[phillpower2]

Hello Sugartooth,

 

Have you checked the information at the other three tabs, the Event log one may show up something. 

 

Because you have already backed up it may be worth trying a clean install of Windows and Dell drivers.

[Advertisements]

Hi phillpower2,

 

Yes, I had checked the info. on all the tabs and nothing jumped out at me. I ran the Dell ePSA Pre-boot System Assessment again, 2 more times, but it won't open up with the results like it did the first time.

 

How would you suggest I do a clean install of Windows? Also, how would I go about purchasing a new HDD?

[Sugartooth]

Hi phillpower2,

 

Yes, I had checked the info. on all the tabs and nothing jumped out at me. I ran the Dell ePSA Pre-boot System Assessment again, 2 more times, but it won't open up with the results like it did the first time.

 

How would you suggest I do a clean install of Windows? Also, how would I go about purchasing a new HDD?

[phillpower2]

I would do the following before purchasing any new hardware;

 

Give the first option here a try - don`t forget to back up all of your Dell drivers to a small thumbdrive first..

 

Just putting this here in case the HDD does need to be replaced.

[Sugartooth]

Hi phillpower2,

 

It took a day and night for me to reach this screen.

 

I chose the first option: Upgrade. That was not a good choice as it said to remove the Windows 10 installation media and restart the computer. After waiting for another day and night, I selected the second option: Custom. I wasn't sure whether to remove the Windows 10 installation media, so I left the USB plugged in.

 

Now, I'm stuck on this screen with the hourglass and the screen is frozen. It's been 3 hours now.

If the hourglass changes back into a mouse cursor, which option should I choose for Where do you want to install Windows? And what about the Refresh, Delete, Format, New, Load driver, and Extend? Would I click on any of those? I will give it another 24 hours before I give up on trying to install Windows.

 

I think a new HDD is probably in order.

 

 

 

[Sugartooth]

Hi again,

 

I selected every Drive 0 option and the same message.

 

[phillpower2]

Hello Sugartooth,

 

Apologies for the delay getting back to you, not been around for a couple of days.

 

If possible the Primary partition that has the OS on it needs to be formatted (Pic 3 in reply #49) and then Windows clean installed to the same partition.

[Sugartooth]

Hi phillpower2,

 

I selected the Primary partition and clicked on Format. After waiting an hour and a half for the hourglass to turn into a cursor, I clicked on Primary again and the same pop up appeared regarding GPT. What should we try now?

[phillpower2]

Hello Sugartooth,

 

Please see the Microsoft tutorial here

[Sugartooth]

Hi phillpower2,

 

I tried using the MBR2GPT.EXE from the Microsoft tutorial. This is the result

 

I then went to YouTube and did this

 

I tried to install Windows by using the Windows 10 installation media from the Microsoft site you gave me. Neither the USB flash drive nor the DVD worked.This is the message I'm receiving.

 

I tried a YouTube fix for the missing media driver which involved downloading Intel Rapid Storage Technology (starting at 3:11), but it didn't work.

 

What do you suggest now?

[phillpower2]

Hello Sugartooth,

 

 

Apologies, I should have been more specific and should have said at the link to follow the "Reformatting the drive using a different partition style info" the info in your reply #54 suggests that only a single partition was formatted and not the full drive which is what is needed.

 

Can I just reiterate that when you attempt to clean install Windows your USB thumbdrive must be in a USB 2.0 port and not the USB 3.0 one.

 

NB: It was previously suggested that you download and save the Dell drivers to a thumbdrive before starting any clean install of Windows, did you do this, Dell computers are notoriously picky about what drivers they will or will not work with and they need to be reinstalled in a set order after clean installing Windows. 

[Sugartooth]

Hi phillpower2,
 
I've tried for 2 days to get into Automatic Repair mode so that I can reach Windows Setup (in order to format the entire drive), but it won't do it. The way I'd been reaching it was by turning my laptop on and off, 3 times, in rapid succession. Now when I do that, it goes back to this screen.

 

Yes, I have been using the USB 2.0 port.

 

In Post#6, I backed up my data. By the time you told me to back up my drivers in Post#40, I could no longer get into Windows, so do not have the drivers. However, I went to the Dell website and entered in all my pertinent information and there are 30 downloadable drivers that I can get.

 

How can I format the entire drive now?

[phillpower2]

Hello Sugartooth,

 

I've tried for 2 days to get into Automatic Repair mode

 

 

The original Windows OS has been deleted which means that there is no Recovery Environment present and so no Automatic Repair option.

 

The screenshot above means that the BIOS is looking for an OS to load or install.

 

Have you followed the "Reformatting the drive using a different partition style" info that I mentioned in my reply #55.

 

For an alternative means of formatting the whole drive should you need to, please see the tutorial here fwiw, I always use the autonuke option.

[Sugartooth]

Hi phillpower2,

 

I always try to do what you instruct me to do.  I couldn't get "Reformatting the drive using a different partition style" to work.

 

So where are we now? Well, I downloaded DBAN and it successfully erased my hard drive.

 

I can't install Windows. There was a pop up window that read: This partition is too small. Make the size of the partition at least 9772 MB or select another partition.  I tried to by clicking on New, but as you can see, it reads: The size must be at most 0 MB.

 

[phillpower2]

Hello Sugartooth,

 

Have you tried clicking on the Load Driver option.

[Ztruker]

I just finished reading this whole thread, what a journey! Hope I'm not butting in.

 

Bottom line it looks like the system is a UEFI system setup to boot Legacy with a MBR HDD but Windows Setup says the disk if setup for GPT, not MBR.

So the right thing to do is change it back to UEFI from Legacy, with secure boot on or off (both should work) then do the following:

 

Here is a manual (non-Rufus) procedure originally posted by NavyLCDR on tenforums that I recorded and saved (with slight modifications). I've used it many times now and it works under all boot conditions, UEFI/GPT/MBR or CSM/MBR.

1. Use the Media Creation Tool to download and save the Windows 10 ISO file you need to your hard drive.
2. Insert the USB flash drive.
3. Open a Administrator Command Prompt. It will say Administrator Command Prompt in the Title bar. Enter the following commands:
4. diskpart
5. list disk
6. select disk # <- replace # with the actual disk number of the USB flash drive
7. clean <- this will erase the disk selected above, make sure you selected the USB flash drive!
7a. If the flash drive shows as GPT then you need to convert it to MBR: convert mbr
8. create part pri
8a. sel part 1
9. format fs=fat32 quick
9a. assign
10. active
11. exit
12. exit - and if the first Command Prompt was not an Administrator Command Prompt, exit that one too.
13. Mount the ISO you downloaded. If you are using Windows 8 or 10, you only have to right click on it and click on mount. If you are using Windows 7, then you must use a program like WinCDEmu to mount the ISO file:
WinCDEmu - the easiest way to mount an ISO. And more...
14. Copy all the files and folders from the mounted ISO file to the USB flash drive.

Here is more info from NavyLCDR on why this is the best way to do this:

 

To boot the flash drive you press the key on your keyboard that brings up the boot menu like you show in post #33, select the USB flash drive and begin the install. During the install, when you get to the window where it shows you your hard drive layout, delete all partitions so the drive is completely unallocated then click Next. The installer will create the partitions it needs (4 for a GPT drive).