Windows 10 USB boot drive - Purple screen?!?!

[Jed]

Hello guys,

My dads work computer was turnt off whilst it was updating and pretty much broke windows 10, i tried numerous methods to fix this but nothing worked, even reinstalling wouldnt work. I eventually gave up and bought a new windows key in the hope of doing a full clean install.. but the problem im having is when i boot from the USB windows starts to load then a full purple screen appears with nothing on it and it stays there, i have no idea what this is or how to fix it to i can put my key in and install windows? Any help appreciated!

Many thanks, Jed.

 

[Saltgrass]

To avoid confusion, I will consider the Purple screen to be blue. The monitor may be involved but there is nothing on that screen, no circling dots or flashing cursors?

Info on the system might help, such how old is it, model number, are you installing as UEFI or MBR mode? If you were trying to boot the MBR version of the install media it might show some type of error when booting on a Secure Boot system.

How did you create the USB install media? How does that media show in the Boot Device Menu?

 

[bassfisher6522]

Since it's a work computer....I'm assuming that work provided it, then it should be returned to the work place and let their IT department deal with it.

 

[Jed]

Since it's a work computer....I'm assuming that work provided it, then it should be returned to the work place and let their IT department deal with it.

He works from home and i built it myself mate, It should be a simple fix and i have done it with other operating systems but windows 10 is giving me multiple problems!

 

[Jed]

To avoid confusion, I will consider the Purple screen to be blue. The monitor may be involved but there is nothing on that screen, no circling dots or flashing cursors?

Info on the system might help, such how old is it, model number, are you installing as UEFI or MBR mode? If you were trying to boot the MBR version of the install media it might show some type of error when booting on a Secure Boot system.

How did you create the USB install media? How does that media show in the Boot Device Menu?

Its literally 2 months old and was built by myself mate, Im pretty sure its UEFI mode. I downloaded the install media straight from Microsoft as they offer a full usb drive boot install for free. It shows as the name of the USB Drive 'sandisk'. The usb originally worked but it would freeze when trying to install so after restarting multiple times it now freezes on the purple/blue screen with no moving dots or anything, i removed the boot and reinstalled it onto the USB and the problem still persists.

 

[Jed]

It might also be important to note that the screen isn't actually frozen, i can move my mouse around the screen but there is nothing for me to click on!

 

[Tim Locke]

Is this Sandisk USB drive one of those ones with some undeleteable Sandisk directories on it? I have one like that. If so that maybe your problem. Use a USB drive that formats in FAT32 with no other stuff apart from W10

Using Rufus to put W10 on the USB is good as well.

 

[Jed]

Is this Sandisk USB drive one of those ones with some undeleteable Sandisk directories on it? I have one like that. If so that maybe your problem. Use a USB drive that formats in FAT32 with no other stuff apart from W10

Using Rufus to put W10 on the USB is good as well.

when looking at it all it has in it is the windows 10 files mate, surely the usb boot microsoft actually offers you would be the same outcome as using rufus?

 

[Tim Locke]

I asked 'cos I have a couple of Sandisk drives with Sandisk stuff on them and I was about to put an insider build on one a year ago when I saw that W10 needed to be on an empty drive.

 

[Jed]

I asked 'cos I have a couple of Sandisk drives with Sandisk stuff on them and I was about to put an insider build on one a year ago when I saw that W10 needed to be on an empty drive.

Thanks for the help anyway man, i wished that was the cause of the problem after all!

 

[Trouble]

A clean install of Windows 10 shouldn't be this hard. My suggestion would be, to obtain a fresh ISO from here
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench
Choose Windows 10, the first item in the first drop down (not single language at the bottom)
Next choose your language and your bit version (32 or 64 bit to match your system architecture or in the case of an upgrade, to match your currently installed version of Windows).
That will provide an ISO that will upgrade, repair (or clean install) either or both Windows 10 Pro and Home.
Once you have downloaded the ISO you can use ImgBurn to burn it to a DVD http://imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
OR
Rufus to burn it to a USB ThumbDrive http://rufus.akeo.ie/
Depending on the installation GPT / UEFI versus MBR / Legacy you may need to make slight changes when using Rufus

 

[Jed]

f

A clean install of Windows 10 shouldn't be this hard. My suggestion would be, to obtain a fresh ISO from here
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench
Choose Windows 10, the first item in the first drop down (not single language at the bottom)
Next choose your language and your bit version (32 or 64 bit to match your system architecture or in the case of an upgrade, to match your currently installed version of Windows).
That will provide an ISO that will upgrade, repair (or clean install) either or both Windows 10 Pro and Home.
Once you have downloaded the ISO you can use ImgBurn to burn it to a DVD http://imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
OR
Rufus to burn it to a USB ThumbDrive http://rufus.akeo.ie/
Depending on the installation GPT / UEFI versus MBR / Legacy you may need to make slight changes when using Rufus

View attachment 3128

Doing this now mate but my rufus has been stuck on 'copying iso files' for 5 minutes now, is that normal? EDIT: soon as i say that its done, fingers crossed!

 

[Trouble]

Yep it can take a while to copy the install.wim file which for a 64 bit install is typically in the neighborhood of 3.79 gigs, so it will generally take some time maybe even as much as 10 minutes or so depending on the speed of your USB bus.

 

[Tim Locke]

Trouble beat me to it. Rufus is not the fastest program in the world and neither are USB drives the fastest devices.

 

[Jed]

Yep it can take a while to copy the install.wim file which for a 64 bit install is typically in the neighborhood of 3.79 gigs, so it will generally take some time maybe even as much as 10 minutes or so depending on the speed of your USB bus.

Unfortunately my first attempt didnt work, although im hoping its because the 'partition scheme' was incorrect, how do i determine which one i used? thanks for the help by the way pal.

 

[Trouble]

Generally, I would recommend UEFI / GPT seems to be the default for most newer computers that I've dealt with recently.
IF you have backed up any important data on the drive, I'd also recommend using DiskPart to clean the current drive of any configuration that may be in place as a result of previous installs.
NOTE: Be aware that it will wipe the drive completely
At the very earlier stage of the installation first or second screen.....
Hold the shift key and strike the F10 key to launch a command prompt and in the command prompt window type
diskpart
hit enter and give it a minute to change the prompt to diskpart and then type
list disk
hit enter
select disk 0 (assuming only a single disk attached and it is the disk you wish to install Windows on YOU DON'T want to mess up here)
hit enter
clean
hit enter
exit
hit enter
exit (again)
hit enter
continue install.

As far as GPT versus MBR partition scheme, I suppose GPT is currently preferred, if for no other reason that the fact that it supports more than 4 primary partitions, but if you decide on GPT then UEFI is a requirement.
IF you decide on MBR then UEFI is not required, assuming you can switch to legacy BIOS and switch off secure boot.

 

[Jed]

Generally, I would recommend UEFI / GPT seems to be the default for most newer computers that I've dealt with recently.
IF you have backed up any important data on the drive, I'd also recommend using DiskPart to clean the current drive of any configuration that may be in place as a result of previous installs.
NOTE: Be aware that it will wipe the drive completely
At the very earlier stage of the installation first or second screen.....
Hold the shift key and strike the F10 key to launch a command prompt and in the command prompt window type
diskpart
hit enter and give it a minute to change the prompt to diskpart and then type
list disk
hit enter
select disk 0 (assuming only a single disk attached and it is the disk you wish to install Windows on YOU DON'T want to mess up here)
hit enter
clean
hit enter
exit
hit enter
exit (again)
hit enter
continue install.

As far as GPT versus MBR partition scheme, I suppose GPT is currently preferred, if for no other reason that the fact that it supports more than 4 primary partitions, but if you decide on GPT then UEFI is a requirement.
IF you decide on MBR then UEFI is not required, assuming you can switch to legacy BIOS and switch off secure boot.

I want to try this now mate but i dont even get to an installation screen.. I boot from the USB and the windows 10 logo appears along with the circling balls then it goes straight to a purple/blue screen with nothing on it EDIT: I just booted the computer normally and got in the diskdrive that way, it says 938gb free out of 1TB and 0bytes available, does that sound right? its currently 'cleaning' but should take a while.

 

[Trouble]

I just booted the computer normally and got in the diskdrive that way, it says 938gb free out of 1TB and 0bytes available, does that sound right? its currently 'cleaning' but should take a while.

Got into the disk drive "what way"? It's possible you might only have a few gigs used if the drive was formerly hosting only an install of Windows 10 so, while I don't know exactly what a 1 TB drive formats out to be I know that a clean install shouldn't consume too much of the available space;
NOTE: Cleaning, using DiskPart usually only takes a matter of seconds, so.... how or what are you using to clean it?
You keep describing a "purple screen" when attempting to boot from the installation media.
The screen is generally a purple in color but it should contain the installation dialog box on top of the purple screen as in ......

Sort of purple I suppose.
On that screen is where you would use Shift F10 to produce a command prompt and use Diskpart for cleaning as in.....

 

[Jed]

Got into the disk drive "what way"? It's possible you might only have a few gigs used if the drive was formerly hosting only an install of Windows 10 so, while I don't know exactly what a 1 TB drive formats out to be I know that a clean install shouldn't consume too much of the available space;
NOTE: Cleaning, using DiskPart usually only takes a matter of seconds, so.... how or what are you using to clean it?
You keep describing a "purple screen" when attempting to boot from the installation media.
The screen is generally a purple in color but it should contain the installation dialog box on top of the purple screen as in ......

View attachment 3142

Sort of purple I suppose.
On that screen is where you would use Shift F10 to produce a command prompt and use Diskpart for cleaning as in.....

View attachment 3143

Unfortunatel in that window mine if just the purple/blue background without the window setup window! i cleaned the disk drive and booted from USB and all the windows correctly appeared all the way to putting my windows 10 key in, after chosing my hard drive its frozen but im hoping it will work if i give it a few minutes! fingers crossed.

 

[Trouble]

hoping it will work if i give it a few minutes!

Hopefully.
At least is sounds like you are making some progress