"Couldn't update to Windows 8.1 - 0xC1900101 - 0x40017"

To LeoGeth.  I do not believe Microsoft Support knows how to fix the problem, even for a fee.  Myself and others have had a bad experience with them trying to fix the problem.  In many cases, they take over your machine in an attempt to do good, but end up leaving your computer in a sorry state.  Its very risky to let them try to resolve this problem.

Not to mention it's a problem with their software update and they have some nerve trying to charge you to fix it.

i've heard that the upcoming 8.2 is not a full update but rather a cumulative one, that means we still have to go through 8.1 at the first place to be able to update to 8.2, I was hoping that they will provide a whole new 8.2 which includes 8.1 along with the 0x40017 error fixed, now it seems it won't be the case, so basically its likely we are stuck with Windows 8 until Windows 9 comes out but even then who knows what will turn out, the worse part is, from what I see, they seemingly have given it all up and simply ask user to reinstall the whole damn Windows 8 thing in order to upgrade to 8.1 and forth, still I personally can't afford doing such thing.

I have reformatted my PC. Installed from scratch. Installed no software. Works with win 8.  But once I try upgrading to 8.1 proper, it fails. I tried all ways, update drivers then upgrade. I have stripped the PC to barebones with only graphics card and a normal HDD. Get this error too. Seems like I am stuck with win 8. :(

it is frustrating. And the PC is only two years old. Works perfectly fine. Throwing it out just doesn't cut it for me. 

For me it was Avast Antivirus !! Uninstalling it did the trick. I don't know how is this connected to the drivers, but i got to know this when upon restart the blue "smiley screen" (which is the first screen showing any error, and disappears very fast) showed the avast .sys file name.

I had to completely uninstall the antivirus even disabling wouldn't help. 

For those who are still facing the issue uninstalling AV software may help.

YES - It worked for me too, after a long time.

I had disabled Avast (forever, not only to next restart) but it was not enough.

Many thanks to Spacecharge

yes. me too.

AVAST was the culprit. 

after uninstalling the antivirus, 8.1 updates smoothly. 

then i reinstalled the same.

Thanks.

I'm having the same issue.  From looking at some of the other posts it appears it has been almost a year since we were asked to "wait a few days" for this solution.

I purchased my computer from HP in Sept of 2013. It arrived with Windows 8 and Microsoft Office 13 already installed. Within a few weeks I was able to upgrade to Windows 8.1 with no problems at all.  

Just recently some kind of software glitch occurred and my computer crashed. Attempts to do a "restore" failed, but HP was able to help me "recover" the original system software; everything else was lost, so basically I started with a clean machine.

Since then, I've been trying to upgrade to 8.1 from the Store just like the othes, and I'm getting exactly the same errors.

I haven't contacted HP yet to see if they can help, but since I have a full maintenance agreement, I intend to so. I'm not really expecting a reply to this since the last reply was in October 2013 and it is not August 2014. Just thought I'd post it anyway.

Charles.

For me it was Avast Antivirus !! Uninstalling it did the trick. I don't know how is this connected to the drivers, but i got to know this when upon restart the blue "smiley screen" (which is the first screen showing any error, and disappears very fast) showed the avast .sys file name.

I had to completely uninstall the antivirus even disabling wouldn't help. 

For those who are still facing the issue uninstalling AV software may help.

I had 3 efforts without success (it gave me the errors 0xC1900101 - 0x40017), I had also problems with dism image (error 11) and some Windows Updates (database error 0x80070490). At my 4th try I found this trick of uninstalling Avast. I used Avast uninstall programme, then I enabled Windows Defender, uploaded its updates and it worked this time! It took around 4-5 hours to update from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1. Then I installed Avast again, and for now everything seems ok.

Thank you for sharing, hope it will help other users.