How to force reset windows 10?

[Highku]

Ok, so I have some nasty virus that no antivirus can get rid of that I have tried. It's a browser hijacker and there might be others. I can't reinstall windows from a USB, tried many times (see my post below). Every time I open the settings and press reset, it just doesn't do anything. I restarted my pc in safe mode and tried it, I did the thing where you hold shift and restart it, and it just ignored the shift and restarted normally instead of bringing up the troubleshooting menu. I have no Idea how to fix this, please help.

 

[DrMacintosh]

format the drive 

[Wolther]

Windows 10 has a way to do this without a bootable drive. Go to settings —> update and security —> recovery —> get started/reset this pc 

 

[Tabs]

3 minutes ago, Highku said:

Ok, so I have some nasty virus that no antivirus can get rid of that I have tried. It's a browser hijacker and there might be others. I can't reinstall windows from a USB, tried many times (see my post below). Every time I open the settings and press reset, it just doesn't do anything. I restarted my pc in safe mode and tried it, I did the thing where you hold shift and restart it, and it just ignored the shift and restarted normally instead of bringing up the troubleshooting menu. I have no Idea how to fix this, please help.

 

If you want to go this route, there's literally an option in settings called "reset this pc" that will do what you ask. However, it's not necessarily as good as a full reinstall from scratch.

 

I read some of the thread you linked, and if you can actually get the USB drive to boot (to where it says you're missing drivers), then you're golden - go to your motherboard manufacturers site, download the controller drivers for your board, and put them on the same USB stick you boot from. When windows asks, point it at that folder with the drivers, and it should then see your disks and give you the option to fresh install.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

2 minutes ago, Highku said:

Ok, so I have some nasty virus that no antivirus can get rid of that I have tried. It's a browser hijacker and there might be others. I can't reinstall windows from a USB, tried many times (see my post below). Every time I open the settings and press reset, it just doesn't do anything. I restarted my pc in safe mode and tried it, I did the thing where you hold shift and restart it, and it just ignored the shift and restarted normally instead of bringing up the troubleshooting menu. I have no Idea how to fix this, please help.

 

When reinstalling Windows, you don't actually do it within your current Windows install. Rather, you will have to boot off the USB or DVD, format the hard drive, then install. This video is probably more thorough than my go to video to link for installing Windows. Keep in mind, you may want to boot into safe mode and backup any files you'll need as formatting will delete everything from your disk.

 

In reaction to some of the things people in your original thread had suggested. DO NOT install windows using another PC and just transfer the drive over to your current one. It will almost always cause issues even on a fresh installation. You'll run into boot errors and general system instability even if it does boot into Windows. The best method is to do a clean installation using the machine you want it on. 

[Highku]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

format the drive 

Well, I would do that, but when I try to install windows, it errors out immediately after starting the installation, so I don't think that's the problem since it says the drivers are the problem.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 minute ago, Highku said:

Well, I would do that, but when I try to install windows, it errors out immediately after starting the installation, so I don't think that's the problem since it says the drivers are the problem.

I drivers are a problem, unplug any unnecessary accessories when installing Windows. Some USB devices can cause the installation to fail as Windows will try to install the drivers all at once, and fail at doing so if you have the odd devices plugged in.

[RenaKry]

Well, there must be at least one way. Otherwise, how else could you install Windows in the first place?

If just copying the Windows DVD contents to a USB drive doesn't work, try finding an iso image or rip one yourself using ImgBurn, and then use Rufus to make a bootable USB drive with the Windows iso.

 

Otherwise, try a USB DVD drive if you have one. If all else fails, get a new computer. A computer made within the last several years can boot off a USB drive and install Windows without any hiccups.

[Highku]

Just now, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I drivers are a problem, unplug any unnecessary accessories when installing Windows. Some USB devices can cause the installation to fail as Windows will try to install the drivers all at once, and fail at doing so. 

1

The only thing that I had plugged in was my keyboard, mouse, and the usb drive im installing from. I also tried it with just the keyboard, and just the mouse in case one of them was the problem, but still got the same error.

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Just now, Highku said:

The only thing that I had plugged in was my keyboard, mouse, and the usb drive im installing from. I also tried it with just the keyboard, and just the mouse in case one of them was the problem, but still got the same error.

 

What I sometimes do is once I click next to install, I unplug everything except the USB drive. Works for me most of the time. For very stubborn systems, using a DVD seems to sort things out. This is the problem with Windows, with so many hardware configurations, it's sometimes hard to pinpoint the source of problems. 

[Highku]

2 minutes ago, nelsonpong said:

Well, there must be at least one way. Otherwise, how else could you install Windows in the first place?

If just copying the Windows DVD contents to a USB drive doesn't work, try finding an iso image or rip one yourself using ImgBurn, and then use Rufus to make a bootable USB drive with the Windows iso.

 

Otherwise, try a USB DVD drive if you have one. If all else fails, get a new computer. A computer made within the last several years can boot off a USB drive and install Windows without any hiccups.

I have no idea whats up with my pr right now, but it's not hardware limitations, i have a 1060, ryzen5 1600, m.2, and 8 gb of ram.

[Tabs]

2 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I drivers are a problem, unplug any unnecessary accessories when installing Windows. Some USB devices can cause the installation to fail as Windows will try to install the drivers all at once, and fail at doing so if you have the odd devices plugged in.

That's not how the Windows installation process works. Drivers for devices are installed after the first reboot of a system, after the installer (on usb/dvd) has successfully applied the Windows image from the install.wim to the bootable device. @Highku isn't getting that far, so the other devices in the system won't be having any impact on his ability to install.

 

Also, your video link is for Windows 8.1, in Windows 10 you can fully reinstall from within Windows using the "reset this pc" option in Settings.

 

The issue here however is that the Windows image doesn't have the driver for his disk controller. This makes sense, as Ryzen is a new platform and doesn't yet have baked in support in the default Windows image.

 

If he puts the drivers for his board on the same drive he boots from, he can select them during Setup to enable the install to continue normally.

[Highku]

1 minute ago, Tabs said:

That's not how the Windows installation process works. Drivers for devices are installed after the first reboot of a system, after the installer (on usb/dvd) has successfully applied the Windows image from the install.wim to the bootable device. @Highku isn't getting that far, so the other devices in the system won't be having any impact on his ability to install.

 

Also, your video link is for Windows 8.1, in Windows 10 you can fully reinstall from within Windows using the "reset this pc" option in Settings.

 

The issue here however is that the Windows image doesn't have the driver for his disk controller. This makes sense, as Ryzen is a new platform and doesn't yet have baked in support in the default Windows image.

 

If he puts the drivers for his board on the same drive he boots from, he can select them during Setup to enable the install to continue normally.

ok, so where would one find this driver?

[RenaKry]

A lack of drivers preventing Windows from installing doesn't make any sense. Unless the computer was prebuilt, there is no possible way you couldn't reinstall Windows the same way you installed Windows the first time.

[Tabs]

1 minute ago, Highku said:

ok, so where would one find this driver?

On the website for your motherboard. You haven't said exactly which motherboard you're using, or I would have provided a link.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

6 minutes ago, Tabs said:

That's not how the Windows installation process works. Drivers for devices are installed after the first reboot of a system, after the installer (on usb/dvd) has successfully applied the Windows image from the install.wim to the bootable device. @Highku isn't getting that far, so the other devices in the system won't be having any impact on his ability to install.

 

Also, your video link is for Windows 8.1, in Windows 10 you can fully reinstall from within Windows using the "reset this pc" option in Settings.

 

The issue here however is that the Windows image doesn't have the driver for his disk controller. This makes sense, as Ryzen is a new platform and doesn't yet have baked in support in the default Windows image.

 

If he puts the drivers for his board on the same drive he boots from, he can select them during Setup to enable the install to continue normally.

It doesn't make sense to me either, but that's what my system apparently likes. *shrugs*

[Highku]

1 minute ago, Tabs said:

On the website for your motherboard. You haven't said exactly which motherboard you're using, or I would have provided a link.

It's the MSI B350 Mortar Arctic (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/B350M-MORTAR-ARCTIC#down-driver&Win10 64) which one do I need?

[Tabs]

Despite it's name, I believe the one you're looking for is the "AM4 Raid Driver". However, I would download the chipset driver package as well. It may take you some time to find the individual driver(s) needed for Windows to properly detect your controllers.

 

However, once you know which drivers you need, you can save them for use in future.

[Highku]

Just now, Tabs said:

Despite it's name, I believe the one you're looking for is the "AM4 Raid Driver". However, I would download the chipset driver package as well. It may take you some time to find the individual driver(s) needed for Windows to properly detect your controllers.

 

However, once you know which drivers you need, you can save them for use in future.

Ok, i have them both, and I will let you know if I find the driver I need, thanks

[Tabs]

Just now, Highku said:

Ok, i have them both, and I will let you know if I find the driver I need, thanks

I'm downloading the driver pack as well, so if I see a driver I think is more relevant I'll let you know. For some reason I'm only getting about 3MB/s for this, which is a bit of a pain for a 1GB driver bundle.

[Tabs]

35 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

It doesn't make sense to me either, but that's what my system apparently likes. *shrugs*

Weird, but fair enough - if it works, it works, right?

[Highku]

1 minute ago, Tabs said:

I'm downloading the driver pack as well, so if I see a driver I think is more relevant I'll let you know. For some reason I'm only getting about 3MB/s for this, which is a bit of a pain for a 1GB driver bundle.

Ok, nice, i'll look too

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 minute ago, Tabs said:

Weird, but fair enough - if it works, it works, right?

My explanation is always... it's Windows, anything is possible. 

[Tabs]

9 minutes ago, Highku said:

Ok, nice, i'll look too

Whilst this is going, do you know what version of Windows 10 you're installing? The latest is 1709 (16299.15), and you're likely to have the highest chance of success installing using the latest media.

 

You can download the iso from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO/, but only if you access it using a non-Windows machine. If you go to this link on a Windows machine, you get redirected to the media creation tool instead, which can create an iso, but it's slightly more limited in scope.

 

Edit: Also worth creating the iso using Rufus rather than directly through the MCT, since that then lets you keep a copy of the iso around for future use (like fixing the machine with DISM etc).

[Highku]

2 hours ago, Tabs said:

Whilst this is going, do you know what version of Windows 10 you're installing? The latest is 1709 (16299.15), and you're likely to have the highest chance of success installing using the latest media.

 

You can download the iso from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO/, but only if you access it using a non-Windows machine. If you go to this link on a Windows machine, you get redirected to the media creation tool instead, which can create an iso, but it's slightly more limited in scope.

 

Edit: Also worth creating the iso using Rufus rather than directly through the MCT, since that then lets you keep a copy of the iso around for future use (like fixing the machine with DISM etc).

Rufus errored out for me, it said that it failed to extract the iso