I'm having some trouble with my Windows installation—it stopped working and won't repair itself. I've tried reinstalling Windows 11 using both an ISO created via Rufus and the Media Creation tool, but neither worked. I can choose to repair or do a new installation and even select the drive or partition, but it seems to hang during the reboot process with the Alienware logo up and a spinning circle. I'm trying to install on a NVME drive set to AHCI mode, which is detected in BIOS. I've also toggled Secure Boot on and off, but nothing changes. Interestingly, I can't boot a live Linux distribution either, which adds to my frustration. Any suggestions?
5 Answers
Quick question—when picking a partition, did you delete the existing ones before starting the installation? That might help avoid conflicts.
I think you might be dealing with bad RAM or a faulty boot drive. In my experience, memory issues often cause OS installation failures. If you have two RAM modules, try installing Windows with just one at a time to see if that helps.
Good point about the RAM! I've heard that many people find success installing with less RAM in, which is odd because it used to work fine with all installed. If swapping RAM doesn't fix the issue, trying a different drive could be the next step.
Before you do anything else, definitely give your RAM a test. It might be a hardware issue.
Have you tried updating your BIOS? Also, try disconnecting all drives—both M.2 and SATA. It might be worth testing your RAM using Memtest86 too. If you can’t get Linux to boot after all that, it could indicate a deeper hardware issue, possibly with the CPU or motherboard.
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