Ultimate Steam Deck Windows Guide - Getting Started | Internal Drive | External | Micro SD

[@horuz369]

You convinced me to change from SD to the internal SSD haha thanks for the great tutorial!

[@Sam-Retina]

You went over the very important option in tufts, “Windows to go”. Thanks mate!

[@ohheyitsak]

Thanks for the guide. There's a few steps I wish you actually showed, but if I can make this work then anyone can. If you are using an OLED Steam Deck I can confirm that this process works. A few snags I ran into: Ventoy kept giving me an error when I tried to run Gparted about kernals or something? It was an endless loop of pressing A and never moving forward. TO FIX THIS: Go back into steam desktop, mount the Ventoy drive, delete Gparted iso, redownload Gparted iso, and move it to the Ventoy drive. MAKE SURE YOU UNMOUNT THE VENTOY DRIVE. This is what caused the issue in the first place. Shutdown the deck and resume in BIOS from there. Now it should all work. Another thing to note: when I first tried to boot holding volume + power after setting up the USB drive... nothing happened. If this happens to you just start up steamOS again, go to desktop mode, mount VENTOY, make sure things are good, and then UNMOUNT VENTOY and shut down. You should be able to boot into the BIOS now. Long comment... sorry... but I hope this helps some people.

[@memethememestar6934]

I'm gonna get a steam deck oled for christmas and I'm honestly terrified for the windows installation process lol. Hopefully ur tips get me through it

[@enribeg3154]

Waiting a steam deck oled in a few days... I hope that you are right and I can do it too 😅 but I already know, something will go wrong for sure. Everytime I try to do something on a pc or smartphone (because I like to mod games or smartphones), I'm not able to make it right at the first time 😂

[@philippham2538]

lifesaver

[@threesixtydegees]

any luck on the steam deck oled windows drivers? what did ou use for wifi, audio and bluetooth?

[@seasons5928]

Computers do a special thing where they "fake" moving files onto an sdcard quickly. I assure you it takes more than a minute to move an 8gb file onto an sdcard where the steam deck max read/write speed is 100MB/s. After moving the files, make sure you click "safely remove device".

[@user-ne7gq1pn8m]

You made such a daunting looking task so easy! Thank you so much!

[@DocNOQ]

For anyone having trouble with GParted, try using version 1.6.0-3 instead of the latest one. The latest GParted was getting hung up during boot, and this older version seems to work as it should.

[@hyperpophell]

THANK YOU 9:47 is the time mark where this is an issue

[@iamno1special]

Great video!! - I installed windows 10 to my internal ssd on a 256GB LCD Deck and had no issues. -- TIP: If you plan on saving your windows games to the internal ssd make sure give the windows partition more than the ~18GB he gives it in the video. I just split it,125GB windows partition & the rest to the steamos partition. I recommend saving your games to a ssd & once you do use Gpart to shrink the size of the windows partition to ~20GB and expand the size of the steamos partition

[@samudrasaha209]

Meanwhile me not even having a steamdeck , still watching the video

[@baldsealion]

Education is important! 😆

[@facialhair4680]

FYI: At 12:13 I received an error when trying to boot into the Windows ISO when I chose "boot into normal MODE". This happened several times. Then I saw a post on Reddit where someone in the comments reccomended choosing "boot into wimboot MODE". Then it worked.

[@classicvibe1]

Setting up windows on my Steam Deck right now and this video was a huge help, thanks!

[@baldsealion]

I'm so happy you picked today-- and this video to follow. You're welcome !

[@ChristopherCameron]

Just made the most complex setup super straight forward. I was having shocking anxiety looking at all the various different setup instructions and this was smooth! Someone buy this man a beer!

[@somefishhere]

Tip 1: download Windows 11 ISO file, the third option. This is a bootable media similar to a Windows download CD. Tip 2: Hold Volume Down, press Power button quickly, when you hear the boot sound, let go of Volume Down. Tip 3: it took me 50 minutes to partition 128 GB off my 512 GB SSD Tip 4: I got Windows 11 and it took two boots to get the “Custom” screen Tip 5: GFX driver folder is inside Aerith Sephiroth folder

[@fryingpanwitheggz]

Tip 2 helped a lot man i appreciate you

[@somefishhere]

@@fryingpanwitheggz happy to help. the entire process took forever, I’m just glad there’s a guide for it

[@azortics]

Tip 5 saved me bro, I was panicking, tysm

[@jadethompson2152]

@@azorticsI can’t even find the aerith folder

[@AHSA18]

howd you download windows IM confused did all the steps before doing that??

[@KyleGrindberg]

Don't use GParted version 6, it didn't work for me, use the version specified in the video.

[@enzokim946]

how do you use a different version?

[@ddriving]

Thank you. I had no idea why GParted failed to boot. I still don't, but 1.4.0-1 worked.

[@MaTiCeK]

I’ve ran into a problem. Followed the ssd method, repartitioned the internal ssd correctly and then went on to install windows. Here a I deleted the small partition which the guide instructs us to create, created the new ntfs partition and went on installing windows. Now my Steamdeck boots into windows correctly but I lost the option to select SteamOS in bootloader. 😢

[@zachlind193]

Same. Followed the video to a T. Any fix yet?

[@EdenPorterMusic]

Have this exact issue, i deleted the buffer partition only and windows disk management still shows the original steamos partition as being there (Disk 0 partition 8, i set it to have 244 gigs), but there's no SteamOS bootloader option.

[@thandorx]

Same

[@chxriku]

@@thandorx use Vol + and the power button. Load from file and find the SteamOS efi file. This happened to me too and I was confused for like an hour

[@kewlboi]

I just to note in the G-Parted step to make sure to partition enough space or else you wont be able to install any drivers. I made the mistake and tried to increase partition size but it bricked my deck and I ultimately had to do a full reset of steam OS and start the whole process over as well as lose any local save data.

[@mr.bigmangames]

Whats with Steam Deck OLED Dualboot? Windows doesnt see micro SD as drive

[@Pavzer3000]

Hey, Everything was fine until thye step à 12:00, I did it with win10 and Win 11 iso from Microsoft site but I keep having the message "Windows failed to install. A recent hardware or software change might be the origin of the problem" etc etc. I checked the files on Ventoy but all the drivers are here. Is it something I've done wrong or a new issue ?

[@WingedHussar__]

Okay, I had thought I had fixed it with Wimboot, but hadn't. I ended up downloading the iso and then used RUFUS to put the iso on a USB drive. From there, I put the steam deck drivers into a folder on the USB as well, and then installed by booting off the USB.

[@Nightfire3714]

Great video dude

[@Homelander4-m6f]

stuck at 9:48 nothing loads after this

[@vxyzz227]

me too

[@aidan99999]

also stuck here

[@Homelander4-m6f]

yo if yall get stuck on the partition part don't worry use steam deck recovery then u can use KDE manger tool to portion. after u do that just skip this step and boot into windows

[@BKLFgavinfanclub]

how do you do do that

[@harrywalsh9785]

Stuck here also fuck sake

[@robertkirschman1543]

Thanks for this video! However, when I boot up gparted after the deck reset, I am getting a message that says "no boot file found for Uefi!". Not sure what I am doing wrong? I have double and triple checked and I have followed all previous instructions to a tee. Any help?

[@franzpleurmann2585]

You will have to choose "grub mode" after selecting the gparted live iso in ventoy.

[@ChaosWolf-tc4pc]

ive done everything but still cant use wifi

[@densemotherflipper]

Are u on oled?

[@ChaosWolf-tc4pc]

@@densemotherflipper ya

[@esppiral]

I am stuck at the part were I need to press "next" to install windws after deleting the small partition and creating the new one to install windows it says "we couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one" I am stuck there

[@sophieyee7511]

Same...any solution?

[@BleachStory101]

@@sophieyee7511 @esppiral delete the new system partition. Only one system partition (#1) can exist before you click next.

[@athletic228]

I followed the external tutorial but when it starts booting for a while it goes to a black screen but I can feel the movement of my track pads

[@kubaklepson4683]

12:16 i got a blue screen !!!!!!! can enyone help me pls???

[@Fariorn]

Thanks for all your work!

[@jadethompson2152]

Where do I find the files? I opened windows the ventor folder disappears

[@thebigdeac3582]

Where would one go to find out about Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2021 LTSC iso, I have a key but can't find an iso that works with ventoy

[@rakdoxx873]

I get the error no boot file for UEFI when trying to select gparted on ventoy

[@octaviomorras7409]

Don’t mean to bother but can you please drop the iso link I can’t get the correct one

[@halleycomet77]

I got stuck at 9:24 :'( I have the gparted, but not Windows!

[@n8maxima]

At 7:19 i dont get the pop up to execute and i made sure the box is checked, anyone know why?

[@ianlincoln4278]

Unstable for me. Crashed during installation because during restarts deck booted back into steam. Windows telling me not remove usb which of course I wasn’t. Windows boot manager didn’t work. It did for the internal sd card. I tried an install on and first whilst waiting for SSD to arrive.

[@ichard_ray]

Weird, at 12:18 when I selected my Windows ISO it brought up the Steamdeck logo for about 30-45 seconds. Literally as I'm typing this out, the windows panel as you're showing appears. Okay. All the way through now. With only two hiccups I will need to fix. 1. The AMD Driver setup said "Installer setup has detected an incompatible build." and also that Setup launcher file was in the "Bin64" folder rather than loose in the parent folder. 2. The Audio driver just didn't work for some reason. For reference I was intalling the Windows 10 Pro version. I tried installing Windows 10 Home but it was looking for drivers before even getting into the home screen which didn't work. Had to reboot and start again.

[@brobeckskazooremixes8703]

Why do you need a seperate windows pc for the other two methods?

[@Not_Max25]

By the way for windows 11 never shut down via windows it takes ages/fails/messes stuff up so always use the decks power button

[@sinexo7981]

In ventoy boot options there is only the windows iso showing and I can't get the gparted iso to show

[@1292soulja]

@ 6:23 “you said once you have windows downloaded” so you’d need windows on the usb first before anything So that means you would need a pc ??

[@laurenblankenship128]

No, you need a USB and a dock that plugs into the deck that you can put the USB into.

[@Hdhdhd-w1v]

⁠@@laurenblankenship128 i can download on sd card instead USB?

[@laurenblankenship128]

@ you can download it onto an sd card, but you need a USB to download the required files onto it for the installation.

[@Hdhdhd-w1v]

@ It was not mentioned in the video and I installed Windows iso and transferred it to the ventoy file in the sd card, then when I started and selected Windows, a black screen and a small arrow appeared. What should I do now?

[@Shiraikou]

I can't install the setup information file. When I right click it doesn't have "install"

[@bitotturiano9406]

is it windows installation media or iso?

[@martinmtambo8775]

I have been trying for days to get these method to work with my 1tb micro sd card but they always fail

[@awp-erator4525]

brooo so convenient thanks man great work from u and the community for this software. 👏👏👍

[@baldsealion]

Thanks so much!

[@kaseyflemingart]

trying with the windows 11 iso but getting Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.. everything works as-is following along until I get to the 12:00 mark in the video.

[@jacknovozinsky7798]

did u ever fix this?

[@kaseyflemingart]

@@jacknovozinsky7798 yes! I ended installing the W10 iso then upgrading to 11. For some reason 10 worked just fine.

[@Pavzer3000]

@@kaseyflemingart i keep having this issue, can you tell which Win 10 iso you got et from where ?

[@octaviomorras7409]

@@Pavzer3000same question

[@octaviomorras7409]

@@kaseyflemingartyou mind dropping the link

[@Hdhdhd-w1v]

After downloading windows can i use the same sd card to download games on windows? Or can I share the storage between windows and steam os ?

[@bluebee2407]

good job man best videos

[@baldsealion]

Appreciate the kind words

[@MichaelSt]

Thanks a lot for this! For future videos can you not include a ticking clock in the background music? It's driving me insane, I kept pausing trying to understand if It's somewhere in my room.

[@covenant_05]

Anyone getting the error when attempting to install ventoy on to as usb flash drive? > "you can reinsert the usb and try again" error message

[@Celynzombi]

I keep getting SO could not be scanned? It an error when i press start

[@mikelowry2254]

How do I go about just installing windows across my entire hard drive and getting read of steamOS altogether

[@BrianHeuston]

I had an issue where following this for the internal SSD seemed to destroy my partition table. It resulted in being unable to boot into my SteamOS install. In order to work around that, I used an older Win11 build (NOT 24H2) and I also didn't do the mini NTFS partition. I'm not sure which part fixed it.

[@miloburrows4226]

I've been using Windows 10 on an SD card and have started experiencing those massive slow-down you talked about. My questions are two-fold: 1) can I easily transfer the os over to my SSD to dual boot with Steam, or do I have to wipe the SD card and re-install everything the way you described? 2) does this mean my SD card will be mostly useless from now on and I can't put games on it anymore? Thanks for the in-depth video

[@baldsealion]

It’s not easily transferable - the micro sd to the ssd… you would basically have to shrink the SteamOS Home partition and then clone the micro sd contents to your ssd, without erasing anything. You could do this with a bootable clonezilla or macrium reflect on windows - but you may run into boot issues and have to repair the efi partition. Basically it’s a lot of work if you don’t already know how.

[@miloburrows4226]

​@@baldsealionso, using this advice, I ended up deciding that I was OK with reinstalling everything that I had put on the SD card, so I ended up clearing it and using it as the boot drive for the video. Now that the drivers have now all downloaded, and I've gotten Clover to work too via your otyer vid, how can I reset the SD so that I can use it as just a regular storage for both OS's?

[@baldsealion]

@@miloburrows4226 you will need to format the micro sd to NTFS in Windows - then there is additional work for SteamOS to see it. There are videos for this on YT, I don't currently have one that covers it, I just know it's possible.

[@AlucardSafarigames]

How I can have the onscreen keyboard like in Steam os? Is it possible?

[@iTsLyonA]

How can you access the SD card in windows after you’ve selected the option to prevent windows from seeing the other drives. I just wanted not to be able to access the internal just in case but it did it to the sd card as well.

[@PineRidgeAIM_CA]

Would you mind re-doing this tutorial installing HoloISO IMMUTABLE? and having windows 11 on either the SSD or NVME? I would love help with this as there are only two 3 videos out there covering the topics in depth like this.

[@r66112d]

Thanks for the guide! I've set up W10/steamos following your guide. Say I want to resize my windows or steamos partition, can I just connect the gparted USB at any time, run it and change my partitions? Or do i need to format everything and start from scratch?

[@baldsealion]

Yes you can!

[@r66112d]

@@baldsealion do you have a guide on this ? I want to resize my SteamOS partition to be smaller and then increase my windows 11 partition, but I don't want to corrupt my data

[@DiversitEWins]

@@baldsealion Happy to hear this is possible! Anyway you could explain how to do this? I would prefer avoiding restarting from scratch again if this is possible but don’t wanna ruin anything

[@Shamon97]

Thank you so much!

[@baldsealion]

You’re welcome!

[@jo12danjames]

ummm always factory reset when updating drive? you sure about that?

[@straygaming5770]

I have a question if i run windows on my internal steam deck storage can i then use my sd card for an external storage?

[@jarrodfrankum]

I did this and now I no longer have access to boot Steam OS in the boot menu. Only Windows.

[@baldsealion]

You can try one of the dual boot custom loaders I mentioned at the end.

[@maynard5568]

So I'm at the stage where I am booting from Ventoy for the first time. I select the G-parted ISO and then the next prompt, then the screen goes to black and nothing else happens. I have deleted the G-parted ISO and redownloaded it, but can't figure out where the problem is. Any ideas?

[@kinawyboy]

Heyo, I actually found a solution for this if you’re still looking. Just let me know!

[@conoro774]

​@@kinawyboywhat did you do

[@foreignrepublic2122]

When I am doing micro sd card installation and I get to boot manager, I only see one option efi hard drive and that’s it. My sd card won’t show up. I know it works I used to use it on my steam deck just a day ago

[@danieljo3484]

how do i get back on the steam OS after installing window on internal SSD?

[@HilmarillioN]

Hi! I followed the guide, and installed win11 on a partition😊 But now i cant find SteamOS in boot menu. Is that normal? And how to fix. I want SteamOS as my main OS.

[@baldsealion]

Sometimes that can happen- pretty randomly. You can use Vol + and Power to get into the main bios menu, go to boot from file, browse until you find the SteamOS.efi and launch it. You should get into steam then and I would highly recommend you set up a dual boot menu - use clover or refind - I have videos for both

[@greensabre9421]

Assuming I had a PC available. Could I do the internal SD install just by doing Rufus and overwriting the Steam OS install on the SSD?

[@danieljo3484]

"Insufficient disk space" pops up when trying to install AMD driver on C:\Program file\AMD

[@sophieyee7511]

My steam deck seems like take sometimes to boot into windows setup...its it normal? Should i wait on black screen until setup appear?...

[@krysivory493]

Hello. Can you make a guide on how to repair the Windows installed on SSD? I have an error saying the following : /efi/microsoft/boot/BCD is missing or something. How do I add this to the system? 😭

[@krysivory493]

The DUALBOOT worked just fine until I updated Windows.

[@Zzv98]

I need help! I made the unallocated partition but I want to undo it what should I do?

[@iamno1special]

I had to use Gpart

[@Zzv98]

@@iamno1special i also have it but how do i remove the partition

[@Hdhdhd-w1v]

Should I download Create Windows 11 Installation Media or Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices??

[@ThisIsCSDX]

Will this guide work in terms of the inverse? I put Windows 11 as the sole OS on my Steam Deck, but while I got some games and mods to work properly now, certain games don't run as well on it as they do on SteamOS(ntm Steam Recording doesn't work on Windows on Deck for me), so I wanna put SteamOS back on it but try to keep Windows 11 on it so I don't have to go through the whole rigamarole of getting Windows 11 to work again.

[@dattboifordays2459]

If i did internal ssd can i remove the sd card after installation

[@Notfavouriteboy]

Thank you for the guide, it works fine. I installed Windows 10 in internal SSD. I have a question, after installed windows can i delete ventoy from my SD card, what happen if i do that?

[@aephix73]

I'm close to giving up on dual booting. Updating has fouled up my installations at least half a dozen times.

[@mateuszboczar3063]

When installing AMD drivers I got Error 206. AMD says it's due to some windows update, but there was nothing to update. I decided to install WiFi drivers, update everything I could, but I still can't get those AMD drivers working :/ Any advice?

[@belfami]

Did you manage to fix this? I'm running into the same issue on a completely fresh install

[@mateuszboczar3063]

Something has been wrong with drivers. I've downloaded files once again, directly to Windows and it worked

[@zero900x3]

so I already have windows installed do I have to do the process backwards?

[@shadroberts1088]

does anybody have or know where I can find a version of these instructions made for the OLED steam deck?? I've been trying for 2 days to get windows installed.

[@basedlordfam]

Do i need to reset my whole steam and delete everything before I do this im using the first method SD card only

[@basedlordfam]

I Have the 600 gig steam deck I'ma use it's SSD on a dual boot With SSD directly for the steam deck is it a good idea? Would I need my actual computer and all that docks shit?

[@maskedartist2128]

Awesome thanks I a question tho how would I do this using windeck os

[@baldsealion]

I believe you could accomplish this by starting over with a steam deck recovery image which would wipe the disk(no other way to install SteamOS, it has to wipe the disk and be the first installed) Then you would follow method 1 up to the point of installing windows, and instead follow the WinDeckOS guide to add the image of it to be created at the end of the disk in macrium reflect instead of erasing your entire disk.

[@maskedartist2128]

@@baldsealion I was thinking that i was going to follow method 1 and instead of useing windows I was going to use windeck os

[@maskedartist2128]

​@@baldsealionso I need to set up 2 usb?

[@mustafairgsous6303]

First off, all this is the best tutorial related tonsteam deck i have ever seen, and you deserve thumbs up and subscribe second thing i have Question: i have installed only windows 11 in my internal SSD (2TB) is there a way to install steam os dual boot without formate my windows thank you 😊

[@baldsealion]

No I'm afraid for SteamOS to be installed - it has to be installed first, since it wipes everything. I haven't found a community modified installer that will avoid this... this has been requested a lot but unfortunately I don't have a solution for you. The only thing I can think of is using a disk image backup software to back up your Windows installation and boot partition(Veeam Agent, or Acronis) to an external drive/USB, then perform SteamOS install, then shrink SteamOS, then boot into recovery USB for the disk image backup and restore it to the blank space on the disk. However you will probably be fighting with Windows to get it to boot properly even after that. Sorry, there isn't a simple solution for this.

[@mustafairgsous6303]

@baldsealion thanks appreciate your detailed response wish ya luck 👍

[@azortics]

What do I do if I boot the Windows iso but it just loads and then BSOD? Do I need to use a different iso file? I'm using 11 btw Edit: tried Windows 10 too, same issue. What do I do? Note: It also sends me back to the SteamOS screen after the BSOD, Stopcode is DRIVER_PNP_WATCHDOG Edit 2: Fixed, for people with the same issue I had, just turn your Steam Deck off, hold + and power, and that will lead you to the BIOS, use the DPAD to move and A to select and go to Setup Utility, and from there, go to the power tab and turn on Battery Saving mode, what this does is clears the cache. Wait about 30 seconds and then plug your Steam Deck to wake it from the battery storage mode and then hold - and power and then you can go boot Windows 10/11.

[@conoro774]

Thank you, you've just helped me 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@brother_matt8289]

i was actually having a good experience with windows 10 on a 1tb sd for a few months, even had destiny. But after having to reformat the drive i havent been able to recreate that same Experience, following any of the recent tutorials. Most times when i try to open up something on steam, the windows close or an error pops up saying i cant run that version of steam

[@L1emon]

Okay, how exaxtly do i get back into SteamOS? I only see windows boot manager and my SD card in the boot options.

[@baldsealion]

From a full shut down, hold volume minus and power until you hear the beep, then let go of power, continue holding volume minus until you see the menu to choose. To make it easier, install one of the dual boot custom loaders i mention at the end of this video(I have videos for both options)

[@Pr0ph3txD]

Where do you get the image and stuff from for Windows? I need Windows 10 specifically for certain anti-cheats not to be affected.

[@baldsealion]

You can get the stock image of windows 10 by just googling it “Microsoft windows 10 download” and can get it directly from Microsoft.

[@Pr0ph3txD]

​​@@baldsealionso the windows 10 iso from the Microsoft website doesn't work. Gives me the error of Boot error 0xc000014c

[@675computer]

@@Pr0ph3txDdid you ever find a fix to this?

[@Pr0ph3txD]

@@675computer yeah. It was the image downloaded from Windows

[@Silberep1c]

will the internal ssd method reset your SteamOS data?

[@iamno1special]

no it wont

[@danieljo3484]

@@iamno1special then how do i get back on steam OS? for booting option it only shows window and micro SD

[@mohamadhafiz100]

First of all THANK YOU SO MUCH. being a noob you made the guide so easy! But i have a few queries hope people here can help. 1) My windows 11 wasnt activated. I tried to do it but it says i need to purchase a key. I read somewhere windows for 11'' and below is free did i do something wrong? 2) The controls, touchpad and buttons work in windows but the triggers dont. How do i go about using the joystick and other buttons in my game? is there an app i need to install? 3) In future if i want to adjust the space for my windows / steamdeck how do i about doing it? Do i need to restart the whole process? 4) Any game optimization apps that i can use for the games? I tried EA FC 24 it works but can be a bnit laggy do i need to do my own settings in the game or is there any other way? Thanks once again and good job!

[@azortics]

1) You didn't do anything wrong, you could just buy a key for cheap though off of cdkeys 2) I'm not sure about this one, maybe you could hold the start (3 lines) button to switch to gamepad? or manually bind them in game controls? 3) You mean as in storage space? 4) You might have to do your own settings in some games Sorry if you had to wait 2 weeks for all this, hopefully you haven't lost hope yet

[@eviespooner6812]

HELP! Great video, BUT I'm now STUCK in Windows without access to a keyboard! Installed Windows to my internal SSD as per recommendation. But I evidently did not download the Bluetooth driver so can't use my Bluetooth keyboard and although Windows allowed me to use a virtual keyboard whilst setting up, it is now refusing to let me do so. When trying to boot back into Steam OS (using the Power and Volume - buttons) I only have two options: Windows Boot Manager Or my micro SD card - which starts up the Ventoy program. Neither take me back to Steam OS. Steam OS is still appearing in my files in Windows, however. Please advise!

[@eviespooner6812]

The wonderful subreddit r/WindowsOnDeck has helped me. Crisis averted 😅

[@imstupidbut]

@@eviespooner6812what was your fix?

[@eviespooner6812]

Used speech to text to get to Steam's recovery page via browser. Downloaded the necessary files (steam recovery img) onto my micro SD. Shut down Deck and then held (Volume -) and Power button down together to get to Boot Manager. Clicked on the micro SD card which brought up Ventoy but also steamdeck-recovery-4.img. Clicked on that. Press any key to continue. Go down to UEFI Firmware Settings. This brings up the FULL file boot manager. Boot from file. Then for me, but possibly for others: First option: esp. [PciRoot.......etc steamcl.efi (There's also an option next to it to do a factory reset if you want rid of Windows altogether.) Doing this (steamcl.efi) brought me back to Steam OS but I could still go back to Windows using the (Volume -) and Power button method. Still struggling with Bluetooth on Windows, but am able to switch between both OSs. Will be installing Clover to streamline that whole process (I have to do it every time).

[@Oldmurray9323]

Thank you for this guide. Everything worked great. But I now want to reverse the process and take out windows and use the whole SSD for steam OS again. How can I go about doing this?

[@baldsealion]

Use the Steam OS Recovery Image and choose the Re-image option. It will completely wipe your Steam Deck hard drive and install SteamOS: help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1b71-edf2-eb6d-2bb3

[@Oldmurray9323]

@@baldsealion thank you for your service

[@ReiNFrags]

Hey, was just wondering if instead of using gparted, I could just use the KDE partition tool that comes built in with the steam deck recovery image (downloaded from the steam website) to partition the internal SSD?

[@LauroAbreu]

why updating a windows-to-go through windows update breaks the installation? I've updated my microSD windows installation through it and it's fine so far. What's the recommended method?

[@SadieKiller604]

i need a little help i've done all the steps and got to installing windows but when i view the drive partitions in win setup there is NO 'unallocated space', and i don't see the exact amount for the dummy partition that needs deleting, there was some kind of error when you said to shut down after using g parted, some kinda text but i wasn't sure what this was, and unsure if they are directly related, please get back me thank you

[@SadieKiller604]

The error msg is "(sd-unmount) [2250]: failed to unmount /run/shutdown/mounts/(number string)" and a few other things too

[@SadieKiller604]

Nvm figured it out, still had my sd card in during gparted, it fucked me over lmao, i fixed it and have it setup now thanks anyways :)

[@emk8231]

Hey, very good quality guide! Maybe someone can help me.. Win11 setup just wont find my partitions. details: I bought a 1TB MP600 Corsair nvme for my LCD deck. After reimaging the SSD I updated SteamOS and resized the partition with the recovery usb stick previously used (added ntfs 400mb and 120gb empty space). Everything worked fine I can boot in steamOS, check with diskmanager. But in Win11 installation setup it can not find my partitions. it shows missing drivers, that won't be solved by downloading AMD or intel rapid storage drivers. Also there are no bios secure boot options I can turn off etc.. help plz

[@darius__irl]

I am getting my SteamDeck Delivered in a few days and I have one question. If I follow this guide and do NOT set up a custom dualboot loader how does booting work? What I'm assuming is that a normal Power on will boot into SteamOS and Volume - and Power will boot into Windows, is that correct?

[@SindyxLotus]

Is GFX driver "Aerith Sepiroth" 24:57? That's the only one I'm missing and I can't seem to find anything on it. I also didn't see you download it in the Internal SSD section of your tutorial 8:41. Found it, it was a subfolder.

[@ennayanne]

it's inside that folder

[@SindyxLotus]

@bumsnypha hmm yup, that's in the comment before you posted that reply.

[@ennayanne]

@@SindyxLotus nah you edited it

[@SindyxLotus]

@@ennayanne yes 3 MONTHS AGO

[@ennayanne]

@@SindyxLotus no you did it just now !!11

[@arxeonop]

Does this work with etcher?

[@pablodathird]

I have everything setup like you did it, is it safe if I format the micro sd after everything is done so I can put my games on there ?

[@baldsealion]

if you followed the internal ssd guide then yes, it is safe

[@pablodathird]

@@baldsealion yes I did it worked, thank you for making the best guide ever for having steam os and windows

[@foxxxy4963]

Ok let's say I pick first option. What if I decide to make recovery image on SteamOS?

[@baldsealion]

Valve has instructions for the SteamOS recovery image. help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1B71-EDF2-EB6D-2BB3

[@foxxxy4963]

@@baldsealion Yeah but if I install Windows in same internal SSD next to original OS, will SteamOS recovery image delete Windows?

[@baldsealion]

@@foxxxy4963 only if you choose the re-image option within the recovery, yea, it will wipe the entire disk (any partitions)

[@adventureisoutthere.3857]

when getting windows do i do Disk image or installation media?

[@baldsealion]

Disk image is easier, less steps.

[@adventureisoutthere.3857]

Thank you. Just about finished. thanks for the video!@@baldsealion

[@Hdhdhd-w1v]

Did you download windows on the steam deck directly and moved in the file ventoy sd card and he installed or you extracted it from another pc ?

[@fistpump64]

willl this whipe my steam deck?

[@iamno1special]

nope

[@DjTechnoBunny]

I've done everything I can and I can't get windows installed. So is there anyway that I could take the duel boot off of my steam deck if you could make a video of that it would be really appreciated for it would help a lot of people like me out.

[@baldsealion]

Download and flash the Steam Deck Recovery image to a USB drive or Micro SD card - use Volume - and Power to boot into it - be patient for it to load, then double-click on the "Re-Image" icon on the Desktop

[@frankp2371]

I made my partition too small. No room to install games. It will only let me make the partition smaller in gparted. Any ideas or do I have to start over?

[@baldsealion]

The partition for windows should be at the end. Do you mean you made windows too small or SteamOS home partition?

[@classicvibe1]

BTW, can you list what SSD you used for the external ssd installation? Apparently the ssd I used draws too much power when directly connected to my steam deck, and windows only boots when it's powered through a USB hub

[@baldsealion]

Wow that's pretty crazy. I only tested with the external with my spare 64GB eMMC. My internal SSD is the Samsung P991A 1TB - I got it for $60 off Aliexpress

[@T56996]

Did you download Windows directly to the Deck?

[@facialhair4680]

Yes, he did.