0

I have a rather old but still capable and working HP notebook. It's an HP nc8430 with 4GB or RAM and I used to run Windows 8.1 on it without a problem. for the last N years.

The machine is old so I suspect it may have some HW problems and as I can't seem to be able to reinstall it. When I boot from DVD it shows up the Windows logo but then it stays on this screen for a few minutes until I get a blue screen (graphical not text which means that this error is not something completely unexpected) telling me:

Recovery

There was a problem with a device connected to your PC.

An unexpected I/O error has occurred. Error code: 0x00000e9

This problem can happen when a removable storage device is removed while it's in use or is failing. Properly connecting any removable storage and restarting your PC may fix the problem.

Since the HDD I put in and want to use already has Vista on it and boots without any issues I suspect the disk is fine. I also tried removing it as Windows setup would kindly remind me later that there's not media to install OS on.

So I suspect it may be the DVD controller as I have a spare DVD drive and replaced it but the same thing happened. Therefore I conclude DVD drive is fine.

What other ways are there to install Windows on my machine

That's why I was thinking of these possibilities:

  1. Connect HDD to a second computer and create a smallest partition on it so that I could put on bootable Windows setup that I could boot to. During this setup I would then partition the disk and install on the same disk (but different partition). But is this possible, has anyone done it and how?
  2. I'm not sure whether I can create a bootable SD card and whether my notebook would be able to boot from it so that I could put Windows setup on it and install from there.
  3. Create a bootable USB HDD/Flash with Windows setup and install from there onto internal HDD.

I would prefer the first one if at all possible.

Is there anything else I can do to dismiss the error and install a fresh copy of Windows on my internal HDD?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

I'm not sure about the second option but the third is definitely possible and even supported by the default media creation kit.

The first option is viable as well. The question is how the HDD is currently formatted. If it is a MBR disk (likely if that device is a bit older) you'll have to have a free primary parition to put the files on. Format it as FAT32/NTFS and put the files on it. Afterwards mark is as bootable and I believe you should be good to go. It's been some time so I'm not 100% sure, there are plenty of guides for external HDDs and those should work for this case as well.

To fix the actual error maybe use CHKDSK and run a full check. It might be that there are bad sectors and the setup just happens to try to use them. If there are other storage devices (SD-Cards, USB-Sticks etc.) connected try to remove them as well.

Improve this answer
4
  • I don't care of wiping my whole HDD. The question is whether I can have a bootable partition on this disk and then install Windows on the same disk? I suppose only one partition can be primary = bootable by default? So if at first that's the Windows Setup partition I would afterwards need to change this and set the installed Windows partition to be the primary one, shouldn't I?
    – Robert Koritnik
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 8:57
  • It's done during the setup. Say you have that 10 GB partition where the setup resides and you start the install. At the point where you setup the partition to install windows on it's going to mark that partition as bootable anyway. In addition you will end up with a boot entry that says "Windows Setup" - not that you'd need it but it's there.
    – Seth
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 10:09
  • You mean as a dual boot with one partition being the Windows Setup? But I can subsequently delete that partition and resize the installed OS's one, right? Likely not while the Windows would be running so I'd have to reattach it to a different computer again.
    – Robert Koritnik
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 11:11
  • Yes, at the start it would be like that. You can delete the entry and partition later on. Your initial setup decides whenever you need to attach the disk to a different computer. If you put the partition for the install in the "back" of the disk you won't have any issue to delete and resize from within windows. If you have it in the front ... well that's a different story. Windows can grow and shrink partitions but can't move (the start) of them.
    – Seth
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 11:46

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .