Cannot install Windows 10 from DVD or USB-stick

[Amoranemix2]

Dear forum members,

Machine : Ryzen 5 2400G on X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming motherboard.
I thought WIndows was on the SSD, but I have received evidence it is on the hard disk.

My computer refuses to start because of a BSOD with stopcode REGISTRY ERROR.

I tried lots of stuff that doesn’t work.

One of those things is trying to install Windows 10 from a DVD or from an USB-installation stick on a free partition on the hard disk, hoping to start that new OS installation and then improvise. One problem I got past without knowing how is that Windows could on an EFI system not be installed on drives with an MBR partition, but requires a GPT partition. Now for some reason that is no longer an issue.

Now I can pick the free partition (on station 0), but I immediatly get the ‘Windows Setup’ message window telling (which I translate from Dutch) : “Changes made to this computer will not be saved.”
On top of that window is another ‘Windows Setup’ message window stating (in Dutch) :
“Cannot make partition on disk 0. The error occurred during the preparation of the partition that was selected for the installation. Error code: 0x80004005”

Does anyone know how to resolve that problem ?

[Bruce]

have you downloaded the Windows Media Creation Tool and used it to make a bootable USB stick?
start the PC with the USB stick connected, making sure the BIOS is set to boot from USB first.

[Amoranemix2]

Thanks for the suggestion, but yes I have. It seems to work the same way as an installation DVD, but I hoped it could contain a more recent version that could therefore behave differently.

[Bruce]

during the creation of the bootable USB stick, the creation tool downloads the latest Windows build.
are you saying it didn’t for you?
and it too gave the BSoD?

[Amoranemix2]

An idea would be to use a different version of Windows to install. I tried Vista, but that didn’t work because my BIOS was not compatible. I didn’t find a Media Creation Tool for Windows 7 or 8.1 on Microsoft’s website. Maybe someone can explain where I can find the tools to make installation-USB-sticks for those Windows versions.

Or I could try Windows 11, but I don’t have a licence for that.
If I am really desperate I could try Linux.

[Bruce]

have you disconnected the HDD and just left the SSD plugged in when trying to install Win10 from the USB?

[PeterOz]

Do you have any data you need to get off this computer? If yes then make a ubuntu bootable usb or dvd
Create a bootable USB stick with Rufus on Windows | Ubuntu NO install needed
Copy your data to an external drive or another computer/nas.

Insert the usb or cd/dvd and boot your system. You may have to change bios settings to boot from the usb or cd/dvd (every computer is different) We can help with this.

When the computer boots choose TRY UBUNTU and let the system boot.

When booted look on the left-hand side of the screen and click on Files icon
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Then click on Other Locations at the bottom of the list

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Click on your drive for example Win 7
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Click on Users Icon

Click on your name listed under users

You should now see your data e.g Documents Pictures etc.

Copy your data to an external drive or another computer/nas.

When finished Click on the shutdown icon in the top right-hand corner Click on Power Off
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[Amoranemix2]

@ Bruce pos 4 :

I tried the Dutch version of this : Download Windows 10
The creation of the installation-USB-stick worked on the second attempt, but installing WIndows with it doesn’t work.

No, it does not give a BSOD. I described how it fails in my OP.

@ Bruce post 6 :

No, I haven’t. I’ll try now.
I hazve disconnected my HDD and started vrom the USB stick with Windows 10. There are 2 partitions available. One primary partition (with abiout 1/3 space free and an 88MB OEM reserved partition.

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[HEADING=1]INTERMEZZO : The above suggests Windows is installed here. I receive inconsistent evidence on the OS location. With only the SSD connected the BIOS cannot find a bootable drive. WIth only the HDD connected it can start WIndows up to the BSOD.[/HEADING]
CLicking Next with the big partion selected adds a popup-window about what happens with data (they go in WIndows.old). If I press OK, then under the original window (of previous paragraph) the message appears (in Dutch) : “WIndows cannot be installed on the chosen location. Check the media station. The following has happened : 0x80070017.” I can’t make progess beyond that.

@ PeterOz :
Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, my backup drive has failed. I have a backup backup drive that does not show up in my computer, but that should work.
I have bad experience with Linux. I once went to a Linux install fest. The installation broke my Windows XP installation. Moreover, Linux is user-unfriendly (at least it was last time I tried it).

I don’t know which drive (the SSD or the HDD) to back up since I don’t know on which drive I will install Windows. My backup backup drive is probably too small to backup the HDD. Buying in a bigger external drive will take at least a day.

A plan could be to copy the SSD, wipe it and then install Windows on it, but there are two problems with that plan :

• Strangely I can’t find the device in the case, even though I have installed it myself.
• I doubt I have another computer to connect the SSD to.

I’ll try using Ubuntu to copy the SSD to the backup backup drive. Can Ubuntu partition the SSD to make it appropriate as an installation medium for Windows ?

[PeterOz]

@Bruce and Amoranemix2
My guess is the original install of windows was done with 2 drives connected.
The best option is to boot with linux and take off data you MUST have if you have data you must have and do not have enough room to copy
it to another drive.
You have 2 options

1. Buy a large drive and copy it off with linux. NO INSTALL NEEDED.
2. Bite the bullet and loose the data.
   We then choose 1 drive only.
   Connect it only and install win10 to that drive.
   **** BEFORE buying a drive make the Ubuntu usb boot and make sure you can see your drives.****
   If you agree with this we will use The win 10 creation tool.
   We will also reformat the drive with diskpart.

NB this will wipe all data from the drive
Boot from Win 10 install usb
When you get to the startup screen (pic attached)
Press Shift + F10 key
you should get a X:> prompt
What is in orange you type in Green you do
e.g [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)]Enter press enter key

[COLOR=rgb(243, 121, 52)]Diskpart [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)]enter
[COLOR=rgb(243, 121, 52)]list disk [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)]enter
[COLOR=rgb(243, 121, 52)]Select disk n [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)]enter (n=the disk you wish to convert)
[COLOR=rgb(243, 121, 52)]clean [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)]enter
[COLOR=rgb(243, 121, 52)]convert gpt [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)]enter
[COLOR=rgb(243, 121, 52)]exit [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)]enter

[COLOR=rgb(243, 121, 52)]exit [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)]enter
can you continue with the install now ?
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Let’s see what Bruce thinks of this.
If you can. Make the linux usb and see if you can access your drives[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]

[Bruce]

this is providing all your data is backed up, or you don’t care to lose what is on the SSD.

as to the reinstall of Win10 onto the SSD, with the HDD unplugged.
during the reinstall, when shown the current partitions, you should be able to remove them all.
then continue with the install and Windows will create the necessary partitions as it deems fit.

Peter’s advice above is another way to skin the cat - both processes should give the same end result.

[Amoranemix2]

Error in previous INTERMEZZO : Contrary to what I said I had not disconnected the SSD. (I had not found it yet. In the mean time I have.) WIth the HDD connected I could choose it as starting device. It may be that for some reason both drives need to be in place for Windows to start booting.

Indeed. I think I installed WIndows 10 on the SSD with the HDD also connected. Why does having both drives connected during installation cause problems ?

I ordered a Seagate Expansion Desktop of 8TB which should arrive tomorrow.

I used Install Ubuntu Desktop | Ubuntu because Balena Etcher is allegedly more user-friendly. Unfortunately it has an installer that not only fails to ask where to install the program, but even fails to mention where the program is installed (on this old Windows 7 computer). But what is done is done.

The creation of the Ubuntu startup USB-stick seemed to have worked, I managed to start Ubuntu from it and I can see both my drives, but it can’t see the NTFS-formatted backup backup drive. That makes it hard to copy to it.

I have an iso file of Windows 8.1. Balena Etcher said that Rufus could create an installation drive from that. My backup backup HDD now works and I could make an installation drive for Windows 8.1 on it. Maybe then I can install Windows 8.1 on the free partition of my internal HDD and repair Windows 10 from there. Is that viable ? Microsoft also makes Windows 11 available for download. Is trying the same with Windows 11 a viable option ?
In the mean time I probably better not try anything that could break something until I have my new backup drive and backed up using Ubuntu.

[PeterOz]

Why does having both drives connected during installation cause problems ?

You should never have 2 drives connected when you install windows.
if you do windows will spread the files across 2 drives.
! drive dies - windows is dead.
Using windows 8 or 11 to try and repair windows 10 is a waste of time.
Get what data you can off the drives.
Pick the best drive to put windows on.
Disconnect ALL other drives
Use the Win 10 creation tool to reinstall windows 10 - I would not go to Win 11 to many bugs.
As Bruce mentioned you do not have to use diskpart you can just delete the partitions and let windows recreate them.
You should get the same result.

[Amoranemix2]

The delivery of the new external drive is postponed till tomorrow. I won’t wait for that, so I’ll just try to copy the 500 GB SSD to the 1TB external HDD and not copy the the internal HDD. It was a hassle to get Ubuntu to recognise it, but I found another 1TB external HDD along the way. I now have an FAT 32 and an exFAT external HDD. I’ll copy the SDD to each drive in case something goes wrong.

There are some copy errors, mostly with symbolic links, the same for both drives. Is compressing the the content of the SSD or transforming it some other way a useful backup way to make a copy of the content ?

Time remaining keeps changing. Now it is at 80 minutes for the fast drive and 23 hours for the slow one. That is too long for my taste, so I decide cancel the slow copy to follow PeterOz’ advice and only copy my user folder on that drive (the FAT32 one).

OK, so I shouldn’t manually convert the SSD to a GPT partition, unless the installation again doesn’t work.

[PeterOz]

OK, so I shouldn’t manually convert the SSD to a GPT partition, unless the installation again doesn’t work.

Correct

[Amoranemix2]

The slow, FAT32 drive took about 10 hours to accept 74GB of files. The content looks fine on the WIndows 7 computer.

The Win 7 computer sees something wrong witht the fast exFAT drive and wants to do a disk check, but that doesn’t progress and so I run out of patience and cancel it. When I try to view its content I get the a ‘Location is not available’ message window that says :
“H:\ is not accessible.
Access is denied”.

I inserted it in a Macintosch, but that computer can’t read the disk either. ‘First Aid’, a Mac tool, couldn’t find any problems. In Ubuntu, the disk content looks fine.

The SSD had in Ubuntu a few 100 .icm files on the top level, which I all copied. Maybe it has to do with that.

So I make another copy of the SSD, without copying the .icm files, to the internal HDD. That should be faster. “79 minutes left” (and increasing).