Error encountered during Windows installation at the beginning stage.
Error encountered during Windows installation at the beginning stage.
I’m working with a Crosshair VI Hero and a Samsung 960 Pro. Previously, Windows and Linux were installed before I started fresh. All drives were wiped, and reinstalling Windows didn’t work. I ran stress tests and memory checks without issues. Other drives are active, but the SATA controller in UEFI is disabled, still causing errors. I’ve tried various fixes: CMOS reset, UEFI settings, flashing the UEFI, using different USB drives, and even switching to Ubuntu for installation. The logs show Windows appears too small on the ESP. I partitioned manually and it passed, but the installer crashes afterward. I attempted to install on other drives with similar problems.
Many people mentioned: installing media can be problematic due to a bad disk or USB drive, or corrupted files. You should re-download it.
Windows may lack the necessary drivers for your SATA/SSD controller. When choosing a drive or partition, click "Load Drivers," insert your SSD or USB flash drive, and select the appropriate drivers. Remember, Windows isn't installed yet, so you can't run .exe files or unzip archives—extract the driver files first and choose the *.inf file.
I saved the creators version twice, and the checksums matched for both copies. I recreated the installation media several times using two distinct USB drives, and the outcomes remained consistent. Windows displays all partitions in the partitioning settings.
It doesn't indicate the drive or partition is recognized, everything seems okay. Install the drivers. Are you sure the computer isn't already overclocked? How long will you wait while it freezes at 0%? To verify your UEFI setup: SecureBoot must be enabled, CSM should be off, XMP profile active, Profile 1 should show No OC applied, and all legacy features turned off.
You can follow these steps to install the drivers: First, ensure you have all the necessary drivers downloaded. Since you're using Ubuntu without an optical drive, you might need to use a USB adapter or virtualization method. Check if your hardware supports direct installation or if you need to use a bootloader. If you're unsure about the process, consider consulting official documentation for your specific hardware model.
Store the extracted drivers on your USB flash drive somewhere inside. (Root or a "drivers" folder—anywhere you won’t miss). You can place them on the same drive where you installed Windows setup. Just download the .zip version of the drivers or motherboard drivers, not the .exe, and unzip it. Some options let you extract the files first, then copy the folder to your USB drive.
In the end it was my mistake. I recorded this so others might discover this discussion. I used a laptop running Ubuntu to build the installer, formatted the storage using fat32 with gparted, unzipped the ISO, returned to gparted and made it bootable as instructed in a guide. The issue seemed to be that one of the files exceeded 4 GB. My fix was installing Windows 7 inside VirtualBox, transferring the USB and letting the media creator generate the installer.