Win 10 Clean install problem

Thanks! I'll check back in the morning.

The full system specs with the exact make and model of the laptop would help. Also what OS did the laptop come from the factory with? I suspect you are booting the USB flash drive in legacy BIOS (CSM) mode, which causes it to install to the SSD as MBR partitioned without the EFI System Partition and then when you reboot the computer without the USB flash drive inserted, it is trying to boot the SSD in UEFI mode and can't find the required EFI system files to do so.

It is a Dell XPS L702X. It came with Win 7 Home, was running Win 10 with a spindle drive, the drive was making noise so I replaced it with an SSD drive.

Core i7 2670 QM @ 2.20 Ghz with 8 GB RAM.

I got it to work, with the help of a good friend. He suggested I install Win 7. It created the 100MB partition for the MBR. Then I formatted C: left the 100MB partition created by Win 7, and Installed Win 10. It works like a champ

Glad it worked for you. That's weird that Windows 10 setup did not create the same partition.

sn00ker said:

I might be wrong but I think it has to do with what windows version one uses OEM compare to retail. I have 2 Dell PCs and I know Dell is funny that way . That windows 7 you used was it originally for Dell ?

No it was a version of Pro from another machine I had laying around. I installed it offline and didn't allow it to do any updates. As soon as the installation was complete I installed Win 10 Home.

Thanks for all the help and patience here.

AD123 said:

Hi, new member seeking help.

I removed a bad HDD, noisy but working, and replaced it with an SSD and tried a few times to install Win 10 without success. It completes then says it will reboot in 10 seconds and when it does it starts the process over and over. I did a lot of searching w/o no luck. I tried removing the USB stick during the 10 second delay before the reboot with no luck. I get a black screen telling me there is no OS.

What I did observe is that when I start the installation I get to the screen to do a custom install and tell it to install on the 0 disk,. Normally it will tell you it needs to create other partitions for windows to operate properly. I don't get that message, and it doesn't create the small partitions before C:. I believe that is the problem, its the fix I can't figure out.



Thanks

I guess this reaponse might be too late but i once encountered that problem and the solution was to remove the installation media as soon as the system shuts downs after completion