Windows 10: trying to install Win 10 after earlier installation failed

Had Windows 10 working on a dual-boot disk with PCLOS. Something happened to Win 10 and it would not connect to
the Ethernet anymore. Tried several times to "reset" it, finally gave up. Looked at disk with GParted and whole partition was empty! The original Win 10 was an upgrade from W7 thru W8 thru W8.1. There was no boot partition. After a lot of messing around, decided to create a boot partition (sda1) of 100MB (using GParted) , set a boot flag on it, the made an sda2 partion following that, and, because of the Linux partitions later in the disk, made a smaller partition after sda2 which GParted calls sda4. Formatted sda1,2,4 to ntfs. Booted system on disk made from iso download and told it to install from scratch, not trying to save anything (since GParted said there was nothing on the partition anyway). Inserted the Windows key code from the old win 10, without complaint. The install went thru all (most?) of the normal things, like asing if I want to make the LAN accessible, asking my name and a password, etc. For a while there was a panel with Cortina on it, now there is a panel with just 6 little icons on it, there is no mouse cursor, the screen shows a big windows with light rays streaming from it, and after a while it wall time out to a black screen. Should I just remove the disk and power down for a restart, or what? I would have thought that the thing would tell me to remove the disk and restart, but it doesn't.

:)

 

Cisco VPN Connect software fails to install on Windows 10

trying to install cisco vpn client install fails at installation of networking components. It worked on earlier build of win 10 preview build 9840 I believe, but fails on all builds after that. Any ideas?

Original Title: CISCO VPN CONNECT SOFTWARE

 

Windows 10 install fails

After multiple times trying to upgrade to Windows 10 on 2 different computers, Win 7 and Win 8.1, download is just fine but shortly after starting to install get a box saying " Windows 10 install failed". Any suggestions?

L: *** Email address is removed for privacy ***

 

I always distrust GParted on Windows partitions - for instance, you may need to repair Windows after resizing with GParted, and a few of the settings are inconsistent with NTFS. I'd use Minitool, Easeus or another Windows-based partition manager even for looking around messed up partitions.

For a bootable Windows PE toolkit, you could try:

Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

has a good set of tools on board - I prefer the Windows 8 version.

 

I am afraid that the partition(s) may be unrecoverable now anyway, but if any partition suddenly appears to be empty, there is usually a problem with the Master file table, and it may be recovered by a number of different tools like Easeus, Recuva, Spinrite and others, but once a disk has been messed about with there may be little chance to recover anything.

With Windows 10 it is my experience that whereas upgrades from a prior Windows OS may install successfully, there may be a few machines that fail to clean-install Windows 10 afterwards (or in the first place.)

If there are problems of this kind, you are probably wise to consider the machine as non-Windows only.

 

I think you are going about it the wrong way and this is where you are running into problems. The original Windows partition likely lost the PT information and became invisible. A partition recovery tool would be the first thought as far as finding out just what happened to make the primary simply vanish! Besides the free MiniTool partitioning program Fafhrd mentioned along with easeUS both also offer partition recovery programs. The Mini Tool version is found at Free partition recovery software - MiniTool Partition Wizard.

As for GParted I have used that extensibly(on cd-r or flash drive if not in a live distro) over the years for both Linux and Windows install to rid the System Reserved partition as well as partitioning and formatting drives for both OSs. As for wanting a Windows Free system but still wanting to try 10 out you have the option of running 10 in a VMware Workstation 12 Player for Linux version of that software free of charge for home use leaving the physical drive to Linux distros. Or as the alternative wipe the drive clean and put a fresh NTFS primary on for 10 and run the distros in the Windows version of same.

While the free programs for use in Windows already suggested are also effective but generally for in Windows use another bootable option for repair tools would be the Recovery Drive option found in the Backup & Recovery section of the Control Panel requiring a larger then 4gb flash drive 8gb or even 16gb preferred by some.

 

I have given up. I am in the process of wiping the drives of Windows and Linux and I will try to install Windows on /dev/sda and
Linux on /dev/sdb. I will format /dev/sda with ntfs and /dev/sdb with two partitions (for now) with ext4 and put pclos on the
second drive, and set pclos grub to boot everything, assuming Windows actually does install. I will have to put 8.1 on first, because
I'm not certain that the install key I have for Win10 is correct, altho I thought it was. If I can't install Windows I will give up on that
machine. (I will expect Windows to make whatever partitions it wants on /dev/sda.)

Thanx for you assistance and insight.

--doug

 

You would be better allowing Windows to manage the disk partitions.

Install Linux and leave unallocated space for Windows.

Boot from the Windows 10 setup disk and install to the unallocated space - windows will partition and format as it requires. Use the 8.1 product key for Windows 10 - if not accepted during setup, setup without entering a key and try to activate with the 8.1 key later. May require a telephone support call to activate.

You may need to later boot from a Linux live disk and repair Grub 2 so that both Windows and Linux appear on the boot menu

 

If you get Win8.1 installed and Activated you can do the Free Upgrade to Win10 without having to enter a key, I've done more than a couple dozen Upgrades and not needed to enter the key, just Skip that particular thing. Depending upon the computer and version of Win8.1 [OEM or Retail, Home or Pro] you may or may not actually enter the key, some factory restore processes are called OEMAct or pre-activated, depends upon the brand and how they do it.

 

I believe you are telling me not to make any partition at all for Windows, is that correct? I am in the process right now of using "Darik's
Boot and Nuke" to wipe the disks. Then just try and isntall Windows on the first drive wtth no partition at all?

--doug

 

If you put a Linux installation on, you can limit how much space Windows will take. If the disk is empty, it will try to take it all, and you will have to shrink partitions to make room for Linux.

IMO DBAN is overkill, but that's up to you *Smile

Forgetting to read from the first post you have already had Windows 10 on the PC, it will not need activating if it has been activated already - the machine has a digital entitlement - so no key needed on installation.

 

If Windows sees No partitions it will create them as necessary during the install. If offered the opportunity to resize the largest partition shown you can make a choice as you desire. If wanting to dual-boot I probably would split that large partition in half [or maybe use a second HDD]. Installing Linux after Windows and choosing the unallocated/unused partition shouldn't be a problem and may offer to install the necessary boot files/menu.

 

And as explained earlier on in the thread you can create a new smaller primary for 10 still leaving room to see any distros added on afterwards once 10 is up and running. GParted can make NTFS primaries as well as Linux volumes simply with the change between the formats. And when referring to Windows drives that would be Disk 0 Volume 1 or Volume 1 if not Disk 1 Volume 1for seeing a second OS drive.

The Windows Drive tools not 3rd party wares is what will insist on the 100mb System Reserved at the top of the drive proceeding the OS primary. That's how the Windows installer works when seeing the OS go onto a raw drive.

 

I used DBAN to completely clear the drives, and made Linux partitions on sdb, reserving the entire sda for Windows10.
On sda I simply made a partition table, and left the drive unpartitioned. I started the install from a downloaded and burned
iso disk at about 9PM. I did not put in any key, as you folks told me that it was registered somewhere. By 10:30, it appears that whatever was going to be installed, already was. It is now 12:45, and for the last few hours what I see on the screen when I move the mouse, is a great big windows on the right hand side with a blue background and light streaming from the windows. There is a black "panel" at the bottom wit icons as follows: window for a start menu; a circle. a square thing with a little rectangular protrusion on each side; an "e"; a folder icon; a suitcase icon. There is no mouse cursor anywhere on the screen. When the mouse is not moved, the screen will eventually time out to black, but so far, moving the mouse will light it back up again with the same display. I'll leave it til morning, but I think the install has failed. I don't know anything else I could do, and all my disks that I can lay hands on are upgrades, so I don't think there is any way I could start from XP, or Windows 98, or whatever system the upgrade routine started from. (Probably XP.) I guess my experience says that if Windows 10 crashes, you've had it; forget Windows!

--doug