Windows 11 installation fails partway through on an NVMe SSD
Asked by
MellowPine42
I'm trying to perform a clean installation of Windows 11 Pro on a 256GB Lexar NVMe SSD. I created the installer with Microsoft's Media Creation Tool on an older 16GB SanDisk Cruzer Blade, deleted the existing SSD partitions, and started setup. The installation progress jumps from about 15% to 75%, then ends with "Windows 11 installation has failed."
Afterward, the USB drive sometimes disappears from the BIOS completely and only becomes visible again after I unplug and reconnect it. The motherboard is an ASUS B550M-K ARGB. Could the flash drive or USB port be causing the installation failure, or should I be checking the SSD and BIOS settings?
Answers
The disappearing drive in BIOS points more toward a USB compatibility or connection problem than a Windows installation problem. The progress jump can happen when setup loses access to the installation media. A newer flash drive and a direct motherboard port would be my first steps.
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Try a different USB stick and a different port first. If you have a USB 2.0 port on the rear I/O, it’s worth testing there as well; some systems behave better with the installer connected directly to the motherboard. If the same failure happens with multiple known-good drives, then investigate the SSD or BIOS configuration.
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If changing the drive and port doesn’t solve it, check the installation logs. At the error screen, press Shift+F10 to open a command prompt, then use Notepad to open `X:$WINDOWS.~BTSourcesPanthersetupact.log`. Look near the end of the file for error or failure entries. Also confirm that TPM 2.0 is enabled in the BIOS.
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The USB drive is the most suspicious part. Older Cruzer Blade sticks can be extremely slow and may disconnect or overheat during the sustained reads and writes involved in installation. Try recreating the installer on a newer, reliable USB 3.x drive. Also connect it directly to a rear motherboard port rather than a front-panel port or hub.
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