Windows 10: Installing Win 10 on 32bit / P4; copying of windows files in a loop

I currently want to upgrade from Win XP to Win 10.

At start up of the PC, the Bios loads up, the USB devices or DVD's are detected and I can see the blue Win 10 logo. After a couple of min (I'm guessing after copying files onto the hard drive) the PC restarts, and the same thing happens all over again.
When I wait until the PC restarts and quickly disconnect or remove the DVD before the BIOS loads, all I get is
"Press F1 for reboot, F2 for start up utility."

I have downloaded several Win 32 Windows versions I was able to find. I burned the ISO onto DVD's, created USB bootable sticks and USB bootable Hard drives with Rufus 2.9. Windows 7 creation tool did not work either.

I have changed the Hard disk drive sequence, USB device first, Systems Bios boot devices second and vice versa.

I also have 3 hard drives, two SATA and one IDE.
Fastboot OFF
I have also disabled the two sata drives, enabled only the IDE, same thing.
Primary Sata enabled and Secondary SATA and IDE disabled, same thing.

The PC just restarts no matter what I do without proceeding with the installation. What am I doing wrong, or what am I missing? Suggestions?

:)

 

Windows 10 restore to Windows 7 failed

Decided to use the upgrade icon. Windows 10 installed properly on the Macbook PRO previously running Windows 7 via BootCamp. Everything but sound worked, Office, email etc. Attempted load of available sound driver but no joy. Discovered Apple supports
64bit version with new bootcamp only. I was running 32bit and so 32bit windows installed. Decided to use restore to previous version and now we have an endless loop where the message "Restoring you previous version of windows" appears followed by a reboot.
Selecting the windows partician from bootcamp will put me back in the loop. How do I restore either Win 10 or the previous Win 7. I can deal with no sound for the time being.

 

Can I re-install/change Win 10 64 bit from Win 10 32bit? will it affect the license?

My sister bought laptop (ASUS a445ln) and she install win 8 32bit (OEM) from CD with product key included on cover. And then she upgrade it to win 8.1 32bit and win 10 32bit both of them upgraded via store. But some of her hardware is undetected by windows
10 32bit such as touchpad and after looking for driver in support site it only provided with win 10 64bit. Can I re-install win 10 64bit with product key/serial number from win 8 32 bit?

 

You can't upgrade from Win XP. You can only do a clean install with a new purchase of W10. There is no upgrade path from XP to W10.

 

Hello! To install Windows 10 32-bit your CPU and motherboard must support the NX/PAE (Execute Disable Bit). This is not supported in anything earlier than Intel Pentium 4 socket 478. In some rare Pentium 4 socket 478 versions and equally rare socket 478 motherboards there is NX/PAE (Execute Disable Bit) support, but generally no. If you have Intel Pentium 4 socket 775 or newer, it may or may not support NX/PAE (Execute Disable Bit) depending on how old that is. You can find out if you know the model and Google it to find the relevant Intel ARK page. This is an example for my Intel Core i3-3220. Read carefully to see if NX/PAE (Execute Disable Bit) is supported. Of course your motherboard should also support it and have it enabled in BIOS.

Assuming your system supports NX/PAE, the CPU is at least 1GHz and your RAM at least 1GB, you should be able to boot from the Windows 10 DVD (or USB) and do a clean install (format). Upgrading from Windows XP directly to Windows 10 is not supported. You would first upgrade to Vista, then to 7 and then to 10. I am not sure whether it will take you more time to just backup your data and format (clean-install) instead.

Not want to discourage you, but your symptoms suggest your system is not compatible with Windows 10. Just Google your CPU to find out. Once you are certain your CPU supports NX/PAE, see the motherboard User Manual if it supports it as well and how to enable it.

PS: Even if your motherboard supports NX/PAE you may want to upgrade your BIOS to the latest version to improve compatibility with Windows 10. Be very careful since if you upgrade to a BIOS intended for a different model or the upgrade is interrupted, your system may be rendered unbootable! Make sure you download the correct BIOS file for your motherboard and revision, you have the appropriate BIOS utility and you follow all the steps exactly. Of course you should not remove power or reset the computer for any reason until the upgrade is complete, or it will never boot again! Do it at your own risk or ask someone more experienced to do it for you.

 

Although I agree with spapakons that your PC is unlikely to have either a compatible CPU or GPU to upgrade to Windows 10, there is an upgrade path from XP to Windows 10, via Vista and Windows 7, and, as long as either the Windows 10 or Windows 7 have valid keys for activation, the grace periods for the earlier Windows Versions allow for an activated upgrade without activating the intermediate versions.
see:

Solved In-place upgrade - XP to 10 without losing the apps - Windows 10 Forums

(Kari performed this in a virtual machine environment)

 

Thanks for all that information.

My motherboard is AA C23142-306, but I can't find anywhere if NX/PAE is supported. (I'm not even sure what socket I have, but I think its 775).

Find Support by Board AA Number for Intel® Desktop Boards

There is no option mentioning Execute Disable Bit / NX / PAE in the BIOS.
Could it be OEM, since it is a Dell PC? I guess I should contact Dell for support?

Apart from that I don't think I will have much luck, because the CPU doesn't support Execute Disable Bit (NX / PAE) according to this:

Mobile Intel 4 Processor supporting HT Technology 2.66 GHz, 512K Cache, 533 MHz FSB Specifications


I was wondering, I actually wanted to do a clean install (not upgrade) of Win 10, since I have everything I need backed up. I would be able to install Win10 clean, without installing Vista and Win 7 beforehand, right?

Do I have to format the partition for win 10 before starting with the installation? (I'm not even sure how to do that anymore, I had always used fdisk with a bootable floppy disk) I was hoping Win 10 installation would give me option to format the relevant partition (which would be the one I have WinXP installed on). The Win XP installation process always gave the option of formatting drives / partitions.


Thanks fafhrd, I'm considering this option, I might do that.

 

Hello! Sorry to bring you the bad news, but your motherboard is socket 478, according to this ebay site. If you have a second look at the Intel ARK page of your CPU it should say somewhere that it is socket 478. So no PAE/NX support, no official Windows 10 support.

To install Windows 8 or 8.1 or 10 you must patch some specific system files to bypass PAE/NX check and do it. Although this hack works OK for Windows 8 and 8.1, in Windows 10 it doesn't work as expected. More specifically, you can boot in Windows 8 and 8.1 with the patched system files, but any Windows Update can undo the patch, so you have to patch them again. After you patch them again you can use your PC until the next Windows Update undoes the patch. This is not very convenient, but you can live with it.

However, in Windows 10 every time you restart your computer you see a warning that the digital signature of some system files (the ones patched) is invalid and you are asked to start in advanced mode (Advanced Startup Options) to fix it. You choose the Advanced Startup Options and then you are presented with Safe Mode and many other options. You press 7 to "Disable Driver signature enforcement" and you can login into Windows in "test mode", but other than that it works OK. But you have to do this procedure at EVERY restart of your computer! (I never succeeded to make the "test mode" permanent). Not really convenient and very annoying! Let alone that Windows Update is bound to undo the patch and you have to patch the files again, as in Windows 8/8.1 I could live with patching the files once or twice the month as in Windows 8 and 8.1, but having to do a "ritual" every time I restart is too much.

If you decide to try it, I suggest doing it in a spare hard disk and dual boot Windows 7 and 10. Search this forum for relevant posts, such as that: Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware

I would stay with Windows 7 32-bit. Especially if your graphics card is old and doesn't have WDDM drivers, in 7 you can install XP drivers (XPDM) while in 8 8.1 and 10 you are stuck with the VERY SLOW Basic Windows Display Adapter.

 

I have used this guide to check for NX/PAE.

How To Check If Your Processor (CPU) Supports Windows 8

I aso have a Dell desktop with a P4 processor and HT Technology. After using this guide, I found my processor has NX/PAE. Windoows 10 installed just fine.

I noticed the link you posted was for the MOBILE processor and your system specs say you have a Dell Desktop. We may be looking at the wrong specifications for your processor. I would use the link and check.