Windows 10: Can't complete windows install

Disconnect all HDDs from your PC and leave only SSD. Try to do a clean isntall again but make sure you will delete all the partitions from the SSD and create them again as you want. Also post a picture from your UEFI settings otherwise we can speculate and come up with 1000s ideas what could be wrong *Wink

 

Boot up the installation USB, press SHIFT + F10 then type diskpart then list disk.
Can you post the result from: list disk ?

 

Plug the SATA cable that was previously used in the HDD and plug it into the SSD so it becomes Disk 0. See if that helps

 

In addition to the above, also check that you are using the latest BIOS for your motherboard and that it supports Windows 10.

 

How did you create the USB flash drive? If the flash drive is formatted as NTFS, it will only boot in legacy BIOS mode (CSM) and that is how it will set up the SSD to boot (it will partition it with MBR partitioning and an NTFS system partition), which won't work with UEFI. If you used Rufus to create the Windows installation USB flash drive with, you didn't select all the proper options in the proper order and that is the cause of the problem. That's why I don't recommend using Rufus, it is too complicated for a lot of people and creating a Windows 10 USB flash drive that is compatible with both legacy BIOS and UEFI does not need to be complicated.

The easy way to check if a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive is bootable under UEFI is to see if it is FAT32 formatted. It has to be for UEFI. To be bootable under legacy BIOS the flash drive can be either FAT32 or NTFS, but the partition on it must be maked as active. Thus, if you want a USB flash drive bootable under both it must be formatted as FAT32 and the FAT32 partition on it must be marked as active.

Also, assuming your PC is UEFI, when you set the "BIOS" which is really UEFI to boot the USB flash drive, make sure it is booting it in the UEFI mode. Most UEFI firmwares have options to boot USB in UEFI mode or legacy BIOS mode. But, if the flash drive is formatted as NTFS, you won't have the option to boot it in UEFI mode.

If the USB flash drive is set to boot before the SSD in the standard boot order, then yes, when the computer reboots during Windows startup you do have to remove the USB flash drive otherwise the computer will just do what it is told and boot from it again and take you back to the first Windows setup screen.