Windows installer doesn't work?

Yes, the install on my hard drive had to be in legacy mode from what I remember. I believe I actually had the issue where it defaulted to uefi but it wouldn't work with my drive. Using the legacy installer fixed that. This drive I tried to install in legacy mode as well the first time. The install media will run but I got an error saying the drive isn't compatible. So that's when I tried the uefi disk which worked until it has to restart. That's correct though. When I wipe the drive with the uefi device and install, it formats it to GPT. I tried checking the drive using CrystalDiskInfo it seems to be okay. AS SSD Benchmark gives me this 

The other pc i tried also has uefi, but the hdd in it was originally installed in legacy too, and the same error happened. But I will see if I can find another one to borrow where it was always uefi. Maybe something is stopping the hardware from booting to a uefi drive on both computers.

I just wanted to try it. I know it shouldn't work running GPT on legacy or MBR on UEFI. I am definitely overthinking it now but I'm at a loss at this point. I don't know anything else I can try. I've looked all over google for answers. I do appreciate the help a lot it's just a bit discouraging. I figured this would be easy but it's been 2 days now. If the only thing I can't store on it is my OS it could be worse. But, I am only using the cmd you access by pressing shift+f10 while in the windows install media tool. From the legacy installer I can clean the disk and format it as MBR from there, which tells me it cannot continue because it has a MBR partition table. But a totally cleaned drive that isn't formatted can not continue either, then the error is that it may not be compatible with the hardware. The drive is formatted as FAT32, and while installing in legacy mode nothing works. If I switch to uefi mode and clean the drive again, then it continues up until the original issue. It will install but not boot past that. But this is further than I've gotten trying everything I could think of within the legacy usb. I thought it might be a hardware issue but changing to another setup with different hardware does not work. After finishing an install on UEFI and going back to the installer, all I did was use diskpart to select the drive and do these things. I could select and mark partitions I wanted to be active. I did so just in case the main partition wasn't already. I could also format the drives which is why I tried testing both MBR and GPT formats just in case. I figured I might as well just to be safe. CSM is needed for the HDD too though. Without it on I can't see anything at all to boot from. Going to uefi and pressing f8 for a boot override just gives me no options. So It has to be enabled to work unless I'm missing something. After scanning the drive I will try using rufus again in case I did something wrong. I'll let you know how it goes.

You said the previous installs were to CSM or Legacy MBR. You've only just now begun trying to install UEFI to GPT.

The conversion is done when you wipe or delete all partitions down to Unallocated Space with an installer booted as a UEFI device. This both formats the drive GPT and invokes the Windows Boot Manager which is not showing up and is likely a firmware failure.

Can you borrow a UEFI PC to swap your SSD into it to install, then move it back to the target PC. Windows 10 is remarkably adaptive to new hardware without needing adaptive restore. If it will start it will swap out all drivers requiring several restarts. This will tell us important information and may complete the install.

By that I mean I format the disk in cmd using diskpart convert GPT. Now the ssd will come up as a GPT format disk and trying to continue installing gives an error that I cant install windows on it due to it being in GPT format. Deleting the partitions so the drive is all empty space, and then running clean in cmd doesnt work either.Trying to move on now gives me an error that the drive is not compatible with the hardware. Then I go into cmd, and format the disk as MBR, since it wont format the disk itself even blank, and it tells me that it cannot install now because of a MBR partition table. It seems to just not be compatible at all with legacy. At least using the uefi disk windows installer is able to finish, and just doesnt boot after. I did try booting the ssd on another rig with different hardware and I ended up at the same place. It seems to definitely be the program, the usb or the ssd. Everything else was swapped out. I will try those disk diagnostic programs you mentioned and get back to you though. I did only use disk check via the cmd in repair options, so it could still be a bad drive. I'll go test it and let you know the result.

Hi,

You are making things too complicated for yourself...

You are switching multiple things, but possibly not the correct combinations...

A UEFI HDD\SSD needs to be a GPT drive... A Legacy HDD\SSD needs to be MBR... Both NTFS...

This is not interchangeable...

Same thing with the Flash Drive... A UEFI Installation drive needs to be GPT\FAT32...

A Legacy Installation drive needs to be MBR\NTFS..

Both of the above conditions need to be met for a particular installation... There is no mix and match option... You may also need to select a "UEFI Flash" or "Flash" in boot options...

This type of confusion is one of the primary drawbacks of the introduction of UEFI Bios, and why I try to stick to Legacy... I do use UEFI at times for testing stuff like this, and on my HP Laptop and tablet that came that way, but avoid it on my primary desktop machines..

If you select your HDD as the boot device, it is Legacy.. Otherwise it would be WindowsBootManager...

It's hard to say what complications may have happened in one of your 1st attempts with both drives attached, but with the HDD removed you can make the SSD whatever you want...

Your attempts to put the SSD as a UEFI Boot Device may be failing due to the flash drive...

It may be that because of conflicting flash drive\bios issues that everything is there except for the boot files on the EFI partition... So no WindowsBootManager...

I'm thinking that without using RUFUS you might be out of luck fixing this issue...

One other option for Legacy Bios would be the Windows USB\DVD Tool to create the flash drive...

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56485

Your Legacy attempt failed as well... This may also be due to the installation media conflicting with your bios settings... 

Personally, I actually use two different flash drives for my installations... One specifically for UEFI, and one specifically for Legacy... Both burned with RUFUS... I already mentioned why...

You should not need CSM enabled to see your SSD if it not required for the HDD... UNLESS the SSD had already been set up as a GPT drive... Having it enabled is not a bad thing... it just not be a requirement to see the SSD...

You mentioned changing stuff to make "Active"... This suggests to me that you are using 3rd party Disk Management Tools...

You also mentioned updating your Bios... That could easily cause to work differently now, than they did during your original installation on the HDD...