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Restart to finish updating Windows 11 never completes with external booting Windows

Anonymous
2022-09-02T01:47:00+00:00

Hello,

I have a Dell laptop, with an original Windows 11 Pro. I'm dual booting using an external USB SSD drive also with Windows 11, but Home Edition, using the DELL boot menu. I have these two separate OSs as they serve to different purposes, the internal is for work, and the external is for personal stuff.

My problem started with the KB5016691 update needing to restart Windows to finish its installation. When I restart Windows, I immediately enter to the Dell boot manager and choose the external drive so it can finish the update, but this update last step never happens. The external Windows boots normally and the update never finishes and keeps showing "you need to restart to finish the update". This same KB was updated on the "internal" Windows without any issue.

Any help is welcome.

Thanks.

Jay

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-09-02T21:08:35+00:00

    Hi Craig,

    F12 is the way I use to boot the external Windows. This works nicelly but unfortnatelly the update doesn't happen :-(

    The disk related with the internal Windows has no drive letter or path assigned to it on the the external Windows. It came originally encrypted with bitlocker so accessing it would be impossible anyway...

    I Will try the offline KB install as you suggested and let you know what happens.

    Thanks!

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  2. Craig Long 18,060 Reputation points
    2022-09-02T14:26:14+00:00

    Hello, thanks for the reply.

    The second windows is dedicated to audio processing, so no additional anti-virus, no VPN drivers autostarting with the OS. It's a much cleaner installation. I tried to use the same OS licence, loaded on the firmware, but it didn't work. Home version was a budget choice. The right thing to do would be a second computer, probably a Mac, but I don't have the means for it, so this was the only choice I had.

    The update thing, I though it could be something to do with the way I'm booting the OS, switching from the original bootloader on the internal ssd to the external disk directly, but I don't know if this makes makes any sense at all.

    Are you hitting F12 repeatedly and then selecting to boot from the USB drive? Yes, that should be OK.

    You can make the internal drive completely "Offline" (cannot be accessed when booting the external drive) by going to Disk Management, if that makes any difference.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-09-02T11:26:19+00:00

    Hello, thanks for the reply.

    The second windows is dedicated to audio processing, so no additional anti-virus, no VPN drivers autostarting with the OS. It's a much cleaner installation. I tried to use the same OS licence, loaded on the firmware, but it didn't work. Home version was a budget choice. The right thing to do would be a second computer, probably a Mac, but I don't have the means for it, so this was the only choice I had.

    The update thing, I though it could be something to do with the way I'm booting the OS, switching from the original bootloader on the internal ssd to the external disk directly, but I don't know if this makes makes any sense at all.

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  4. Craig Long 18,060 Reputation points
    2022-09-02T02:25:30+00:00

    Why not just create two accounts on your PC both using Windows 11 Pro? Not sure what you gain by booting Windows 11 Home from the USB drive. I'm not sure why the update is not completing.

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