Question please help me install a new boot drive

[monicaaa]

alrighty here goes nothing, please explain everything to me like i'm 5. i have a massive headache trying to work with this for the past couple of hours and i really hope i'm doing something basic incorrectly.

i'm working with the following:
a msi b450 tomahawk max motherboard
a 250gb sandisk 2.5in ssd
a 500gb western digital m.2 ssd

my goal is to switch my boot drive from my 250gb 2.5 inch ssd to my new m.2 ssd. i'm fine with a fresh install of windows on the m.2, at this point i just want it to boot.

originally, i had tried to clone my 250gb to my 500gb, but that didn't seem to work. so i retrieved a flash drive with a copy of windows on it, so i could do a fresh install. every time i've tried to accomplish this, i've completely unplugged my 250gb ssd.
i've followed a few different tutorials online and no matter what i keep getting the error message that it "couldn't create a new partition or locate an old one" or "windows cannot be installed here". if somehow i've been lucky enough to avoid one of those error messages, windows will then "install" but i'll get stuck in an infinite loop of it trying to install, restarting my pc, then starting all over again.

i have no clue where to go from here, i feel like every tutorial i have found has been identical and not useful for my problem. any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!

 

[Grobe]

In the installation process, you should delete any partition leftover from the failing cloning attempt.

 

[monicaaa]

In the installation process, you should delete any partition leftover from the failing cloning attempt.

how would i go about doing that? i followed a tutorial that had me open up the command prompt and "clean" the disk - is that the same thing?

 

[USAFRet]

how would i go about doing that? i followed a tutorial that had me open up the command prompt and "clean" the disk - is that the same thing?

Follow this:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Section II speaks to deleting ALL the existing partitions on the drive.

And do this install with only ONE drive connected.

 

[monicaaa]

Follow this:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Section II speaks to deleting ALL the existing partitions on the drive.

And do this install with only ONE drive connected.

ok so i ended up re-downloading windows (hoping that might be one of the problems) but i was still met with the same problem after i deleted all the partitions. for some reason, the drive is split and when selected,both give me the same error message, "windows cannot be installed on this drive." (i've attached a picture of this)
now it also briefly showed a message that my drive was gpt, and that the partitions were not in a proper order to install windows. i went through this earlier referencing this tutorial and felt like i went in circles.

any suggestions?

 

[USAFRet]

You need to DELETE those partitions, and continue with an empty drive.

 

[monicaaa]

You need to DELETE those partitions, and continue with an empty drive.

i thought i had deleted them, by deleting partitions it's simply highlighting it and clicking delete right? or did i completely skip over something? when i mentioned they were split in two, it looks like this . that's after highlighting and deleting then refreshing that page.

 

[USAFRet]

i thought i had deleted them, by deleting partitions it's simply highlighting it and clicking delete right? or did i completely skip over something? when i mentioned they were split in two, it looks like this . that's after highlighting and deleting then refreshing that page.

Delete all 3.
That should leave ONE selection to install to.

 

[monicaaa]

Delete all 3.
That should leave ONE selection to install to.

thank you! for some reason i had been thinking the one type that was listed as "reserved" was my flash drive.
here's the next problem i've been running into though, i was able to proceed from there and have windows install, however, when it gets to the part where it reboots it just takes me right back to the initial installation screen. i've been stuck in this loop for the most part and i have no idea how to get it to stop?

 

[USAFRet]

thank you! for some reason i had been thinking the one type that was listed as "reserved" was my flash drive.
here's the next problem i've been running into though, i was able to proceed from there and have windows install, however, when it gets to the part where it reboots it just takes me right back to the initial installation screen. i've been stuck in this loop for the most part and i have no idea how to get it to stop?

When it gets to that Reboot, take the flash drive out.

 

[monicaaa]

When it gets to that Reboot, take the flash drive out.

when i get to that point and take the flash drive out, i just boot into my bios. it recognizes the m.2, but won't actually let me boot to it.