Windows 10 Won't Boot.. Stuck on Blinking Cursor / Black Screen

quakeworld

Senior member
Aug 5, 2009
222
0
76
Hey guys. Running Windows 10 and have 2 hard disks , 2 partitions each. Turned on computer and was stuck on a black screen with a blinking cursor. Searched for a solution online and determined I had bad sectors which prevented W10 from booting. Did a chkdsk and found bad clusters in one of the partitions on the primary HD. Rebooted and was still stuck on the blinking cursor. Did some more research and used the following commands bootrec /RebuldBcd, bootrec /FixMbr, bootrec /fixboot and bootsect /nt60 ALL. All to no avail. Decided to reformat but now I can't install Windows 10 because all the partitions have an MBR on them (I forget the exact message but it had MBR and GPT in it). Anyone have any ideas how to fix this? Using a Linux Live USB stick right now so I can still use the computer. Thanks in advance.
 

Bat123Man

Member
Nov 14, 2006
190
4
81
You are booting in UEFI mode. The error message you are seeing is this :

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR
partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks. "

Boot the Windows installation media in non-UEFI (Legacy) mode. There should be that option in the BIOS, else disable "UEFI booting".
 

deustroop

Golden Member
Dec 12, 2010
1,916
354
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I suggest you keep the UEFI system . UEFI has advantages and MBR has disadvantages, like the limited number of partitions and its disk size limits. Plus an UEFI bios is more tweakable.

The secret here is to delete all partitions on the disk before the actual install . I suggest these steps to achieve an install that will sort this out. (Ensure that you have only the target disk hooked up during the install.)

Create an up to date USB install media by following the steps outlined here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10
Then disconnect or disable all hdd /ssd drives but the one where you will install windows.

Insert the USB media tool, with the windows install files, into the board. Next startup and go to the board setup and ensure the board is configured to use UEFI boot settings, CSM is enabled and SATA mode set to AHCI.

On the motherboard boot device menu, select the command that identifies both the firmware mode and the media device. For example, select UEFI: USB Drive or Windows Boot Manager: USB, and list that device in the first boot slot on the board.

Reboot. Install begins.

When choosing an installation type, select Custom. On new disks, the drive will show a single area of unallocated space. If there are partitions, select each one and then "delete".

Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows detects that the PC was booted into UEFI mode, partitions the drive using the GPT and begins the installation.

NOTE: Any data on the drive will be lost
 

Bat123Man

Member
Nov 14, 2006
190
4
81
For the record, agree 100% with deustroop. I assumed there was some legacy reason OP chose MBR over UEFI, but that may have been an incorrect assumption. MBR is ancient (dates from early 80's) and should only be used if there is no other option.
 

quakeworld

Senior member
Aug 5, 2009
222
0
76
thanks for the responses. i deleted the partitions (including system reserve) and just had one unallocated drive and windows installed. although now, in the boot menu, the entry UEFI: Hard Drive Windows Boot Manager is in the list of boot device options. If I choose my primary hard drive instead as #1 option and ignore the windows boot manager windows won't boot. for now i'm ok as long as i'm able to use my computer again hehehe.