Question Can’t Install Windows 10 on SSD

[CJ Goh]

I have tried and tried and tried. Im hoping that there is a solution to my problem.
When I first got my PC parts my Friend built it for me. I have a hdd (1TB) and an ssd (240GB)and I didnt know anything about computers so I installed it on my hdd and after research I found it was a mistake.

This was about a year ago. And I have been using windows 10 on my hdd ever since and I have tried many times to install it on my ssd and it won’t work.
I have probably come the closest so far. I removed my hdd and with a windows install media on a usb I installed it to my ssd and it created four partitions
( and for some reason the primary partition has 299.2gb even though its a 240gb(is this normal?))

with the windows on the main one(fourth one).
When i tried booting it up it went to the installation media.

So I went to my bios and changed the TOP priority to my Kingston ssd.

This still resulted in booting the installation media. I shutdown my computer and removed the installation media.

When i turned my computer on it said that there wasn’t any proper boot device in.

I switched SATA cables to my previously used SATA cable that my hdd (which was working fine) was using and still the same problem.

Startup repair doesn't work too.

Some details about my computer My system is a UEFI SYSTEM. It is set to AHCI. And both HDD and SSD are GPT. Specs: ASROCK B250 M Pro4, Kingston 240gb ssd, barracuda 1TB.

Please feel free to give suggestions or ask for any details. I wouldn’t say I’m good with computers. Thanks a bunch in advance.

 

[Colif]

If it went to install media after the 1st restart during the install, windows isn't fully on ssd yet so booting from it won't work. Windows has a habit of doing that but usually on motherboards that have a setting that lets you choose 1 drive as a one off boot drive, and then it goes back to defaults. Yours doesn't appear to have such a setting

the top choice in your BIOS should be Windows Boot manager (see picture on page 40 of your manual) so if its not working still, changing to that with hdd in PC will at least get you into windows.

your manual - http://asrock.pc.cdn.bitgravity.com/Manual/B250M Pro4.pdf

 

[gn842a]

Well I wanted to do this switch I would proceed as follows.

1. Take any data files off the HDD and put them somewhere else (a third drive, memory stick, whatever).
2. Remove the HDD entirely (well unplug the power and sata cables anyhow).
3. Install Win 10 on the SSD from the memory stick.
4. re-connect the HDD
5. Format it, zap everything
6. transfer your data files to the now clean HDD
7. Use OS on the SSD.

You certainly want, in other words, for the motherboard to be under the impression that there is no operating system of any kind, to avoid confusion between the system you want to construct and the one you want to eliminate.

--I don't know why your Windows installation created 4 partitions. I installed mine just four or five days ago. It created 3 partitions. The question in my mind is whether your SSD was freshly formatted when you installed windows. If it had a partition from its days as your data drive then the Windows installation would have treated that as a two drive situation, left the existing partition alone and created its three drives on what was left.

--My SSD with OS, as formatted by the default installation, reads

Recovery 529 MB NTFS (one partitiion)
99 MB (EFI System partition)
and then C: 465.13 GB NTFS (boot,page file, crash dump, primary partition)

Note tha the first two look big but are in fact minuscule less than 700 MB taken together. The OS wants them there and they're not bothering me so I say leave 'em alone.

To sum up, try to make everything as virginal as possible--

Freshly formatted SSD (or brand new), no partitions of any kind
Installation media on memory stick, use defaults
Boot and install OS
After install gointo UEFI and make SSD #1 bootpriority

Format the old HDD so it's cleaned of the OS

install in computer, load it with your data files that you have saved somewhere else.

Hope that helps, Greg N

 

[CJ Goh]

Well I wanted to do this switch I would proceed as follows.

1. Take any data files off the HDD and put them somewhere else (a third drive, memory stick, whatever).
2. Remove the HDD entirely (well unplug the power and sata cables anyhow).
3. Install Win 10 on the SSD from the memory stick.
4. re-connect the HDD
5. Format it, zap everything
6. transfer your data files to the now clean HDD
7. Use OS on the SSD

Thanks for the reply Greg, I am currently taking stuff off my hdd and will follow the rest of the steps afterward

 

[CJ Goh]

IT DOESNT WORK. I wiped everything. After installing on ssd, it loads the installation media again. Went to UEFI. In UEFI, there is no windows boot manager but there is the SATA 3_0 SSD (says other letters and numbers too) and UEFI : LEXAR USB FLASH DRIVE 8.07, partition 1 and USB: LEXAR USB Flash Drive 8.07. Placed priority on the ssd still doesn’t work,

So to experiment if something is wrong with the installation media, I wipe the ssd, unplug it, plug hdd in and install on the HDD AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY FINE. I check the UEFI and there is a windows boot manager with the UEFI : USB flash drive partition 1 thing and the other USB thing I mentioned previously plus a SATA3_1 HDD(says smth else too). Im really stuck

So I’m starting to think there is something wrong with the ssd itself but I haven’t used it at all(So maybe physical damage?)

 

[CJ Goh]

Btw my BIOS is up to date

 

[CJ Goh]

Also what is with my SSD showing 300gb of data and my HDD showing 931? They are a Kingston 240gb SSD and a Seagate barracuda 1TB.

 

[gn842a]

IT DOESNT WORK. I wiped everything. After installing on ssd, it loads the installation media again. Went to UEFI. In UEFI, there is no windows boot manager but there is the SATA 3_0 SSD (says other letters and numbers too) and UEFI : LEXAR USB FLASH DRIVE 8.07, partition 1 and USB: LEXAR USB Flash Drive 8.07. Placed priority on the ssd still doesn’t work,

So to experiment if something is wrong with the installation media, I wipe the ssd, unplug it, plug hdd in and install on the HDD AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY FINE. I check the UEFI and there is a windows boot manager with the UEFI : USB flash drive partition 1 thing and the other USB thing I mentioned previously plus a SATA3_1 HDD(says smth else too). Im really stuck

So I’m starting to think there is something wrong with the ssd itself but I haven’t used it at all(So maybe physical damage?)

OK I get it. I ABSOLUTELY i AGREE ABOUT TRYING A NEW SSD. I just recently posted about my Samsung SSD -- I was testing it against an HDD like you. Except it was dead. The system would not recognize it. The computer upstairs would not recognize it either. But when I plugged in my Western Digital HDD both computers recognized it.

One of the things you can do is go to Newegg and check out the reviews (I find that Newegg customer base is more computer oriented than say Amazon) for your SSD. Click on the one star reviews and check out the issues that people are reporting. This post may interest you for example:

[begin quote]
Pros: Cheap
Cons: Doesn't work with fresh installation of Windows 10. Faulty controller
Overall Review: Spent unncessary time and efforts testing and communicating with Kingston. Don't buy this, while you can spend a few more dollars for a better one.
[end quote]

The catch is that the failure rate appears to apply across all brands. That is you add up the one and two star reviews and you get 15 to 20% failure rates pretty much in all the ssds. So my problem was with a Samsung.

I finally just sent it back to Newegg on RMA and went out to Best Buy and got another one for almost the same price. Sometimes you just get tired of waiting for shipping. I will offer the personal view that you are better off funneling as much of your business as you can to Newegg or Tigerdirect or similar (not so much Amazon). The reason is that if they look at your history and see several years of purchases and builds they are going to be much more willing to take your word on an RMA than if you just drop in for the first time.

And the nice thing about Best Buy is if you live close to one you can just do the purchase and if the unit doesn't work you can take it back. (But they, too, will be nicest to people who have a solid history with them, on returns, just like Home Depot and Lowe's). The good news (I guess) is that with a 20% out of the box failure rate that's .2 x .2 your chances of getting two bad units in a row is .04 or 4%.

Greg N

 

[USAFRet]

Also what is with my SSD showing 300gb of data and my HDD showing 931? They are a Kingston 240gb SSD and a Seagate barracuda 1TB.

931GB is normal and to be expected with a "1TB" drive.

300GB with a 240GB SSD is not.

Screencap of your current Disk Management window, please?