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

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.

Should i be using a flash drive or DVD?

Flash drives tend to be more reliable. Just plain old USB 2.0 flash drive, nothing special. Even if you have a USB 3.0 flash drive, installs seem to go smoother if they are plugged into USB 2.0 (black) ports.

To create a bootable USB flash drive from an ISO file, insert the flash drive with Windows running. Open a Command Prompt (Admin) or Powershell (Admin) and run:

diskpart
list disk
select disk # <-replace # with the actual number of the flash drive
clean <- this will erase the drive selected above, make sure it is the USB flash drive!
create part pri
format fs=fat32 quick
active
assign
exit
exit

Then mount the ISO file and copy all the files and folders from the mounted ISO file to the USB flash drive. It will be bootable in both UEFI and legacy BIOS computers.

NavyLCDR said:

Flash drives tend to be more reliable. Just plain old USB 2.0 flash drive, nothing special. Even if you have a USB 3.0 flash drive, installs seem to go smoother if they are plugged into USB 2.0 (black) ports.

To create a bootable USB flash drive from an ISO file, insert the flash drive with Windows running. Open a Command Prompt (Admin) or Powershell (Admin) and run:

diskpart
list disk
select disk # <-replace # with the actual number of the flash drive
clean <- this will erase the drive selected above, make sure it is the USB flash drive!
create part pri
format fs=fat32 quick
active
assign
exit
exit

Then mount the ISO file and copy all the files and folders from the mounted ISO file to the USB flash drive. It will be bootable in both UEFI and legacy BIOS computers.

OK, I made the flash drive bootable and loaded W7 in the flash drive as you instructed and all that went well. When I go to boot to the USB drive it gives a "Invalid partition table" error and won't go any further. I removed the partitions that the previous W10 installation put on the drive and now it is all unallocated space. should i be creating a partition to put W7 on?

When you boot the computer from the USB flash drive - at the first screen, where I think you enter language choices, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt. Run:

diskpart
list disk

select disk # <- replace the # with the actual disk number of the drive you are installing Windows to - should be disk 0

clean
exit
exit

Then go through the rest of the setup, after the custom install option is selected, highlight the unallocated space on the drive and click Next to let Windows set up the drive.

NavyLCDR said:

When you boot the computer from the USB flash drive - at the first screen, where I think you enter language choices, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt. Run:

diskpart
list disk

select disk # <- replace the # with the actual disk number of the drive you are installing Windows to - should be disk 0

clean
exit
exit

Then go through the rest of the setup, after the custom install option is selected, highlight the unallocated space on the drive and click Next to let Windows set up the drive.

I don't know what you mean by screen with language choices. to boot to the USB or DVD, the F12 button is hit when the BIOS splashscreen comes up. Then it just goes to the next screen that says the floppy drive is not present- hit F1 to continue, F2 for Setup. I hit F1 and it goes to the bootup screen where it lists the choices of where to boot from. There is where i chose the USB -ZIP. That is the point where i get the black screen with the invalid partition table error message.

NavyLCDR said:

Ah.... have you gotten any USB flash drives to boot on the computer? USB -ZIP almost makes it sound like it is looking for the old zip drives and not a flash drive.

ADDED: So, I just figured out a Windows 7 USB flash drive will not boot in EFI mode. Although it looks like the USB -ZIP option is legacy BIOS, is your computer UEFI or Legacy BIOS? If it is Legacy BIOS, the Windows 7 flash drive is bootable - if your BIOS supports booting from USB flash drives. If you computer is UEFI, then you will have to set the boot setting that Enables CSM (which is legacy BIOS emulation). Then select the option to boot the USB flash drive in CSM (not UEFI) mode. UEFI mode usually has UEFI in front of the choice and CSM mode will not have UEFI.

If your computer will not boot from a standard USB flash drive, then I would suggest you make a DVD from Kyhi's Recovery Tools ISO file:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Boot into Kyhi's Recovery Tools and then insert the USB flash drive and run setup.exe from it.

Yes, the system can boot from a USB drive. I tried it with W10 originally. I decided to try W7 to see how it would do. I created an MRB partition with Paragon HDD manager and then tried to load. it again, went all the way through the process to load the OS and then rebooted itself back the the screen that says there is no diskette available, F1 to continue, F2 for set up. seems like it has to be something with the BIOS.
Edit** Ok, it was just a hiccup, i think. I hit F1 and it continued to load and finalize. So the OS for W7 is up and running. the thing with the message about the diskette is weird though. I have not rebooted yet to see if it will come back.

So at this point, should I try to install all of the W7 updates, or go ahead and try to upgrade to 10? and how should I upgrade?

Thanks,

The BIOS message about no diskette is because booting from floppy got enabled when you reset the BIOS. You need to go into the boot order setup screen and disable booting from floppy - or move it to the bottom of the list.

In Windows 7, at a minimum you need to look in device manager and make sure all of your hardware is setup. There should be no Unknown Devices and no exclamation points. If all of your devices are installed and working, then go ahead and upgrade to Windows 10.

The way I would do the upgrade is to install a program called WinCDEmu:
WinCDEmu - the easiest way to mount an ISO. And more...

That will allow you to mount ISO files in Windows 7. I would recommend downloading a fresh ISO file for Windows 10, using the Media Creation Tool and the option to save the iso file. Mount the ISO file and run setup.exe from the mounted ISO file.

You can also just run setup.exe from a Windows 10 installation DVD or USB flash drive.

Good luck! At least now you know you can get a version of Windows running on it.