Clean install Win 10 problem: Windows could not prepare the computer..

Hello!

I am currently trying to clean install Windows 10 Home Single Language version 1809 64-bit in my Lenovo laptop. I have created the bootable USB with the Media Creation Tool and started the process. I booted with the USB, and followed every steps provided in the tutorial in Clean Install Windows 10 | Tutorials but it failed. It did the 'copying windows files', 'getting files ready', 'installing features', and 'installing updates' (which I presumed is skipped because I was not connected to the internet) but after the 'finishing up' part, it cancelled the installation and showed the pop-up "Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation."

I have already tried repeating the steps about 4 times and it still failed. But my C: drive (the OS drive) is already deleted and therefore I can't use my old OS.

Does anybody have any steps I can follow to solve this problem? If anybody can help me, I would be very thankful! Or if somebody needed more info to solve the problem, I would provide those!

Were one or more partitions or all partitions deleted?
Was an unallocated drive made before the install?
Which settings were made for Legacy BIOS/UEFI, secure and fast boot?

Also ensure you have installed the latest BIOS update which supports Windows 10

Thank you very much for the response!

dalchina said:

Your pc appears to be supported for Win 10 - is that correct?

Hi, have you checked your disk? Starting with absolute basics, you would need a live boot disk to do that, else remove the disk and connect it to another PC.

Kyhi's live boot disk iso (you need to create a bootable disk from that) is available from the top of the Software and Apps section here, and includes a range of utilities in a Win 10 environment. Boot from that and use HD Tune, Health and Error Scan tabs to check your disk.

You can use Minitool Partition Wizard on that iso/disk to examine partitions and delete them if you wish.

You can also check you have removed all the previous Win 10 partitions. (If there's a data partition you can keep that).

Win 10 must be clean installed to unallocated space.
Clean Install Windows 10 | Tutorials

Steps 12,13 allow you to remove any unwanted partitions and format the disk.

As you've chosen to disconnect the internet, respond appropriately to any prompt about updates during this procedure.

One possibility could be that it needs to download a driver, but can't as you have the internet disconnected.

You might also consider this:

Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of - Microsoft Community

zbook said:

Were one or more partitions or all partitions deleted?
Was an unallocated drive made before the install?

Yes, my PC is pre-installed with Windows 10 (OEM).

Somehow I wasn't able to download the live boot disk, so I think it's not an option for me... The download keeps ending at 10 MB.

I have removed the C: in which the Windows was installed before I deleted it, and and I kept the data partitions and some system reserved ones, and there's one Lenovo partition that only contains the setup files for some drivers. I think those were not Windows partitons, so I guess it's alright?

I have deleted the previous Windows partition so I already tried to install it to an unallocated space.

There were no prompts displayed about the updates, it just finished and checked itself, which leads me to believe that there's no problem with the drivers as well. And I didn't know how to connect to internet without having an OS, or is there any way to do that? I only have connection through wi-fi...

I heard that OEM PCs had the product key embedded in the UEFI chip, will the product key still be applied if I try to install Windows 10 in non-UEFI mode? My disk is GPT but the clean install tutorial showed that legacy BIOS steps was used on MBR disk, will there be no problem?

zbook said:

Which settings were made for Legacy BIOS/UEFI, secure and fast boot?

I used UEFI and I followed the tutorial closely so I already disabled secure boot and fast boot.

Steve C said:

Also ensure you have installed the latest BIOS update which supports Windows 10

I already used Windows 10 before this so I guess my BIOS already support Windows 10?

Please forgive my bad English.

dalchina said:

You should delete all partititions comprising Windows including a Recovery partition, if present, which should be under 1Gb and have no drive letter. UEFI installations have 4 partitions, MBR installations may have 2 or 3,I believe.


You can keep any data partitions you've created of course. Whether you keep any manufacturer's partitions e.g. Recovery (perhaps 20Gb) is up to you.

So maybe my clean installation failed because I only deleted the C: drive and not all the 4 partitions. Should I try again later with deleting the system partitions?
By the way, do you have any recommendation on how to back up my UEFI boot partition before I delete it? Or is it the same as Windows main partition that included the program files etc?

Try3 said:

You could go back to the MCT page to download & install the 'Update assistant'. When you run that it can identify if anything is preventing a successful update.

I couldn't, because I no longer have Windows installed in my laptop...

alphanumeric said:

Where did you obtain your install media from?

I got it from Media Creation Tool provided by Microsoft's website. I downloaded it from my previously installed Windows.