Windows 10: Reboot loop at the beginning of fresh Windows 10 install on a SSD

Hello,

I am trying to do a fresh instal Windows 10 on a new SSD on my desktop, but no joy.
Setup displays the windows logo, but when that circle start spinning, the computer reset/reboots itself.
I have removed my HDD to do this (only the new SSD and optical drive are connected), and tried 2 windows 10 dvds and one bootable flash drive. Also tried 2 optical drives.
The mobo is a Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD2P , and I have tried to connect the SSD on the GSATA3 (Marvell) and SATA2 (Intel P55) ports with the same results. Control mode is set to AHCI, but tried IDE too.
The SSD is a Sandisk Plus, and I checked that it is OK using an USB adaptor to access it on my notebook.
Tried it unformatted (unallocated space) and also formatted with NTFS.
Also tried to install windows 8.1 with same result, then I tried windows 7. Windows 7 install until the end, but does not boot. Trying to boot win7 in safety mode with command prompt, it hangs on 'disk.sys'. I know that the next load would be 'vid.sys', so the problem could be my GPU ? Unfortunately my mono does not have onboard graphics, so I can't remove my video card to do a test. Any other ideas?

:)

 

error at beginning of fresh Windows 10 install from USB

If you are using the original retail USB media, it might be the culprit. If you have a spare USB thumb drive, download, create a new bootable copy then try again:

• How
  to download official Windows 10 ISO filesUpdated
• How
  to Prepare Bootable Install Media for Windows 10 - DVD, USB or SD Card

***********************************************************************

• How to: Perform a clean install of Windows 10

 

error at beginning of fresh Windows 10 install from USB

I'm building a new PC with current Intel motherboard, CPU, and other new parts. I only have the minimum components connected (USB mouse, keyboard, SATA SSD drive, video card). This is a fresh build, not an upgrade.

I'm now trying to install Windows 10 Pro for the first time from a Microsoft USD drive. I set the BIOS to boot from the USB drive. When I get past the BIOS I get the prompt to choose the OS to install, Windows 10 x64 or x32. I choose the x64 option.
The install begins by copying files, but after the file copy I get the error 0xc0000221, "The operating system couldn't be loaded because the kernel is missing or contains errors." The message refers to the NTOSKRNL.exe file.

I've tried the Windows install every possible way with the same results. I've taken the Windows 10 USB drive and plugged it into another working PC and viewed the contents of the USB drive and performed chkdsk on it and all looks good. I've also performed
a memory check via the Windows tool and it came up clean as well. I've tried other clean formatted SSDs as the PC drive but still can't get the install to begin.

Is the Windows USB drive bad?

Is there something I can check to narrow down the problem?

 

Read my quote in the middle of the OP here:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk

Copy Kyhi's recovery tools boot.wim file over the boot.wim file on the Windows 10 USB installation flash drive. See if the drive will boot into Kyhi's recovery tools and then run setup.exe from the USB flash drive from Windows explorer.

 

Let me see if I understood.
I should:

1.Download Kyhi's ISO file;
2.Extract it to a folder in my HD;
3.Copy soucers\boot.wim from it to my Win10 bootable flash drive overwritting the respective file;
4.Boot from my Win10 flash drive;
5.If it boots into Kyhi's recovery tools, I will have windows explorer, browse back to the flash drive and run setup.exe

That's it? If I understood correctly, I should ignore the rest of Kyhi's ISO file?

 

Yep. You only have to mount the ISO file, not extract it.

 

But what would be the difference between running setup.exe from Kyhi's environment and directly from the normal win10 setup boot? My current win10 setup media boots, but setup.exe is interrupted when that circle starts spinning... Why it shouldn't be interrupted when being run from Kyhi's environment?

 

Kyhi's recovery tools installs a lot more device drivers which seems to aid setup in identifying hardware. There have already been a few cases on this forum where Windows setup would not run directly from the installation media, but would run under Kyhi's recovery tools.

 

I see. Will try that later, thank you very much.
Just out of curiosity: I understand that booting to Kyhi's environment with the additional device drivers could increase the probability of properly identifying the SSD.
But those drivers will be installed on my windows installation ?
I mean, if I manage to install windows that way, when I boot later from the SSD itself (with windows already installed on it), those additional drivers would still be active?

 

Just did the test. The flash drive with the overwritten file had the same result (reboot/reset when the circle started spinning). Then I burned the whole Kyhi dvd, which took longer to show the spinning circle, but also rebooted at that point

 

What OS did your HDD have installed? Can you clone it to the SSD?

 

Windows 7. No, the HDD has 1tb of data, and the SSD is only 120 gb...

 

Well, the last step that I can think of is to see if it is a problem booting from USB/DVD or not. Use the USB adapter again to connect the SSD to the notebook. I like using MiniTool Partition Wizard to do custom partitioning:
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

Since the desktop looks like it is legacy BIOS, you will want to re-initialize the SSD as MBR, deleting all the partitions on it. Create a single, 5 GB primary partition, formatted as FAT32 at the very end of the drive, mark it as the active partition, and assign a drive letter to it. I am going to use W: for Windows. In MiniTool Partition Wizard it should look like my Disk 3 (but yours will be larger). Make sure it is FAT32, Primary, and Active:





Mount the Windows 10 ISO file and copy all the files and folders from the mounted ISO file to the SSD.


Then you will open a Command Prompt (Admin) and run the following commands - assuming you assigned drive letter W: to the partition on the SSD:

W:
cd boot
bootsect /nt60 W: /force /mbr

NOTE: there is a space in front of each "/" above.

Then you should be able to install the SSD in the desktop computer and boot from it into Windows setup and install Windows 10 to the remaining unallocated space. Do not delete the 5 GB FAT32 partition because, unfortunately, that will be where you boot files end up being.

Here is what the Command Prompt (Admin) commands look like in the command prompt window:

Code: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393] (c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\WINDOWS\system32>W: W:\>cd boot W:\boot>bootsect /nt60 W: /force /mbr Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode. W: (\\?\Volume{f07b1dd9-91a6-11e6-8f71-7c5cf84fe038}) Forced dismount complete, open handles to this volume are now invalid. Successfully updated FAT32 filesystem bootcode. \??\PhysicalDrive3 Successfully updated disk bootcode. Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes. W:\boot>Exit[/quote] If that works, that tells you that the problem was the computer booting from the USB flash drive and/or the DVD drive. If it does work, come back and I can tell you how to get the boot files off the 5GB partition so you can delete and reclaim the space for Windows.

 

Wow, thanks a lot for that guidelines!
However, before trying that, I must add that:

a) The computer can boot from DVD for sure. During my tests, I have used a couple of linux bootable CDs (including tools like Parted Magic to look at the SSD partitions, etc), and they booted fine (also windows on the HDD was installed from a DVD too). Can't remember booting from USB before, but I think it's OK too.

b) I did a try connecting both the HDD and the SSD simultaneously, with boot priority set to the HDD. The result was that the *HDD* didn't boot. Windows began to load briefly, then rebooted. With only the HDD installed, it boots fine.

Having said that (the system *can* boot from DVD and probably from USB too), do you think that your test still worth a try? I can do it anyway if you're in doubt.

 

No, I don't think it would be worth it to try. It sounds like something if physically wrong - a hardware incompatibility - when the SSD is connected. I don't think you are going to get it to work with that motherboard and that SSD. Do you have the latest, most up to date bios flashed on the motherboard?