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Windows Setup may fail if USB flash disk is removed too early

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Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

  • You are using a computer which uses UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) firmware.
  • You start setup of Windows by booting from installation media.
  • During Windows Setup, you choose "Load Drivers" in order to supply storage device drivers, and insert a USB flash drive containing the driver.
  • After supplying the driver, you remove the USB flash drive.

In this scenario, the Windows setup fails several minutes later, and the following error message is displayed:
"Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation."

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Cause

This is a known issue in previous versions of Microsoft Windows.

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Resolution

To work around this issue, when supplying third-party drivers on a USB flash drive during Windows Setup, leave the USB flash disk inserted until Setup restarts the computer.

Note If you encounter the issue in Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2, install update 2976205 .

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More Information

This issue does not occur on systems with a legacy BIOS, or where the firmware is configured for legacy BIOS mode.

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Applies to:

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Keywords: kb

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Article Info
Article ID : 2931031
Revision : 1
Created on : 1/7/2017
Published on : 10/20/2014
Exists online : False
Views : 583