I built a new PC with a Ryzen 5 9600X, RTX 5060 Ti, and an MSI B650-S WIFI motherboard. The system enters BIOS normally, and both the HDD and SSD are detected. However, when I connect the external USB-C drive containing my Windows installation files, the computer does not start the installer. Instead, it repeatedly shows the MSI logo, briefly enables keyboard input, then loses input and restarts. The BIOS recognizes the external drive as a hard disk, but I'm unsure whether the installation media was created correctly or whether the motherboard needs a BIOS update. What could be causing this boot loop, and what is the best way to get Windows installed?
3 Answers
FAT32 and GPT settings alone don’t guarantee that the drive contains valid Windows boot files. Use a known-good USB stick and recreate the media with the official installer tool, then confirm that the system is booting the UEFI entry for that USB device. If it still loops, disconnect the secondary HDD temporarily and leave only the target SSD connected during setup.
It’s also worth checking the motherboard BIOS version. Depending on how long the board has been sitting in storage, it may not have proper support for the Ryzen 5 9600X. Update the BIOS using MSI’s official instructions if necessary, then load the default BIOS settings and try booting from freshly created installation media again.
The external drive may be detected without actually being bootable. Recreate the installer from scratch using Microsoft’s Windows Media Creation Tool, preferably on a standard USB flash drive rather than an external hard drive. Then select the USB device from the motherboard’s one-time boot menu instead of relying only on the normal boot order. Back up anything important first, since a clean installation can erase existing data.
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