Using PCS Recovery Media with UEFI

[bfranklin]

Hi all, need to pick your collective brains please...

Last year I purchased a PCS laptop, an Ultranote III. I now need to use the supplied recovery disk to reinstall Windows 10.

This is the first computer I have owned that uses UEFI instead of an old-style BIOS, and it has me a bit confused. I don't seem to be able to boot from the optical drive while the motherboard is in UEFI mode, but if I boot in BIOS mode and proceed with a clean install of Windows when I get to the disk partition setup screen I am unable to select the existing Windows partition for installation because the partition is formatted as GPT for use with UEFI mode!

How do I get myself out of this catch-22 situation? The only option that I can see is to reformat the Windows partition with an MBR and use BIOS mode. I'd prefer to stick with UEFI if possible though.

Any help much appreciated!

 

[Tony1044]

I'll be honest I've had various issues with any ISO's made from anything other than the Microsoft tool with EUFI systems.

My advice would be to download the Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft and user the tool they provide to create a bootable USB stick.

Download the relevant chipset and network card drivers to the same USB stick so you can get connected post-install then do a fresh install from the MS media.

Any drivers that don't get picked up by Windows or automatic updates can be retrieved from the Clevo website.

Windows 10 and the creator tool are here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

 

[bfranklin]

Thanks for the reply. I've already downloaded drivers etc to an SD card and tried installing from an ISO created by the media creation tool but that only got so far before getting stuck. The reset this PC option within Windows also gets stuck at the same percentage of completion each time.

Looks like I'll have to go out tomorrow and pick up a memory stick to finish the job without resorting to legacy BIOS.

Cheers for the pointers.

 

[ubuysa]

Tony1044 is spot on (of course ) and a USB stick with a freshly downloaded copy of Windows 10 is the way to go. Not only because optical drives are becoming outdated now but mainly because the version of Windows 10 you'll have on a DVD from last year will not be the latest Creators Edition, the last thing you'll want is to do a clean install only to have Windows Update do you an upgrade in place to the Creators Edition! It's much more sensible to use the Media Creation Tool to download the latest version of Windows 10 burned to a bootable USB stick and use that to do the reinstall.

When you do the resinstall choose a custom install and delete ALL of the GPT partitions on your system drive so that the whole drive shows as unallocated. Now create a single partition the size of the entire drive and the Windows installer will automatically detect UEFI mode and will create all the necessary GPT partitions for you. You simply then install Windows into the largest of these (the one that is automatically selected).

 

[bfranklin]

Up and running with a clean install of 1703 now after buying a new USB stick, thanks guys.

Had a moment of panic when I tried to change the boot device order and USB was not one of the offered options but then discovered it doesn't appear unless USB stick is actually plugged in. Bet I won't remember that next time and will have the exact same panic...

 

[Tony1044]

Up and running with a clean install of 1703 now after buying a new USB stick, thanks guys.

Had a moment of panic when I tried to change the boot device order and USB was not one of the offered options but then discovered it doesn't appear unless USB stick is actually plugged in. Bet I won't remember that next time and will have the exact same panic...

Can't begin to tell you how often I've done that. No panic anymore but <grumble grumble mutter can't believe I just did that again grumble>

Glad you're back up and running.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Can't begin to tell you how often I've done that. No panic anymore but <grumble grumble mutter can't believe I just did that again grumble>

Glad you're back up and running.

I've had to as well a couple of times on my laptop because of networking issues with win 10 updates... very frustrating!