Win8 Hyper-V corrupted - how to recover?

I did a bad thing. I was attempting to create a new external network switch for my wireless NIC in order to allow an existing VM to connect via WiFi. The process was running interminably, however, and I needed to get on with things, so I killed the MMC task and hard-rebooted the system. (I know, ill-advised.)

Since then, I've been unable:

1. To remove Hyper-V completely from the system (so as to be able to start over from scratch). Windows rejects the requested update upon re-boot.
2. To create any new network switches of any kind, via either PowerShell or the Hyper-V management console.
   • The message is 'Failed while creating virtual Ethernet Switch', followed by GUID gobbledy-gook and the message 'the data is invalid'.

Do I need to completely re-install Windows 8.1 Pro to fix this, or is there some sort of "reset Hyper-V to square one" option I can use to force things back to square one?

Thanks!

Hi there and welcome to Eight Forums!

That's a nasty problem you've got there. So you can't uninstall the software and you can't add another Virtuall Ethernet Switch.

Well...I've never encounterd this issue before so I think a little "trail and error" are needed here. Please do try the following options and post back your results so I may help you further if needed.


1. Reboot Windows and start in SAFE MODUS (use F8 during startup). Then try to uninstall Hyper-V;
2. If this doesn't work you might try the 'good old' DISM and SFC. See the following tutorials for more info and a 'how to'.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/26512-dism-fixing-component-store-corruption-windows-8-a.html
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/3047-sfc-scannow-command-run-windows-8-a.html

I hope this will help. If not I hope to hear from you soon.

Greetz,

Rover

Hello, welcome!

if you navigate to Control panel > Network and internet > Network and sharing Center > Change Adapter settings

Can you see a Vswitch created, if so is it bound to the network port you are trying to create a VSwitch for, below is A screenshot of an example of a V switch which you will be looking for.



The other way is to run powershell and this command:
Get-Netadapter


IF this is the case then you are getting to get an error creating because it will not be able to assign a Vswitch to an already assigned Network adapter.

I have done this in a hyper-v environment to show you the outcome:



Hope that help.

Cheers,
Harry

I am assuming the OP abandoned this endeavor. However, I am experiencing an almost identical problem. I also can not uninstall Hyper-V or create a virtual switch. I completed all of Der Snoober's instructions. While SFC did report 2 corrupted components, it was not able to repair. I was able to make the repairs using "Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth" and SFC now reports no issues. Unfortunately that did not fix the issue. All of my problems started with Windows 8.1 Update, which refused to install for days until I jumped through hoops. The only additional piece of information is that I have "Realtek" NIC and when I attempt to create a virtual switch, the "Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management" service actually ABORTS. The event is:

Faulting application name: vmms.exe, version: 6.3.9600.17031, time stamp: 0x53086713
Faulting module name: netcfgx.dll, version: 6.3.9600.17031, time stamp: 0x530868ef
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000022abc
Faulting process id: 0x14cc
Faulting application start time: 0x01cf64c5da4ef066
Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\vmms.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\netcfgx.dll
Report Id: d22cd6f9-d0c2-11e3-bec8-00241d1d5985
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

I also can't install VPN client (may be related or not?)


Product: Cisco Systems VPN Client 5.0.07.0290 -- Error 27850. Unable to manage networking component. Operating system corruption may be preventing installation.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to refresh my computer.

Thanks.

Network Adapters lists 7 'Hyper-V Virtual Switch Extension Adapters" that have the following status. All attempts to remove them has failed.

This device cannot start. (Code 10)
{Operation Failed}
The requested operation was unsuccessful.