When trying to carry out a fresh installation of Windows 11/10 on your computer, you may receive an error message stating that the installation media has been corrupted. Due to this, the installation halts and refuses to continue further. In this post, we will discuss what you can do if the setup cannot continue due to a corrupted installation file.
Fix Setup cannot continue due to a corrupted installation file Windows installation error
If the Windows Setup cannot continue due to a corrupted installation file, follow the solutions mentioned below to fix the issue.
- Create a new bootable drive
- Enable XMP Profile from BIOS
- Unplug the drive, connect it to a different computer, and install the OS
- Convert to GPT or MBR using the Command Prompt
- Inspect your physical hard drive
Let us talk about them in detail.
1] Create a new bootable drive
If you encountered this issue for the first time, your first solution should be to create a new bootable drive using a fresh Windows installation media. However, this time we need to make a few changes. When using the USB flash drive option to make the installation media, the tool will automatically format your USB drive as an MBR disk. This allows you to install Windows on either an MBR or GPT disk, as long as the boot mode matches. Make sure that the boot mode (Legacy or UEFI) matches your hard disk type (MBR or GPT). Legacy mode needs an MBR disk, while UEFI needs a GPT disk.
2] Enable XMP Profile from BIOS
You may encounter this issue if there is some issue with your computer’s memory. The most common one is disabled XMP Profile. So, we are going to enable XMP Profile from BIOS and then see if that helps. To do so, follow the steps mentioned below.
- Open your computer and boot into BIOS.
- Look for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) and enable it.
- If it is not on the front page, navigate to Advanced Menu or Mode, look for it under the Tweaker tab, and then enable it.
Once you are done configuring the XMP Profile, you can retry installing Windows, hopefully, this time it will work.
Read: Windows 11 won’t install
3] Unplug the drive, connect it to a different computer, and install the OS
If what you are using is an external drive, we would recommend you unplug it, connect it to a different computer, and then install the operating system. So, go ahead and unplug the drive, borrow your friend’s computer, and plug it in. Use the bootable drive to install the operating system, and then plug the drive back into your computer. Even though this is a workaround, it will not only get the job done but also provide a clear idea of the actual culprit.
4] Convert to GPT or MBR using the Command Prompt
If you can’t create a new bootable drive as mentioned earlier, we can go ahead and convert the GPT partition to MBR and vice-versa depending on the format of our boot drive. Do keep in mind that doing so will delete all the content of the partition, therefore, you should take a backup of the drive.
First of all, plug the installation media and go ahead with the installation. Once you encounter the error, either press Shift + F10 (or Shift + Fn + F10) or go back to the initial installation screen and click on Repair your computer.
You can now run the following commands to do the conversion.
- To get into the Diskpart utility, run the diskpart command.
- Now, run list drive to get the information on all the drives.
- If you see * sign on top of a disk, it is GPT, if the sign is absent, it is MBR.
- Now, run the following command to select a disk.
select disk <disknumber>
- Run the clean command to delete all the partitions.
- If you want to convert from MBR to GPT, run the following command.
convert gpt
- To convert GPT to MBR, run the below command.
convert mbr
- Type exit to leave the prompt and close the Command Prompt.
After changing the partition, you can continue the installation and hopefully, it will work this time.
5] Inspect your physical hard drive
If all else fails, our last resort is to check if the hard drive has malfunctioned. You can visit the OEM and ask them to do the testing. In case the physical drive is corrupted, you will have to replace it.
Hopefully, you will be able to resolve the issue using the solutions mentioned in this post.
Read: Windows Update failed to install or will not download
How do I fix a corrupted OS file?
If your OS’s system files are corrupted, there are various Windows utilities that you can use to repair it. We will start with the System File Checker, if it fails to repair the image, we will use DISM. In case neither of them can resolve the issue, we will use the Installation Media to repair the system image.
How do I check if my OS is corrupted?
You can run sfc /scannow in the elevated mode of the Command Prompt to check the status of your OS. It will examine your files, give you the status, and then repair them as well.
Read: Setup cannot continue because a required file is either corrupted or not available Office error.
