I'm having trouble installing Windows 10 on my laptop alongside a linux partition.
My hard drive is GPT partitioned, and I'm trying to install Windows 10 in UEFI mode at the beginning of the drive. The Windows 10 installer fails when trying to "Copy files" with
Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install windows, restart the installation.
It appears that the linux partitions are interfering with the Windows 10 installer. See fdisk output below (Note: /dev/sda5 is an EFI Systems Partition for linux).
$ fdisk -l
enter code hereDisk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 8D205EE8-3B6D-4C18-B358-44C7486F12A6
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 923647 921600 450M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda2 923648 1128447 204800 100M EFI System
/dev/sda3 1128448 1161215 32768 16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda4 1161216 135864319 134703104 64.2G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5 135864320 137961471 2097152 1G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda6 137961472 941170687 803209216 383G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda7 941170688 974725119 33554432 16G Linux swap
/dev/sda8 974725120 976773119 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda[1-4]
is created by the installer before it fails. People who have had similar problems have recommended that you completely wipe the hard drive before installing windows. However, this is not an option for me as I would like to keep my linux partitions. Is there anyway to install Windows 10 on a hard drive with other partitions?
Here is the output of efibootmgr
if it helps.
$ efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0024
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0026,0022,0025,000F,0023,0024,000D
Boot0002 Setup
Boot0003 Boot Menu
Boot0004 Diagnostic Splash Screen
Boot0005 Lenovo Diagnostics
Boot000D* PCI LAN
Boot000F* USB CD
Boot0010 Startup Interrupt Menu
Boot0011 Rescue and Recovery
Boot0012 MEBx Hot Key
Boot0013* IDER BOOT CDROM
Boot0014* IDER BOOT Floppy
Boot0015* ATA HDD
Boot0016* ATAPI CD
Boot0017* PCI LAN
Boot0022* USB FDD
Boot0023* ATAPI CD0
Boot0024* ATA HDD0
Boot0025* USB HDD
Boot0026 Linux Boot Manager
Best Answer
When doing a fresh install of Windows 10 I have always had to disconnect every single other efi bootable drive. If I don’t I’m stuck in an endless loop of the same error getting. What the others have told you is correct. As long as that Linux partition is visible from the installer you’re going to continue receiving that error.
If you don’t want to back up your Linux partition so you can wipe the drive and reinstall later, you’re going to need a second drive so you can at least disconnect the Linux drive.