W7 Upgrade error - winload.exe is not digitally signed

Hi all, hoping this is the right subforum

I built a HTPC a few years ago and it had suited my needs fine. Relevant parts used are:

• i3-3225 CPU,
• Scythe Big Shuriken 2 RevB,
• Asus P8-H77 Pro,
• 2 x 4GB G.Skill Ares DDR3 1600 RAM,
• Samsung 830 Series 64Gb SSD (OS HDD),
• WD Cavier Green 2TB (Media HDD),

I tried to upgrade to Windows 10 but kept receiving errors, such as the partition was not GPT (0xc000021a). The one error that happens every time I tried to upgrade or install Windows 10 was winload.exe was not digitally signed. I wiped the drive, reformatted it as NTFS, converted to GPT and installed W10 from blank and still had the same winload.exe error. Right now I have put W7 Ultimate 64bit back on and am installing all the windows updates.

My question is, does anyone know why I keep get a winload.exe not digitally signed error? I have downloaded the W10 upgrade files numerous times, redownloaded the media creation tool, set clean boot, even tried downloading the upgrade and creating a usb drive with it from a different PC but same error.

Is there perhaps some upgrades that I should make my HTPC?

Try turning secure boot off in bios.

NavyLCDR said:

Try turning secure boot off in bios.

Should have probably mention that. I have turned it off (or at least under the belief that it is. Security boot is set to Other Legacy OS, secure boot is greyed out and reads disabled.

The winload.exe must be corrupt so the digital signature is invalid. Try downloading the Windows 10 ISO from here and use that to install Windows. Best is to burn on DVD-ROM to have it handy in any installation or troubleshooting you may do.

spapakons said:

The winload.exe must be corrupt so the digital signature is invalid. Try downloading the Windows 10 ISO from here and use that to install Windows. Best is to burn on DVD-ROM to have it handy in any installation or troubleshooting you may do.

The HTPC I am wanting to install it on does not have an ODD, would making a bootable usb drive suffice?

Yes, you can do that. You can also use a USB DVD-ROM if you can borrow one.