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mad_tekee's avatar
mad_tekee
Copper Contributor
Nov 02, 2025

Cannot Boot from Windows 11 USB Installation Media

So the story is a long one. I updated one of my Windows 10 PC's successfully to Windows 11 using the Rufus tool and all was well. What I hadn't noticed was that the previous Windows 10 install had ...
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deployment
device management
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Update management
soumdg663's avatar
soumdg663
Iron Contributor
Nov 12, 2025

Your main challenge seems to be the system not recognizing or accepting the USB as a boot device in UEFI mode. Ensuring the media is GPT/UEFI compatible, BIOS settings are correct, and trying different USB ports or creation methods can often resolve this.

mad_tekee's avatar
mad_tekee
Copper Contributor
Nov 12, 2025

I have now resolved all issues but this was a long process. I finally tracked down the non bootable system to a faulty mechanical Hard drive that was affecting the SATA bus.

I have removed the existing Windows boot manager from the M.2 NVMe drive and created a new EFI partition on the system c drive where the new upgraded Windows 11 sits. I used a Partition manager to create the new EFI fat32 partition and command line to create system boot files on it. 
Also used the same partition manager to delete the old boot manager on the wrong disc and checked out rest of disc as ok. 

Microsoft - please can we have a way in future to ALWAYS ensure the boot partition goes on the same hard disk as the Windows system install. I have seen quite a few people who have had that problem as well.

If Windows install process puts it on a random separate hard drive it creates future problems, 

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