Windows 10: Windows 10 installation hangs/freezes at "Getting files ready for installation"

I am giving my old PC to my nephew and niece so we can play some Minecraft together I recently upgraded and the old PC only needed a new HD and Monitor/keyboard/mouse. I bought as much and now the installation completely freezes/hangs right around the step where it says "Getting files ready for installation". Happens anywhere from 0% to 60%. A few times it has hung even before this step while partitioning/formatting the drive. I am using the Windows 10 installation media. I have done this at least 20 times now.


About me:


43 years old. I've been building PCs since I was 10 years old. I am not a genius but I do have experience installing Windows on PCs


Things I have tried so far:

* three different USB drives with the Windows 10 installation media newly installed
* four different USB ports (USB 3.0 front panel, USB 2.0 front panel, USB 3 and 2 back panel)
* different versions of Windows 10 (Home, Pro, Home N) when creating installation media
* two different physical drives (old platter and brand new SSD).
* two different physical SATA cables
* three different SATA ports (6gb/s 3 gb/s and this mobo has a 3rd controller evidently so I tried one of those as well)
* flashing the BIOS to new version
* resetting BIOS to default
* manually adding drivers for SATA before installing
* removing 1 memory DIMM, swapping DIMMs (there's 2 8GB dimms)
* leaving it alone for 3ish hours

Setup:

Asus ROG Maxiums VIII w/ latest bios
860 Evo 500 GB SSD and WD Caviar 2TB platter drive
No video card installed yet
Only keyboard and mouse installed

Like clockwork, the installation freezes at around the same time seemingly regardless of what I do. I am now preparing a Windows 8.1 USB to see if that makes a difference. If that fails, I fear I might just set the whole thing on fire!

:)

 

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