You know, if you want 100% to be certain you can get back into your system if something goes wrong, you could make a complete shadow copy restore image of your current OS, and save that image to another partition or drive. I would use that 2T external drive to save it on. To do that, open a Powershell with Admin privileges , and enter the command wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget: -include:C: -allCritical -quiet Change the letter P to the letter of whatever drive applies to your system. It only takes about 8 minutes, and to do a restore, just plug in your 8.1 usb stick, and choose Repair, then point it to your restore image on the external drive, and in no time you'll have your system back, programs and all. Good luck!! Chaser
My suggestion is: 1) Turn the AHCI Mode Control to disabled instead of auto, if you enable Legacy USB support or when you don't have the controller driver for it. 2) Try another fresh USB and create a bootable USB with Rufus as you did before.
Maybe I can learn something here. Why would he want to do #1, when he is switching over to using UEFI instead of Legacy? I'm always up for learning something I haven't heard of before.. Chaser
That is for the reason he enabled the Legacy USB Support Mode. I think that is clear in that number suggestion.
You are welcome, Sir. I think there is something actually wrong with the USB he's using for the installation process.
I concur on that statement of yours. We should hear from the horse's mouth before making any final pronouncement.
Ok guys, M back without success What I did: 1. Minitool Partition Wizard didn't let me convert that HDD from MBR to GPT giving the same error message I shared earlier: "This disk contains System partition and convert this disk to GPT style will cause your system to be unbootable" But since I had the USB flash drive ready with Win10TP in UEFI mode for GPT partition. I decided to give it a try by trying to boot from. Let me just recall this point that, the Bios settings I used were UEFI Boot Support Enabled, EDT Enabled, PS OPROM Enabled, AHCI Mode at Auto. What happend: Same as what use to happen whenever I enabled the UEFI Support which is: Screen 1: Loading files... after its completion Screen 2: Black screen and it stays there. No futher action. So, I had to force shutdown and restarted the system without the flashable drive. Booted fine. 1st boot: after entering password: Black Screen: I could get cursor and use Ctrl+Alt+Del to get the Task Manager : Tried running new task: explorer. Nothing seemed to happen. Then I pressed WIndows+L to go to lockscreen and then Restarted. System booted all fine. Everything back to where I was.
If I am going to use a bootable usb flash with created using the above settings(couldn't retain the screenshot and link as I have only 18 post including this ;P) then confirm on what exactly I should have my settings for following parameters in BIOS: 1. Legacy USB Support Enabled 2. UEFI Boot Support Enabled 3. AHCI Mode Control Disabled 4. EDT Enabled 5. PXE OPROM Enabled Besides, these the filesystem of my laptop's HDD should be : MBR only, I believe. Please confirm on this as well. Thanks.
That should be according to your settings you have there. That is the reason why I post that previous comment after seeing your BIOS settings, Sir.
Welcome back! I had to leave for a while, thus the delay in answering you. That is VERY strange behavior of Minitool, it has NEVER done that to me. Do you have the latest updated version? At this point, I would say to follow what Hadron-Curious has told you to do. My method did not work on your system, perhaps his method will work. You won't know until you try. He did make mention that he thought you might have a faulty USB thumb drive. That is also a possibility, I suppose........ Chaser If his method does not work, then make a backup image using the command I posted, and after that, use Minitool again, but this time around, delete your system OS partition FIRST, then convert the disk to GPT. Leave the empty partition empty, and try the installation again using the Custom mode. The only thing you won't have to do is to delete your C: partion, because you already did that with Minitool. All you have to to is select that space to install to. Keep at it, and you'll have success! Chaser
One final, terrible thought, before I go. There is always a possibility that Win10 TP will not run on your system. After all, let's face reality. There are going to be some computers out in the world that simply will not run TP. I hope that's not the case for you!! Chaser
Hey Everyone, thank you for trying to help me out. Really appreciate all of your efforts The current status is : I tried on current system with MBR filesystem and the following parameters in BIOS: 1. Legacy USB Support Enabled 2. UEFI Boot Support Enabled 3. AHCI Mode Control Auto 4. EDT Enabled 5. PXE OPROM Enabled This time I chose another USB drive to create flashable flash drive using Rufus with "MBR partition scheme for BIOS and UEFI computers" but again failed. Same story: Loading Files... and then Stuck at Black Screen. And when I change the UEFI Boot Support in Bios to Disabled and try to boot, It gets stuck at the very first screen where Windows logo appears without any animating cursor. I'm really confused what could be the problem, where exactly the issue is. I couldn't even find a way to convert my System drive from MBR to GPT without data loss. Besides, m not actually so sure that even after I do that, will this work ??
No Issue with that. M grateful that u are helping me this much. And yes I'm using the latest version of MInitool home Edition. Its 8.1.1 Although I was wondering, that how could it actually modify the filesystem of Main Drive where Windows is installed, while running WINDOWS. btw R u referrering Minitool to use from DVD kind of thing bcz I have installed Minitool in my lappi and M using it from there while WIndows is running. Besides, I tried with the other flash drive (where I had Win8.1 ready earlier) did Rufus on it(as mentioned in the last post). But still No success. Besides I have created a system image as u suggested. But I'm getting so anxious to find out how come Windows8.1 x64 boots like charm from my flashable usb drive but not Win10. I hope that's not the case and even if its really that unfortunate.. I need to know what is the exact reason without that I'm not going to leave
The one thing I know for SURE, is that UEFI and MBR will not work together. Not on any of the systems I have worked with, and I do computer repairs and upgrades all the time, for fun, and for profit. So if you want this to work, you have to make a decision on what you want to do. Do you want to stay with a Legacy BIOS, if so, then leave the disk as MBR, and make the USB drive for use with MBR using Rufus. If you want to go with UEFI, then the disk will have to be converted to GPT, and the USB drive will have to be made with Rufus for GPT. Those are your two choices. Look at it this way. If you go with UEFI, you are going to lose what is on the C: drive anyway. If you go with Legacy, again, you are going to lose what is on the C: drive. That is why I suggested to you how to make a restore image of your C: drive the way it is now, and keep it on the external drive. That way, as long as you do not change the size of the C: partition, you can always use the Windows 8.1 install USB to restore the image to the C: partition, and put all your bios settings back to what they were to start with, and you have lost nothing.... That's about all I can think of to suggest to you. IF I were doing it, I would make the backup image, then use Minitool to delete the C: partition, then convert the disk to GPT, then set the bios to be in UEFI mode, then attempt the install. If it doesn't work, I would then use Minitool again, convert the disk back to MBR, and use the 8.1 installation USB to restore from the image you made on your external drive. I would put the bios settings back to what they originally were, and you are back with having a working 8,1 machine, without losing any data. Keep us updated as to your progress. Persistence pays off !! Chaser UPDATE: Another thought..... Have you been using the same USB port all along to try this install? If yes, then try to use another USB port. That solution has worked for me before. Why, I do not know, but it has done the trick. Well wishes to you!
Chaser, Case I: I stay with MBR and Legacy Bios : I haven't been successful yet whatever Bios settings I try. I have shared the findings earlier. But one point: I am able to boot from the USB flashable drive which I create for Win8.1 x64 but when I try the same settings but the Win10 iso, I'm not able to. This is so strange to me. I have double checked the sha1 of the downloaded iso. Now let's say I would now want to try GPT, then I understand that we are talking about using Minitool Boot DVD which has to run without running Windows. But I didn't got this point earlier and was trying to use it on top of running Windows through the Minitool app and that could be why its giving that error.
Typical scenario when the USB media does not have a boot sector while using MBR partition layout. Use bootsect.exe /nt60 F: /force /mbr to set (where F: is USB) Also I'm not sure why one needs third party tools to configure install medias, as it can also be done fine (for both legacy/UEFI setup) using built in Windows tools. GPT for install USB is not required to boot in UEFI if the firmware allows to UEFI-boot, you only need it in FAT32. Heck you can install Windows after booting the media even without following the Install now button and the GUI, instead doing everything in the Shift+F10 command prompt. Which can be handy when installing Windows on a system with two drives one MBR and the other GPT, and the GUI setup send you off on the partition selection page with a 0x80300024 error (after already deleting the partition on the target) which occurs because a reserved management partition for a GPT disk (MSR) is detected on one of the disks, and you obviously cannot delete that partition from other disks as it would cause removal of any other partitions off that drive. In that case it is often advised to remove any extra drives when installing the system, however that is not always an easy option on laptops, therefore the workaround is to force installation using diskpart, dism, bcdboot and reagentc.