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Faudo's avatar
Faudo
Iron Contributor
Oct 21, 2025

Windows 11 update error encountered when upgrading from Windows 10

Is there a way to fix this error when I was trying to upgrade my laptop from Windows 10 to Windows 11, it says: Windows 11 Setup Setup has encountered a critical error Sorry, we're having trouble...
device management
Update management
Nobel_Baynes's avatar
Nobel_Baynes
Iron Contributor
Oct 21, 2025

If you want to see exactly where Windows 11 Setup failed, open this file after a failed update:

C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setuperr.log

Search inside it for “0x80888002” or “0x40008” — you’ll often see clues such as:

SP_EXECUTION_OP_PREPARE_SAFE_OS failed; error code = 0x80888002

That indicates the problem happened while preparing the Safe OS. It usually means disk, partition, or recovery layout corruption.

You'd better format the disk with GPT and make enough room for recovery partition in order to fix Windows 11 update error encountered (Error code: 0x80888002 - 0x40008) when upgrading from Windows 10

  • Faudo's avatar
    Faudo
    Iron Contributor
    Oct 21, 2025

    It could be the last option as I don't want to reinstall all apps. This would take hours to be done not to mention the time for file backup.

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