I'm trying to reinstall Windows using a flash drive I created with the media creation tool, but my computer won't boot from it. I've checked the boot order settings and confirmed that it's set to UEFI, but I still can't get it to work. The only way I can access the BIOS is by clearing the CMOS beforehand. Otherwise, I just get stuck on the VGA debug light before the boot process. I don't think my graphics card is the issue because I've tested it with another card that I know works, and I've also tried both PCIe slots on the motherboard. My initial thought was that it might be a corrupted Windows file or a driver issue, but since the flash drive won't boot at all, I'm really at a loss. Here are my specs:
- Motherboard: ASUS TUF X570 WiFi
- GPU: Zodiac RTX 3070
- CPU: Ryzen 7 5700X
- PSU: Corsair SFX 750W Play
- NVMe: Samsung 980 Pro
- RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengeance 3600.
2 Answers
Have you checked if the flash drive is formatted correctly? It should be FAT32 for UEFI booting. Also, make sure you're using a USB 3.0 port if your motherboard has them. Sometimes using a different USB port helps with boot issues.
It sounds like you're having a pretty frustrating time! Make sure you're not just copying the media creation tool onto the flash drive. You need to double-click the tool on your PC and select the flash drive when prompted to create the bootable USB. Another option is to download the Windows ISO directly from Microsoft's website and use Rufus to burn it onto the flash drive. That way, it should work properly to boot.
I did it using the media tool, but I ensured I was running it as an administrator, just in case that made any difference.
I’ll give that a try and see if using a different port helps. Thanks for the suggestion!