I replaced a five-year-old prebuilt computer with my first custom-built PC and am trying to install Windows from a USB drive. The drive is blank except for the Windows installer. Setup appears to start downloading Windows, but then shows this message: "It looks like you started an upgrade and booted from installation media. If you want to continue with the upgrade, remove the media from your PC and click Yes. If you want to perform a clean installation instead, click No." Choosing Yes leads to a black screen and then returns to the same prompt. Choosing No tells me to download Windows again, but the exact same loop happens every time. What should I try?
2 Answers
Make sure you are booting the USB in UEFI mode and, during setup, select the empty target drive. If the installer keeps restarting, shut the PC down after the first installation phase, remove the USB, and boot from the drive where Windows was installed. You can finish updates and connect a Microsoft account after the initial setup if you want to keep the first login simpler.
Since this is a completely fresh build with a blank drive, create the installer USB again with a tool such as Rufus. Download the official Windows ISO, use Rufus to make the USB bootable, then boot the new PC directly from that USB and choose a clean installation. This avoids relying on the installer to download or restart the setup from the same media. After Windows is installed, remove the USB when the computer restarts so it boots from the internal drive instead.
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