How to overcome error 0x800F0A12 while installing Win 7 SP1?

Question

I am trying to install Win 7 SP1 (using Windows Update), but it failed with 0x800F0A12. I have a dual boot configuration windows - linux, otherwise perfectly normal configuration.

This web page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/windows-7-windows-server-2008-r2-service-pack-1-sp1-installation-error-0x800F0A12 suggest some fixes, but only the first one seems relevant. However I get:

C:\Users\ga>mountvol /E
Access is denied.

The main reason why I am so keen to have it installed is because Windows stopped recognizing my optical drive (it just completely vanished after one of the automatic updates). It might be related to this issue.

An ideas how to fix it?

EDIT: Following @vcsjones' advice I managed to run mountvol /E successfully, but it didn't help with the SP1 installation unfortunately.

Solution

I solved the problem by going to disk manager and setting the windows C: disk as active. On my setup, that didn't cause any problems with GRUB and everything worked fine.

Comments

[Rinat Hatipov]

In your command prompt, is it elevated? (It will say "Administrator" in the title bar). If not, run it elevated by typing "cmd" in the start menu search, and holding "ctrl+shift" whild clicking it. Then try your mountvol.

[Grzenio]

@vcsjones: thanks, it did fix the access denied issue. Trying the update again...

[Grzenio]

Didn't really help :(

[user3660103]

@Grzenio Can you post what your partitions looks like? There are lots of tips on the various blogs and forums about this, but I'm not sure which are applicable in your case. Do you have the small "windows system" partition?

[Grzenio]

what exactly would you like to know? (ideally let me know which cmd line tool to run :)

[user3660103]

@Grzenio which are your active partitions and on which partitions is /boot and windows C:.

[pratnala]

@Grzenio or better post a screenshot of your partition map