Trying to install Windows 10 on an older Used computer

even98 · 26 Sep 2019

Hello all,

I recently purchased an older HP EliteDesk 800 G1 from my place of work. The hard drive was, of course, wiped so its a complete blank slate. My daily driver is a Mac Laptop (no judging, its getting me through college). I created a windows boot drive on a Sandisk 32 GB drive I had laying around. The computer uses BIOS rather than UEFI. When I try to boot from the USB disk, it says "Attempting Boot From USB Device" with a cursor underneath that, then it hangs up on that indefinitely. I honestly am not really sure what is going wrong with it.

NavyLCDR · 26 Sep 2019

What did you use to make the USB flash drive with?

even98 · 27 Sep 2019

NavyLCDR said:

What did you use to make the USB flash drive with?

First I tried just extracting the iso from Mac, then copied the bootmgr and other files from the resultant extraction into the flash drive. That failed to work so I did some research and found a program called UNetbootin for Mac that created the drive for me and that failed to work as well.

I used the built in disk utility to erase and format the drive to exFat. I tried FAT32 but the files wouldn't copy over because they were too large in size.

- - - Updated - - -

Trying to install Windows 10 on an older Used computer-screen-shot-2019-09-27-8.06.48-am.png

Here is the list of files I got from extracting the iso using Mac

Megahertz · 27 Sep 2019

How is the USB flash disk formatted, Fat32 or NTFS?
Format the USB flash disk an NTFS (as your iso has files bigger than 4G)

Copy all iso files and folders to the USB flash disk. To make it boot able as Legacy all you have to do is to set the partition as Active.
On a Windows computer (7, 8.x or 10), open a CMD window as administrator and type:

Diskpart.exe (to enter diskpart)
list volume (Take note witch number corresponds to your USB disk)
select volume n (where n is the number of USB disk. Make sure to type correct disk number from step two.)
active (to make it Legacy boot able)
exit (to exit diskpart)
exit (to close the CMD window)

Boot from the USB flash disk, go to install - Advanced - delete ALL partitions and proceed.
If the laptop once had Win 10, you don't need to give a key.
If it had Win 7 you put in the win 7 key (look for the COA key under the battery)

Ztruker · 27 Sep 2019

MegaHertz, even98 said

I used the built in disk utility to erase and format the drive to exFat. I tried FAT32 but the files wouldn't copy over because they were too large in size.

Looks like he's doing this on a MAC so no diskpart or command prompt.

Megahertz · 27 Sep 2019

Ztruker said:

MegaHertz, even98 said
Looks like he's doing this on a MAC so no diskpart or command prompt.

Ztruker, I've have seen.
But to format as Fat32 won't help as he has no Dism (from Win 10) to split install.wim into smallest install.swm.
To format as NTFS and make it active he can do in any Windows computer (7, 8.x or 10).

NavyLCDR · 27 Sep 2019

Bottom line - the USB flash drive must be partitioned as MBR, not GPT, and the partition the ISO files are extracted to must have the active flag set.

Megahertz · 28 Sep 2019

NavyLCDR said:

Bottom line - the USB flash drive must be partitioned as MBR, not GPT, and the partition the ISO files are extracted to must have the active flag set.

That is exactly what I instructed on post #4.

zbook · 29 Sep 2019

Most public libraries in the USA have free access to Windows computers.
Find a flash drive that you can format (> or = 8 GB).
Create a bootable windows 10 iso using the Mirosoft website (see links below).

See if you can create a bootable windows 10 iso on a computer at a public library.
Alternatively see if you find a friend, neighbor, relative or local computer to borrow or make one.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10
Download Windows 10 ISO File
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10