HeLp !! installing Windows 10 from USB drive --keeps looping

[Polar Papa]

EDIT - UPDATE
Questions #1-3 have all been solved. THANK YOU EVERYONE.

Now, I'm having issues with the Windows 10 install (see update posted down below)

Question #1 - Do I need to "Format" a drive during Win10 installation?
Question #2 - How much size should I allocate for Win10?
Question #3 - How do I get Win 10 to complete the installation. It keeps looping.

Drive 1: Samsung 950 pro m2 (I want to install windows 10 here)--500GB
Drive 2: Samsung 850 Evo SSD (for documents, etc)-1TB

Regarding Question #3, I have updated BIOS and got to POST. I've set USB drive for installation. I've inserted Windows 10 purchased USB thumbdrive. I've entered product key and selected "Custom" install. It goes through "gathering information" after my product key. Then moves to "Installing Windows". The first time I did this I selected the m2 500GB drive. It processed, then restarted. It went through the above steps again. This time, the m2 500GB drive had partition 1: System Reserved (467 MB), and Partition 2 (439 GB).

I selected partion 2 (439 GB) and selected "Next". It processed again, then went through all the same steps--restarted, I entered product key again, it came back to the screen to select "where to install", I select drive 1 partion 2 again and hit "next". it repeats, then repeats.....then repeats. I've been doing this for about 2 hours.

How do I get it to actually install??

Regarding Question #2: Should I allocate some or all of the m2 500 GB drive for the install (& is it too late?) [I will only be using this drive for Windows and Steam games. All of my work will be saved to drive 2. Do I partition it so Windows is on part of it and the rest is for Steam games, or just leave it unpartitioned?]

Regarding Question #1: Do I need to "format" the drive 1 partition 2 to get it to complete the install??

....I'm going to sleep and will check responses tomorrow.

THANKS to any input!

 

[ashurek69]

Did you pull the USB when the machine reset? It may well simply be rebooting from the USB every time if you haven't set the OS drive as primary boot in bios.

 

[SkyNetRising]

1. As I understand, you have installed windows already. No need to reformat.
2. It depends.. I'd dedicate windows partition only for OS and some programs, but games should go to separate partition. 100-150GB for OS partition should be enough. You can resize windows partition from Windows Disk Management.
3. You have to remove USB drive after installation restarts.

 

[techgeek]

Answer #1: When the Windows installer makes the partitions it does a quick format of them. It's not necessary to format them.

Answer #2: Usually I select the drive on the first (and hopefully only attempt) and leave it defaulted to the entire volume. The installer tells you that it may need to make a System Reserved partition (which it's done in your case). In your case I would make it the entire size of the drive.

Answer #3: Now this is more tricky since we aren't certain at this point why it's looping. The first thing I would do is disconnect all unnecessary drives, so your Samsung 850 EVO in your case. You don't need this to install Windows, you can add it back in once you get everything set up. If you are installing Windows 10 with the BIOS in Legacy Boot rather than UEFI boot, you may need a driver to install Windows. If you are using UEFI (and booted your USB install media in UEFI), then you shouldn't need driver as Windows 10 supports NVME.

To get to the root of the problem with the looping, it would help to know what motherboard you are using. I've made some guesses at what might be the problem with answer #3, but it would be better to know exactly what motherboard we are working with.

 

[techgeek]

Did you pull the USB when the machine reset? It may well simply be rebooting from the USB every time if you haven't set the OS drive as primary boot in bios.

This could be correct if the boot order has been set to USB rather than the first fixed disk. Normally you leave the boot order alone and spam F8 during the first boot to get to the boot menu and then manually select the boot device (in this case the USB install media) and install Windows. If you've left the boot order alone, then when the installer reboots the computer it will boot from the drive Windows is installed on. However if the boot menu is altered in the BIOS to boot from a USB drive, then you'd have to remove the USB drive so that it would go to the next boot device.

 

[Polar Papa]

Answer #1: When the Windows installer makes the partitions it does a quick format of them. It's not necessary to format them.

Answer #2: Usually I select the drive on the first (and hopefully only attempt) and leave it defaulted to the entire volume. The installer tells you that it may need to make a System Reserved partition (which it's done in your case). In your case I would make it the entire size of the drive.

Answer #3: Now this is more tricky since we aren't certain at this point why it's looping. The first thing I would do is disconnect all unnecessary drives, so your Samsung 850 EVO in your case. You don't need this to install Windows, you can add it back in once you get everything set up. If you are installing Windows 10 with the BIOS in Legacy Boot rather than UEFI boot, you may need a driver to install Windows. If you are using UEFI (and booted your USB install media in UEFI), then you shouldn't need driver as Windows 10 supports NVME.

To get to the root of the problem with the looping, it would help to know what motherboard you are using. I've made some guesses at what might be the problem with answer #3, but it would be better to know exactly what motherboard we are working with.

Mo-bo is Asus ROG Maximus VIII Hero Alpha.

(thanks to everyone's response so far. I haven't had a chance to try anything yet. I'm falling asleep and can't think anymore. I'll check in this tomorrow. I'll try taking out USB drives 1st to see if that's the prob)

 

[Polar Papa]

NOW IT'S WORSE ! :-(

....Hmmm. So maybe I shouldn't have tried this sleep deprived.

I took out the USB drives when it was powering down so I could go to sleep. However, it restarted. It's not posting now and I cant' get to BIOS...OOOPS! It keeps showing a Q code of "41"....which isn't in the mo-bo manual.

It starts up, shows the "41" code. Runs for a bit, then restarts. then repeats. It's stuck in a loop. I don't know how to turn it off, or get it back to POSt/BIOS

 

[Polar Papa]

Did you pull the USB when the machine reset? It may well simply be rebooting from the USB every time if you haven't set the OS drive as primary boot in bios.

NO, I had not pulled the USB drive. I thought that may have been the problem and tried....now it's working worse (see my note below)

 

[Polar Papa]

1. As I understand, you have installed windows already. No need to reformat.
2. It depends.. I'd dedicate windows partition only for OS and some programs, but games should go to separate partition. 100-150GB for OS partition should be enough. You can resize windows partition from Windows Disk Management.
3. You have to remove USB drive after installation restarts.

1. I'm not sure that it every fully installed. I never got past the "which drive/partition" do you want to install it on.
2. OK.
3. I've tried removing the USB, now I'm getting "41" error code on mo-bo (see note below)

 

[Polar Papa]

Answer #3: Now this is more tricky since we aren't certain at this point why it's looping. The first thing I would do is disconnect all unnecessary drives, so your Samsung 850 EVO in your case. You don't need this to install Windows, you can add it back in once you get everything set up. If you are installing Windows 10 with the BIOS in Legacy Boot rather than UEFI boot, you may need a driver to install Windows. If you are using UEFI (and booted your USB install media in UEFI), then you shouldn't need driver as Windows 10 supports NVME.

I'm trying to understand what you are saying here. (not because you don't make sense...but because I don't understand). I'm hearing you say that I could have installed Win10 via the USB from within UEFI. However, I instead managed to do it an "old fashioned way". If that's the case I'm wondering if there is a problem with the M2 drive / drivers? ?

 

[Polar Papa]

I put both USB drives I had back in (one with the BIOS update, the other with win10). That has given me a new Q code of 55 ("memory not installed"). That might be becuase I had reset the DRAM from "auto" to "XMP profile" ?? (UEFI was showing them at 2133mHz, but they were 3200mHz, so I set them to that--and UEFI warned that it may cause the system not to POST. Looks like the warning might have been right.) Any ideas on what to do now?

 

[ashurek69]

You said you haven't gotten past the drive selection part of the installation.
This suggests there is an issue with talking to the SSDs.

You do not need to partition or format the drive you want to use, I usually delete all current partitions on the OS drive to ensure all previous data is gone and then just hit next and let the installer partition and format it.

Check where you are connecting the 850, because M.2s and sata / sata-e share lanes, restricting how many you can use, you might be trying to use the same pci-e lanes if you're pushing it in the wrong sata connector (refer to board manual as to which ones are useable with an M.2)

Edit: Disconnect the power and pull the CMOS battery for 30 secs, this will default the bios.

 

[Polar Papa]

Wait, now I'm back in the endless restart loop wQ 41 code--which isn't in manual.

Is it safe to just turn off the PSU when it is powering down between restarts so I can sleep and deal with this later. Or do I let it keep restarting all night long while I sleep?

 

[SkyNetRising]

That motherboard has several nifty onboard buttons.
MemOk button for failed memory settings and SafeBoot button.
Read more in the manual.

 

[techgeek]

I had a look at your manual. Oddest thing, this motherboard doesn't have a clear CMOS jumper. So try this, disconnect your PSU from power. Press the power button to force the stored power in the PSU to discharge. Removed the CMOS battery (located just below the top PCI-E X 16 slot) and leave it out for a few minutes. After a few minutes, put the battery back in, connect the PSU to power and try to turn on your computer. If this doesn't get it to POST, then try the Safe Boot switch on the motherboard.

It also couldn't hurt to go over everything as well. Maybe you have something that's not quite plugged in all the way. Check connectors, the DIMM's, your M2 drive, etc.

 

[Polar Papa]

That motherboard has several nifty onboard buttons.
MemOk button for failed memory settings and SafeBoot button.
Read more in the manual.

THANKS Skynet! I was able to use the SAFE_BOOT button on the mo-bo to get everything reset. Then, changed the DRAM setting from my manual setting of 3200mHz (which is what they are), to the 2133mHz that they are being recognized as. I'll deal with that issue later. I'm hoping that once I update some other drivers that issue will go away. I'm not sure though because the mo-bo manual doesn't list teh 3200 as compatible--I'm hoping that's because the DRAM was manufactured AFTER the manual was printed---hoping!

 

[Polar Papa]

I had a look at your manual. Oddest thing, this motherboard doesn't have a clear CMOS jumper. So try this, disconnect your PSU from power. Press the power button to force the stored power in the PSU to discharge. Removed the CMOS battery (located just below the top PCI-E X 16 slot) and leave it out for a few minutes. After a few minutes, put the battery back in, connect the PSU to power and try to turn on your computer. If this doesn't get it to POST, then try the Safe Boot switch on the motherboard.

It also couldn't hurt to go over everything as well. Maybe you have something that's not quite plugged in all the way. Check connectors, the DIMM's, your M2 drive, etc.

Techgeek--ThAnKS for all this info. Fortunately, using the SAFE_BOOT button on the mobo fixed all the Q codes I was getting. I've got it running now...Now' I'm tryign to figure out how to get rid of the (5) Windows.old folders on my C drive. Apparently everytime it restarted it loaded a new version of itself--like a strange sci-fi movie of Windows replicating itself!!

 

[Polar Papa]

UPDATE:
Windows 10 is installed.

Apparenty the issue was thumb drive still installed. Since Windows kept restarting, it has resulted in what appears to be (5) install on my HD. The disc is showing 62.3 GB Used, and all I've put on it is Windows 10. From things I've read, it looks like Windows 10 only need about 20 GB. So.....I've got an extra 40 GB of "extra installs". The Local Disk (C folders are:
* Windows
* Windows.old
* Windows.old.000
* Windows.old.001
* Windows.old.003

I've tried to delete all the extra folders (except the plain "Windows"). But it won't let me. I just tell me I need admin approval to do that.

How do I delete the ".old" windows folders? How do I run with "administrator permissions"?

 

[Polar Papa]

OR,
Can I just reformat the entire disk and go through the install from the USB key again?

 

[Polar Papa]

YEAH, This is All done!

I found a Windows forum that suggested using Disk Cleaner utility . Worked like a charm!

I typed Disk Cleanup into Cortana, selected the utility. Ran it once. It then said "you can remove up to 65 GB". I selected the box next to Old Windows....zoom, bang, GONE!

THANKS FOR EVERYONE THAT HAD SUGGESTIONS AND INPUT ON THIS THREAD. GREATLY APPRECIATED.