Got this machine, mid April of this year. Since everything else works perfect aside from the windows update, could it be possible one of the updates caused this issue?
My machine was set to auto install, so its done its own things a few times while I was at work - auto restart... A lot of those installed updates were either 'recommended' or 'optional'
Its an Alienware Alpha that came with Win 8.1 and I use as a desktop, no disc drive, just an "AlienRespawn" option. So I believe factory settings were stored on a separate partition.
Yeah refresh is not an option at this point. To much data to lose since it is only affecting the windows updates and not functionality of Windows.. Don't have any funds to get an external drive for backups yet either. Update failed - uploaded logs to https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByXNVFUjjs5CVm45V1Jua3lNbjQ/view?usp=sharing
Did the component hive I uploaded yesterday turn up anything?
Only your programs are "lost" in the process, your personal files, data, settings and Windows Apps are kept intact. The Hive you sent me didn't give me anything corruption wise. We have a tool we use to find corruption in Hives, and it didn't find anything.
Check Disk (chkdsk)
Follow the instructions below to run a CHKDSK scan on your Windows partition;
On Windows Vista & 7, click on the Windows Start Menu, then enter cmd in the search box, right-click on the cmd icon and select Run as Administrator
On Windows 8, drag your cursor in the bottom-left corner, and right-click on the metro menu preview, then select Command Prompt (Admin);
On Windows 8.1, right click on the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner and select Command Prompt (Admin);
Enter the command chkdsk /f (there's a space between "chkdsk" and "/f") and press on Enter;
A message will be returned, stating that the drive cannot be locked because it's already in use, and you'll be asked if you want to schedule the scan for the next restart. Enter y and press on Enter;
Restart your computer, and the chkdsk scan will be launched automatically;
Once the chkdsk scan is complete and you're back in Windows, find the log in the Event Viewer and copy/paste it in your next reply;
WARNING:Depending on your hard drive (specs, free space, fragmentation, etc.) this scan can be relatively long to complete. Give it all the time it needs to finish. Do not interrupt it for any reason there is, or you might be damaging your drive in the process and make your Windows unbootable. It's suggested to let this scan run overnight or when you leave the house for a few hours (when you go to work for example). If you are running this scan on a laptop, don't forget to leave it plugged in;
 
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is OS.
 
A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
Cleaning up instance tags for file 0x2352d.
Cleaning up instance tags for file 0x7762a.
858624 file records processed. File verification completed.
5005 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed.
Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
1002310 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered.
Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 2949 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2949 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2949 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
71844 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.
1945015295 KB total disk space.
814365424 KB in 771327 files.
366796 KB in 71845 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
986479 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
1129296596 KB available on disk.
4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
486253823 total allocation units on disk.
282324149 allocation units available on disk.
Internal Info:
00 1a 0d 00 a9 dd 0c 00 de 1d 17 00 00 00 00 00 ................
98 07 00 00 57 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....W...........
Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.
At one point 2 weeks ago, I did try to disable IE11 in windows features. Since the answer desk tech, at Microsoft support, had stated most of the failed updates were for IE11. That's when I got a message saying "The configuration registry database is corrupt." I'll attach the screenshot I took that night.
Alright good :) And yes, I understand that error, I've seen it before. Can you please upload the following file to Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive and post the download URL for me?
Replacing the SCHEMA Hive
Follow the instructions below to replace the SCHEMA Hive.
Download the attached schema.zip file, and save it on your Desktop;
Right-click on it, and select Extract all.... Once done, the folder with the schema.dat file will open. This will be your new SCHEMA Hive.
Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\SMI\Store\Machine folder;
In it, find the SCHEMA.dat file and rename it to SCHEMA_old.dat; Note: If you receive a message saying that the file is in use, restart your computer and try again.
Once done, copy the new SCHEMA.dat file I sent you in the C:\Windows\System32\SMI\Store\Machine folder;
I had to restart my machine, because after I moved the new file into the folder 'windows explorer' kept refreshing itself. Restart fixed that, and then all 49 windows updates installed successfully... So unless there are any other tests I need to run, I think this issue is resolved!! Wahoo!!
Yes, I had to restart because of 'explorer' refreshing every time I tried to go to folders. Then all 49 updates installed properly . Any other tests I should run before we consider this resolved?
I don't think so. Your main issue was that the SCHEMA.dat Hive was corrupt, but loading/unloading it on my Windows 7 system solved that. Plus, if all your updates installed successfully without anything else happening, there's nothing more to check :)