SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION upon clean installing Windows 11 which subsequently reaches a "...the computer restarted unexpectedly..." boot loop

Question

Specs:
Ryzen 2600X

Asrock X470 Master AC/SLI

G. Skill 2 x 8 Gb DDR4 3000mhz

MSI Armor OC GTX 1070

ADATA SN8200 Pro 1 Tb (drive 1—current boot)

#these were connected prior to clean install and are now disconnected

Samsung 850 Evo 250 Gb (drive 2—boot drive prior to first Windows reinstall years ago and acquiring drive 1)

WD Blue 1 Tb (drive 3)

Potentially important context:

Build ran Windows 10 without any issue, but I was aware drive 1 was improperly set up as an MBR instead of GPT which I thought it was preventing me from upgrading to Windows 11—more explicitly, this was somehow related to issues with my TPM and CSM settings. For some reason, my motherboard defaults to keeping TPM off and CSM on... So I was considering a clean install of windows. I decided to pull out my drive 2 to use an external drive to transfer important documents. Upon booting up however, I ran into SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION unless drive 2 was installed, which was weird since I can confirm drive 1 was set up as the boot drive. I learned that Windows may have a bug in that there exists some dependency upon a new boot drive and an old one but I can't recall the source, so I may be wrong. From there, I managed to transfer my documents via USB with drive 2 still installed, and prepared for a clean install of Windows 11 by setting up a boot drive and removing all drives except my desired boot drive.

The issue:

I set up Windows as per usual and after the installation's required reboot, I get to the prompt of "Windows Setting Up devices," and it reaches 63% (and 90% on other occasions), where I reach an SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION error. A subsequent reboot results in the message "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install Windows, click "OK" to restart the computer, and then restart the installation." Upon clicking "OK," the computer enters a boot loop with this same error (and no further BSOD).

My attempts at resolving this (in chronological order):

1. Reattempting installation did not work
2. Windows 11 Startup Repair failed
3. Windows support suggested attempting again with Windows 10—I got the exact same issue.
4. Windows 10 Startup Repair failed
5. memtest is passed on each stick individually
6. I attempted to install Windows 10 solely on drive 3 and ran into the same issue. However, I googled around and successfully managed to get to Windows setup with the first solution on this page: https://windowsreport.com/computer-restarted-unexpectedly/?unapproved=460435&moderation-hash=4fe04ab8afb12c6101173071ed7538c5#comment-460435
7. I removed all drives except 1 and installation media to begin to setup Windows 11 again hoping to enter regedit. I ran into the initial SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION upon the initial reboot, but expected that since I would enter the command prompt from the "...computer restarted unexpectedly..." screen. After the second reboot into the second error, I attempted to enter the command prompt using shift + F10 (using the fn key makes no difference), but I did not see a command prompt. Testing a few more times, I noticed the command prompt flashes on the screen momentarily when shut off (and it is responsive to the regedit command but does not pull up the window). Instead, I used the boot drive to enter the command prompt and regedit but was unable to complete the procedure since the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ folder is missing. To clarify—just the Status folder is missing with Setup\ containing just AllowStart, Pid, SetupCLI.
   1. I attempted to resolve this according to this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-yEvTqaUok). The method was implemented for Windows 8 and it seemed... crude, but I tried anyway without any luck, resulting in the same issue as earlier
8. I realized I only attempted the viable solution using Windows 11 and am now attempting the solution on Windows 10 and the installation procedure is resulting in a setup error after selecting the appropriate partition during the "Copying Files" phase: "Windows could not prepare he computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation." This again keeps looping upon trying again. Note that despite deleting old partitions of Windows 11, they appear again when I reattempt installation of Windows 10 (i.e. Windows 10 is running into an installation issue before it can delete my old Windows 11 drive 1 partitions)

My thoughts/ideas/questions:

• I'm not testing anything further until I get a second opinion from here hopefully because I may have bricked something with 7.1
• I think there are multiple issues so perhaps my issues aren't all related to one source, so I don't want to necessarily blame a single component/driver/software yet
• I am convinced drive 1 has some issue. Formatting? Driver? I'm not sure... I doubt the former because Win installation would take care of that, but drivers... maybe? To be fair, I only installed it once years ago and never updated it. How would I even go about getting those drivers taken care of now without Windows?
• But what about drive 2? Why didn't that work immediately?
• And why isn't the command prompt working on drive 1 as it did on drive 3? Why is there a missing folder in the registry?

Tools at my disposal:

• I did purchase a new CPU, MOBO, and RAM to upgrade this build anyway, so worst-case scenario that might work, but it won't if it's a storage issue.
• Internal SSD (drive 2) with an enclosure that I suppose could internalize again if necessary for testing, but I'd prefer to avoid touching it since the enclosure is difficult to work with and has already physically damaged the SSD's SATA connection slightly.
• 16 GB Basic USB
• MacBook Air
• A secondary Windows laptop incapable of swapping parts with
• GeekSquad—I'll probably take it in if I can't get this resolved soon
• I'm fine with purchasing a new SSD, but drive 1 was incredibly reliable, quick (for my purposes), so I hope to salvage it

Edit:

I managed to reinstall Windows 10 by using my UEFI's SSD Secure Erase tool. I was being incredibly stupid and overlooked my network card... I removed it and alas, I managed to get past "setting up devices" on the Windows load screen and circumvented any BSOD.

Answer 1

Hello JarvisVR,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I read this thread in its entirety and it seems to me that you want to install a 1TB SSD as a system disk for Windows 11?

Depending on your hardware specifications, your device should meet the minimum requirements of Windows 11, but please let me emphasize that in the requirements of Windows 11 system, it is clearly stated that the motherboard supports TPM2.0 and UEFI boot security:

Windows 11 System Requirements

I have learned that the current device seems to be able to start Windows10 normally, which indicates that your device still has operational conditions, please back up all important data in the device.

Then, restart your computer to go to the BIOS Settings page, turn off CSM compatibility mode, and turn on the TPM2.0 and UEFI secure boot options (for this, you may want to consult your motherboard support staff to guide you to the appropriate options). After completing a series of BIOS Settings, you can begin normal clean installation operations.

Please note that if you have CSM turned on in order to use Windows 10, you should not be able to access the desktop normally. Rest assured, this is normal.

I will provide you with a complete guide to install the system cleanly. Follow the procedure:

Reinstall or clean install Windows 11

If the USB installation Media cannot be created on the current device, you can use the Media Creation Tool on another device to creat.

I should also add that when you go to the installation location page, you need to change the format of your drive from MBR to GPT through a few commands:

1.On the partition selection screen, press SHIFT+F10 to bring up the command prompt.

2. Input: diskpart

Open the diskpart tool

3.Input:

list disk

Lists the disks owned by the system

4.Here, we assume disk 0 is the system drive you intend to install. Input:

select disk 0

Select disk 0

5.Input:

clean

Clear the disk. This command erases all data on the disk

6.Input:

convert gpt

Convert the disk to GPT format

After the configuration is complete, go back to the disk selection page and select an installation position.

If anything is unclear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Best regards,

Mitchell - | Microsoft community support expert from MSFT