Failing to boot after fresh Installation of Windows 10

This doesn’t sound like a bad Windows install — it sounds like a boot-mode mismatch, not failing hardware.

From what you describe, Windows is installing, but the system can’t find a valid boot entry afterward.

Here are the key things to check, in order:

1. Make sure you are booting the SSD, not “the drive”

In UEFI mode, the SSD will not appear as the drive name.
You should see something like:

“Windows Boot Manager (your SSD name)”

If you only see the raw SSD, Windows wasn’t registered as a UEFI boot target.

2. Force pure UEFI (no Legacy / CSM)

In BIOS:

• Disable Legacy / CSM
• Enable UEFI only
• Secure Boot can be off for now

Installing in UEFI + GPT requires this.

3. Reinstall with all other drives disconnected

Physically unplug all other drives (HDDs, old SSDs).
Windows sometimes puts the EFI partition on the wrong disk, which causes exactly this issue.

4. Recreate the disk properly during setup

At the Windows setup disk screen:

• Delete all partitions on the SSD
• Select Unallocated space
• Let Windows create the partitions automatically

Do not pre-format manually.

5. This is very unlikely to be SATA hardware failure

Because:

• The SSD is detected
• Different cables and SSDs behave the same
• Legacy mode sees the drive

Motherboard SATA failure would usually mean no detection at all.