Vista Service Pack 2 failed to install; error code 80004005

[DRITAAN]

I am using Dell laptop which came pre-installed with Windows Vista. Now as the Service Pack 2 for Vista is out, i tried installing through Windows Update as well as downloading it manually but both the times it get failed with an error code saying:

"Service Pack 2 was not installed. error code: 80004005"

I might have tried it more than 5 times using both the methods but the same result every time. Any help would be appreciated.

[Janos™]

Actually when you update Service Pack 2 on any Windows Vista edition, the SP2 installer must update the system boot files. But in case you have any 3rd party disk management tool installed on your system to "clone" disks or partitions, the installer will be unable to uniquely identify the correct system boot files. But anyways, there is a fix provided officially by Microsoft. Just go through the following MS KB:

Windows Vista service pack installation fails with error 0x80004005

[Lyalisai]

You are correct Janos, but the problem could also be with the boot manager. Hence you should try out running following commands in CMD as an administartor:

Bootrec.exe /fixmbr

and

Bootrec.exe /fixboot

For more help on this, better go through the following Knowledge base article:

'How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vista'

[LeSueur]

I have been through this problem in past on my Windows Vista system. Due to some reasons i was having "Grub boot loader" installed on my computer and this is what was not allowing me to complete the Service Pack 2 installation. After lots of researches finally i managed to fix the problem successfully. I thought to share my process here hoping it may help some other people as well.

The very first thing i did was uninstalled Linux partition from my Hard Drive due to which Grub boot loader was installed. Obviously due to this i faced boot failure error. I simply inserted my Windows Vista recovery DVD and booted the system. I went to "system recovery" console and repaired the system. I also repaired Start Up. After this i got a screen saying something to the effect that the program will try to find and fix what is wrong if I press 'finish'. I did it after which computer started properly.

Now i tried installing Service Pack 2 and it got installed in first attempt without any problem. I dont know whether this will work for your guys but see if you have any similar situation.

[Abdulmajid]

Hello DRITAAN.

First of all go to %systemRoot%\Logs\CBS\CBS.Log and let me know if you can see anything like this in that log:

Process output: [l:358 [358]"SYSHIPER: Initialized with following command parameters: /install:VistaSP1-KB936330~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.0.1.18000
/hide /permanent /ignorenotexist
SYSHIPER: Failed with error hr: 0x80070002
SYSHIPER: Failed to open registry key for read
SYSHIPER: CBS key does not exist and ignoring operation for
VistaSP1-KB936330~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.0.1.18000
"]

Also open Registry editor and check if the following key exist on your system:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SysHiper

If it is not there, simply create one, restart the system and now try installing Service Pack. Hopefully it should go fine this time. And if not, let me know.

[deadleaves]

I was struggling to install service packs but after some research and a bit of work I got it to install. It turned out to be caused by the fact that I dual boot Linux and Vista so Windows Boot manager had changed.

Hope that helps other users here.

[deadleaves]

Death: I agree, if you've a decent rig yes it is simpler to setup various OS on seperate hard drives and determine booted system from the bios. Unfortunately not everyone has a big rig with several hard drives and a lot of people have laptops which, and correct me if I'm wrong, seldom have more than one hard drive.

P.S a 40gb thumb drive?? Easy there chap, we can't all afford the big hard drives! Some of us have to make do with what we have.

[PRDIGM]

I have downloaded Service Pack 1 for Window 7. I installed the hotfix. When I install the service pack it gets to about 60% and no further (2nd "w" in windows). I have left it overnight. No joy next morning.