Can't stop windows installng from custom image.

knobshine

knobshine

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Hi all.

I'm having trouble getting my windows to install from my physical Windows 8 Pro DVD. It keeps on using a custom image that somehow got onto my pc that adds a whole bunch of uneeded features, tasks and auto configures some apps like my firewall and security policy.

Almost seems like a custom install that was made to be pushed out to client machines in a domain environment as it restricts me from making changes certain settings saying I'm not using a domain admin account only a local admin account. It's also seems to be using a group policy that I can't make changes to or remove as I'm just a local admin and not a domain admin.

I've tried formatting my HDD and doing a fresh install but it keeps rebuilding the custom image from my DVD and then uses that instead of just installing straight from the disk.

I've searched google but can only find how to create a custom install image, nothing on how to remove one or revert back to installing the stock standard version from the physical disk.

Even if anyone could just point me to a how-to or something that I can follow I'd be very grateful as I'm am currently stumped.
 
Downgrade to windows 7 if you can't get it to install properly would be my advice.
 
Cheers for the quick replies guys. At this point I'm willing to try anything.

I've tried using my Vista and Windows 7 but it still just automatically pulls what it needs from the disk and then creates the image from that. Seems it's able to check which version of Windows is being installed then uses the appropriate unattended file for that version.

Haven't tried using Gparted yet or another pc to format the drive. I'll do both and format the drive with gparted using my laptop.

Again thanks for the advice. I'll post an update on the outcome once done.
 
Seems windows can't see the physical drive which is a regular sata ssd plugged directly into my mobo sata ports. Sees the drive as a scsi device connected via an emulated scsi controller. which I am starting to think could just be a vhd meaning that I'm basically locked in my playpen and have to play with my plastic "babys first pc" type toys because I'm not allowed to touch daddys real computer cause I might break it.

I can see the physical drives i my uefi though. So I'm hoping there is a way to format/wipe the drive from the efi shell.
I've been trying to find out if this possible or not but can't seem to find a definitive answer. I've managed to mount the drive but can't figure out how to actually make changes without getting access denied messages waved in my face.

Any suggestions on how to get access to the drive before i'm relegated back to my cage to dream of the day I can graduate from my fuzzy felt and etch-a-scetch and play big boy games like event viewer and firewall settings. :P

This is what I'm seeing in my reg of my Win 10 laptop which is showing the same symptoms as my Desktop which is even more weird as it running Home edition but is still being controlled by group policy and behaves as though it's in a domain. So hopefully I'll be able to apply the same method to cleanse it on I figure out how to get access to my physical devices again and make use of all my hardware not just what I'm pretty sure is a virtual environment rations out to me.

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2.jpg

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If you can get the drive into another machine, use diskpart to "clean" the drive

from an administrative command prompt:

Diskpart /?
 
tried that. Just updated last post. Seems my laptop is also suffering from the same symptoms.

when us diskpart it shows my dvd drive and hdd as being different volumes on the same disk. So i'm not very confident in it's ability to wipe the physical hdd.
 
knobshine said:
I've tried using my Vista and Windows 7 but it still just automatically pulls what it needs from the disk and then creates the image from that.
Click to expand...
Disable secure boot in BIOS, also change from UEFI boot to compatible unless you have large hard drive. Windows 7 disk is not compatible with secure boot.

When you get Win 7 install running, delete all partitions from the hard drive and start over with default options. Hope it helps.
 
Ryansr said:
This.
Click to expand...
I've never used gparted before so I don't know I wouldn't be able to tel the difference between the real thing or a blatant fake. And ever since i was reassured that the rule in my firewall that allows all programs to connect using port from any remote ip to any local ip is a default windows rule and not to be overly concerned about it. I can't really be sure I'm downloading what it says it is.

BTW how big is it? The image I got was about 240mb and wanted to install a gnome desktop ui which I think is a little overkill to just wipe/format a drive.

Here is my disk manager while loading not the service being loaded. And then the window will flicker and display the 2nd pic.
d1.PNG

d2.PNG
 
I'm actually going to start posting a few pics of what I don't think is normal on a stand alone windows 8 pro installed onto the physical hhd and not part of a domain.

Below is what my browser says the address of this forum is. Now Idea its correct or even if it's using a public IP as I can't remember the ranges and can't find a list on the net which is another worry.
myadsl.PNG
 
You have 2 recovery partitions on the drive (as has been stated before).
One of those has your knobbled Win8 install that you don't want.

If you want to Nuke and do a proper clean install, use a Linux liveCD eg Gparted or similar, kill all the existing partitions, then reinstall Windows.

Not sure why you're using Win8, you can download the Windows 10 ISO from MS Site here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

Install without key, then use online support to get them to assist with a digital licence (its free if you have a legit win7/8 licence).
Easy enough to do it here - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus/

Just went through that for an Acer laptop I reinstalled for a client.
I had some other hoops to jump through, like installing a UEFI BIOS.. but that was another story (some bios installer patching, and swearing was involved).

If you don't have a CD drive, then you can use Rufus to burn the downloaded ISO to a USB.
http://rufus.akeo.ie
 
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hey guys. Thanks for all the advice. My problem at the moment is that I can't really use the internet as a resource to get the tools I need to wipe my drive and move on from there. I'll give the gparted I downloaded a go and see if it's able to wipe my drive before I'm contained to what I'm suspecting is basically a guest virtual machine that is being passed off as the actual host.

It looks like the switch happens even before I'm able to access the uefi bios as when on the day I got my new motherboard and installed it, the first thing I did was make and save a custom profile in the bios as I had been suspecting this was the case with my last mobo. Then went ahead and installed windows and my gfx card etc and all was going well. Then I had to do a restart for my updates and freshly installed sound/gfx/chipset drivers to take effect and I watch as my pc gets to post then resets itself starts booting again although now there it takes noticeably longer than before get to where I can press del/F2 to access the bios. Where before It would take like less than a second for the screen to go from no signal off to on and showing the boot process I see my screen get signal but it will stay blank for a couple of seconds and only then start showing my boot process and allowing me to get to the bios which no longer has the changes I made to it or even the profile I created and saved when I booted up the first time.

So now I need to find what is happening during those couple of seconds of blank screen that I have to wait for before control is given back to me. In an ideal world I'd just go to the MSI website and download the latest bios and flash my board. But as I said I can't take that chance when I know my internet is being redirected to fake versions official websites. The site they try to pass off as the official Microsoft site is hilariously shoddy. The one evening I was in tears I was laughing so much just reading what they tried to pass off as official MS documentation about some of the technologies they offer. It seems they like to use reskinned wordpress templates for most of the pages they point me to instead of the proper site. And whoever puts the sites together gets bored and likes to write absolute bull**** on where he expects no one will actually read what is written there instead of actually having to research to make the block of text actually make any sense when read in depth and not just glanced over. I wish I had saved screenshots of it. Hadn't laughed so hard in ages. Also I'd often ask google how to do things I already knew just to see how ridiculous and blatantly wrong some the solutions I get given where. Ahh good times.
 
Here is a list of features my laptops Windows 10 Home Edition has. Which for an OS that was purposefully stripped of most networking and client/server abilities has quite a lot features in that area.

F1.PNGF2.PNGF3.PNGF4.PNG
 
Last one for today... This is Microsoft advertising one of their propriety encryption methods. Found while visiting their official site.

MS.jpg
 
You're going in circles achieving nothing.

Do what sajunky suggested above.

Or use gparted.
 
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