[BerDov]

Well, I took the same steps as yesterday and ended up in the same place.

 

Tapping F12 brought the same screen, where the same option, "USB1 - UEFI OS ( PMAP)", was selected.

 

This brought the same SetUp screen as in the Tutorial Step 7, then Install Now screen (step 8).

 

There was no Product key requirement or a choice of Windows (Steps 9 and 10).

 

I accepted the Terms (step 11) and selected Custom Install (step 12).

 

The next screen was Where to Install, with the same partition highlighted.

 

In the next step , 16, Copying Windows files worked. Getting Files ready... worked too.

 

I did see 100%, and then the same error message.

 

. . .

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I accepted the Terms (step 11) and selected Custom Install (step 12).

 

 

The next screen was Where to Install, with the same partition highlighted.

 

 

 

Sorry but only you know to which partition you are referring and to an outsider looking in it sounds like the highlighted partition is not the correct one to be installing Windows to, the partition to install Windows to must be the one to which you refer in your reply #24.

 

Drive 1 Partition 3: OS Primary" which I understand is the location for the OS install, is 221.7GB total, 133.4GB free space. Don't know for a fact but assume it's enough space for the OS.

 

 

Was hoping that there would be no need to provide the following but below is my canned steps for when you need to boot from a USB device.

 

For computers that have UEFI as opposed to legacy BIOS, to be able to boot from your USB device you may need to disable secure boot and change UEFI to CSM Boot, not all computers and BIOS are the same, please refer to your user manual if you have one as the following steps are only one such example.

 

Restart the computer, Windows 8 and 8.1 from the Start or desktop screen move your mouse pointer over the upper or lower right corner of the screen, when the Windows Charms appear click the Settings Charm, click on Power and then the Restart option.

 

Windows 10, Click on Start, Power and then Restart.

 

While the computer is re-starting, you will need to continually tap or hold down the particular key that will allow you to access the BIOS on your computer, we will use the F2 key as an example here;

 

After restarting the computer, when the screen goes black, press and hold down the F2 key, wait for the BIOS to load.

 

Select Security -> Secure Boot and then Disabled.

 

Select Advanced -> System Configuration and then Boot Mode.

 

Change UEFI Boot to CSM Boot.

 

Save the changes and Exit the BIOS, commonly F10.

[phillpower2]

I accepted the Terms (step 11) and selected Custom Install (step 12).

 

 

The next screen was Where to Install, with the same partition highlighted.

 

 

 

Sorry but only you know to which partition you are referring and to an outsider looking in it sounds like the highlighted partition is not the correct one to be installing Windows to, the partition to install Windows to must be the one to which you refer in your reply #24.

 

Drive 1 Partition 3: OS Primary" which I understand is the location for the OS install, is 221.7GB total, 133.4GB free space. Don't know for a fact but assume it's enough space for the OS.

 

 

Was hoping that there would be no need to provide the following but below is my canned steps for when you need to boot from a USB device.

 

For computers that have UEFI as opposed to legacy BIOS, to be able to boot from your USB device you may need to disable secure boot and change UEFI to CSM Boot, not all computers and BIOS are the same, please refer to your user manual if you have one as the following steps are only one such example.

 

Restart the computer, Windows 8 and 8.1 from the Start or desktop screen move your mouse pointer over the upper or lower right corner of the screen, when the Windows Charms appear click the Settings Charm, click on Power and then the Restart option.

 

Windows 10, Click on Start, Power and then Restart.

 

While the computer is re-starting, you will need to continually tap or hold down the particular key that will allow you to access the BIOS on your computer, we will use the F2 key as an example here;

 

After restarting the computer, when the screen goes black, press and hold down the F2 key, wait for the BIOS to load.

 

Select Security -> Secure Boot and then Disabled.

 

Select Advanced -> System Configuration and then Boot Mode.

 

Change UEFI Boot to CSM Boot.

 

Save the changes and Exit the BIOS, commonly F10.

[BerDov]

This, being my only computer project, I forgot that things might not be as clear and obvious " to an outsider looking in". Sorry.

 

This was in fact the very same partition referred to in reply #24.

 

I read the rest of the instructions and will try to implement them now. It is my understanding that, after exiting BIOS, the computer should detect the bootable USB.

 

Thank you!

[phillpower2]

I read the rest of the instructions and will try to implement them now. It is my understanding that, after exiting BIOS, the computer should detect the bootable USB.

 

 

After making the changes in the BIOS you need to restart the computer with the USB flash drive in one of the black USB 2.0 ports.

 

You are welcome 

[BerDov]

reporting...

 

- opened BIOS;

- selected Security -> secure Boot;

 - - UEFI Boot Path Security had 3 options:            [Always, Except International HDD] (displayed)

                                                                                                [Always]

                                                                                                [Never]

I selected [Never] assuming it's the same as [Disabled];

 

The Advanced tab in my computer does not have a System Configuration menu item. Its menu:

 

Intel Speed Step

Intel Speed Shift

Hyper thread control

Virtualization

VT for direct I/O

SATA operation

Intel s/w guard extensions

Intel s/w guard

BIOS recovery from hard drive   [enabled]

BIOS auto-recovery                        [disabled]

Always perform integrity check [disabled]

USB configuration

                - front ports

                - rear ports

Power options

SupportAssist system resolution

                - auto OS recovery threshold      [2]

                - SupportAssist OS recovery        [enabled]

Performance options

 

There is a BOOT tab in my computer's BIOS.

 

Its first menu item is

 

Boot List Option                [UEFI]

 

It is displayed in black letters and is not changeable.

 

All menu items in the BOOT tab:

 

Boot List Option                [UEFI]

File browser add boot option

File browser del boot option

Secure boot

Legacy option ROMs

Attempt legacy boot

Enable USB boot support

 

Boot options priorities

#1

#2

#3

At this point I hit F10, saved and exited. Did not see references to CSM Boot.

 

Waiting further instructions.

 

Thank you.

[phillpower2]

The Dell F12 One Time Boot is meant to avoid all this hassle 

 

The Advanced tab in my computer does not have a System Configuration menu item. Its menu:

 

 

Different BIOS are laid out and worded differently hence why it was said in my reply #32 "please refer to your user manual if you have one as the following steps are only one such example."

 

The below may well be where you need to look, can you change anything there, secure boot off and USB device #1 in the boot order is what we need.

 

All menu items in the BOOT tab:

 

 

Boot List Option                [UEFI]

 

File browser add boot option

 

File browser del boot option

 

Secure boot

 

Legacy option ROMs

 

Attempt legacy boot

 

Enable USB boot support

 

 

 

Boot options priorities

 

#1

 

#2

 

#3

[BerDov]

Thank you!

 

I've never seen a user's manual. The only document received was a "Quick StartUp Guide".

 

Continuing:

 

Secure boot changed from [enabled] to [Disabled]  which triggered a warning:

 

"Changing this setting may prevent your OS from booting or require a reinstall. Are you sure..."

 

Selected [Yes]

 

Boot options priorities 1, 2, and 3 list the following options:

 

[Windows Boot Manager]

[Onboard NIC (IPV4)]

[Onboard NIC (IPV6)]

[Disabled]

 

I [Disabled] all three.

 

Since " Enable USB boot support"  is [Enabled], I am Saving/Exiting, with the USB inserted.

 

screen 1: Dell logo

screen2: Initializing USB...

screen 3: SupportAssist is running a system scan to detect any potential h/w problems...

screen 4: No h/w issues were found.  Click [Continue] to launch the SupportAssist OS recovery...  Click [Cancel] to restart...

            selected [Continue]

 

SetUp started;

 

Became stuck on the "Where do you want to install Windows?" screen.

 

Drive 0 Partition 1                  Primary

Drive 1 Partition 1: ESP         System

Drive 1 Partition 2                  MSR (Reserved)

Drive 1 Partition 3: OS           Primary

Drive 1 Partition 4                  Recovery

 

Selecting any of the partitions triggered the same error message:

 

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This Computer's h/w may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the BIOS menu."

 

The " Partition 3: OS" had one additional warning: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style"

 

Apparently, one of the changes to the BIOS caused this...

 

Sorry, philpower, we are not out of the woods...

[phillpower2]

You appear to be booting from the Dell recovery software, there should be no mention of anything to do with Dell Support Assist which is what was preinstalled by Dell back at the factory.

 

The USB boot device should not have been in the computer until the changes had been made and the computer been restarting, it may not make any difference if one of the other settings is wrong but we need to follow the steps that are supposed to work.

 

Please try as was explained back in my reply #34.

 

After making the changes in the BIOS you need to restart the computer with the USB flash drive in one of the black USB 2.0 ports.

 

 

Any further problems and you are going to have to format the whole drive to get rid of the preinstalled Dell stuff. 

 

Going offline now as its getting late here and I`m up at 5am.

[BerDov]

Good afternoon!

 

I reviewed everything that was done up to this point. I think all instructions were followed to the letter and to the best of my understanding. In particular, the USB drive was not in the computer while changes to BIOS were made (99% sure).

 

Just now, I tried to reboot the machine without the USB drive in, just to see what happens.  The following message appeared after a few seconds (black screen, white letters):

 

"

Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build 083)

Copyright

 

For Killer E2400 PCIE Ethernet Controller v1.0.0.8a (07/29/2016)

 

PXE-EC8: !PXE structure was not found in UNDI driver code segment.

PXE-MOF: Exiting PXE ROM.

Boot failure on device, Press any key to reboot the machine.

"

 

Sorry it's taking such a toll... What do I do next?

[phillpower2]

Hello Berdov,

 

The above is the what was identified as the cause of the original issue;

 

From your reply #3;

 

When the Power Button is pressed, a large Dell logo in a circle appears for a second or two, followed by the three line message which stays for about two minutes:

 

 

>> Checking media presence...

 

>>Media Present.....

 

>>Start PXE Over IPv4. Press ESC to abort PXE boot.

 

 

 

And my reply #4

 

This should never be mentioned in the boot sequence unless a computer has previously been set up to boot from a network, Wake on LAN for example, any further problems the first thing to check would be that the storage device that has Windows on it should be first in the boot sequence.

 

 

A failed boot device and/or an expired CMOS battery can cause this to happen.

 

Try the F12 One Time Boot option again to see if your are able to boot into your flash drive and format the partitions, if not, we will have to diskpart.

[BerDov]

Thank you, phillpower!

 

reporting:

 

- USB drive is not in. Pressed a key to reboot the machine.

 - when seeing the Dell logo, pressed F12

This time, the screen:

========================================================

"Boot Mode Is Set to: UEFI, with Legacy OPROM; Secure boot: OFF"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LEGACY OPTIONS:

                CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive

                Network

UEFI OPTIONS:

                Windows Boot Manager

            Onboard NIC (IPV4)

            Onboard NIC (IPV6)

OTHER OPTIONS

            BIOS Setup

            Diagnostics

            Device Configuration

            BIOS Flash Update

                Change Boot Mode Settings

                SupportAssist OS Recovery

========================================================

It occurred to me there was no USB option because drive was not inserted, so I inserted it and rebooted again.

 

This time, it appeared as the first option in 2 sections:

 

LEGACY OPTIONS:

                USB Storage Device

                CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive

                Network

UEFI OPTIONS:

                USB1 - UEFI OS ( MAP) 

            Windows Boot Manager

            ...

 

I executed the [USB Storage Device] option.

 

This opened a Windows Setup screen, language choice screen, and then a screen with an [Install now] button.

Next was the license screen.

On the next screen, I chose the [Custom: Install Windows Only...]

 

As before, became stuck on the "Where do you want to install Windows?" screen.

 

Drive 0 Partition 1                  Primary

Drive 1 Partition 1: ESP         System

Drive 1 Partition 2                  MSR (Reserved)

Drive 1 Partition 3: OS           Primary

Drive 1 Partition 4                  Recovery

 

Selecting any of the partitions triggered the same error message:

 

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This Computer's h/w may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the BIOS menu."

 

The " Partition 3: OS" had one additional warning: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style"

 

Thank you!

BerDov

[phillpower2]

The partitions need to be deleted/formatted before Windows can be installed.

[BerDov]

It is my understanding that partitions are deleted when something like "format c:\"  is executed.

 

In the "Where do you want to install Windows?" screen, there is a [Format] icon below the list of partitions, but this looks like each partition must be formatted separately.

 

Incidentally, I earlier missed three more partitions listed on this page:

 

Drive 1 Partition 5: image                   14.6GB total, 82MB free        Recovery

Drive 1 Partition 6: DELLSUPPORT            1GB total, 361MB free           Recovery

Drive 1 Unallocated space (16MB)

 

Am I misunderstanding something?

 

How is the entire c: drive formatted in this situation?

[phillpower2]

C: is only the partition where Windows is installed not the whole storage device and those other partitions will be redundant once Windows has been installed on the formatted partition that you previously mentioned.

 

Drive 1 Partition 3: OS Primary" which I understand is the location for the OS install, is 221.7GB total, 133.4GB free space

 

[BerDov]

So, if I understand this right, I now need to select "Drive 1 Partition 3: OS" and then click on [Format].

 

Should the USB drive be IN or OUT?

 

Please be forgiving. I just don't want to do something wrong.