Win10 ISO install hangs at first reboot (Solved)

[zigzag03]

Have repartitioned and formatted a hard drive to install Win10 from ISO on a stick. When it gets to the first reboot, it goes to a flashing cursor in the upper left corner of the screen, and no further.
The hard disk has a single active partition, and formatted NTFS. All the usual Windows file structure is there after the install, but it won't boot. Is there something I didn't do during the partition/formatting that I've missed, or might there be some problem with the ISO install?

 

[razel]

Could be:

- not booting from the Win10 USB
- incorrect creation of the USB (non active partition)
- corrupt Win10 ISO or copy to USB

The corrupt copy to USB I've been noticing more frequently. It could be because 8 year old USB drives the ones 8GB and below that are popular for USB boot sticks people own are flat out worn out or USB drive's NAND is so cheap you are now the QA for bottom barrel NAND chips.

 

[zigzag03]

I won't rule that possibility out, these sticks are a couple years old. But once the install is done, its booting off the hard disk at that point is it not? Back in the day, you formatted hard drives for data or boot. Shouldn't Win10 make whatever partition it's being installed to a bootable partition? Or did I have to do that when I did the original format, an option I did not notice when I did it (with partition magic free version)? I have a nice 32g usb3.0 stick I can try tonite to eliminate the bad media problem. And I can re-download the iso for the heck of it. Thanks

 

[Ketchup]

No reason to use propritary software. Download the Windows 10 media creation tool from here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
Run it and tell it to go to usb flash drive, then once you are done use your flash drive to install Windows.

 

[zigzag03]

I actually had trouble with the media creation tool, it failed to complete and gave an error message on my own win10 machine. I may give it another shot.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you are creating and formatting your OS partition with a third-party tool, rather than the Windows' installer, then you must ensure that the partition is flagged as Active and Bootable, and has proper MBR code.

 

[zigzag03]

If you are creating and formatting your OS partition with a third-party tool, rather than the Windows' installer, then you must ensure that the partition is flagged as Active and Bootable, and has proper MBR code.

Ive been unable to get back to this machine, but this is what I'm thinking is my issue, and I'll dig in over the weekend, thanks. If it was a problem with the install, or even if there was no install, if the partition was bootable, it would come up and say "no os" or words to that effect.

 

[vailr]

Some machines will try and re-boot again from the USB thumb drive, while other machines will only boot from the drive designated in bios setup. Try unplugging the USB thumb drive at the point in time when the first system re-boot is triggered: when you hear the system beep.

 

[zigzag03]

My problem is solved, and doubtless was caused by thinking I knew more than I knew. I often have this problem! I cleared and repartitioned the drive again, and nothing else. Then ran the ISO boot drive and when it got to the screen that allows drive selection, did not pick "format", just went ahead and let it do its thing, and viola, it worked fine. I want to thank everyone who has had input in this thread and hope it helps others down the road. zz03