220-1102 Operating Systems Practice Question
A technician is installing Windows 10 on a laptop that uses UEFI firmware with Secure Boot enabled. The installation media is created using Media Creation Tool. During installation, the technician selects custom installation and deletes all existing partitions on the GPT disk. After clicking Next, Windows displays 'Windows cannot be installed on this disk because the disk is offline.' What should the technician do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the 'disk offline' error with partition style incompatibility or Secure Boot restrictions, leading them to unnecessarily convert the disk to MBR or disable Secure Boot instead of simply bringing the disk online.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use diskpart to select the disk and online it.
The 'disk is offline' error occurs because the disk's partition style (GPT) is compatible with UEFI and Secure Boot, but the disk itself is in an offline state. The correct fix is to use diskpart to select the disk and bring it online with the 'online disk' command, which makes the disk available for Windows installation without altering its partition style or disabling Secure Boot.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use diskpart to clean and convert the disk to MBR.
Why it's wrong here
Converting the disk to MBR would make it incompatible with UEFI firmware, which requires GPT for booting. While the disk is offline, running 'clean' would not succeed because diskpart cannot access an offline disk, and even if it could, it would erase all existing partitions and data. The correct approach is to bring the disk online first, preserving its existing GPT layout.
- ✓
Use diskpart to select the disk and online it.
Why this is correct
Bringing the disk online is the minimal, non-destructive fix when Windows Setup reports the disk as offline. In diskpart, you first select the correct disk with 'select disk 0' (verify it matches the target disk), then issue 'online disk'. This changes the disk's state from offline to online, making it visible to the Windows installer for partitioning, without altering the GPT partition style required for UEFI.
- ✗
Disable Secure Boot in UEFI firmware.
Why it's wrong here
Secure Boot verifies the digital signature of boot loaders at system startup; it has no effect on a disk being reported as offline. The offline state is a storage configuration issue, typically caused by the disk being marked offline in a previous session or by a driver problem, and occurs after the boot process has already succeeded. Disabling Secure Boot would weaken firmware security and would not make the installer recognize the offline disk.
- ✗
Reboot and boot from the installation media again.
Why it's wrong here
Simply rebooting and booting from the installation media again will reload the same Windows Setup environment, which will still see the disk as offline. The offline state is persistent—it is a property of the disk itself and is not cleared by a reboot. Unless you actively change the disk's status using diskpart (or load a storage driver if the issue is driver-related), the installer will present the identical error message every time.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
PXE Boot and Windows Deployment Services
Key term
Windows
Windows is a family of operating systems developed by Microsoft that manages computer hardware and software, providing a graphical user interface for users to interact with their devices.
Key term
GUID Partition Table
A GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a modern standard for organizing and managing partitions on a storage drive, replacing the older Master Boot Record (MBR) system.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1102 exam.