Since quite a significant percentage of the Windows users who chose to upgrade their computers to Windows 10 from previous versions of the Operating System were encountering a variety of different problems, many (more computer-savvy) consumers decided to perform clean installs of Windows 10 instead. A clean install is when an Operating System is installed onto a computer that does not already have an Operating System on it.
However, it is not as though there is absolutely no chance of you running into any walls when performing a clean install of Windows 10. One of the most common walls that you might run into when performing a clean install of Windows 10 – a wall that is quite tall – is error 0x800700D. Error 0x800700D appears after your computer boots from the installation media and runs the Windows 10 setup, you choose the language, and a message stating “Setup is starting” appears. After the computer displays error 0x800700D, the installation fails.
Error 0x800700D basically means that a file that is absolutely critical to the installation of Windows 10 is either damaged or completely missing from the installation media. Since that is the case, as long as you use the same installation media with the damaged or missing file, you will get the same result (error 0x800700D) regardless of how many times you try to perform a clean install of Windows 10. The only solution to this problem is to create an entirely new installation media using a completely new medium or by wiping the medium that you were using before clean and then reusing it. To do so, you need to:
First and foremost, get your hands on another computer that can download the Windows 10 ISO (basically any computer that has an internet connection).
If you have the Windows 10 ISO File then either use Rufus (see steps here) or Download the Media Creation Tool from here. With the media creation tool, you can download the ISO for Windows 10 if you don’t have one. Run the downloaded program and follow the setup dialogs to download and burn the Windows 10 Media to USB. (see media creation tool steps here)
Once you’ve got the working ISO on a USB. Boot your PC / Laptop from it to install Windows 10.
