HDD Arrangements

Exspextations,

The easiest thing for you to do is create a new (and updated) Windows 10 USB flash drive, which will be build 10586. Use the Media Creation Tool (Download Tool Now button down a little ways on the below website), select the option Create installation media for another PC, select language, edition, etc., then select the option for USB flash drive. It will erase the contents of the flash drive you have inserted and make a new Windows 10 installation flash drive.
Windows 10

Then download Kyhi's recovery drive:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Mount the ISO by double clicking it, or right click and mount. A virtual DVD will open. Copy the boot.wim file from the \sources folder on Kyhi's recovery drive to the \sources folder on the Windows 10 USB installation flash drive. It will ask you if you want to overwrite the existing file. Yes you do.

Then boot from the USB flash drive and you will have Kyhi's recovery drive with all the utilities. If you want to run Windows 10 setup then you open file explorer, find the USB flash drive letter and run setup.exe from it.

Hi,

Just a suggestion if I may. Instead of overwriting the original boot.wim, you can also rename it so after the problems are resolved you could revert it and have the original MS install USB back.

Cheers,

Exspextations said:

I really appreciate the support given to try and resolve my HDD issues, but I am struggling: I have a USB boot disk for my current Win10 version 10240, but when I do a search of for BOOT.WIM the file is not present. I also don't understand the instructions for creating Kyhi's bootable disk from his post or how to copy the BOOT.WIM file from this to my Win10 bootable disk. I presume that to create the dual boot disk I would also need to copy Kyhi's bootable disk files onto the USB drive. Apologies again for asking more questions

I desperately need help! I started the clean install from a USB recovery drive as recommended and deleted all the unwanted partitions leaving a single us allocated disk space. Windows then created the four default partitions, but fails to install with the message: Windows can't be installed on drive 0 Partition 4. Bitlocker Drive Encryption is enabled on the selected partition. Suspend Bitlocker in the control panel then restart the installation.

However, with Windows and recovery options now deleted from the computer, I can't access the control panel and the computer won't automatically boot from the USB or DVD as the BIOS specifically excludes these two from the boot process and I can find no way to change this to allow the computer to boot from them - if I try to restart the computer it comes up with the message: Start PXE over IPv4 then after a time out Start PXE over IPv6. I am thus completely stuck - HELP please.

When anything else fails, you have to wipe all data AND partition information from the drive. Since you cannot boot from USB or DVD, you have to remove the hard disk and put it in another computer. Then make sure you delete all partitions, so the disk gets at the original factory state. Writing zeros is also a good idea, but it will take a lot of time to complete. Then you should be able to put it back in your computer and reinstall Windows 10.

spapakons,

If he can't boot from USB or DVD in order to wipe the hard, how is he supposed to install Windows 10 to the blank hard drive after he reinstalls it?

NavyLCDR said:

spapakons,

If he can't boot from USB or DVD in order to wipe the hard, how is he supposed to install Windows 10 to the blank hard drive after he reinstalls it?

Thanks to NavyLCDR and Spapakons for the suggestions. After playing around with the BIOS for a while I found an option to set legacy boot as 1st boot option which allowed me to boot from the flash drive. I then ran the USB install and tried to install Windows again - still had the Bitlocker problem. As I had nothing to loose, after deleting all the partitions created on the previous attempt to install Windows I clicked the 'new' button which created a 500 MB Drive 0 Partition 1: System Reserved partition and a Drive 0 Partion 2, which when selected allowed me to proceed and successfully install Windows. As this was not the 4 partition configuration described by Word Man, I have decided to do a fresh clean install after deleting the two partitions to obtain the required configuration after checking that nothing was Bitlocker as suggested.

Doing this fresh clean reinstall has again produced the two partition configuration rather than the 4 partition configuration described by Word Man. I don't know if this is correct, but at least Windows 10 is installed and I can get back to business. One final question: Bitlocker does not appeare to be an option under the control panel for Windows 10 Home - should it be and should the HDD be protected by Bitlocker after Windows 10 is installed, even if this has to be done from the command prompt?

Once again my thanks to all those that have provided suggestions that have got me back up and running - now I just have the slog of reinstalling all my programs

If I am not mistaken, BitLocker is a Windows 10 Pro feature, not available in the Home version. There must be third-party tools to lock your disk. Some USB Flash drives (eg Transcend) even have a manufacturer's utility that allows you split the drive in two partitions, one free and one locked with software. However I would avoid it since if you forget the password or don't have the relevant application installed you may lose access to your data. Very risky and not recommended for the average user.

Hi,

Exactly.

Win10 install media can be created which should be UEFI bootable.

He already must have it since the first attempt booted from the install media and created 4 partitions as per UEFI standards only to halt by the previous bit locker partition which wasn't deleted.
Diskpart's CLEAN command could take care of that.

That said, if happy with MBR install, then why not leave it as is. UEFI/Legacy bios can be confusing to new users.

Cheers,

My Thanks to Brink and fdegrove for the clarifications - I do not understand the subtleties of booting via UEFI / Legacy and, as a simple user, I am not sure I should have to know or worry about this. As my system is no back up and running, I think I will leave sleeping dogs lie - or at least until I can summon up the enthusiasm to spend more hours messing with the system.

However, to clarify: the recovery USB was created via the UEFI route and should therefore be UEFI bootable. The only reason I went via the legacy boot route was because I could not complete the initial clean install due to the Bitlocker issue.

As fdegrove pointed out, what confused me was that the initial attempt at a clean install via a legacy boot did create the four partitions and it was only after the second attempt via a legacy boot and deleting the four partitions, created during the first attempt, and clicked the 'New' icon on the unallocated Drive that the installation process created the two partition configuration - hence my confusion.

I am still puzzled as to how my PC, which came with Windows 8.1 Home installed and was upgraded to Windows 10 Home, should have had a Bitlocked HDD when this is not a functionality of either OS and why the same clean install route via a legacy boot should result in two different partition configurations. Such is the wonders of Windows!

Once again my thanks to all members who provided the advice that got me back up and running. Your assistance is highly appreciated :)