I just finished putting together my new PC, but I'm hitting a snag trying to install Windows 11. I've got an 8GB FAT32 USB drive with the Windows 11 installer loaded on it. When I plug it into my computer and install Windows onto the SSD, everything seems to go fine. However, once the installation completes, my PC restarts but just takes me back to the installer. I checked the BIOS, and while the SSD is recognized by the motherboard, it's not showing up as a boot drive. I tried enabling CSM to see if the SSD would register as a boot option, and it does, but when I select it, I get the message: "Reboot or select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key." I've already updated the BIOS to the latest version, made sure my AIO fan pump is connected properly, and reformatted the SSD using diskpart. Any advice would really help!
2 Answers
Just to add on to what FixItFelix said, if the SSD is the only drive you're using, formatting it again before reinstalling Windows could help. Since you can get to the installation screen, it seems like your USB is working fine, but sometimes the installer can mess up the boot record if there are past partitions hanging around.
It sounds like Windows might not be installing correctly to the SSD, or the boot record isn't going on there. If you have any other drives connected, it's a good idea to disconnect them during the install to avoid any confusion. Once you're ready to retry, make sure to delete all existing partitions on the SSD before you start the install again.
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