Windows 10: unable to install from USB - error code 0xc0000098

[Charnster]

Hi all,

The issue:
I have recently built myself a new PC and am experiencing issues when attempting to perform a clean install of Windows 10 from USB. On booting from USB I get the Windows 10 splash screen followed by the following error:

The operating system couldn't be loaded because the kernel is missing or contains errors

File: \windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Error code: 0xc0000098


What I have tried so far:

• 
  Created USB Windows bootable media via the Windows Media creation tool (twice on different PCs and USB drives)
  Enabled UEFI boot (legacy boot disabled)
  Tried Legacy boot enabled
  Have used both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports on the motherboard (apparently there can be issues with 3.0...).
  Altered boot order to have the USB boot first automatically and also manually select from the boot menu.
  Created USB bootable media from the Windows 10 .iso with Rufus. First time with "MBR partition scheme for BIOS and UEFI" along with FAT32 and the second time (after seeing some suggestions online) using "GPT partition scheme with UEFI" and formatted as NTFS.
  At first thought it might be an issue with the SSD, I have removed this and still have the same issue.
  Removed video card in case it was a driver/hardware issue
  Switched the DIMM slots of the RAM (was originally 1,3 realised later that this should in fact be 2,4)
  Tried each RAM module individually in DIMM slot 2
  AHCI is enabled

PC specifications:

• 
  MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon
  Intel Core i5 6600K Processor (3.5 GHz)
  Samsung 850 Evo 1TB 2.5 SSD
  Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3200C16 Vengeance LPX 16 GB
  Palit 6GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060

The above error seems like it could cover many different issues and because it is referring to the kernel I suspect some kind of hardware or driver issue maybe? I am posting here as I am not sure what the next step could be to find out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[Colif]

its clearly not booting from the USB still as the boot error relates to the SSD (if you get same error with no ssd installed, I got nothing) which Win 10 is on.

did you disable fast boot/secure boot? it may help

 

[Charnster]

Hi Colif,

SSD is removed without changing the error. The SSD is brand new with no existing OS installed.
I will try disabling these although I think these are already disabled.

Thanks

 

[Colif]

2 USB with same error on two different computers.. that's just not fair.

on another PC, put USB in drive and go to file explorer
right click drive and choose properties
choose tools
run error checking on disk

Have you got the newest BIOS?