Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 service pack installation fails with error 0x80004005

Source: Microsoft Support

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When you try to install a Windows Vista Service Pack, You may encounter the following error message:

Install Windows Service Pack

Installation was not successful
Unspecified error
Error: E_FAIL(0x80004005)

When you view the %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log, you will find the following entries:

<Date Time>, Info CSI 00000704 Calling generic command executable (sequence 54 (0x00000036)): [20]"C:\Windows\bfsvc.exe"
CmdLine: [63]""C:\Windows\bfsvc.exe" C:\Windows\boot /nosystem32boot /nofonts"

<Date Time>, Error CSI 00000709 (F) Done with generic command 54 (0x00000036); CreateProcess returned 0, CPAW returned S_OK
Process exit code 15299 (0x00003bc3) resulted in success? FALSE
Process output: [l:60 [60]"BFSVC: Failed to get system partition! Last Error = 0x3bc3

When you install Vista SP2, the Vista SP2 installer must update the system boot files. If third-party disk management tools are used to "clone" disks or partitions, the SP2 installer will be unable to uniquely identify the correct system boot files.

To work around this issue, turn off the computer and physically unplug all drives that are not required for starting Windows. Power up the computer and restart the service pack installation.

If the workaround is not successful, the alternative is to perform a clean-install.

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