Please help can't get windows to boot on X870e Tomahawk

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Feb 12, 2025
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I cant seem to figure out what is going on. The Bios recognizes my 980 pro 1TB, I am trying to install windows to it with USB stick, I go through all the steps to install it, remove USB stick, enter bios and change boot order to my SSD to 1st... Then when it trys to boot it, it says its not a proper boot drive.

I have tried the following.

- changing settings to UEFI- Legacy mode, then it lists all the UEFI boot options and all the NON-UEFI options, the SSD with fresh windows install on it only shows in the non UEFI options
-Turned secure boot on and off, tried both ways
- made sure TPM was active

Funny things in BIOS I have seen.
- going to save changes and reboot won't show the changes i made in the box that comes up, its just black and when i hit ok to reboot the screen goes black but my monitor doesnt turn off.. when i get back into BIOS after hard restart, the changes I made do seem to have happened in the bios

- hitting the "Exit button" does list the changes, but I then run into the same problem as listed above.

-Loading into the boot menu VIA f11 when booting, i see the options but everything freezes and have to do a reset or shutdown

I have basically done everything I think I can without Clearing CMOS or flashing/updating the bios. was making sure I wasn't missing anything before I do all that, I am currently on This PC right now using an SSD encloser with my old SSD that has a windows install on it that i know works. When I select this drive in the boot order it shows up as UEFI and I select that one and I can get into windows.

I have built many of computers and installed windows countless times I have never run into such a problem getting windows booted before

Specs:

AMD 7800x3d
X870e MSI tomahawk
Gigabyte gaming OC 4090
G skill 6000 mhz CL 30 16x2
corsair shift 1000w
SSD: samsung 980 pro 1TB

any help would be so great, I am at wits end..... thank you.
 
I cant seem to figure out what is going on. The Bios recognizes my 980 pro 1TB, I am trying to install windows to it with USB stick, I go through all the steps to install it, remove USB stick, enter bios and change boot order to my SSD to 1st... Then when it trys to boot it, it says its not a proper boot drive.

That's already wrong. Do it like step 3) here (but instead of the Intel chipset drivers, you can later install the AMD ones from here). Meaning, you don't ever touch anything about the boot order in the BIOS, you do everything through the F11 boot menu. So first, that has to work properly. Because during installation, Windows will add itself automatically to the boot order, you don't have to do a thing. This is a UEFI feature. This already tells you, it has to stay in UEFI mode, with Secure Boot and fTPM 2.0 enabled.

I have basically done everything I think I can without Clearing CMOS or flashing/updating the bios.

No, those are the two things you definitely have to do now. Especially updating the BIOS is an absolute must with new boards like these, because the factory BIOS is incredibly buggy on the AM5 800-series chipset boards. You're setting yourself up for failure if you try it on the factory BIOS version. Hell, even the current versions are not very good from all i'm reading on the forum, but it should have some annoying bugs already taken care of.

So i what suggest, update the BIOS to the latest version (using M-Flash in the BIOS), then you can do a Clear CMOS for good measure. Even though the BIOS update should already do that, sometimes a seperate Clear CMOS afterwards can prevent weird problems. Then, you can leave EXPO/XMP off for the time being, and first use the F11 method to try to get Windows installed.
 
Thank you for the reply.

-Flash the bios to the newest one

-installed windows using the boot menu(which is working now)

- windows installed completely, then restarted itself back into the windows installer. Doesn’t seem to have put itself in the boot order.

Not sure what to do now.
 
Check your Boot order, make sure your Boot Order says Window Boot Manager is first. If you don't see that, something went wrong with the initial installation. You can retry the installation process from the USB making sure to delete any partitions that show on the drive and letting Windows install into the unallocated space.
 
Normally I take it out when it does the first reboot of the installation process. It has already copied everything it need to the drive to complete.
 
Check your Boot order, make sure your Boot Order says Window Boot Manager is first. If you don't see that, something went wrong with the initial installation. You can retry the installation process from the USB making sure to delete any partitions that show on the drive and letting Windows install into the unallocated space.
I do not have that option. All I see is this.

 
I would try a fresh download of the Installation media, when you start the process of creating the drive on the language and edition page, uncheck the box that says Use the recommended options for this PC
 
Last edited:
Ok
I would try a fresh download of the Installation media, when you start the process of creating the drive on the language and edition page, uncheck the box that says Use the recommended options for this

I would try a fresh download of the Installation media, when you start the process of creating the drive on the language and edition page, uncheck the box that says Use the recommended options for this PC
Ok, currently reinstalling the windows installer and uncheck that box. I’m not sure if I did that or not the first time around, hopefully this is the solution. Thank you for trying to help me, I really appreciate it.
 
I would try a fresh download of the Installation media, when you start the process of creating the drive on the language and edition page, uncheck the box that says Use the recommended options for this PC
That worked, it’s finishing installing as I speak. I can’t thank you enough. Much love brother. Appreciate you!
 
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