Windows Vista SP2 error during installation (0x80070026)

Question：

Hello,

I have Vista Ultimate 32bit on my Dell XPS M1530 laptop and I can't seem to get Vista SP2 to install. When I start the installation after I agree to the EULA it says, "Preparing your installation," then I get an error that the installation wasn't successful. It says, "Reached the end of the file" and "Error: ERROR_HANDLE_EOF(0x80070026)"

I have tried to debug it myself and have ran CheckSUR as well as trying to install it in safe mode but to no avail. I didn't install the SP2 beta so it can be a problem associated with that. Any assistance that you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1：

Hello wmlove,

Thank you for posting.  It is possible that something is loading on startup on your machine that is preventing the Service Pack from being able to load.  Whether it is a program or a process we can get around it by having you Clean Boot your system.  What we can do is download SP2 as a "stand alone" install from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a4dd31d5-f907-4406-9012-a5c3199ea2b3&displaylang=en

Once the download is complete, follow these instructions to perform a Clean Boot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Once you have your machine "booted clean" run the SP2 install that you downloaded above.  This should get it installed for you.  Let us know if this resolves your problem.

Thanks,

Jack

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Jack



Answer 2：

Jack,

Thank you for your response, however I was still not able to install SP2. When I ran the stand alone install for the first time after the clean boot the SP2 installer went to the "Preparing your computer" screen for about 10 seconds and then showed the same error message. When I tried the installer again and any subsequent times the error message immediately showed up. I don't know if that is relevant but I thought I would add it.

Also, I noted that when I try to install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and .NET Framework 3.5 Family Update (KB951847) x86 update it failed and gives the error message 80070026. I don't know if that is related to my Vista SP2 issues but I thought I would mention it.

Thank you,

wmlove

Answer 3：

Hello, wmlove

They may have been disabled when you did a Clean Boot, but do you have any security software running? (Anti-Virus/Malware, Firewall, etc.)

If so try temporarily disabling it when you are downloading and installing the SP2 file.

Let us know.

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David