Windows 10 Can't boot from DVD or USB when hard drive is plugged in

[Kurt Giesselman]

Desktop PC:
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe (older motherboard but it has 8 SATA ports, two IDEs, and a floppy disk port)
AMD 4000+
4 x 512mb DDR 233mHz memory
nVidia 9500 GT
1 x WD Raptor 74gb on SATA 1
2 x LD DVD drives on SATA 3&4
4 x Toshiba 2TB on SATA RAID 1-4 (Silicon Image RAID controller on the motherboard)
700w power supply

I am trying to load Windows 10 x32. I had upgraded from Windows 7 Ultimate and was actually running W10. I just wanted to do a clean install. This will strictly be a video server for the home.

I have tried loading Windows on an 8GB USB made from an ISO and the Media Creation Tool.
I have tried burning a DVD from an ISO and the Media Creation Tool.

Any and all attempts to boot from a USB or DVD result in a black screen. I have gone into the BIOS and tried every combination of boot order including all DVD drive, all USB drive, hard drive last, hard drive second, hard drive third. I have booted into the boot menu and selected the DVD (tried both drives), the USB, and anything else you might think of.

I even pulled the hard drive and formatted it on another machine. Finally, in desperation, I unplugged the hard drive's SATA cable. Poof, the USB booted BUT with no place to load an OS I have to shut down.

Running out of ideas. This box ran Windows 10 once. What on earth am I missing? I assume the boot is always defaulting to the blank hard drive, hence the blank screen.

 

[Neemobeer]

Please verify the following

• Hard drive mode should be something like Legacy or IDE, make sure its on SATA Native or AHCI
• Look for a "Boot Mode" you may have legacy, UEFI hybrid or UEFI available, put it on UEFI
• Look for Secure Boot and lets turn that on too for the safest booting and because Windows 10 supports it all

Use the media creation tool to just download the ISO file and choose the "Windows 10" that should be the correct one for Windows 32 home
Download Rufus Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way and launch it

1. Select your usb drive
2. Select the UEFI partition scheme
3. NTFS filesystem
4. Use this button to select your ISO
5. Press start

 

[Kurt Giesselman]

Please verify the following

• Hard drive mode should be something like Legacy or IDE, make sure its on SATA Native or AHCI
• Look for a "Boot Mode" you may have legacy, UEFI hybrid or UEFI available, put it on UEFI
• Look for Secure Boot and lets turn that on too for the safest booting and because Windows 10 supports it all

Use the media creation tool to just download the ISO file and choose the "Windows 10" that should be the correct one for Windows 32 home
Download Rufus and launch it

1. Select your usb drive
2. Select the UEFI partition scheme
3. NTFS filesystem
4. Use this button to select your ISO
5. Press start

View attachment 32266

Neemobeer,
Thanks for the reply. This is an older Phoenix Award BIOS, before the days of UEFI. Mr. Peabody, set the way back machine for 2004.
Although I know what you want me to look for above there is no hard drive mode or Boot Mode. This is pre-AHCI.

I downloaded Rufus. Ran it. Program is clearly running in the background but does,nt have a window open. I am going to reboot then try again. I would have thought the Windows Media Creation tool would create a bootable device. I'll just about anything at this point

 

[Neemobeer]

Ok in that case in Rufus (2) select MBR scheme and fat32 for (3)

The MCT does create a bootable USB, but it might be creating it as a MBR UEFI hybrid or UEFI and in that case your computer wont boot to it properly

 

[Kurt Giesselman]

Ok in that case in Rufus (2) select MBR scheme and fat32 for (3)

The MCT does create a bootable USB, but it might be creating it as a MBR UEFI hybrid or UEFI and in that case your computer wont boot to it properly

Neemobeer,
Righto. Just to note, I created per your original instructions AND I got a different result. That is progress any way you look at it. When I booted from the Rufus created USB I got an error BUT I got a failed boot.
"Recovery
Your PC/Device needs to be repaired.
The application or operating system couldn't be loaded because a required file is missing our contains errors.
File: Windows\system32\winload.exe

On to next step....Thanks!

 

[Neemobeer]

You may want to re-download the ISO then it might be corrupted.

 

[Kurt Giesselman]

Neemobeer,
Righto. Just to note, I created per your original instructions AND I got a different result. That is progress any way you look at it. When I booted from the Rufus created USB I got an error BUT I got a failed boot.
"Recovery
Your PC/Device needs to be repaired.
The application or operating system couldn't be loaded because a required file is missing our contains errors.
File: Windows\system32\winload.exe

On to next step....Thanks!

So...Can not select FAT32. The Windows10x32 ISO does not support that format.
I am trying a few advanced options because what can it hurt:0 "Add fixes for old BIOSes" and "Use Rufus MBR with BIOS ID"
To me, your diagnosis is correct. The boot USB that is being created by MCT is not 100% compatible. That explains the inconsistent results.

 

[Neemobeer]

Thats fine pick NTFS

 

[Kurt Giesselman]

Redownloaded ISO. Now have blue window on black background. No circling dots yet. I have had the experience of a very long delay before the dots start circling the wagons. I will give it some time to see if we can get the dots moving

 

[Kurt Giesselman]

I wonder if the DVDs I created have a similar problem....that the bootloader being used these days supports UEFI or UEFI Hybrid BIOSes only. I wonder where I could go to find an old style bootloader. I got about a bazillion old OS DVDs. Maybe I can find an old OS that I can upgrade my way to W10. Horrifying thought.

But wait...at the language screen On my way it seems. Thanks Neemobeer. Fantastic help.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi Kurt,
All of this is not doing you any good; it's a problem you can't solve. Win10 will NOT install on any OEM computer nor any Motherboard on a self-built PC build prior to 2005! And to complicate things, Rufus won't make a bootable W10 usb stick. Tried it on multiple computers, along with every other tool out there. You must use WiNToBootIC usb burning tool. And, you mentioned you attempting to make your USB stick on an 8GB stick; that also will never work!! You must use a minimum of a 16GB usb stick. The W10 image used needs 9.3GB minimum, larger than will fit on an 8GB stick, plus about another 5GB for the image extraction process. I've written this up earlier this year and it's floating around on this forum and others. It's well documented. The problem you have is that your AMD CPU doesn't support 3 different Register CPU instructions including SSE3 & NX (there's a 3rd one, cant' remember at the moment), and that's why W10 will never work on a Mobo that ancient!! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

I suggest you take that Mobo out and scrap it, or add it to the wall as I do with my Collection of outdated Mobo hardware.

Cheers!!
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>