Windows won't install

[joebuckley559]

Hi,
I'm trying to install windows server on my sunfire x4100 m2. Whenever I try to boot from a USB I get the error message 'a disk read error occurred. Press ctrl alt delete to restart'. However, I can successfully install Linux (I've tried Debian, Ubuntu, and mint). I'm using Rufus to make bootable USBs and my server does not have a disk drive (I've tried USB disk drives). Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Joe

 

[Scottray]

My first guess, is that the boot sector on the USB thumb drive is not created correctly using rufus.

You may want to try creating your usb thumb drive with this procedure: http://itproguru.com/expert/2016/05/create-bootable-windows-server-2016-usb-thumb-drive-for-installing-os/.

 

[joebuckley559]

Thank you, I’ll certainly try it but the rufus drive works on other computers.

 

[Scottray]

Tom's HW forum is littered with people that used Rufus, but it didn't work for their install. I personally haven't used Rufus, I'm just commenting on the number of threads that I've seen. My guess is that somewhere in Rufus, hardware recognition and initialization is a problem for Microsoft installs. However, you don't this problem with Linux installs on x86 hardware. Strange.

 

[joebuckley559]

It didn’t work

 

[joebuckley559]

Tom's HW forum is littered with people that used Rufus, but it didn't work for their install. I personally haven't used Rufus, I'm just commenting on the number of threads that I've seen. My guess is that somewhere in Rufus, hardware recognition and initialization is a problem for Microsoft installs. However, you don't this problem with Linux installs on x86 hardware. Strange.

It didn't work

 

[Peter Martin]

have you tried making the usb with Microsoft's own Media Creation Tool?

 

[joebuckley559]

have you tried making the usb with Microsoft's own Media Creation Tool?

yes

 

[Peter Martin]

try a different 8GB usb 2.0 stick. they are cheap.

 

[joebuckley559]

try a different 8GB usb 2.0 stick. they are cheap.

Tried it. No different.

 

[Peter Martin]

Then it’s your hardware. It’s replacement time

 

[Colif]

Its likely the age of the hardware itself, from what I can tell the Sunfire X4100 was released in 2008, and its unlikely Win 10 still has drivers for it so it wouldn't know what to do with it, even if you got past that screen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Fire

Seems it has an Nvidia chipset and they don't support them anymore

Which version of server were you installing?