Windows 10 restart loop and GPT

BrianL

New member
After trouble-free running since 2016, my Windows 10 desktop PC suddenly came up with an error display, showing it had been unable to repair the disk with auto-repair. I restarted but it just re-ran auto-repair with the same error and stayed in this repair loop. I searched for "Windows 10 restart loop" (there's a lot of it about), spent a lot of time trying to get round it and eventually concluded the disk was corrupted and I would have to re-install Windows.

I put the PCSpecialist recovery media in the DVD drive and changed the UEFI/Bios setting to boot from the DVD. I started the setup and get a choice of Upgrade or Custom. I can't upgrade, as that needs to have Windows running and Windows doesn't start on my PC. So then I chose "Custom", as if for a new installation. It asked me where I want to install Windows, with these choices:
Drive 0 Partition 1:SYSTEM size 260.0MB System
Drive 0 Partition 2 size 120.0MB MSR (Reserved)
Drive 0 Partition 3:Windows Size 231.2GB Primary
Drive 0 Partition 4 Size 820.0 MB Recovery
Drive 0 Partition 5:Recovery Size 500.0MB Recovery

These were the partitions as delivered by PCSpecialist. It's a Samsung SSD.

Of these, only Drive 0,Partition 3:Windows looks possible. But the setup program says "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style".

Am I doing something wrong here? What should I do now?
I've seen suggestions on cleaning/formatting the drive or to try bootrec:
bootrec /RebuildBcd
bootrec /fixMbr
bootrec /fixboot

But I don't know exactly what I'd doing and it might make things worse - as if they could be. :eek:

Thanks for any help.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Reboot the install disk, choose a custom install and delete ALL partitions on drive 0 so that it all shows as 'unallocated space'. Then highlight that unallocated space and click Next. That's it! The installation software will create all the required partitions, populate them, and install Windows into the correct one (the largest). :)
 

BrianL

New member
Great! Thanks for this. I've done it and am already up and running again. I wouldn't have dared to delete all the partitions if you hadn't told me.
I did search for what to do with the recovery media but didn't find anything.
Thanks again.
 

nour

New member
Great! Thanks for this. I've done it and am already up and running again. I wouldn't have dared to delete all the partitions if you hadn't told me.
I did search for what to do with the recovery media but didn't find anything.
Thanks again.

Hi,
The recovery partition contains files allowing a factory-reset, so it can somtimes contain Windows file. You have your own DVD so nothing have been really lost.
But what all we hear about SSD (not reliable), be prepared to have this issue in the future.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Hi,
The recovery partition contains files allowing a factory-reset, so it can somtimes contain Windows file. You have your own DVD so nothing have been really lost.
But what all we hear about SSD (not reliable), be prepared to have this issue in the future.

That's common misconception. The UEFI Recovery partition is NOT a regular factory reset partition. It's there so that you can use the built-in Windows 'Reset' feature to reset Windows, that's not the same as a clean install nor a full factory reset. In any case, PCS do not use factory reset partitions.

Who says that SSDs are unreliable? What evidence do you have for claiming that?
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Great! Thanks for this. I've done it and am already up and running again. I wouldn't have dared to delete all the partitions if you hadn't told me.
I did search for what to do with the recovery media but didn't find anything.
Thanks again.

Happy to help, glad it's sorted! :clap:
 

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
Hi,
The recovery partition contains files allowing a factory-reset, so it can somtimes contain Windows file. You have your own DVD so nothing have been really lost.

Really? You think that Windows 10 which requires at a minimum, an 8GB USB drive to fit the install files onto can fit into a 500MB partition?


But what all we hear about SSD (not reliable), be prepared to have this issue in the future.


Better tell all the Enterprise customers I work with that have tier-0 (SSD) storage that it's unreliable. Not to mention my own server and my own 4 year old laptop which has three of them (one running since 2012!), my wife's laptop, my sons Macbook Air and my other son's gaming rig.

Failures to date: 1. And it was DOA.
 
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