Windows 10: Problems installing Windows 10 to built PC using flash drive

If your motherboard has more than one (type of) SATA controller (chips) on it, switch the hard drive to the other controller. Switch SATA ports. Some motherboards have standard SATA and a RAID controller. If your plugged into the RAID controller (even in non RAID mode) it could be what's hanging things up.

 

According to my Motherboard's website I have "4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug". Connecting hard drive into any of the 4 sata ports before start up causes the Windows Installer to timeout at the loading screen.

 

OK, usually if it's looking for a driver for the SATA, it prompts for it. BIOS set to failsafe defaults?

 

Unplug anything not needed for the PC to POST. Keyboard, mouse and monitor should be all you need. Unplug and printers etc. If your using a front panel USB port for your install thumb drive, try one of the rear ports. The ones mounted directly to the motherboard, and not on a cable/header.

 

Yes it is.

 

I've previously tried all USB ports on the front and back. The only thing inside the pc is the powersupply, motherboard, and HDD. The only thing plugged in is the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I've tried using just the keyboard and just the mouse and it doesn't resolve the issue.

 

I'm running out of ideas? Its starting to look like a hardware issue? Do you have another hard drive to try? And or another SATA cable?

 

FINALLY!!! EDIT: Actually this was only a temporary fix

Here's the *TEMPORARY* SOLUTION for anyone who has the same problem:

Someone on another forum told me to download Ubuntu OS from Linux to a flash drive using Rufus, just like I did with Windows. Plug and boot form the flash drive as if you want to install Ubuntu. It will give you the option of trying Ubuntu without installing. Select that it will eventually load up Ubuntu. Ubuntu could find my HDD with no problem. I formatted the HDD using NTFS by following this guide. Then I removed the partitions (I don't know if that was necessary). I put in the flash drive with Windows 10 Installer on it and it FINALLY recognized the hard drive. But it gave me some error saying "Windows Cannot be installed to this disk the selected disk is of the GPT partition". I pressed Shift + F10 --> opens command prompt --> type "diskpart" [enter] --> type "list disk" [enter] --> take note of which disk # is your HDD, it will probably be 0 --> type "select disk #" [enter] and replace with whatever number the HDD is --> type "clean" [enter] --> close command prompt. Click the back tab to go back to the beginning of the Installer and it will show your drive will pop up.

I think when I early terminated the Windows 7 installation, it did something to the HDD which prevented Windows Installers from being able to "see" it.

 

Had you ever tried running Diskpart prior to this? I wonder if it would have seen the disk all along?

Actually, if your PC is capable, you might want to run it in UEFI BIOS mode and initialize the disk as GPT, as that is a more robust disk layout for Windows 10. If you have the option to enable UEFI and Secure Boot and enable them both, then you would need to use a GPT-initialized hard disk for Windows.

 

Yes I tried Diskpart before the format. But before the format, unplugging the HDD from the motherboard before start up was the only way to prevent the Windows Installer from timing out. If I reconnected the HDD after the Windows Installer loaded, the Windows Installer couldn't detect my hard drive. I tried running the Diskpart command from the Windows Installer after reconnecting the HDD and it would only list my USB flashdrive. I couldn't find the HDD in command prompt at all. After reformatting the HDD in Ubuntu, I was finally able to have the HDD plugged in at start-up without the Windows Installer timing out. And I was also finally able to see the HDD in command prompt using diskpart, which allowed me to reformat the HDD once again in a way that the Windows Installer was able to work with.

 

I have no idea what the actual issue was? But I am glad you solved it. Was that disk new or used? If used what OS was on it originally, before you did anything to it while trying to install Windows?

 

I think you were right. The hard disk is bad. Windows was working fine but it'd stall whenever I did anything involving writing big files. When I tried to download a 15 GB game through steam, it crashed and gave me a blue screen saying it couldn't boot. I tried repairing it using the Windows 10 installation but it kept saying a repair was not possible.

I screen shoted everything i have been doing. When I ran Ubuntu to format the hard drive yesterday, it detected 454 bad sectors. I thought a bad sector was only temporary and was fixed with a format. I didn't realize that meant my hard drive was bad.

The hard drive is brand new less than 4 days old from best buy.com. I hope getting a refund for it goes smoothly since it is technically an opened product

 

They should be able to see the S.M.A.R.T. diagnostic report on the HDD and see the increasing bad sectors and replace it under warranty. I believe within 30 days they will exchange it at the store and not make you send it back to the manufacturer.

 

Ok, I was leaning towards it being a dud hard drive. Check the sticker on the drive, there should be code to get the manufactured date. Open box kind of sounds like somebody did a switch (bad drive for the good drive) and return.

 

OK that makes sense now. I have an old hard disk that was replaced under warranty, yet it still sort of works. It also takes a long time booting and was slowing down my startups, even when mounted as a secondary data disk. I was able to get it mostly working using Seagate SeaTools (even though it has SMART errors) but it was intermittent and vanished at times, so I finally shelved it.

I doubt that you will have problems getting an exchange.