Why is it so hard to put my Windows on this machine? I am very annoyed and can't get it installed right now.
Why is it so hard to put my Windows on this machine? I am very annoyed and can't get it installed right now.
Look for a video called "GPARTED GPT" or search for it in the YouTube results. You can find more links by typing these words into Google: gparted plus gpt or gparted plus uefi. These videos will show you where to get them, how to set them up, and what they do.
I'm here with a link to a short video that shows the failed installation steps. Please tell me where I messed up, because I can't see it clearly. You can watch the video at this URL: https://imgur.com/a/windows Installation process 43nlYoZ
My big hard drive has two parts: one is an NVMe SSD for the computer's operating system and programs. The other part uses a standard hard drive to store all my photos, music, and documents. For sound, I have four small SSDs plus one extra drive that acts as my main boot disk right now.
You have to erase every single partition to clear out that entire disk into unallocated area.
Clean your hard drive before putting Windows on it. Use the Diskpart command line tool. Don't accidentally clean the wrong disk. Make sure you know which number is the right one, because if the disk number doesn't match what you think, you won't be able to clean it. You can never run a disk cleaning command when you are booting from that drive. Instead, use your Windows installation USB flash drive to start up the computer.
You don't have to delete all the old partitions when setting up Windows. Looking at your screenshots, you see that there are still some existing partitions on the drive while trying to install on new ones. Please take another look at my guide. When you reach the screen asking "Where do you want to install Windows," make sure that only your USB stick and the target hard drive show up, not any other drives attached. Delete every single partition labeled as Drive 0 until there is just one empty spot left with no partitions yet. Then, click on that one remaining slot and choose to install Windows. Windows will automatically handle creating all the needed parts for the system and format everything properly. You are done after this step. It's actually very straightforward. If you followed my instructions exactly and it still isn't working, something is wrong with your hard drive or the installation file itself. There is nothing else you can do.
I am a bit vague here. I don't want to format or install on a drive that is already being used. Right now, my computer starts from an old 500GB C: drive that has working Windows on it. The new hard drive I need for the installation is a 2TB drive. Both drives are clearly labeled by the BIOS and the screen. The big 2TB drive shows up as Drive E: in Disk Management, but the small one shows up as Drive C:. There is no mix-up at all. The 2TB drive is completely empty. When I try to look inside it, Windows says "This folder is empty." But when I run the setup program on the 2TB drive, everything goes fine.
To make this happen, I unplugged every drive except the 2TB one. Then I put the computer into BIOS mode and changed the boot order so my USB stick comes first instead of the old hard drive. The computer boots from the USB stick and tries to install Windows there. Here is what I saw in my post with the pictures attached.
In Disk Management, the 2TB drive looks "Healthy" (it shows Page File and Primary Partition), but when I right-click on it, the option to Format turns gray and won't work. I also can't delete the volume or move space around it using Disk Management. When I try using DISKPART to clean the disk, Windows says "Clean is not allowed because of the current boot drive." Even though this drive isn't actually used for the system files, the computer thinks it is.
This happens if I try to run a clean command on Drive C: (Partition 2), and the message looks exactly the same. https://imgur.com/a/hORQu4X If you want me to help fix this so I can finally install Windows cleanly without confusion, I need someone who knows how to tell the system that Drive E isn't really Drive C!
Create a USB stick and put the operating system on it. Turn off your computer. Take out every drive except the one you want the new OS on. Plug in the USB, turn on your PC, and follow the steps to install. Here is how to do a clean Windows 10 setup: If you want help with Windows 11, click this link for that guide. If you only need Windows 10, read this page instead. This guide will walk you through each step to set up Windows smoothly without messes or data loss from before.