Can't install Windows 11 (secure boot)

[Wormhole]

I'm trying to upgrade windows 10 to windows 11 and PC Health Check is saying must support secure boot. I've turned secure boot on but I cant boot off my w10 drive it just keeps going back into the bios. Does my Motherboard have secure boot?  its a gigabyte b550m ds3h ac

ty

 

 

[191x7]

Latest BIOS?

 

If you had Secure Boot disabled when installing win10, in order to boot inot Win you have to disable Secure Boot, boot into windows, open msconfig, set to safe boot (to boot into safe mode on next boot), turn on Secure Boot, boot into the "safe mode" Windows, turn off the setting in those and boot into regular windows.

 

Some boards need a bios update to have the fTPM work properly for win11.

[BetteBalterZen]

Did you also disable CSM or enabling Secure Boot, did that disable CSM? 

My theory is that after you enabled Secure Boot, maybe CSM got disabled, which caused your (assuming) MBR Windows installation to not be bootable - a GPT format would be needed. 

[Wormhole]

it 

1 minute ago, BetteBalterZen said:

Did you also disable CSM or enabling Secure Boot, did that disable CSM? 

My theory is that after you enabled Secure Boot, maybe CSM got disabled, which caused your (assuming) MBR Windows installation to not be bootable - a GPT format would be needed. 

i have to disable csm to enable secure boot not sure if thats normal but my m.2 w10 drive is mbr

[BetteBalterZen]

3 minutes ago, Wormhole said:

it 

i have to disable csm to enable secure boot not sure if thats normal but my m.2 w10 drive is mbr

Well, I don't know enough to say that CSM being disabled is necessay to I know 100% that if your Windows installation is setup using a MBR format, then it won't work. You will need a GPT format of Windows on the SSD. 

I've seen guides before that show how to reformat MBR to GPT without reinstalling Windows but I have not tried those before, I've always just reinstalled Windows. 

[Wormhole]

21 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

Latest BIOS?

 

If you had Secure Boot disabled when installing win10, in order to boot inot Win you have to disable Secure Boot, boot into windows, open msconfig, set to safe boot (to boot into safe mode on next boot), turn on Secure Boot, boot into the "safe mode" Windows, turn off the setting in those and boot into regular windows.

 

Some boards need a bios update to have the fTPM work properly for win11.

do i have to install all of the bios versions or just the latest? my bios version is F15a

[Wormhole]

4 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

Well, I don't know enough to say that CSM being disabled is necessay to I know 100% that if your Windows installation is setup using a MBR format, then it won't work. You will need a GPT format of Windows on the SSD. 

I've seen guides before that show how to reformat MBR to GPT without reinstalling Windows but I have not tried those before, I've always just reinstalled Windows. 

damn so can i clone my w10 drive and wipe it convert to gpt and put my w10 os back on? 

[BetteBalterZen]

1 minute ago, Wormhole said:

damn so can i clone my w10 drive and wipe it convert to gpt and put my w10 os back on? 

As far as I know - but have not tested - you don't have to clone your drive. You simply just boot up into Windows and then run some CMD commands which will convert your drive from MBR to GPT, and then you should be able to go into BIOS, disable CSM, and then boot up again without issues. 

[191x7]

15 minutes ago, Wormhole said:

do i have to install all of the bios versions or just the latest? my bios version is F15a

You can just flash the latest. Usually the latest contains all the fixes from the previous ones.

[Wormhole]

27 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

As far as I know - but have not tested - you don't have to clone your drive. You simply just boot up into Windows and then run some CMD commands which will convert your drive from MBR to GPT, and then you should be able to go into BIOS, disable CSM, and then boot up again without issues. 

ok, i dont get how it wont boot windows 10 or 11 when its format is mbr with secure boot enabled. do you know the reason?

[BetteBalterZen]

Just now, Wormhole said:

ok, i dont get how it wont boot windows 10 or 11 when its format is mbr with secure boot enabled. do you know the reason?

Disable Secure Boot first, then load up Windows, convert to GPT, go into  BIOS, enable Secure Boot, continue Windows 11 upgrade

[BetteBalterZen]

7 minutes ago, Wormhole said:

ok, i dont get how it wont boot windows 10 or 11 when its format is mbr with secure boot enabled. do you know the reason?

If enabling Secure Boot somehow (I say "somehow" because I'm not sure if enabling Secure Boot automatically disables CSM) disables CSM in the BIOS also, then the MBR Windows install will not work. This happens because MBR is used for legacy BIOS' and not UEFI. CSM stands for Compatiblity Support Module, and this makes your new UEFI motherboards support legacy hardware and features and so on. 

GPT is used for UEFI, which is needed for Windows 11. 

[Wormhole]

9 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

Disable Secure Boot first, then load up Windows, convert to GPT, go into  BIOS, enable Secure Boot, continue Windows 11 upgrade

ty sounds like it'll be the solution if not ill update

[Wormhole]

8 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

If enabling Secure Boot somehow (I say "somehow" because I'm not sure if enabling Secure Boot automatically disables CSM) disables CSM in the BIOS also, then the MBR Windows install will not work. This happens because MBR is used for legacy BIOS' and not UEFI. CSM stands for Compatiblity Support Module, and this makes your new UEFI motherboards support legacy hardware and features and so on. 

GPT is used for UEFI, which is needed for Windows 11. 

ty for the info

[BetteBalterZen]

This explains how to convert from MBR to GPT without data loss: How to Convert MBR to GPT without Data Loss in Windows 11/10 (thewindowsclub.com)

Though it also says that it is only possible if the drive does not have any partitions or volumes on it, which yours most likely have, since it has Windows installed on it. I'm afraid you might have to reinstall Windows... 

You can wipe your disk while in the Windows installation enviroment by opening CMD by pressing Shift + F10 and then do the simple commands to wipe and convert your disk, then after continue the installation. And you do this after you have enabled Secure Boot and so on in the BIOS of course. 

[BetteBalterZen]

@Wormhole you are welcome 

[Wormhole]

15 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

This explains how to convert from MBR to GPT without data loss: How to Convert MBR to GPT without Data Loss in Windows 11/10 (thewindowsclub.com)

Though it also says that it is only possible if the drive does not have any partitions or volumes on it, which yours most likely have, since it has Windows installed on it. I'm afraid you might have to reinstall Windows... 

You can wipe your disk while in the Windows installation enviroment by opening CMD by pressing Shift + F10 and then do the simple commands to wipe and convert your disk, then after continue the installation. And you do this after you have enabled Secure Boot and so on in the BIOS of course. 

ok ill clone my w10 just in case, so should i convert to gpt and install windows 10 then upgrade or just convert and install w11?    and is it possible to create a windows 10 backup and transfer it to windows 11 so all my files and apps are there?

sorry for all the dumb questions