How to fix Windows if clean install (24H2/25H2) always fails at 77%

Mcnumpty2323

Mcnumpty2323

Mcnumpty2323

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This drove me crazy all day today
Thought it was corrupt isos, bad flash drives, the bootable
Usb software

So if you get restart at 77%
Then Windows installation failed message (no error code)

2 fixes
Easy fix to try first
Once you tell it language/location/keyboard layout
You will have install windows or repair windows options
Ignore both and look at bottom left corner of the screen
Theres a use previous version of windows installer
Click that and see if it works

If not
2nd fix (this was what worked for me Easy fix didn't )
For whatever reason if you have multiple drives
And unfortunately i dont know what number
Of drives will start the problem
The windows installer throws a wobbler
And won't go past 77%

For me I have a mix of sata drives and m2 drives
Don't know what happens if only
Have one type of drive

So it's make image backup first just in case
Then either go in the bios
And disable your sata drives
Or if got hot swap drives just pull those out
Depending on what drives you have you may need to play
With disabling individual sata drives
I just took the nuclear option as had no patience left
By that point
So I pulled all 4 of my hot swap sata drives out
Simply because was faster than going to the bios to disable them

Retried clean windows install
Used exactly same iso,usb,software
And windows installed perfectly first attempt

So it's either too many drives in total
Or too many sata drives
Or too many m2 drives but those aren't simple
To disable

Have had the same drives a long time
Never had any problems doing this before now
It appears theres something different with the 24H2/25H2 installer
Than previous versions
 
In an ideal world
Yeah i agree

But m2 drives aren't as simple
To remove, disable, disconnect as sata drives
Not aware of any boards
That allow disable m2 drives in the bios
Like sata either

I have 5 x m2
And a custom watercooling loop
Basically impossible to remove the m2
Drives without an awful lot of effort

Most people wont have 9 drives like me
But multiple m2 drives
Or even 2 x m2 and a sata drive might be
Enough to cause this
Really don't know how few drives would still
Cause it
 
I recently added a new NVMe drive to my system that was booting from an existing one but I moved it into a different M2 slot on the motherboard and put the new drive in its old spot. Then I did a fresh install of Windows 11 on the new NVMe.

When I booted it I was presented with this boot manager instead of booting straight into Windows...



Its no big problem it boots into my fresh install by default after 5 seconds or straight away if I press the enter key. But I guess this wouldn't have happened if I only had one NVMe drive in the system at install time.
 
Or you could have cloned
The original drive
Would be separate boot records then

You can alter the amount of time
Before it boots or have to press enter
Using msconfig
Can also alter the names
To make it easier to know which drive is
Which when you get that screen
I have 4 choices
So if they all say Windows 11
It's confusing
So i use easybcd and name them all
Something that reminds me
Which drive is which

Edit
Can also use msconfig to
Tell it which windows you want as default
In that boot screen
Old drive or new drive
 
Last edited:
Thekwango said:
I’d only ever install windows with 1 drive physically connected. Windows is, or certainly was, prone to scattering some of the instal files across the other drives
Click to expand...

Good point.

OP can try to install windows with only the main os drive connected.

Then once installed (turn pc off first) connect up the remaining drives. Then go to disk management and initialize them all.

In theory should work.
 
Last edited:
Problem is the OP (me lol)
Can only access 2 out of the 5 x m2 drives
The other 3 are totally blocked
By a full custom loop

I got there in the end
So this post was for anyone else gets 77% error
Though I appreciate my drive set up
Is more complicated than most people's
But still dont know the minimum amount of drives
Or combination of m2 + sata drives that trigger
this issue
could be as little as 3 drives anywhere up to my
9 drives
but its bound to happen to someone else
sooner or later
so hopefully someone will find the solutions useful

Thought of another possible solution
Though didn't try this
As could boot one drive with windows on it
I wonder if could go to disk management
Then set the extra m2 drives to offline
The sata drives I can just pull the hot swap bays out

Then install windows
Then back to disk management and set the drives
Back online
 
I had a problem installing fresh Windows 11 where it would reboot during the getting updates part. I wonder if this was the cause as I have 17 SSD's plugged into my machine. In the end my work around was to install Windows 10 and then update it to Windows 11 from within.
 
RavenLunatic said:
I had a problem installing fresh Windows 11 where it would reboot during the getting updates part. I wonder if this was the cause as I have 17 SSD's plugged into my machine. In the end my work around was to install Windows 10 and then update it to Windows 11 from within.
Click to expand...
Thought i was bad with 9 drives lol
But yeah it's quite possibly
The same issue
Or something very similar
Don't remember if mine was at getting updates stage
But was definitely 77% every time
That it failed
 
Thekwango said:
I’d only ever install windows with 1 drive physically connected. Windows is, or certainly was, prone to scattering some of the instal files across the other drives
Click to expand...
Yup, same here.

Saying that, I only have one drive nowadays, nvme 2tb!
 
Last edited:
bledd said:
Yup, same here.

Saying that, I only have one drive nowadays, nvme 2tb!
Click to expand...

It's pain in the backside with NVME though.

I just done a reinstall, I couldn't be bothered to remove the GPU and two NVME, put GPU back, reinstall windows, remove GPU, refit NVME

Just installed windows to the 2.5" SSD instead with the NVME in place.
 
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