[SOLVED] Can't boot from Windows 10 USB

[J_I_M_M_Y]

I decided to throw some older components into a case to have a basic second PC. Key components are:

i5 3570K
Asrock z77 pro3
Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SATA SSD

The SSD has an outdated version of Win 10 on it, as it was previously my OS drive in my main build before I upgraded.

When I started up the PC the splash screen came up as normal (and I can get into BIOS fine) but then I get a boot error when it tries to load Windows. This in itself is not a shock, as I had a boot issue when it was in my main build and I think the boot partition is corrupted.

However, when I try to boot to a Win 10 USB to attempt a repair/reinstall, I get the error:

0xc000000f
The Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors

I know that the USB itself is fine because I made it less than 6 months ago and used it to repair my Windows install on my main build. The USB is plugged directly into the motherboard (I've tried a few different slots) and I am able to detect and select the USB as the boot drive both in BIOS and through F11 boot device selection on startup. It's FAT32 and I've reset to default UEFI settings in BIOS.

My first thought is that because my motherboard is old and I never updated the BIOS from the factory default, it's a compatibility problem with the Win 10 boot drive. I upgraded to Win 10 while I was still using this motherboard (upgraded in 2019) but maybe there's a version issue? I'm struggling to think of what else it could be.

I can flash the BIOS to a 2018 beta version but before I take that step I thought I would pick some expert brains. Is there something a bit more obvious that I'm maybe missing here?

Thanks

 

[Colif]

try putting USB drive into the working PC and tun chkdsk on it, I would test it before flashing a bios.

I would also try making a new ISO of win 10 as at least then you would be on latest version - On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

the 2018 bios probably won't help.

 

[J_I_M_M_Y]

try putting USB drive into the working PC and tun chkdsk on it, I would test it before flashing a bios.

I would also try making a new ISO of win 10 as at least then you would be on latest version - On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

the 2018 bios probably won't help.

Thanks, checking/remaking the USB is my next step. If that doesn't work I'll try reconnecting the SSD to my working PC and doing the install on it that way.

EDIT: and yes, it turned out that the boot USB just wasn't working... remade it and the PC is up and running.