Unable to install Win10 - can't boot and have winload.efi error

So, I had a working Win8.1Pro installation and, in preparation for a win10 install I created a new data partition and resized my C:drive. In the process I seem to have screwed up my windows partitions and now can't even boot. Even when trying to boot to the win10 install USB it just fails.

I have tried to repair the winload.efi issue following the tutorials on here but still no joy.

My current thoughts are that I can delete the 4 windows partitions and then that will allow the win10 USB install to work.

Any other options?

Are you trying to do a clean install of Win 10?

Or a dual boot with Windows 8.1 Pro?

Or something else?

For a clean install, you wouldn't create ANY partitions. In fact, you would DELETE ALL partitions and let the Windows 10 USB installer create whatever partitions it wants.

Yes, I'm trying to do a clean install of Win10.

So if I delete the 4 "usual" windows partitions then that will get rid of the winload.efi error too?

I have never had that error and am not experienced with correcting it. It's a known error with lots of Google hits.

But...............

Are you using UEFI or Legacy boot mode?

Is Secure Boot enabled or not??

Those are 2 questions you will be asked.

Having said that...........if you created your USB install stick via Microsoft's Media Creation Tool, I'd try again WITHOUT first deleting partitions. Early in that, it will show you the partition layout of the disk. DELETE THEM ALL, leaving only unallocated space. Then proceed and see if you have success. The installer will create several partitions that you can later examine.

Of course---first back up anything you want to save--personal data specifically. That will all disappear when you delete the partitions.

If that fails, someone here can likely straighten you out. The error likely has to do with existing BIOS settings, which you can alter.

Yes I am using UEFI boot mode and secure boot is disabled.

I created the USB direct via MCT. I'll give it another go without deleting any partitions.

How to Fix winload.efi missing or corrupt error in Windows 10

It's also possible your motherboard does NOT support UEFI.

Is that machine maybe 7 or 8 years old?

FreeBooter said:

How to Fix winload.efi missing or corrupt error in Windows 10

I did try this yesterday but some of the bootrec commands didn't work and also some of the commands said access denied. I didn't keep screenshots that time but will try again and log progress (or lack of it!).

ignatzatsonic said:

It's also possible your motherboard does NOT support UEFI.

Is that machine maybe 7 or 8 years old?

Yes, it supports UEFI, even though it's 7 years old. I have another 2Tb HDD which I had in the laptop and installed win10pro 2004 without any issues. I now want to use my 2Tb SSD which was also in the laptop (running Win8.1Pro) but it seems to be fighting back

Did you backup your data?

Windows can be installed in two ways: Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT
To install as Legacy-MBR you must boot the installation drive as Legacy
To install as UEFI-GPT you must boot the installation drive as UEFI.

During POST, launch the boot menu. You will see two options for the USB drive. USB UEFI (Name) and USB (Name). Select USB UEFI (Name).
Go to install and delete ALL partitions on the SSD till you have one and only one unallocated space and then proceed.

Ok, so decided to go with deleting partitions but kept the partition with my data on, not that I'm worried about losing it but it takes a couple of days to download from dropbox!!

Anyway, after one false start I've now successfully installed a clean version of Win10Pro 2004 onto my SSD and kept the data partition too.

Thanks all.