Time Machine. There is also a second reason: this solutions allows me to share files across different VMs I use and, from the VM's point of you, all the files are located always on the same "local" folders "C:\...." while, behind the scenes, those files are redirected on Mac (and any other resource I have on Mac, including external G-RAID disks connected through Thunderbolt).

Regards.
-m

 

Hi Marcello,
Thanks for your comments. I think we each have our own preference to back up our data especially PST files which cannot be forgotten. In my earlier reply I was not recommending moving your PST files into C:\.... on a permanent basis, but more that this will be what Parallels will most likely suggest until they fix the problem. That said for John and yourself this is NOT a practical solution at all and you are better to stay at 11.0 until Paralles fix this problem. I could get away with this myself as a short term solution, but I will also stay on 11.0 on my live system. Fortunately I have a test system which I use first for all major upgrades to make sure it works and this was where I saw the same issues with Outlook crashing accessing the PST files...

I do prefer to do my own manual backups of the PVM rather that using Parallel options. I also run a spare VM which is identical to my live system and therefore I can switch over to it should I have a serious problem. As you said using shared folders for email PSTs and other data is then immediately accessible in my spare VM.

I agree with you, Time Machine and RAID disks are very good options as well as stripping back your VM to a more manageable size. I certainly try to keep my VM at around 120GB. Also for us the use of Box helps an awful lot with our data and again it is safe should any disasters happen.

Lets hope they fix this one quickly eh!?
REgards
Kevin

 

For now, at least, 11.0 on OS X 10.10.5 is working fine for me. It would be nice to get access to 11.0.2 for more recent bug fixes. I have other software incompatibilities preventing me from upgrading to El Capitan, so I'm on no hurry on that front.

 

Hi John,
They do sometime put latest builds up prior to shipping them. I have El Capitan installed and can tell you there is a bug where the VM freezes whilst notifications appear in the VM, once they disappear the VM is ok again. So if you had Outlook or other notifications set up as I did this causes a continually freeze and unfreeze of the VM and application you are working on at the time of a notification. I've disabled Notifications and it seems ok. This was noticed with 11.0.2 (31348) and is still not resolved in 11.1.
If you don't have a copy of the above update 11.0.2 (31348) and want a copy let me know.
Regards
Kevin

 

"If you don't have a copy of the above update 11.0.2 (31348) and want a copy let me know."
Yes, please. I had a copy of 11.0.0 (31193) (the non-Pro version) but neglected to save 11.0.2. Thanks.

 

Hi John,
Ok, here is a Box link to download it from
https://ashleycomms.box.com/s/pxkehoeo9ko0l8ji11ygi2fipass0vkn
Regards
Kevin