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This is not so much a question as a potential answer for the edification of others regarding this error 0x800F0A12 that I got several times when trying to install Windows 7 Service Pack 1. Maybe this can help someone else with the same or similar problem.
In my case, the error was being caused by the fact that I have Windows 7 Professional installed on a Hybrid GPT/MBR disk. Windows 7 32-bit likes an MBR partition and my other OS prefers a GPT partition for maximum disk performance. The other OS is not important to the error message at hand, so no need to mention it here.
Additionally, I was using a third-party boot manager with the active partition being the partition with another OS that runs on a GPT partition. Apparently, the installer for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 looks to the active partition for the boot files that it needs to update.
If the Windows 7 partition is not the active partition the updater does not know where to find the files it needs to update and generates error 0x800F0A12. There was and is no System Reserved partition on my hard disk, either.
The problem was solved immediately when I set the Windows 7 partition as the active partition. After doing that, installation of Service Pack 1 went and completed without a hitch.
Here is what I did. I cannot guarantee that this will work for you but it did for me.
Before running Service Pack 1 installation, check to be sure that your Windows partition is marked as the active partition. You should do this from within Windows 7. I used two programs to do this and to change it back. If it already is the active partition what I did and wrote below will not help you.
First, I ran Disk Management from within the Computer Management console. I then right-clicked the Windows partition and marked it active. I saved changes and exited the Computer Management Console
Then, I ran the Windows 7 x86 Service Pack 1 installation from a DVD that I created from the ISO file supplied by Microsoft. I see no reason why Windows Update will not work as well, but if it doesn't, download the ISO directly from Microsoft.
You will need to Validate your Windows 7 installation to download the file. Do not risk getting it from somewhere else or you could make things worse for your system.
After the system restarts and finishes the update and configuration, run DISKPART from the Command Prompt as an Administrative or as the Administrator user and go through the steps to mark the partition from which your third-party boot manager runs as active (if that is your configuration as it is with my system). You will not be able to do this from within the Computer Management Console again so DISKPART is what you need.
Finally, after working with Microsoft's DISKPART, restart your system again and everything should be working as it should. If not, you might need to reinstall or reactivate your boot manager again.
Note: If you messed up your hard disk by running any other commands to fix the MBR or to fix boot code for Windows 7 you may have further problems that this information cannot help.
You don't need to run fixmbr, bootsect, bootfix, run repair from the DVD,etc., in instances like that I mentioned above, for this problem if you have a hybrid, single disk, or a single disk with multiple operating systems.
Just marking the Windows partition as 'active' made it work flawlessly because the Service Pack 1 installer looks to the active partition for some of the files that need to be updated. When it does not find them on the expected active partition it throws the exception and generates error 0x800f0a12.
You can either use DISKPART to do both changes or use the Computer Management Console to mark the Windows partition active and DISKPART to mark the original partition active that was active before the change.
Using fixmbr, bootsect, bootfix, or the like can actually make things worse if you are not careful. It most likely is not even necessary to run any of these. the easiest way to find out is to check which partition is actually marked 'active' using the Computer Management Console's Disk Management snap-in. If it is not and you have been getting the 0x800f0a12 error, use Disk Management to mark the Windows partition as active and the installation should run without a hitch.
Just remember to change it back to what it was so be careful to make a note of which partition was actually active before you changed it and use DISKPART to change it back so you can boot the other systems from a single disk--if that is your configuration as it was with mine.
If you do not have a hybrid GPT/MBR drive or multiple operating systems on a single drive, this information I posted above may not pertain to you. On the other hand, it may also help others with a similar situation if they are running Windows 7 on a Mac, as these actually also use a single, hybrid GPT/MBR drive, as can be done with varying flavors of BSD and OpenDarwin.
The same can also be the case with a drive that has been GParted. GPart and related utilities also can partition a hybrid GPT/MBR drive and I dare say that some have done just that and may not have been aware that they did it. Others are aware, I am sure, but are not sure what to do with Service Pack 1 when it fails to install because of it.
My solution is the simplest and least likely to render your boot manager inoperable. It also is the easiest thing to check when getting the above error. If such is not the case with your configuration, it is likely that one of the other problems mentioned on the Microsoft site may be at fault and they have the solutions for those problems.
But, as with all things, "your mileage may vary."
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) installation error: 0x800F0A12
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/windows-7-windows-server-2008-r2-service-pack-1-sp1-installation-error-0x800F0A12
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Free unlimited installation and compatibility support is available for issues related to Windows 7 Service Packs. Availability of chat, phone or e-mail support differs depending on your geographic location. Some issues may require more advanced support for which there may be a charge: https://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?&gprid=14496&&st=1&wfxredirect=1&sd=gn
To all those with multi-boot systems:
You won't have an issue if you are installing SP1 on a system (most likely a desktop) with different OSes on different drives.
I triple-boot on hybrid GPT/MBR filesystems on a netbook, a nettop, a Dell workstation laptop, and a MacBook Pro.
I will report back as to whether the "mark partition active" method works reliably on all of my systems.
I generally use NTFS within the MBR scheme as my W7-64 boot drive, then Ext4 with a swap file for Ubuntu, and then HFS+ for the pretty OS. I round out my 4th visible, allowable, MBR partition as an NTFS storage partition accessible from all 3 OSes and no journaling (HFS I'm looking at you) nor filesize limits (FAT32 I'm looking at you).
I love my setup, but I didn't realize I was risking not being able to update Windows 7!
Barrett, NYC
THANK YOU. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY I CAN INSTALL SP1. I TRIED EVERYTHING AND ONLY THIS WORKS.
@ PA Bear MS MVP
Stop point the users to USELESS instructions. I've posted this problem on several forums and I TRIED YOU INSTRUCTIONS MANY TIMES - THEY DO NOT WORK IF THE PARTIONS IS NOT MARKED AS ACTIV .
This is NOT the fix. The guy clearly says that he has the windows partition on a hybrid (BUT A SINGLE) drive. Which alternate drive should he unplug?
It would be nice if you first read what you marked as an answer!
My friends, I had the same problem "0x800f0a12". What I did in the end, meaning that I've tried almost all the "solutions" proposed (fixmbr, repair mbr from therescue cd, bootsect...), I must say that I dual boot Ubuntu, was to install service pack from safe mode. I had it downloaded from Microsoft, opened the iso to choose the version needed, then restart in safe mode and install. Now I have Windows Seven SP1.
You don't need to run fixmbr, bootsect, bootfix, run repair from the DVD,etc., in instances like that I mentioned above, for this problem if you have a hybrid, single disk, or a single disk with multiple operating systems.
Just marking the Windows partition as 'active' made it work flawlessly because the Service Pack 1 installer looks to the active partition for some of the files that need to be updated. When it does not find them on the expected active partition it throws the exception and generates error 0x800f0a12.
You can either use DISKPART to do both changes or use the Computer Management Console to mark the Windows partition active and DISKPART to mark the original partition active that was active before the change.
Using fixmbr, bootsect, bootfix, or the like can actually make things worse if you are not careful. It most likely is not even necessary to run any of these. the easiest way to find out is to check which partition is actually marked 'active' using the Computer Management Console's Disk Management snap-in. If it is not and you have been getting the 0x800f0a12 error, use Disk Management to mark the Windows partition as active and the installation should run without a hitch.
Just remember to change it back to what it was so be careful to make a note of which partition was actually active before you changed it and use DISKPART to change it back so you can boot the other systems from a single disk--if that is your configuration as it was with mine.
If you do not have a hybrid GPT/MBR drive or multiple operating systems on a single drive, this information I posted above may not pertain to you. On the other hand, it may also help others with a similar situation if they are running Windows 7 on a Mac, as these actually also use a single, hybrid GPT/MBR drive, as can be done with varying flavors of BSD and OpenDarwin.
The same can also be the case with a drive that has been GParted. GPart and related utilities also can partition a hybrid GPT/MBR drive and I dare say that some have done just that and may not have been aware that they did it. Others are aware, I am sure, but are not sure what to do with Service Pack 1 when it fails to install because of it.
My solution is the simplest and least likely to render your boot manager inoperable. It also is the easiest thing to check when getting the above error. If such is not the case with your configuration, it is likely that one of the other problems mentioned on the Microsoft site may be at fault and they have the solutions for those problems.
But, as with all things, "your mileage may vary."
My friends, I had the same problem "0x800f0a12". What I did in the end, meaning that I've tried almost all the "solutions" proposed (fixmbr, repair mbr from therescue cd, bootsect...), I must say that I dual boot Ubuntu, was to install service pack from safe mode. I had it downloaded from Microsoft, opened the iso to choose the version needed, then restart in safe mode and install. Now I have Windows Seven SP1.
As for the dual- or triple-booters:
Here are my sundry experiences so far with updating three triple-booting systems:
1. Desktop with OSes on separate hard drives and recovery partition in place: 20 minutes, no hassle, fast download.
2. MacBook Pro 6.2 with BootCamp/ReFit hybrid configuration: it took 40 minutes to "download" an "80 MB file" on a 50/5 connection; install went fine in about 30 minutes, although after reboot I got two separate pop-ups, one saying SP1 had been successfully installed and another saying that multiple updates had failed. I think those must have been redundant and bypassed updates superseded by SP1.
3. NetTop with OSes all on same drive:
a. Since the Windows Update path didn't do the trick, I assumed all that was wrong was the active partition issue. It turns out that Disk Management saw my disk as a GUID/GPT-formatted disk! Since the EFI partition was still in place on the MBR, I couldn't mark any partitions active. I rebooted into Ubuntu, ran gptsync, but gptsync left the EFI partition there, so I ran fdisk and deleted it from the MBR record. Fdisk showed the NTFS partition as active. I know this is risky, but I've been doing this forever with pretty good success. I just can't use a system that's MBR-aware only to change the partition tables. After a reboot, Disk Management showed the Windows partition as active, diskpart did not, so I set it as active there too.
b. Still I was unable to install the update, this time getting still another error. I tried the Windows 7 Update readiness tool, but then freaked out when I did a search for the KB*** number and it also listed update readiness tools for Windows Vista! Despite cancelling, the tool seemed to install successfully regardless.
KB947821was the number of that KB.
c. While waiting for my dual-core 64-bit Atom to chug away at the update readiness tool, I found this: http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2011/02/17/windows-7-2008-r2-service-pack-1-fails-with-0x800f0a12.aspx which explained yet another reason why the update was failing: I had set Windows 7 up to act as a VPN server, and having selected certain options in the Windows "Programs and Features" tool, I could not upgrade without upgrading those pieces first.
This is incredible!
I was really starting to love Windows 7 once the drivers situation settled down. I know its hard to maintain a universal OS such as Windows, but all of these inconsistencies, disorganizations, lack of foresight, lack of comprehensiveness, etc. make MacOS and Ubuntu look like truly wonderful alternatives. I know MacOS is often not up-front about what its updates contain and what exactly is going on during the update process (at least you can look at the installer log) but in Windows, the update process is truly broken.
Microsoft, please start from scratch when you build your next OS. You can find other ways to keep your enterprise licensors happy to cough up lots of cash.
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