I'm having a tough time trying to install Windows 10 on my friend's SSD. The drive wasn't working great, so we decided to wipe it completely and start fresh. We created a bootable USB stick with Ventoy, but we hit a snag. Initially, we got an error saying, "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu."
After fiddling with the BIOS settings, I disabled CSM, switched the SSD to GPT, and enabled secure boot. This time, we managed to bypass that error and actually install Windows. However, when we tried to boot, it only went back to the BIOS, showing no option for the SSD—only the USB stick was visible. If I enable CSM again, the SSD shows up, but it still won't boot Windows.
I also tried using bcdboot in the terminal to fix the boot entry, and it indicated success, but no luck; the SSD and EFI Bootloader are still not showing up. When I installed using MBR with CSM disabled, it gave a bluescreen error saying winloader.exe wasn't found. The ISO works fine on the HDD, so it's not corrupted. Any suggestions?
1 Answer
It sounds like Ventoy might be the culprit here. I recommend using the Windows Media Creation Tool instead to directly create a bootable USB. This could help eliminate potential issues from using a raw ISO file with Ventoy.
But why does Ventoy work for the HDD installation then?