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- HP Community
- Desktops
- Desktop Operating Systems and Recovery
- Re: Unable to Install Win 10

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05-12-2020 10:15 PM
Hi everyone,
I have a whole string of issues that I managed to solve but the last one is really ticking me off!
1. First issue happened and just displayed "Hard disk - (3F0)" error. I've done all the necessary checks and diagnostics for this and everything passed without any error code. Apparently the entire OS had somehow vanished for I don't know what reason. I don't care about the Data on the computer at this point, I just need to get it working!
2. Next option after reading through some of the community posts, was to create a bootable win 10 drive but the only other PC I have at home runs on MacOS. Long story short after many trial and errors I've managed to create one and then proceeded to try and reinstall. Now everything seems to be working fine until I tried selecting the volume to install Win10 on. Then it says unable to create new partition error message. ( managed to solve this when by going into the command prompt and followed steps to Convert the volume into GPT.
3. After I was able to finally select the Drive to install win 10 on, it goes into the installing page. Doesn't even get pass the first item on the checklist and an error message appears! "Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase".
This is where I'm stuck now, I've tried everything to get past this error and it still won't let me. Does anyone have a solution? I need this computer working ASAP!
Regards,
Jay
05-13-2020 02:02 AM
Hi
Not really.
3F0 usually means a FAILED/FAILING hard disk drive that needs replacing.
However a BIOS setting that selects Legacy/Secure could be an issue, and that could be linked to the CMOS/RTC battery failing.
So a BIOS check, and another HDD check is where I would start.
https://www.rocksdigital.com/cmos-battery-failure/
Your computer will show a message such as “Booting Error, unable to detect disk drive.”
05-13-2020 04:21 AM
Hi
In the absence of any fault codes or other info...
like the example included,
it is difficult to tell what your situation is.
For instance why there is no F11 Factory Fresh reset option.
Also try another NON-MS OS like Linux Mint to try and SET and then format the HDD to Secure Boot/GPT.
Use Gparted to partition the drive.