Installing 10 on an old BIOS system but Media Creation Tool failed

There is a way to preinstall Win 10 on the SSD on another desktop and then transfer to the one you want to have Win 10.

Do you have another desktop that you can use?

dalchina said:

You might consider creating a DVD to install Win 10 - you'll need a dual layer (8GB) DVD.

I tried this, to burn the ISO to a DVD+R DL, but it also failed in the same fashion, which I don't understand why. It always stock at the Win 10 logo without the loading dot circle icon. I've tried to turn off/unplug all unnecessary motherboard chip, functions and PCIe devices, but still. When it stuck, I can tell it is not reading from DVD or USB anymore, just hanging in there.

dalchina said:

There is also a more complicated way to clean install Win 10 without a bootable medium, but using a DVD would be preferable:
Clean Install Windows 10 without DVD or USB Flash Drive

Thanks for the link and I've read it. But my motherboard doesn't have UEFI, so I can't boot into command prompt. Besides, I don't have issue running the setup.exe, just that I suspect it will always stuck at the Win 10 logo.

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Megahertz said:

I don't see any reason why it isn't booting from the Win 10 USB installation drive, unless you have corrupted files on it.
Are your current HDD healthy?

I also couldn't see the reasons, I'm very puzzled. I even tried to install from a DVD but it also failed in the same fashion, which I don't understand why. It always stock at the Win 10 logo without the loading dot circle icon. I've tried to turn off/unplug all unnecessary motherboard chip, functions and PCIe devices, but still. When it stuck, I can tell it is not reading from DVD or USB anymore, just hanging there.

I shouldn't have a corrupted file, I have tried to create install media from MCT multiple times on different USBs. Each time is a new internet download from MS server.

I chkdsk'd both original HDD and the SDD, no any bad sectors.

Megahertz said:

Back to Windows lets make the Win 10 USB installation drive a different way.

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

I also tried this, but not through diskpart. I used MiniTool Partition Wizard to create a new MBR partition, FAT32, active partition on USB. Copied the contents of the ISO file to the USB, but still failed in the same fashion.

Feels like the issue lies in somewhere else, not bootable media. Is there some BIOS setting I should pay attention to?

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Megahertz said:

There is a way to preinstall Win 10 on the SSD on another desktop and then transfer to the one you want to have Win 10.

Do you have another desktop that you can use?

I do have a laptop with UEFI that I had successfully installed Win 10 on before. I didn't know I can pre-install Win 10 on the SSD, how does it work? Won't Windows 10 check the hardware setup it originally installed with? Will moving the SSD to a completely different hardware setup cause issue?

If I can do this, then it will be the most promising workaround I have so far, since bootable USB/DVD and cloning Win 7 then install all failed me.

But my motherboard doesn't have UEFI, so I can't boot into command prompt.

That puzzles me- there's no dependency on UEFI when booting to a command prompt.
Open Command Prompt at Boot in Windows 10
Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10

(and just in passing the method applies to both UEFI and MBR)
but the method shown will be and work exactly the same on any PC, laptop or tablet regardless if the machine in question is UEFI / GPT or BIOS / MBR device.


That said, you shouldn't have to resort to that.
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I do have a laptop with UEFI that I had successfully installed Win 10 on before. I didn't know I can pre-install Win 10 on the SSD, how does it work? Won't Windows 10 check the hardware setup it originally installed with? Will moving the SSD to a completely different hardware setup cause issue?

If I can do this, then it will be the most promising workaround I have so far, since bootable USB/DVD and cloning Win 7 then install all failed me.

You can't take a system disk from a UEFI system and put it into a MBR system directly.
There is a method to change a from one to the other, but this can be a little tricky (see comments following e.g.).
Convert GPT Disk to MBR Disk in Windows 10

Otherwise given that basic level of compatibility, Windows is generally good at adapting drivers to a new environment.

When Win 10 is installed it respects the BIOS/UEFI.

If the PC only has a legacy BIOS, you get an MBR installation.
If UEFI, you get GPT/UEFI.
Clean Install Windows 10
- step (3)

Windows is installed to unallocated space (normally) and creates its own set of partitions.

UEFI is better /more robust etc if you can use that. But if not for whatever strange reason...

I believe you meant GPT instead of UEFI, since we're talking about GPT vs MBR? Yeah, I can't use GPT partition table because my target PC's motherboard doesn't support UEFI. My understanding is that only UEFI supports booting from a GPT disk, so my old BIOS won't boot form a GPT disk. That is basically how my whole installation ordeal started!

Of course, unless I misunderstood something here...

Legacy BIOS//MBR vs UEFI