Win10pro Install - please help, I am losing my mind!!!

muchogrande · 08 Jan 2020

Hi, I just migrated back to Win after a decade on Mac. Build my tower and am now failing miserably at installing Win 10 pro.

Here's the deal.

1. I format a USB drive to NTFS/GUID on my Mac Pro and copy the contents of the latest win10 disk image (Win10_1909_English_x64) onto it. (Exfat was not being recognized and Fat32 doesn't work as the Win install disk now has a file that is too big).

2. I plug the USB drive into the Win machine and load up windows installer.

3. Select Drive 0 (I only have 1 drive installed for now - a Samsung 970 500GB NVME) and hit next. It starts to install, but before copying any files (0%):

4. Error message pops up - Error Code: 0x0000005

5. I go back to the beginning and try again. I see the 4 partitions on the drive selection screen. Partition 4 is listed as Primary, so I select that and hit Next. I am told "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one.. see setup log files"

6. I delete all partitions on this screen and attempt to install on a completely unallocated Drive 0.

7. I get the error "Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of the installation..."

8. I use diskpart to wipe the disk and try again. Same exact thing happens.

Slowly going insane here, any help greatly appreciated.

joeandmarg0 · 09 Jan 2020

If you can access a PC with win10 on it,then use Microsoft's own tool,Media Creation Tool,to create a bootable usb.Using a Mac to do it is perhaps not ideal.

muchogrande · 09 Jan 2020

Thanks, have a bootcamp install of win7 so I am trying Rufus on that.

- - - Updated - - -

Yep that worked. Followed this: YouTube

dalchina · 09 Jan 2020

You may like to know of the tenforums tutorials (see link at top) from which here's a searchable list.
Windows 10 Tutorial Index

Clean Install Windows 10
Boot from USB Drive on Windows 10 PC
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10

5. I go back to the beginning and try again. I see the 4 partitions on the drive selection screen. Partition 4 is listed as Primary, so I select that and hit Next. I am told "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one.. see setup log files"

You do NOT select a partition into which to install Windows: you install Windows into unallocated space and it creates its own partitions- typically 4 for a UEFI installation, fewer for older (legacy) MBR installations.

Please see the clean install tutorial above.

Please note that Pro gives you more control of updates- a common plaint- two you should be aware of that you can set are:
- defer feature upgrates (upgrades) for up to 365 days
- set updates to Notify (in the group policy editor gpedit.msc) so YOU have control of when an update is applied.

Also to note: 'Active hours' - up to 18 hours can be set so there's no restart then due to an update to interrupt you.

As soon as you have a working installation and BEFORE you start configuring it more than absolutely necessary start a disk imaging routine. E.g. Macrium Reflect (free-paid) is very frequently recommended here - plus large enough external storage for your image files. Disk images give you a second chance if things go badly - even if your disk fails.