Fix Windows Upgrade error 0xC1900202

If you’re encountering Windows Upgrade error 0xC1900202 when you try to upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10, or from Windows 10 to Windows 11 on your computer using the Windows Update Assistant utility, then this post is intended to help you. In this post, we will identify the possible causes, as well as provide the most appropriate solutions you can try to help you remediate this issue.

The error 0xC1900202 with its extend code and accompanying error message is as follows-

0xC1900202–0×20008: This may signify that your PC doesn’t meet the minimum requirements to download or install the upgrade to Windows 11/10.

You might encounter this upgrade error due to one or more (but not limited to) the following known causes-

• System File corruption.
• Minimum specifications are not met.
• Glitched Windows Update component.
• Insufficient Reserved Partition space.

Fix Windows Upgrade error 0xC1900202

If you’re faced with this 0xC1900202 error, you can try our recommended solutions below in no particular order and see if that helps to resolve the issue.

1. Verify the minimum requirement.
2. Reset Windows Update cache
3. Expand the reserved partition
4. Run SFC and DISM scan
5. Directly download the Windows 10 ISO

Let’s take a look at the description of the process involved concerning each of the listed solutions.

1] Verify the minimum requirement

As earlier indicated, this issue often appears if Windows is incompatible with the specifications of your system.

If your system meets the minimum requirement but you’re still encountering the error, then you can try the next solution.

2] Reset Windows Update cache

The Software Distribution folder in Windows operating system is a folder located in the Windows directory and used to temporarily store files that may be required to install Windows Update on your computer.

Clear the contents of the Software Distribution folder and then try the upgrade again and see if it completes successfully.

3] Expand the reserved partition

As it turns out, this Windows Upgrade error 0xC1900202 issue can also occur because there isn’t enough space on the system reserved partition to complete the operation. If this scenario is applicable, the operation will fail with the error due to space-related issues.  In this case, you’ll need to expand the system-reserved partition.

Here’s how:

• Press Windows key + R to invoke the Run dialog.
• In the Run dialog box, type diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter to open Disk Management.
• In the window that opens, click on the C:\ Drive and look under for the Partition Map. The first partition will be a 100MB Partition (System, Active, Primary Partition). Right-click on it and choose to Change the Drive Letters and Paths (Click Add and choose Y:)
• Once done, Click Start and type cmd, then right-click cmd and choose Run as Administrator. Once in the command prompt, type the following commands. For the icacls command, use your username which you can find out by typing whoami in the command prompt window.

takeown /f . /r /d y

icacls . /grant administrators:F /t <see note below>

attrib -h -s -r bootmgr

Once this is done, hold the Windows key and press and open the Y: Drive. Make sure hidden files and folders are set to Show. Go to the Boot folder, and delete all languages other than en-US by using SHIFT + DELETE and then emptying the recycle bin.

• Now in the same Command Prompt window, type the following:

On Windows 8 and above:

chkdsk Y: /F /X /sdcleanup /L:5000

On Windows 7:

chkdsk Y: /F /X /L:5000

This will truncate the NTFS log to 5MB and will leave plenty of space for the install to process. You can then proceed with the installation after the installation has finished, you can go back to diskmgmt.msc and remove the drive letter for the boot partition.

Now, try the upgrade again and see if the issue persists. If so, continue with the next solution.

4] Run SFC and DISM scan

If you have system file errors, you may encounter this problem.

The SFC and DISM are tools in Windows that allows users to scan for corruptions in Windows system files and restore corrupted files.

For the purposes of ease and convenience, you can run the scan using the procedure below.

• Press Windows key + R to invoke the Run dialog.
• In the Run dialog box, type notepad and hit Enter to open Notepad.
• Copy and paste the syntax below into the text editor.

@echo off
date /t & time /t
echo Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
echo ...
date /t & time /t
echo Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
echo ...
date /t & time /t
echo SFC /scannow
SFC /scannow
date /t & time /t
pause

• Save the file with a name and append the .bat file extension – eg; SFC_DISM_scan.bat and on the Save as type box select All Files.
• Repeatedly run the batch file with admin privilege (right-click the saved file and select Run as Administrator from the context menu) until it reports no errors.
• Restart your PC.

Try to upgrade again and see if the issue is resolved. If not proceed with the next solution.

Related: Fix Windows Upgrade Assistant Error 0xC1900200

5] Directly download the Windows 11/10 ISO

Since you’re encountering this issue using the Update Assistant, this solution entails you directly download the Windows ISO image file from the Microsoft website. Once you have downloaded the ISO to a location (preferably the desktop) on your device, double-click the ISO image to mount it as a virtual drive then double-click the setup.exe file to start the in-place upgrade process.

Note: If you’re upgrading from Windows 7, you’ll need a third-party virtual drive software to be able to mount the ISO.