Install fresh Win10 impossible on Elitedesk 800 G5 USFF

[JDM8]

Hi the community,

i just bought an old Elitedesk 800 G5 USFF mini, but without RAM nor NVMe so no recovery partition available.

I tried to install Windows 10 through an USB boot key on a SSD plugged on the SATA port. It does install so far but after reboot, no Windows 10 detected on the SSD by the system, 3F0 error (partitions and files are there, checked the SSD on another computer)

- i removed any boot secure protection (aka HP sure start)

- activated the legacy support for SATA port

- GPT/MBR, tried both, BIOS or UEFI as well

- deactivated NVMe boot/USB boot/LAN boot and leaving only SSD boot where my SSD is listed

Still can't finish the Win 10 installation. Is it a limitation of the BIOS ? so, without the original NVMe, the system is useless ? Or is there a way to get the original partition from HP ? i saw there were an option for recovering the partition from FTP

Thanks for your help, i spent 2 weeks looking everywhere on Google, no answer to my problem

[itsmyname]

If you boot from the USB, can you choose "repair" instead of "install", to see if that Installer can fix any "start-up" issue(s) on the SSD ?

Or, Windows 10 is very "adaptive". By this, I mean that you can take your SSD and your USB to a different computer, disconnect any other disk-drive, connect the SSD, and boot from the USB to start to install Windows onto the SSD. Then, when the Installer shows "restart required within 30, 29, 28 ... seconds", power-off that computer, by holding-down the on/off button until it is off. Then, move the SSD back to your computer, and boot from the SSD. Does it boot into "phase 2" of the Installer? Does it properly finish installing Windows?

[JDM8]

Thanks for your reply.

I finally managed to isolate my problem. I got my hands on another G5 in order to clone the partitions on my SSD Samsung 870 QVO  with Macrium.

As a result, Macrium failed to clone on my SSD, "sector size error".

So i tried with a 500Go Samsung 860 EVO and... it worked !!

I could boot it on my configuration, i also formatted it to see if i can install a fresh Win 10 and it worked too.

Now, new question ? Why doesn't it work with a Samsung 870 QVO ? how can i change the sector size to match it to the original partition ? No options in Macrium

[itsmyname]

Could "sector size error" be something that running the CHKDSK utility (on the "source" disk-drive) will fix?

It something is corrupt, e.g., reporting 4 billion sectors when there are only 2 billion sectors on the disk, then that corruption needs to be remediated.