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

kizuran · 09 Mar 2019

dalchina said:

Basics- start with checking your disk as above.

Recheck last part of my #2 and see if there's anything else useful in that thread.

I don't have any other PCs, so I tried to install Free Download Manager in my friend's PC but it might take some time, since after that I still need to download the live boot disk. Do chkdsk in command prompt in the 'Repair your computer' option from the bootable Windows installation USB counts? I've tried that one and there's no error with my disk.

I tried the diskpart command line, but it didn't work for me since my disk is GPT, not MBR. The 'active' command is the one that didn't work...

dalchina · 09 Mar 2019

Safest option is to create a disk image before taking further action- Macrium reflect boot medium - or, again, Macrium Reflect is available on Kyhi's boot disk.

Based on the info you PM'd me, I'd suggest you delete
Drive 0 Partition 2
Total size: 16 MB, Free space: 16 MB, Type: MSR (Reserved)
Drive 0 Partition 6: WINRE_DRV
Total size: 1000 MB, Free space: 595 MB, Type: Recovery
Drive 0 Partition 1: SYSTEM_DRV
Total size: 260 MB, Free space: 239 MB, Type: System
Drive 0 Partition 2

Presumably these are data of one sort or another:
Total size: 170,9 GB, Free space: 88,6 GB, Type: Primary
Drive 0 Partition 4: Local Disk
Total size: 170,9 GB, Free space: 110,6 GB, Type: Primary

Drive 0 Partition 5: LENOVO
Total size: 25 GB, Free space: 23,6 GB, Type: Primary

I'd expect data partitions to have a drive letter. Manufacturer's recovery partitions may or may not have a drive letter. That last one is presumably one of those.

You can of course examine the contents of these before making a decision.
Note: this is easier if you use Minitool Partition Wizard, available on the boot disk, which allows you to explore partitions.

Activation: you have digital entitlement via MS's servers, so activation should be automatic.

kizuran · 11 Mar 2019

@dalchina Thank you so much :)

I've downloaded the boot disk, and burned the iso image to my flash disk, but it can't be used to boot. Are there any other steps I should do to make it bootable?

I also tried the steps provided in Kyhi's post (creating a new partition and copying the contents of the iso to the partition) but I still don't know how to make it bootable. I don't have Windows anymore so I can't run the bat file and I installed Linux to use my laptop for a while until I can solve the problem.

By the way, I researched the contents of the partitions and discovered that the 260 MB SYSTEM_DRV is the EFI partition, is it really safe to delete it while clean install? I presumed that deleting it would mean it's impossible to boot in case anything went wrong again...

And about the activation: I actually don't have any Microsoft account, will it still be automatic?

dalchina · 12 Mar 2019

Hello, creating a bootable disk from an iso is not straightforward. You can use command prompt commands, or a utility such as Rufus. Option 2 but with Kyhi's iso:
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10 | Tutorials

Or burn it to a DVD if you have a DVD drive.

See
Installing Win 10 x64 using a flash memory - Page 2 - Windows 10 Forums
for a good explanation and the commands to use if you wished to do it that way.

Clean install: when Windows installs, it creates ALL the partitions it needs.
Clean Install Windows 10 | Tutorials
step 13.

Activation: linking to an MS account is primarily significant if moving PC (retail license only) or changing hardware (MBO, not disk).
For info:
Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License | Tutorials
Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10 | Tutorials

kizuran · 14 Mar 2019

Thank you very much for the solutions!

I have successfully completed the clean install. Just in case anybody else had the same problem as me, what I did was re-download the iso and burn it to the usb again, and then I deleted the 4 partitions: EFI, Microsoft reserved, recovery, and the Windows partition. I concluded that the problem happened because I didn't delete all the partitions before :)

Again, thank you very much for all the help!

dalchina · 15 Mar 2019