Fresh Install of Windows 10 Freezing. How long do I have to wait?????

Hey all,
The HDD on one of my PC's crashed with windows 10. something corrupted in the MBR and I was unable to fix it or recover data, no matter what I did with the recovery disk and with the help of many experienced people.

Anyway, the next solution was to just get another HDD and start over. Well, I downloaded and clean installed the version from the MS site from USB. It went through all of the normal steps and finished up the installation. Then it went straight to that damn black screen with the blue window and spinning dots. Its been stuck there for about 5 hours now. What should I do I this point?? Keep waiting. I see online that this has happened to many people, but only when upgrading. This is a totally new installation and I can't find any solution online, other than removing all USB peripherals. How can I do that when I'm loading via USB and I have to have the keyboard/ mouse connected?? Somebody please help!!!!

Your only choice is to reboot and see what happens

When we say disconnect things, we mean disconnect what is not needed for the install. If you have to start over again because this one won't complete there are a few things we have discovered that will help:

1. You already said, disconnect everything not required for the install.
2. Do not connect to any networks during the install. Do not have a wired Ethernet connected. Do not let it connect to any WiFi hotspots.
3. Boot from the USB flash drive, select the custom install option, on the next screen delete every partition on the drive (unless you have a permanent data partition, then keep that one). Click on the big unallocated space and then next to let Windows set up the drive.
4. Still...do not let it connect to any networks.
5. When you are presented the screen to create an account - keep clicking on anything that will let you skip it. Keep doing that until you are at the final screen asking for a local username, password, and password hint that you cannot skip. Create a local account there first. You can change it to a Microsoft Account later if you want to.
6. Once you are in with a local account and everything has settled down, then connect to the network/internet. Windows 10 should then activate itself, and do updates.
7. Do not try to install too much software - and especially do not install any antivirus - before it is done updating to the latest build number which you can find here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...update-history

As you can see, the current build is 15063.483. You can verify which build you are on by running winver (built-in command).

NavyLCDR said:

When we say disconnect things, we mean disconnect what is not needed for the install. If you have to start over again because this one won't complete there are a few things we have discovered that will help:

1. You already said, disconnect everything not required for the install.
2. Do not connect to any networks during the install. Do not have a wired Ethernet connected. Do not let it connect to any WiFi hotspots.
3. Boot from the USB flash drive, select the custom install option, on the next screen delete every partition on the drive (unless you have a permanent data partition, then keep that one). Click on the big unallocated space and then next to let Windows set up the drive.
4. Still...do not let it connect to any networks.
5. When you are presented the screen to create an account - keep clicking on anything that will let you skip it. Keep doing that until you are at the final screen asking for a local username, password, and password hint that you cannot skip. Create a local account there first. You can change it to a Microsoft Account later if you want to.
6. Once you are in with a local account and everything has settled down, then connect to the network/internet. Windows 10 should then activate itself, and do updates.
7. Do not try to install too much software - and especially do not install any antivirus - before it is done updating to the latest build number which you can find here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...update-history

As you can see, the current build is 15063.483. You can verify which build you are on by running winver (built-in command).

k, so I went and had it do a complete reset and then tried to reinstall again. I did not perform the deletion of other partitions like you mention above, so it went through the same process as before. it goes all the way to the end of installation where it states that it is "getting ready", then goes to the same black screen and blue window with the spinning dots. I did have the drive "pre" partitioned before trying to install. Do you think this is the reason that it it bugging up? I will go through again and have it delete the other partition that I created and see if that makes a difference. Other than that, your other points regarding network connection, it only has a wifi board connected, there is no ethernet connection. and with account set up, it never gets that far.

AddRAM said:

If you don`t need any of the partitions on the drive now, then delete them all.

Set the Bios to defaults and make sure that only the drive your are installing W10 on is listed in the bot order, well of course if you have a dvd drive you can list that 1st if you want.

Then use the one time boot menu (not the Bios) usually hitting F8 will bring up the boot menu, it may be different for your board, and choose the usb stick one time and that`s it.

It should then do the install.

How did you put the ISO file on the usb stick ?

The OP is getting past all that. It's getting to the point where the computer boots into the installed Windows 10 and it is starting to load device drivers. But....

People have reported an Optical Disk Drive (DVD or CDROM) that has caused the system to hang during driver installation. So @davron94, if you have a DVD or CDROM drive installed, try pulling the data cable off it. Also, you say a WiFi board is connected, can you pull that out? You've had Windows 10 on this before, so it is really odd it won't install again.

AddRAM said:

If you don`t need any of the partitions on the drive now, then delete them all.

Set the Bios to defaults and make sure that only the drive your are installing W10 on is listed in the bot order, well of course if you have a dvd drive you can list that 1st if you want.

Then use the one time boot menu (not the Bios) usually hitting F8 will bring up the boot menu, it may be different for your board, and choose the usb stick one time and that`s it.

It should then do the install.

How did you put the ISO file on the usb stick ?

I started out with the USB drive then switched over to an ISO on DVD. Both not working and ending up going to the black screen, blue window, spinning dots. I notice that there is a difference in the size of the dots. At the beginning, the dots are small, then it changes to a larger circle with larger dots (if that makes a difference).

For my last try, I reset the BIOS to defaults. Then deleted all the partitions and loaded the OS onto the unallocated space. This time it went through the whole process and then got to the "Getting Ready" screen. It then proceeded to reboot to a black screen that stated that there was no floppy drive detected, hit F1 to continue, F2 to setup". I hit F2, went back into BIOS, the settings for booting to optical drive first had not changed, saved it, went to F12 to boot to disk, got it to load up, then it just went to a purplish blank screen. I shut it down and rebooted to hard drive to see if the OS loaded correctly, and it did not- it was back to black screen, blue window, spinning dots. At that point I just shut it down.

I really don't get this. I have worked with computer systems for the last 20 years. I have loaded XP and W7 numerous times on systems with no problems whatsoever. Why is W10 such a challenge? It should not be this hard! Could it be something in the computer hardware itself that is screwing up the MBR? I think the next thing to do would be to run through that myriad of steps in DOS to try and fix the MBR and recboot. If I can get to the command prompt through the repair section of the installation disk.

Thoughts?

and Thanks!

If you reset your BIOS, make sure and look at the SATA controller mode and set it to AHCI. Big overall performance improvement over IDE mode.

I would go here and get the ISO download tool:
Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool

I believe that the Anniversary Update, version 1607 of Windows 10 is still available. Try installing the Anniversary Update instead of Creator's Update.

if that fails - use the same tool to download Windows 7 SP1. See if that will install. Do not worry about activating Windows 7 if you do not have a product key, it will not need to be activated because once your computer is stable on Windows 7 and all of your hardware is working properly with Windows 7 drivers, then you can try the upgrade to Windows 10. The Windows 10 upgrade will activate from the digital license stored at Microsoft.

It definitely seems like it is an issue with Windows 10 loading the drivers for the hardware you have.

NavyLCDR said:

If you reset your BIOS, make sure and look at the SATA controller mode and set it to AHCI. Big overall performance improvement over IDE mode.

I would go here and get the ISO download tool:
Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool

I believe that the Anniversary Update, version 1607 of Windows 10 is still available. Try installing the Anniversary Update instead of Creator's Update.

if that fails - use the same tool to download Windows 7 SP1. See if that will install. Do not worry about activating Windows 7 if you do not have a product key, it will not need to be activated because once your computer is stable on Windows 7 and all of your hardware is working properly with Windows 7 drivers, then you can try the upgrade to Windows 10. The Windows 10 upgrade will activate from the digital license stored at Microsoft.

It definitely seems like it is an issue with Windows 10 loading the drivers for the hardware you have.

Ok, great! I'll give that a shot. what you say makes sense with the drivers. It is an older Dell Dimension E521 unit from about 6 years ago. thanks,