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.
Thanks for any help.
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.
Thanks for any help.