Can’t reinstall windows on steam deck

[Chewy Yui]

This could be a niche issue, but I’m hoping one that someone else has encountered and resolved. I’ve searched online for general related occurrences in the hopes of finding a solution but I’ve had no luck

I initially installed windows fine alongside steamOS via partitions, and both work OK. For whatever reason, game pass on windows wouldn’t continue download of a partially downloaded game and I was unable to delete the files or get the game to download at all. So I decided to reinstall windows, as that’ll wipe the partition the error was on

Following that reinstall , windows crashed the device, and i was unable to get to any diagnosis on it, even via a windows boot usb, so I wiped the partition completely deleted windows boot manager and went to reinstall fresh.

So my issue is as followed:

The windows install usb won’t load at all, just gets stuck eternally on the spinning circle. I have tried multiple usb drives and multiple windows versions, it’s all the same. I have also tried totally reimagine the whole ssd including steam os, deleted all partitions and install steamos, deleted partitions and trying to boot the usb drive, but no luck

I realise this is probably a broader issue with windows not related to deck, but hoping for some help regardless

Thank you!

[RoyalMetalKnights]

The re-image should have wiped the partitions for you, so that's covered. I assume you're using GParted.

How are you handling the Windows partition format? I've seen tutorials where they do it in the Windows install, but I had better luck just formatting to NFTS in GParted.

How are you handling the USB boot drive creation? I had issues using the Windows Media Creation Tool, and Rufus worked much better.

[Chewy Yui]

Originally posted by RoyalMetalKnights:

The re-image should have wiped the partitions for you, so that's covered. I assume you're using GParted.

How are you handling the Windows partition format? I've seen tutorials where they do it in the Windows install, but I had better luck just formatting to NFTS in GParted.

How are you handling the USB boot drive creation? I had issues using the Windows Media Creation Tool, and Rufus worked much better.

I have tried this, unfortunately I think something wrong with the SSD. Will see if the seller of the drive will exchange it, and then I’ll try the new one if so

[Prezidentas]

You have replaced the SSD? Then just try it on a regular computer, see if that works.

[EnderGotGame]

I'm having this same issue! Any way you resolved this?

[EnderGotGame]

I FIXED IT! It was throwing a Driver PNP Watchdog Error after spinning for 15 -20 min. I fixed this by booting into battery storage mode in bios, which clears the cache. Tried to install windows again, and it WORKED! The steam deck was holding something from the previous installation in its powered cache on the mainboard. Once that was cleared it fixed the issue!

[Mahjik]

It's interesting how many different things that little trick addresses.

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by EnderGotGame:

I FIXED IT! It was throwing a Driver PNP Watchdog Error after spinning for 15 -20 min. I fixed this by booting into battery storage mode in bios, which clears the cache. Tried to install windows again, and it WORKED! The steam deck was holding something from the previous installation in its powered cache on the mainboard. Once that was cleared it fixed the issue!

what cache????

[Skankhunt42]

Had somthing similar on my desktop.
Gamepass is a great fudge up when it comes to disk management.
You cannot delete game files, they do not get deleted when "uninstalling".
Microsofts advice was to reinstall windows. Ridiculous.
Got rid of gamepass.