Unable to reinstall Windows with rufus bootable USB

I have been successfully running Windows 11 v24H2 on an ASUS E403SA VivoBook. However, while executing some disk partitioning tasks, the system froze and was powered down. Now the system opens into the legacy BIOS screen when powered on and the boot menu only offers "Enter Setup" Here is what I've observed and done since the crash.

* Attempt to reboot failed
* Boot menu initially offered "Windows Boot Manager" as an option but system entered recovery mode
* Attempt to reinstall Windows with bootable media on USB drive failed
(Windows 11 can't be installed on disk 0 partition 2 (The selected disk is of the GPT partition style)
* Used diskpart from cmd to convert disk from GPT to MBR
* From a cmd prompt, entered >bootrec/rebuildbcd
( Identified 0 Windows installations; System32>c:\boot is corrupted and unreadable)
* Downloaded latest firmware (E403SA.301) and successfully upgraded the BIOS with the Easy Flash utility
* Boot menu now only offers "Enter Setup"; Windows recovery mode is no longer available
* Attempt to reinstall Windows with bootable media is not possible because the USB drive does not appear in Boot Override on the Save & Exit screen of the Legacy BIOS
* Main screen of Aptio Setup Utility verifies that American Megatrends 301 is the BIOS version.
* In Boot screen - Changed FastStart to [Disabled]; (Launch CSM is also Disabled at this point)
* In Security screen - Changed Secure Boot Control to [Disabled]
* Returned to Boot screen - Changed Launch CSM to [Enabled]
* Boot menu still only offers "Enter Setup"
* Legacy USB Support is [Enabled]
* USB Mass Storage Driver Support is [Enabled]
* Mass Storage Device 1.00 is [Auto]
Note: Installation Media is on a bootable USB drive created with rufus v4.8 using an MBR partition scheme, BIOS (or UEFI-CSM) target system, and NTFS file system.
ASUS Support site: "If there is nothing in the boot option, it means that the device cannot detect media storage correctly."
?Do I need to use FAT32 rather than NTFS? If so, rufus does not offer FAT32 for this .iso file (5.6GB) on this 32GB device..

I'm out of ideas. Thanks in advance for any help.

Regards,
John

futbolfan said:

However, while executing some disk partitioning tasks, the system froze and was powered down.

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What tasks exactly? Were you working in a live environment?

Do you have another PC? Just wondering if you actually saw two disks listed from diskpart (system drive + USB device). Or maybe it didn't see the system drive, and you accidentally overwrote the USB device with your commands.

Booting the same USB drive off another PC would test if you clobbered it.

glasskuter: Merging and resizing C partition
garlin: Good thought! Not the issue though because I was able to boot another MBR system from this USB drive.

One more idea: The Windows media that you made, did it contain only a single edition of Windows? Apparently Rufus had a bug related to that in 4.8 and so a 4.9 version that fixes the issue has been released. You might want to see if that works better.

futbolfan said:

Merging ... C partition

Click to expand...

With what?

hsehestedt: It was worth a try but using rufus 4.9 did not fix my issue.​

On the premise that a picture is worth a thousand words, the boot menu shown in the attached image is what I see with a tested bootable USB drive inserted. Simply put, my computer cannot detect media storage correctly. I need to figure out why. Events leading up to the crash and corruption are moot at this point.

If I may, I'd like to make one more suggestion that will tell me a lot:

Try creating the bootable media using option #3 in Brink's tutorial that I link to below. The reason that I suggest this: I know this method inside and out. It orks on EVERYTHING. Legacy BIOS, UEFI, if the system does not like NTFS USB boot media, etc. If ANYTHING will work, that will!

This is encouraging information, and it addresses my earlier question.
"? Do I need to use FAT32 rather than NTFS? If so, rufus does not offer FAT32 for this .iso file (5.6GB) on this 32GB device."
I will rebuild the installation disk using Shawn's option #3 sometime tomorrow when I can concentrate on the procedure. I'll report back here.

NTFS would be the preferred format.
but ..

if the install cant see your drive then the install wont be able to install.
you can use a Linux live USB to boot in to and check the drive.

the Linux live does not install anything its just a way of checking the drive.
burn the Linux live distro like you would with a Windows ISO using Rufus
then reboot in to the Linux live USB session.

best of luck, Steve ..

As you converted the drive from GPT to MBR with diskpart , everything on the drive is gone.

Windows can be installed in two ways: Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT
To install as Legacy-MBR you must boot the installation drive as Legacy
To install as UEFI-GPT you must boot the installation drive as UEFI.

As you have a UEFI BIOS, you should install as UEFI-GPT
Detach any other drives (SATA or Power cable) from the MB.

During POST, press F12(?) to launch the boot menu. You will see two options for the USB drive. USB UEFI (Name) and USB (Name). Select USB UEFI (Name) if you want to install as UEFI-GPT or select USB (name) if you want to install as Legacy-MBR.
Go to install and delete ALL partitions on the main drive till you have one and only one unallocated space and then proceed.

Is the computer the Dell Optiplex 790 with Intel i5-2400?

heshestedt: When using Option #3 in Brink's tutorial, is it possible to customize the installation to remove the requirements for Secure Boot and TPM 2.0?

megahertz: more valuable information...thank you!
I gather that American Megatrends 301 is a UEFI BIOS and that's how you knew I should install as UEFI-GPT...correct?
This Dell Optiplex 790 "powerhouse" has a Pentium N3700 @ 1.60 GHz.

Sorry, one more thing. Apologies if this has already been explored...

Do we know for a fact the boot media is good? In other words, could the problem be not that your system

futbolfan said:

heshestedt: When using Option #3 in Brink's tutorial, is it possible to customize the installation to remove the requirements for Secure Boot and TPM 2.0?

megahertz: more valuable information...thank you!
I gather that American Megatrends 301 is a UEFI BIOS and that's how you knew I should install as UEFI-GPT...correct?
This Dell Optiplex 790 "powerhouse" has a Pentium N3700 @ 1.60 GHz.

Click to expand...

Yes, it is absolutely possible. But that's a whole other topic. I would be glad to help with that, but first let's see if this will even result in a bootable media Once we get past that hurdle, we can tweak to our heart's content OR we could use that knowledge to figure out why it is not working with Rufus which, to be honest, may be easier .

I'm a huge fan of doing stuff without tools like Rufus when I can, but I have to be honest and tell you that my methods are not what I would suggest to most people because there can be a big learning curve and it simply wouldn't be the easiest route for most people to go.

Using a tool like Rufus makes these tasks so easier that I can hardly justify making people do it the way that I do . I'm mainly suggesting option 3 from Brink's tutorial as an information gathering tool at this point. The idea is that if that method doesn't at least result in media booting successfully, then we have a bigger issue to diagnose.