Windows 11 install has hung up for 20+ hours (don't turn off your PC) how long should it take?

Question

I am installing Windows 11 on a new computer. It has stalled for over 20 hours with a message: Please keep your PC on and plugged in.

Don't turn off your PC.

How long should the install take? will it corrupt the install if I reboot?

If there are issues, can I start over?

Answer 1

20 hours is way too long for a normal Windows 11 installation. Usually, even on slower machines, the whole process should take between 30 minutes and 2 hours at most. If it's completely frozen for this long, it's very likely stuck either because of a hardware glitch, a driver problem, or installation corruption. Rebooting now might cause the install to fail (that's OK!), but it won't permanently damage your computer. Worst case, you will have to start the installation over, and that's very common and fixable.

Restart the PC, Boot again from your USB installer (or installation media you used). Choose to delete the partitions (Windows setup will offer this) and reinstall fresh. Windows will recreate all the partitions it needs automatically.