You're unable to choose a disk for a fresh Windows setup.
You're unable to choose a disk for a fresh Windows setup.
Hi, my mom has an HP All in One PC. She needs a fresh Windows setup because the machine behaves oddly—possibly compromised or hacked. She currently runs Windows 10, and I asked her to switch to Windows 11. I saved her files and photos, but the installation didn’t proceed. When I booted from the Windows 11 USB, no drive appeared. The same happened when using the Windows 10 stick. I’m certain she installed Windows 10 cleanly years back, so I don’t know why it’s not working now. Even using diskpart or listing disks showed nothing but the USB drive with Windows installed. I created the installer directly from the USB, selected “remove everything,” and after a long wait it worked. Now she has a clean Windows 11 version on her PC. BUT… the hard drive is nearly full—half of her 2TB SSD is occupied. The 1TB stick still holds Windows, but the remaining space is minimal. I checked for hidden folders and found almost nothing beyond a few gigabytes, so it seems the old files are still present. I tried deleting the “old Windows” folder, but it was gone. I even enabled hidden files and still couldn’t locate anything. After installing Windows 11, I ran all the usual steps: booting from both Windows 11 and the old Windows 10 stick, but neither worked. The menus didn’t show any drives, and diskpart only listed the USB stick. I read about MBR and GPT partitions but didn’t know what they meant. There were also strange icons with locks on the drive, which I hadn’t noticed before. I thought it might be related to BitLocker, though she doesn’t use that feature. I attempted to adjust BIOS settings like “saveboot” or similar options, but they didn’t help. Now the PC won’t boot into Windows at all—it always starts with a blue screen requiring a BitLocker password. I changed BIOS settings, but the issue persisted. I tried formatting the drive and splitting the 2TB SSD into a 1TB one, using FAT32 or exFAT, but still couldn’t access it. I spent several hours trying different approaches, yet the system remained unresponsive. I’m worried about the storage space—500 GB is missing from what should be available. I’m unsure how to remove those old files or free up space without losing data. I’ve been using the PC for about 15 years and never faced such a problem before. My goal is to get this fixed, either by myself or with help. Please advise on how to perform a clean Windows 11 installation and resolve the storage issue.
I don't like your trying things out blindly (I understand it though) I'm no expert, but this is my proposal : First thing I'd reset the bios. Then I got this method, I found it once and it has always worked for me (it might be more than you ask for but it should still do what you ask along). Here is the whole procedure for install of windows on nvme drive. 1 - Make sure you unplug all SATA and USB drives, the M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed. 2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled. 3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, Not windows UEFI. 4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys. 5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable ISO of Windows 10 on it. 6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot. 7 - Windows will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in. 8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that Windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive. 9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to Windows UEFI mode. 10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys 11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install. Once you have Windows up and running, shutdown the PC and reconnect your other SATA drives. If you really can't see any drive to install W11 on, please make me a picture of the screen.
I will definitely not open this. If my luck is good, I might break the screen or something. But thanks, I'll keep you informed.
Ensure you select the right drive and confirm your data is safely backed up elsewhere. (Preferably on a different storage medium, not the same drive.) You can extract the installer using software like 7zip and apply the F6 driver during Windows setup, as it was required in older Windows 9x installations where you pressed F6 to load a storage driver from a floppy.
I tried this but didn't find the driver... I think I'll go to my mom's house on Sunday to work on the PC again. It was too busy today, and tomorrow she'll be away. I recall from years ago when I faced issues installing Windows—I installed Ubuntu twice, and after it worked, I tried reinstalling Windows again. It seemed to succeed. Trick 77, basically bypassing the system. I suspect it might have worked on Windows 7 too. I'll give it another shot once I locate the installation CDs and USB drive.