[SOLVED] Windows 10 installation on laptop keeps resetting progress after it restarts

Jun 27, 2021
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My friends laptop had no audio and was consistently getting driver related errors on boot (I can list them if necessary) and after trying lots of different methods (I can list them if necessary) I was unable to get the audio to work. We decided to try a factory reset but that did not work and continued to give the errors. After this I figured that if a factory reset did not work only a clean install of Windows would work. I switched the boot drive to my USB with a Windows 10 iso on it and booted it up and began the installation process.

After the installation progress passes "adding features" and "adding updates" (or something along the lines of that) the laptop needs to restart according to windows so I let it restart. After it restarted it brought me back to the home screen from when you originally boot off of the drive. I also tried switching the boot drive to the hard drive after it says that it needs to restart but that just results in the same issue of bringing me back to the main boot screen after the restart. I have no idea what caused this and have tried some solutions i found online to no avail. At one point, I think after my first attempt of booting off of the usb. I got the error "0xc0000034" which is apparently a boot configuration data error. I googled this error code which brought me to the solutions mentioned earlier which are:
-repairing efi based bcd system
-deleting and rebuilding efi based bcd system (volume is in use by another)
The video said that if the first step didnt work then to move on to the second step which also didnt work because the "volume is in use by another". (I can link the video if necessary)

Any help is appreciated, pretty lost right now.
 
Solution
how many drives in laptop?

one way to stop error would be wipe the boot drive as its a windows error, you can't get it without it trying to get into windows. And we know windows broken as it only half isntalled.

most of the advice for HP say to turn secure boot off, and set bios to legacy and then boot off USB. None of it says anything about it reestarting from USB after the restart
see 2nd answer here - https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteb...equence-and-How-to-Boot-from-USB/td-p/6132655
My friends laptop had no audio and was consistently getting driver related errors on boot (I can list them if necessary) and after trying lots of different methods (I can list them if necessary) I was unable to get the audio to work. We decided to try a factory reset but that did not work and continued to give the errors. After this I figured that if a factory reset did not work only a clean install of Windows would work. I switched the boot drive to my USB with a Windows 10 iso on it and booted it up and began the installation process.

After the installation progress passes "adding features" and "adding updates" (or something along the lines of that) the laptop needs to restart according to windows so I let it restart. After it restarted it brought me back to the home screen from when you originally boot off of the drive. I also tried switching the boot drive to the hard drive after it says that it needs to restart but that just results in the same issue of bringing me back to the main boot screen after the restart. I have no idea what caused this and have tried some solutions i found online to no avail. At one point, I think after my first attempt of booting off of the usb. I got the error "0xc0000034" which is apparently a boot configuration data error. I googled this error code which brought me to the solutions mentioned earlier which are:
-repairing efi based bcd system
-deleting and rebuilding efi based bcd system (volume is in use by another)
The video said that if the first step didnt work then to move on to the second step which also didnt work because the "volume is in use by another". (I can link the video if necessary)

Any help is appreciated, pretty lost right now.
When did you create the bootable USB drive? If it’s been a while since you created it, you may need to do it again.
 
Did you remove the USB drive after you restarted the computer? It seems to be booting from the USB drive after the restart.
I didn't but I changed the boot drive to the hard drive . I'll try removing the usb drive after the restart now.

edit: also not sure if this is relevant but there's 6 different partitions when it asks me where I want to install windows
 
what make/model laptop?

some bios have an option called boot override you can use to boot off USB once and then next boot it will swap to normal drive. I can look to see if it exists in laptop.

Windows restarting the installer is a fun bug. Its only half installed so you can't save it from there, you need to start again and avoid it doing it again.
Sometimes simply removing usb isn't enough at this stage either, it can cause PC to still not work.
right at this stage of the install, windows hasn't created the boot files on C drive, its still running off the usb or ram or something magic, as I have helped someone who put another hdd in during the install process, after 1st restart and PC decided to use it as location of boot partition.
 
what make/model laptop?

some bios have an option called boot override you can use to boot off USB once and then next boot it will swap to normal drive. I can look to see if it exists in laptop.

Windows restarting the installer is a fun bug. Its only half installed so you can't save it from there, you need to start again and avoid it doing it again.
Sometimes simply removing usb isn't enough at this stage either, it can cause PC to still not work.
right at this stage of the install, windows hasn't created the boot files on C drive, its still running off the usb or ram or something magic, as I have helped someone who put another hdd in during the install process, after 1st restart and PC decided to use it as location of boot partition.
HP Envy 13-ba0553sa
I looked through the bios quickly and didnt't see a boot override option but I may have missed it. "The boot configuration data for your pc is missing or contains errors." is the message im getting along with the error code 0xc000014c when I remove the USB drive from the laptop, no matter what the boot drive is set to.
 
how many drives in laptop?

one way to stop error would be wipe the boot drive as its a windows error, you can't get it without it trying to get into windows. And we know windows broken as it only half isntalled.

most of the advice for HP say to turn secure boot off, and set bios to legacy and then boot off USB. None of it says anything about it reestarting from USB after the restart
see 2nd answer here - https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteb...equence-and-How-to-Boot-from-USB/td-p/6132655
 
Solution
how many drives in laptop?

one way to stop error would be wipe the boot drive as its a windows error, you can't get it without it trying to get into windows. And we know windows broken as it only half isntalled.

most of the advice for HP say to turn secure boot off, and set bios to legacy and then boot off USB. None of it says anything about it reestarting from USB after the restart
see 2nd answer here - https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteb...equence-and-How-to-Boot-from-USB/td-p/6132655
I think it only has 1 512gb drive but when i go into diskpart in cmd and type 'list disk' it has 3 different disks, with one being the USB drive and one being only around 260mb, along with the main drive, if that helps.
I turned off secure boot and restarted and got something requesting a password, which I typed in, but the bios seems the exact same to me.
I wiped the boot drive and began the Win10 installation process again with secure boot disabled. After wiping the boot drive I no longer have 6 partitions but only 2, the main drive and 27gb of unallocated space. After the installation process got to the point where it restarts, I got to the same issue where it just brings me back to the installation main screen.
 
After wiping the boot drive I no longer have 6 partitions but only 2, the main drive and 27gb of unallocated space.

its got 512gb nvme & 32gb of optane in it. the 27gb is the optane, explains the 260mb as well, it might have had Intel rapid storage technology on it, its possible it used the optane for a boot cache. It is slightly faster than nvme but only just. Seems a waste to be there really.
https://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c06913207.pdf

i wonder if windows installer is trying to put it on there.
it doesn't explain why you going around in circles with the install though. You might want to ask on the HP forums
 
its got 512gb nvme & 32gb of optane in it. the 27gb is the optane, explains the 260mb as well, it might have had Intel rapid storage technology on it, its possible it used the optane for a boot cache. It is slightly faster than nvme but only just. Seems a waste to be there really.
https://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c06913207.pdf

i wonder if windows installer is trying to put it on there.
it doesn't explain why you going around in circles with the install though. You might want to ask on the HP forums
Yea that's probably it thanks. I'll go ahead and ask on the HP forums.

edit: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Deskt...s-keeps-resetting-after-it/m-p/8098319#M67562 here is the link to the HP forum thread if anyone is interested

edit: it seems like wiping the main drive actually fixed the issue once i changed the boot drive again, i assume the partitions were the problem? Thanks a lot.
 
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