Question Can’t boot off SSD

[FungalMist]

Recently got an Samsung SSD. Factory reset my computer, and was going to do a fresh installation of windows on the ssd. Though, after it installs and says it needs to restart, it goes back to beginning of installation. If I enter boot setup, there is no option to boot from the SSD or windows boot manager. But if I go thru with windows install, I can see that their are windows system files on the ssd.

 

[USAFRet]

Recently got an Samsung SSD. Factory reset my computer, and was going to do a fresh installation of windows on the ssd. Though, after it installs and says it needs to restart, it goes back to beginning of installation. If I enter boot setup, there is no option to boot from the SSD or windows boot manager. But if I go thru with windows install, I can see that their are windows system files on the ssd.

"Factory Reset" and "new SSD" do not go together.

Please give us a rundown of exactly what you did.
Where you started, with what specific parts ..all the way through.

 

[FungalMist]

Ah great lol. So I got this new Samsung VNAND SSD 860 Pro for christmas. Was too lazy to move OS over to it so I just used it as an extra drive. This weekend, I factory reset my computer because I just had too much stuff on it. Decided now would also be a good time to move OS to the ssd. Created windows 10 installation media on usb, unplugged all the other drives except ssd, and booted off of USB. Installed windows, and it said it needed to restart. It did, and went back to beginning of Windows installation. So I restarted it again and went to bios, to try to launch off of ssd, but there is no ssd in boot menu at all.

 

[FungalMist]

Anything else I should add that would be useful?

 

[USAFRet]

Was the 860 the only drive connected when you did the install on it?

2.5" 860 or M.2?

 

[SkyNetRising]

So I restarted it again and went to bios, to try to launch off of ssd, but there is no ssd in boot menu at all.

Set windows boot manager as first in boot order.
Make sure UEFI boot is enabled. Disable secure boot.

 

[FungalMist]

There is also no windows boot manager, UEFI is on, secure boot is off.

 

[FungalMist]

Yes the 2.5 SSD was the only storage plugged in

 

[SkyNetRising]

There is also no windows boot manager, UEFI is on, secure boot is off.

Then perhaps you installed in legacy mode.
Enable CSM.

 

[FungalMist]

Okay so my apologies. I was in CSM first nothing worked. Just tried it with uefi, and nothing. Tried to reinstall it on the ssd and it says “windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computers hardware may not support booting to this disk. ENsure that the disks controller is enabled in the computers bios settings”

 

[Cj-tech]

Enabled CSM, still no windows boot manager. I installed windows to the ssd again, and checked again, still nothing

Did you unplug the USB flash drive after rebooting? It might be trying to start from that instead of the SSD.

 

[FungalMist]

I’ve tried, it just boots to either the BIOS or the insert installation media or select correct drive screen

 

[Cj-tech]

I’ve tried, it just boots to either the BIOS or the insert installation media or select correct drive screen

What brand and model computer do you have (or if you built it, share the exact parts list). You probably need to update the bios and other drivers. Could you share photo(s) of the bios screen that shows the available drives/boot options?

It’s also possible that your SSD is defective or the USB installation media is corrupted.

 

[FungalMist]

if its worth mentioning, I can boot from any of my other hard drives fine.
MSI X570 Gaming Edge Wifi
Amd Ryzen 5 3600
Liquid cooler - h100i
16gb ram
dont remember psu, and I have two hdds and the ssd

 

[Cj-tech]

if its worth mentioning, I can boot from any of my other hard drives fine.
MSI X570 Gaming Edge Wifi
Amd Ryzen 5 3600
Liquid cooler - h100i
16gb ram
dont remember psu, and I have two hdds and the ssd

Did the SSD work for storing files or software previously? I don’t see it listed on the compatibility list on this page.

If you can, reinstall Windows on a HDD to install the latest bios (if you haven’t done so yet). The MSI Dragon site has an update listed from August this year (last month).

From the manual, I see that there are multiple SATA ports. This might not help, but you can try putting it in the SATA1 port. If that doesn’t change anything, try using the SATA3 port. These two ports are created by different companies.

 

[morpheas768]

From the BIOS, check to make sure that Sata mode is set to [AHCI Mode].

In addition, go to Boot Option Priorities and make sure that your SSD is in that list (preferably at the top) after the initial restart.

I've had an issue like yours on MSI boards, and it always came down to the motherboard BIOS just prioritizing the wrong item in the Boot Option Priorities for some reason.

If I enter boot setup, there is no option to boot from the SSD or windows boot manager

The option should be there, as long as the drive is connected and operational. The fact that you were able to start a Windows installation proves this criteria is met.
You just cant find this option, because MSI's Bios Setup is honestly kinda terrible (IMO).

And the mode should be UEFI for a Windows 10 installation, although I think the Legacy + UEFI option works as well, because this is basically an "Auto" option.

When I was facing that problem myself (on 2 separate MSI boards), the motherboard did prioritize the right SSD disk to boot from, but in the wrong mode.
Basically, in the Boot Option Priorities, there can be a Legacy boot and a UEFI boot for each drive separately.

This is separate from the BIOS' general Boot Mode Select [LEGACY+UEFI].

 

[FungalMist]

The Ssd was indeed being used before this, and worked perfectly fine. Tried all SATA ports already, will do BIOS update soon. And 1st boot priority was SSD, still nothing. Tried both UEFI and legacy