Windows 10: Install a clean version of Windows 10 after boot loop failure

My mother has an Asus Transformer Book Flip TP500L that is in my hands now to repair it.

With the last Windows 10 update not sure which version something broke completly. It got stuck on a automatic diagnostic and repair loop which of course failed everytime. I tried every possible options in the troubleshooting section and lots of googling and following all the suggestions. No luck.


The laptop shut down during the night and next day the computer couldnt even find a boot record. I got a black screen with Windows Boot Manager and the message "Windows failed to start" and "The Boot Configuration Data on your PC is missing or contains errors".


With a downloaded Win 10 on usb i could boot up but no repairs or system recovery was possible. But i could get a shell with Shift+F10 or click launch command line.

With diskpart i could list volumes etc. There i could see two volumes with RAW filesystem. One small one, a few houndred MB and a bigger one with some GB. I guess these are for boot and something else.

Lucky i could save documents by using the xcopy to external ssd.


At this point i see no other options than completly reinstall Windows with a fresh new copy of Windows.

Now i don't know ... The laptop came with Windows 8.1. Later it got a free update to Windows 10. I have no idea if it was a single language install swedish or an englishuk or usa/multilanguage. On my USB-stick it's currently a single language swedish, i think it might be a swedish installation on the laptop. Does this actually matter? Can i tell the language by looking on a barcode on surface or something?


And how can i know what the product key or license of this the laptop, a barcode on the the surface maybe?

Do i have to install Windows 8.1 first or can i install Windows 10 directly with the original 8.1 key/license? Does Windows find the key/license automaticly?


Thanks!

:)

 

Clean Install Workaround for Vista

You may remember this news story on techPowerUp! a couple of days ago relating to the lack of clean installs when using the Upgrade Editions of Vista, which required an old OS to be installed. However, Paul Thurrott has managed to find a workaround for this issue, which ironically lets users do a clean install Vista without any previous version of Windows, albeit a little tedious. Here are the steps:

• Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD as normal
• When prompted for a product code, leave this blank
• Select the version of Vista you have purchased and let Vista install
• When you boot to your desktop for the first time, run the Vista setup from Windows
• This time enter your product key
• When asked whether you want to do an Upgrade of Custom install, select custom and choose a clean install
• Windows will now install for a second time and you should be able to activate it

Remember, these steps are only advised for use in order to achieve a clean install of Vista, it is only legal to use the upgrade editions if you have previously purchased the appropriate version of Windows.

Source: DailyTech

 

Silent boot failure

List your specs out and tell us each step in cleaning you did.

 

Clean Windows 10 (?PRO?) install

As far as I am aware there is no Windows 10 Pro version.
But I'd be happy to be wrong.