Windows 10: Having trouble clean installing on an m.2 drive using split installer

Alright, this one has been a trip. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I've built a new gaming rig and can't get through the windows 10 installation.

Setup:
MSI Z490I Unify Motherboard
Samsung EVO 970 PLUS 2TB M.2 NVMe
Windows 10 latest ISO via MS website.

The only other computer I have is a mac, so I've followed the instructions to create a bootable USB drive here: How to Make a Windows 10 USB Using Your Mac - Build a Bootable ISO From Your Mac'''s Terminal

This guide ends up directing you to create a split install.wim file that ends up being install.swm and install2.swm. That all worked great, and I was able to boot into the windows installer. I was able to proceed through the installation and get to the point where it asks where I want to install. I select my 2TB m.2 drive, and it tells me "we couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one". I tried all of the solutions online relating to Diskpart such as manually creating the partitions as advised here (DISM - Split install.wim file), but had no luck, it still gave me the same error.

The furthest I was able to get was when I found a guide that told me to copy the source files from the _USB DRIVE_ to my _SSD DRIVE_, and then remove the USB drive and reboot to allow installation to continue from the m.2 drive. This worked and made its way all the way through the installation to the point where it asked me to reboot, but upon reboot, it kicked me back into the windows installation in an infinite loop. Is there anything else I can try? Any way to change a boot setting and prevent the infinite loop and continue on with the next part of the installation?

Cheers

:)

 

Clean Install Workaround for Vista

You may remember this news story on techPowerUp! a couple of days ago relating to the lack of clean installs when using the Upgrade Editions of Vista, which required an old OS to be installed. However, Paul Thurrott has managed to find a workaround for this issue, which ironically lets users do a clean install Vista without any previous version of Windows, albeit a little tedious. Here are the steps:

• Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD as normal
• When prompted for a product code, leave this blank
• Select the version of Vista you have purchased and let Vista install
• When you boot to your desktop for the first time, run the Vista setup from Windows
• This time enter your product key
• When asked whether you want to do an Upgrade of Custom install, select custom and choose a clean install
• Windows will now install for a second time and you should be able to activate it

Remember, these steps are only advised for use in order to achieve a clean install of Vista, it is only legal to use the upgrade editions if you have previously purchased the appropriate version of Windows.

Source: DailyTech

 

Windows Vista Clean Installation

To do a clean install on a fresh hard drive with Vista on an upgrade disc, you have to follow certain steps. Buying a full install CD would've been easier, but using the upgrade disc only adds more time, so it's not that big of a deal.

Follow the instructions here to do a clean install with an upgrade disc: Perform a Clean Install with a Vista Upgrade Disc | Windows Vista Tips / Tricks /Tutorials | Vista Rewired

 

trouble installing vista 64

Well, just got my new motharboad (P5Q-e) everything works perfect thank god! only im having issues installing vista on it.

it recognizes both of my hard drives and they were working perfectly fine before i installed my new mobo but now whenim trying to install vista it gets to the "select drive to install on" screen and none of my hard drives are listed.

they show up in the bios just fine and i've tried using other sata ports as well and all with the same result.

The drives were set to be a RAID 0 array on my old mobo could this be the issue?
any thoughts or suggestions would be much appriciated