Thread 33906536

>try installing windows on my new M2 drive
>Won't do it because it can't find or create a partition
>Mess around connecting and unconnecting drives and trying again, it starts installing
>Stops halfway and doesn't work
>Now I can't start on my old hard drive either because it's apparently missing the startup file or something
Fucks sake
Does anyone know what to do in this situation? I'm thinking I have to try install windows on another hard drive that it can actually install on and try recover my files from the original hard drive

>>33906536 (OP)
>Does anyone know what to do in this situation?
you've kinda fucked it up already lol
>I'm thinking I have to try install windows on another hard drive that it can actually install on and try recover my files from the original hard drive
maybe, or just connect it via USB to any working computer, then recover the files
you don't have to boot from that drive to get the files off of it
but you will need the machine you're connecting the drive to to be able to read NTFS filesystems, which it should

i don't know what happened though, the problem you described is strange
i mean idk why the startup file from the old drive would've been removed or made unreadable by what you did

>>33906536 (OP)
>Does anyone know what to do in this situation?
Your motherboard is fucked if Windows can't reliably see the drive.

>>33906585
>>33906589
>>33906798
I figured it out idk what happened but I was able to load windows by some option in there. It seems the issue was having that hard drive connected and the windows installer detected the file on that hard drive and did who knows what.

As for actually installing windows on my new M2, don't suppose anyone knows why that's not working for me? It just says it couldn't find or create a partition. I can't format it either because it tells me it is in use.

>>33906891
>As for actually installing windows on my new M2, don't suppose anyone knows why that's not working for me?
Your motherboard is fucked, as >>33906798 stated.

>>33906891
have you created a usb stick or are you trying to install from another windows?

>>33906536 (OP)
Step one, use a better os

>>33906536 (OP)
well your second problem is probably because your bios' boot priorities got reset when you unplugged one of the drives. the first problem of windows not being able to install is either because you don't have the m.2 slot enabled in the bios or because the drive needs to be converted to gpt which you can do with diskpart from the windows installation media, although i would expect that to be unnecessary for new drives so idk. i would definitely check to see if it is gpt at least.

>>33909215
usb

>>33909350
thanks will try

I had this problem too and it turns out I was trying to use a M2 SATA drive in an NVME slot (or vice versa, I forget)

>>33906891
>It just says it couldn't find or create a partition. I can't format it either because it tells me it is in use.
Computer repair technician here. The latest installer of Windows 11 shows the flash drive itself in the list of drives during install. You're probably trying to install windows 11 on the flash drive because your internal drive isn't showing up under the installer. The reason the drive isn't showing up is likely because you need to install the Intel rapid storage technology driver during setup. You might be able to get around this by going into the bios and making sure that the SSD is set up as AHCI. Another possibility is there's something wrong with the drive itself or the M.2 slot is disabled because you have something else plugged into the computer. You have to consult the motherboard manual. For example on some motherboards it will disable the M.2 slot if you have something plugged into the sata port or if you're using one of your pci express slots for another card. There's so many different things it could be that it's difficult to know what's going on without taking a look at the computer.

>>33906536 (OP)
windows is gay, in the partition menu just clear the drive make NO partitions, just choose the the driver itself named "unallocated drive 0" or smth and you will get through