Windows 10: Windows cannot be installed on this disk... Ensure disk's controller..

My OS had too many issues since I upgraded fromWin 7, installing Win 10 on top. So I decided to Clean the disk, format it and make a fresh installation. Before installing I turned the PC off and disconnected the other disks (please refer to my system, a bit oldish and home assembled) I wanted to install it on a SATA disk. The computer didn't start anymore. The keyboard diodes flickered once a little after pressing the start button (as they usually do), but nothing else happened, not even the fans worked. I thought It should have a CMOS BIOS problem, so I removed the battery for one minute to reset, put it back and it started as usually.

I started the computer from the OS install flash made with the Microsoft flash installer as downloaded and created from Microsoft. When I got to choose where to install Windows, there was an error message:

Windows cannot be installed on this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting on this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS.

I restarted the PC, reconnecting the other discs and restarted the PC with the install flash. Then I noticed that both SATA discs had the same error message, but not the ATA ones, connected through a RAID adapter. I tried other things, but nothing changed, like using a Win 7 install flash previously used to install Win 7 a few times, but got exactly the same result. After this, I searched the internet for three days to find a solution, found many posts, but none of the solutions (when there was one) worked for me.

Then I opened the BIOS again and changed the SATA disks controller configuration from AHCI (as it had always been) to ATA and restarted with the Win 10 install flash. Miracle! No more error massages. I disconnected the other disks again and installed Win 10 without any problem. After installing and checking it was OK I restarted changing the BIOS SATA controller to its original position (AHCI), but got an error at start booting with this line: \windows\system32\winload.exe. I restarted again changing the SATA controller on BIOS to ATA for the SATA configuration at the beginning. OK again. While the config is on AHCI the BIOS do not even see the SATA discs.

This is a condensed description. I believe the problem is with the BIOS. I now need to know:

• Why are the BIOS no recognizing SATA disks with their normal setting as AHCI?
• How can I restore the right configuration for the SATA disks and have the BIOS recognising them?
• What issues can this wrong setting rise?
• What happens if I live it as is?

Thank you for any ideas or suggestions.

:)

 

Why is windows failing to install, crashes, ect?

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me. When I try to select where to install it, I get this

”Windows cannot be installed on this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu.”

After further research, I’ve found in my BIOS that the HDD is locked in IDE configuration but my raid status is set as AHCI. Might this have something to do with it?

 

update fails in middle boot record lost

Thanks. I have tried to do a custom install, without success. When I attempt to do an install on the drive where W10 is installed, I get a message that "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style. Windows cannot
be installed ton this hard disk space. The partition is an EFI partition (ESP)."

As a alternative, In wiped another disk on the system which had not data, and used setup to create a partition. An attempt to do a clean install on that partition, I got a message "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not
support booting to this disk, ensure that the disk's controller is enabled on he computer's BIOS menu." ERC 0x8030024

Perhaps the final piece of the puzzle is that my boot menu shows two entries for the DVD drive. One tagged UEFI will not boot the CD. The other will.

Any further thoughts, since you are clearly one of the best experts based on what I see in the community.

 

Repeat installation attempt in AHCI mode. After error message appears, check your install log (Shift+F10, Notepad, open X:\Windows\panther\setuperr.log). It may include following messages:
ValidateOperation:Specified disk/region does not support [CanSetActive].
PerformDiskOperation:Validation of disk operation (optype = [9]) failed; hr = 0x80300024
CreateSystemVolume:Unable to tag partition as system volume; hr=0x80300024

If so, your target harddisk is not detected as first boot device and Windows refuses installing on it. After physically disconnecting all other harddisks/SSDs and booting from installation DVD media, your installation process should continue normally even in AHCI mode.

If you really need to install from flash drive, you may need to see this post too - Page 2 - Windows 10 Forums and use Lexar tool to modify your flashdisk Removable flag. And if you have UEFI Secure Boot enabled, your flashdisk must be formatted using FAT32 filesystem.

 

Thank you for helping.

Sorry, it is taking me a lot of time, but I strangely couldn't find any panther directory (X:\Windows\panther\setuperr.log). Why, if it is even mentioned on Technet? So I can´t check with the log.

I followed your steps, except for reinstalling the install ISO on the flash drive because it was conceived as recommended by MS with their own tool.

I'll keep trying and will be back, but it is not easy without confirming the issues with the log.

 

Strange, but please try again.

- ensure you are in right setup phase; you should see "Windows cannot be installed on this disk" message before continuing
- at command prompt (Shift + F10), type directly full command for opening file:
notepad x:\windows\panther\setuperr.log

Let us know if it works for you.

 

Tried again, but no chance.

There was another error log on another path, but the directory panther only appeared when the log was generated, and I always got the answer The system cannot find the path specified. To be generated I had to click repeatedly. On the window Where do you want to install Windows? I selected the only driver on the list (the others were disconnected). There was the message Windows cannot be installed on Disk 0 Partitions 1. Still I clicked on that link to show the details and closed them. Then, I clicked on Next and it displayed: Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Set up log files [plural] for more information. Are there more log files?

Then yes, I found a log on the expected path with five line entries, all with the time and the same text:
Error [0x06069d] IBS GetMachineInfo:Couldn't find info for boot disk [1]
Different from what would be expected, according to your first reply. Searching, I could find some identical error codes, but not the same.

What is happens if I keep the BIOS on IDE for SATA disks?

Thanks again.

 

Nothing, there is a negligible difference, though SATA might have a faster seeker time thanks to NCQ, theoretically.

Native Command Queuing - Wikipedia

IDE vs AHCI - speed test (HDD WD Black) - YouTube [Results are at 4:40 vs 10:00]

By the way, if you have disks connected to SATA 5/6, they will not be detected without SATA driver.
Try to disconnect all drives and use just one on SATA 1 to install Windows, then try to attach others.

 

1. Physically disconnect ALL physical disks except target disk for installation, set it accordin to previous post to port 1
2. Ensure that this disk is the first one in BIOS/UEFI boot sequence and that AHCI mode is set
3. Repeat attempt to install Windows but using DVD installation media.
4. If it fails, please paste WHOLE the error log here.

 

Thank you for your useful tips, TairikuOkami.

I will do my best to use the SATA facility because they have obvious advantages.

 

Sorry for the delay. I have been very busy, but I do have to put this straight. At third trial I finally could get rid of that error message Windows cannot be installed on this... I don't know how because I just repeated what I have been doing. I will try to install it on a SATA disk and will be back with the results. Maybe the other issues will go away because, as I said before, when the BIOS are on AHIC they do not see SATA disks. I will have to install Windows to see how it goes and be back here to tell the results. I am inclined to believe the problem is with the BIOS, even if I reset them as per my first post.

About the error log I wrote all there was to see. There were three lines all exactly the same except for the time, the seconds only. There was nothing else. Thank you for the help.


Update – When I later wanted to install the OS, repeating the same procedure as a bit earlier, the issue was back. I tried a lot of times, bur the previous error messages appeared.

Windows cannot be installed on this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting on this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS.

Files from panther directory attached. They were 6, but the other ones were not accepted, and I had to add .txt to setupinfo to be accepted. Sorry if I sent you a trunked one before. Keep on trying...

 

According setupacct log, you probably didn't follow recommendations:
- your harddisk is connected to port 5
- install has not been run from optical media.
Please correct this and try again.

 

After several more unsuccessful trials the set up was accepted without the previous errors. I bought a small SSD disk for the SO alone and copied one previous installation with a tool from Acronis from a link recommended in the box.

After this I lost the booting on the other drives. I have to remake the boot. It will not be easy because I pass years without doing that. I am attaching the volume list, but please don't pay attention for the labels. At the moment everything is up side down on my computer. It is strange the 1TB disk (B and F on the volume list) are acceded on the OS, but do not show in the BIOS. The same with the SSD.

It is in a small case and the connectors on motherboard are not very easily accessible.

Sorry for the delay and thank you for your patience.


Update: It stopped booting form the installation DVD or flash drive. The error message points to BCD.