HELP! Clean Win 10 Pro Installation Keeps Failing

[FairwayFatty]

HP 17-By0062cl

I've tried setting BIOS to Legacy Support on Secure Boot off, Legacy Support off Secure Boot on,  Legacy Support on Secure Boot on and any other combo etc. etc.

When I boot to my newly purchased Win 10 Pro DVD and perform what seems to be a successful install it always errors on the reboot.

After every installation  attempt the system reboots with

File:  \Windows\system32\winload.efi Error Code: 0xc000000f

and the following "options"popup:

Press Enter to try again

Press F1 to enter recovery environment

Press F8 for startup settings

Press esc for UEFI Firmware Settings

Attempting any of these options doenst help.

I've also tried several "fixes" found on the web to no avail.

Is there something embedded in the BIOS by HP?

I just want to install my NEW copy of Win 10 Pro using the key that came with the purchase.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks FF

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You can't clean install W10 Pro on any PC that came with W10 Home.

The W10 Home product key in the BIOS trumps any other key.

So, even if you were able to use the DVD you have etc, you will end up with W10 Home.

I assume you have no operating system on there now?

If so, make a bootable USB recovery drive to factory reset the PC using the HP cloud recovery client utility.

You will need to have access to another working Windows PC.

Here is an info link for how to use the cloud recovery utility...

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205

After W10 Home is reinstalled, the only way to upgrade to W10 Pro using the Pro product key you have is as follows...

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Update & Security > Activation.

Select Change product key, and then enter the 25-character Windows 10 Pro product key.

Select Next to start the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro.

[FairwayFatty]

Hello - Thanks for the response.

I dont really want to run the HP flavored Windows....thats why I bought my own copy. I extracted all of the drivers and also did a Macrium backup before my attempted install. I could tell there was something fishy (smelly) in the HP BIOS after multiple install attempts and it never asking for a key. I searched and found some info relative to the Win10 Home key embedded and was hoping there was a workaround.

I just installed MX Linux on the laptop and ran fine once i manually configured the HP/Realtec adapter. I decided to try Ubuntu which I am installing now. I've been dual booting Win/Linux on other PC's and laptops for years....though this is my first attempt with an HP...should have known there would be issues!

Once I get Ubuntu running I might try to install my Win10 alongside that using GRUB though Ive always installed Windows then Linux on my dual boot machines in the past. (I've heard doing the opposite is a bit more "tricky".) Let me know if you have any insight on that type of install.

Ohhhhhh....Ubuntu is up and running now. (Ubuntu loaded all drivers!) Will tinker with that for a while. Thnaks!

FF

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

If you want a clean, bloatware-free install of W10, then use the Media creation tool at the link below to create a bootable W10 USB installer.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Then you can use the steps above to update to W10 Pro after W10 Home is installed.

[FairwayFatty]

What is the difference between downloading, creating bootable USB with Windows 10 verses using the bootable  Windows 10 DVD disk I bought from newegg?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

There shouldn't be any difference but you can try the USB flash drive and see if you are successful reinstalling W10 Home using that instead.

[FairwayFatty]

I will say that Ubuntu Linux 18.04 looks great and runs flawlessly as the operating system on this laptop with zero boot or driver issues etc.

Relative to my attempt to install clean Windows 10, the BIOS on this laptop is frustrating. For whatever reason I have to configure it one way to boot to a DVD and another way to boot to a USB (reboot, ESC for menu or F9 for boot options or F10 for setup, Configuration, scroll over, scroll down, make changes F10 save, reboot, enter code to confirm...etc....etc...) and still cant get to load with the DVD.

My preference still is to load my copy of Win 10 Pro then linux for a dual boot system so I'll try creating the bootable Win 10 USB you mention and update it to Pro the way you mentioned (hopefully it will allow me to use the $140 DVD key that I already purchased). Will let you know how this works out.

Thanks. FF

Thanks.

[FairwayFatty]

I  created a bootable USB with Win 10 from the Microsoft website as suggested, partitioned my hard drive leaving some unallocated space for linux and successfully installed Win 10 (unfortunately Home edition was the only option).

I attempted to upgrade to W10 Pro using my purchased Pro key via the suggested method:

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Update & Security > Activation.Select Change product key, and then enter the 25-character Windows 10 Pro product key. Select Next to start the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro.

This did not work with an invalid key error (though it was the key on my DVD).

I contacted Microsoft support and the only method was for them to remote into the laptop after Win 10 Home was installed and through a series of commands in shell, change (as explained) "core main board settings" to remove references to Home and allow Pro to be installed. Though the MS technician was very proficient it still took almost an hour on phone/remote access with slight language barriers but all in all it worked and my machine is now running Win10 Pro using my key.

I have installed Ubuntu on the unallocated partition and now successfully dual booting to either OS without issue. Thanks for all of the help. F

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

Sorry that you had such a difficult time upgrading to W10 Pro.