Sorry, it looks like this PC can't run Windows 8.1. This might be because the Users or Program Files folder is being redirected to another partition.

There is NO way I'm undoing my nice clean SSD install with the separate User partitions just so I can install the 8.1 service pack... and who is to say, if I were to go through all these machinations that I wouldn't have to do it again when 8.2 is released.

Anyone from Microsoft care to respond?  What is this?  Why alienate your strongest, technically savvy users by preventing a very common scenario with SSDs (boot + programs) and HDD (with user/docs/data)?

Consider me unimpressed and disappointed.

Update #1: In addition, my internet usage has skyrocketed the last couple months since the update because my PC continues to constantly re-download the installer, try it again and then fail. Anyone know how to stop that?

Update #2:  I finally gave in and followed the steps given in a similar post.  Basically you copy the default and public users back to the C drive, backup your registry settings, set the users to point to your c drive, create a new temporary admin user, do the 8.1 upgrade, then restore the registry settings.  The only drawback is this clears your start menu back to the default one and you have to repin/organize everything again. And no guarantees we won't have to do this again when the next service pack and/or Windows 9 are released.