In bitcoin core installer there are 2 directory to choose, 1 for btc core and 1 for blockchain (if I remember correctly). I don't know if you consider it as "Welcome screen" or the actual installer.
Here's what the GUI's "
Welcome Screen" looks like (
The title bar has "Welcome" on it):
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talkimg.com%2Fimages%2F2023%2F10%2F01%2FPVGZj.png&t=665&c=hfL-aZv-MNP0hw)
It will only appear the first time your launched the GUI or if you add
--choosedatadir arg to bitcoin-qt.
It only has the datadir and prune settings.
Perhaps you remembered setting the installation directory in the installer then saw the welcome screen when your launched Bitcoin Core.
Anyways, selecting the previous data usually works and will continue where it left
but since it didn't in your case, you might have conflicting options in your bitcoin.conf file in the selected directory or the default datadir in the previous installation.
Bitcoin Core read specific .conf file(s) and prioritizing conflicting options depending on how it was set up,
For example: data directory with pruned blockchain but set the new installation without 'prune' settings.