[SOLVED] 21H1 (win10) will *not* install on this AsRock

Oct 7, 2021
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Okay. Never had this kind of grief with any OS. Ever....
Running an AsRock B450M-HDV with compatible RAM (16G), Crucial M2 (GPT) sitting in the NVME slot and a GTX1050 happily living with a Ryzen 5 2600 at the helm.
One fine day - Windows updates and BSOD city. All of it. IRQ errors, page fault errors, KMODE exceptions yada yada yada.
Amazingly, it appears the whole install is now borked. Recovery = same. Goes stupid within hours. Well, lets do a fresh install. LOL. Nope.
Here's the highlights:
  • Sees the MVME.
  • Sees the installation USB
  • nothing else on the system except the GPU and the two drives above.
  • secure boot is off (always has been)
  • CSM off (always has been)
  • The 21H1 install image downloaded onto that USB key with the creation tool does boot, but now claims that it can't use the NVMe for installation. Hmmm. OK. DISKPART dance to MBR and all the sub-steps...installation starts until it can't copy from the source. Says it's not available.
I've run through every permutation Google has offered (changing Secure Boot mode, CSM toggling etc.); but I'm thinking BIOS. Even flashed down a couple versions. Same result.
Changed install media, new image download, removed NVMe and went SSD, even a good ol' spinning plater HDD. Same damn crap.
So - Back to Arch (linux) for me. But I wanted to throw this out there to see if anyone else running a 'Rock has had this issue?
Cheers,
Bill
 
Solution
Got it. Well, actually the gang over at Super User did over here. It is the USB media you're booting from. It must be formatted as MBR. In fact I had to do the "hack" version of booting with the GPT USB key and swapping it out with an MBR key right at the partitioning step b/c my MB would just not boot with the MBR stick alone.
It does not matter how you made the stick (WMCT or Rufus). Did it both ways just for giggles.
However - if your drive has already been split into the 3 partitions Win10+ wants; you must delete them so you have the lone entry on the disk list - don't make a new one (partition etc) - JUST CLICK "NEXT".
if you're running csm only you should use gpt, so clean the windows partition on ssd, then click next, you should able to use that partition to install windows. also use the latest bios.

it is best to download windows 10 .iso and use rufus at gpt-uefi non csm settings, and use that to create bootable drive rather than using a media creation tool.
 
Oct 7, 2021
5
1
10
Thank you for the reply.
I originally tried the fresh install on the NVMe that was GPT; I did return to the latest UEFI BIOS AsRock has posted and nothing changed.
No joy on the Rufus route either; and that's what has me stumped here.
Hopefully I can find an older version of W10 around here somewhere to install; as the only constant in this mess is that 21H1 image.
 
Oct 7, 2021
5
1
10
Got it. Well, actually the gang over at Super User did over here. It is the USB media you're booting from. It must be formatted as MBR. In fact I had to do the "hack" version of booting with the GPT USB key and swapping it out with an MBR key right at the partitioning step b/c my MB would just not boot with the MBR stick alone.
It does not matter how you made the stick (WMCT or Rufus). Did it both ways just for giggles.
However - if your drive has already been split into the 3 partitions Win10+ wants; you must delete them so you have the lone entry on the disk list - don't make a new one (partition etc) - JUST CLICK "NEXT".
 
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