Windows 10: Cannot upgrade due to unsupported disk layout for UEFI firmware

This problem is driving me nuts. *Confused I've had Win10 installed for ages and no problems until Upgrade 1511 came along. How come Windows 10 worked all that time and now refuses to upgrade?

Can anyone provide a fix for this problem:

Upgrade to Windows 10 Home, version 1511, 10586


error message:
"Windows 10 couldn't be installed
*Windows couldn't be installed because this PC has an unsupported disk layout for UEFI firmware."

All help will be greatly appreciated.

:)

 

WINDOWS 10 - CANNOT INSTALL UPDATES

Hi,

Yes, it is necessary to install Windows Updates as it provides updates for Windows components. It is possible that your system is missing the Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR) which is used on the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface(UEFI)/GUID Partition
Table (GPT) disks. MSR basically supports software components that have previously used hidden sectors on disk. You can visit this
link for troubleshooting steps regarding the error message "cannot install
updates - you have an unsupported layout for UEFI firmware".

Let us know if you have any other questions.

 

Windows 10

I get the message-- Windows can't be installed because this PC has an unsupported disk layout for UEFI firmware. How do I fix this?

 

Post a snapshot of a fullscreen Disk Management Window:

To open Disk Management, press Windows key+r, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter or click GO. Make it full screen. Expand the fields as necessary so everything can be seen.

Press the Print Screen key then open Paint (Press Windows key, type paint then click on Paint at the top) and paste the image from the clipboard into Paint.

Save the paint image to your hard drive (File / Save as).

How to Take a Screenshot in Windows 10

 

Hi Ztruker and thank you for replying. My apologies for delay as I have been busy with work. The disk management image is as follows. As "J" disk uses my full name I have blanked it out.

 

I don't see an EFI partition which I thought UEFI required. This is what mine looks like:





Need help with this from some of the disk layout wizards here. Hopefully they will stop by soon.

 

Second partition on Drive 1. ESP = EFI System Partition. I would try disconnected Drive 0 (J and then trying the upgrade. Actually, I would disconnect all other hard drives except for drive 1 which contains all the system partitions.

 

Try changing the SATA Controller. That's what I did when I had this problem before (But updating to a different version).

 

I had a weird partition problem which stopped Windows 10 installing - see my solution here https://www.tenforums.com/installatio...x80004005.html You could check the integrity of the ESP partition.

There should be an error logging file setuperr.log in the temporary windows installation directory. Is there an error message towards the end of this file which gives you a clue what may be wrong?

You also have a drive letter assigned to the ESP partition. You could unassign the drive letter to see if that helps.

 

Sorry, all of the above solutions are too confusing for me to make any sense of. I need step by step instructions. But thank you for the replies.

I can't find any error log in the file you mentioned.

I still do not understand how I could have installed Windows 10 in the first place. Why is the problem only appearing now? Seems to me the problem is with Microsoft being too picky about some minor technicality. They should produce a tool that re-creates the partition structure that they require, rather than leave customers guessing. I am actually thinking of reverting back to an older version of Windows that works, or finding a different O/S altogether. Windows 10 has been a big failure.

 

This should not be confusing:

Try it and see what happens.

 

Whoever had a weird partition that stopped Windows from installing, when you boot into the installer press the keys Shift and F10. Command Prompt should pop up. Type in "Diskpart" and wait. Then type in "list disk." Once that's been executed select the disk you want to erase (e.g. "select disk 0" or "select disk 1"). Once you've seleted it, type in "clean all." This command would take 1-4 hours to exceed but it COMPLETELY erases your hard drive with 0s and this is the best way to clean it. Then continue with the installation and when it says Custom or Upgrade, select Custom and there should be only one partition. Select that than click next. There, you're done!

 

I think we are trying to help upgrading an existing Windows 10 installation. Post 10 is recommending completely wiping the disk and doing a clean install which would then require significant effort to reinstall all programs.

These installation problems are not helped by uninformative Microsoft error messages!

 

I went to the trouble of opening the case and disconnecting everything except the drive containing Windows. Result is the same. The upgrade will not install and I get error message "Windows couldn't be installed because this PC has an unsupported disk layout for UEFI firmware."

 

I could not agree more! How are we supposed to fix a "problem" when the error message is worded in a confusing way or we do not know what the error message means? Personally I have no idea what the error message means and nor would the average PC user for that matter.

Yes you are correct, I am not trying to install Windows 10. I already have that installed. I am trying to update (they call it "upgrade") to Version/Build 1511, 10586 of Windows 10.

Also, having to reach inside your machine and start pulling cables just to install Windows is so "old school" it is laughable. Wasn't Windows 10 supposed to be the most sophisticated and intelligent operating system to date? If so, it should be able to install an update on any PC that already has Windows 10 installed. But this is evidently not the case. The way it is now you can install Windows 10, but you can't update it to a later build. This is beyond a joke! Somewhere the programming has taken a backwards leap.