USB flash drive --assign drive letter back to dynamic from static

Hi,

1. Out of curiosity can you perform exactly the same task using Disk Management instead of Diskpart? Using the Disk Management interface would be easier if it can be done I would have thought.

Depends on what tasks you want Diskmanagement to perform, Diskpart is much, much more powerful. Yet, yes you can set a partition to active and you can of course format to FAT32. It's a GUI interface but it's pretty basic.

Because Id used Rufus in the past on this flash drive I had to convert the flash drive back over to MBR from GPT which I did using Diskpart. If I don't use Rufus again though that should never happen again and my flash drives will always remain in factory state which I believe is always MBR.

Yep. Rufus should do what you want it to do not what it thinks is best for you though. I feel no need for it but then your mileage may vary as they say.

But it also shows the Disk Management method and Ive noticed that the Convert to MBR option it shows in that tutorial isn't available on my Windows 10 PC and ive got the latest Fall Creators Update

Because you're running a UEFI system, that's why.

While I was researching using Diskpart on the internet to create bootable Windows installation media..several sites mentioned an additional step of copying over bootsector files to the Flash drive as well. Is that something that doesn't apply to Windows 10?

Your aim is to create set up media. The ISO file contains those files required to launch Windows set up or to boot off of it.
That's all you need for the moment.
I'll give you an example that may help understand how it works: I have a USB key that I can use to boot any PC, bios or UEFI alike running Windows 10.
It just contains a couple of files, is FAT32 and the single partition is set to "Active". Insert it, select it as a boot drive and it will load the W10 OS on that machine. Regardless of whether it's MBR or GPT and if it's even bootable at all.
That USB drive will boot it and load W10 off the system drive inside the machine. If you want a system to be usable only to the holder of that USB key, that's one way to make it safe. There are at least a dozen others but that's beyond the scope of your quest.

The beauty of W10 IMHO is that it does not require much computer knowledge to get it going as opposed to say twenty years ago.



Cheers,

fdegrove said:

Hi,



Depends on what tasks you want Diskmanagement to perform, Diskpart is much, much more powerful. Yet, yes you can set a partition to active and you can of course format to FAT32. It's a GUI interface but it's pretty basic.



Yep. Rufus should do what you want it to do not what it thinks is best for you though. I feel no need for it but then your mileage may vary as they say.



Because you're running a UEFI system, that's why.



Your aim is to create set up media. The ISO file contains those files required to launch Windows set up or to boot off of it.
That's all you need for the moment.
I'll give you an example that may help understand how it works: I have a USB key that I can use to boot any PC, bios or UEFI alike running Windows 10.
It just contains a couple of files, is FAT32 and the single partition is set to "Active". Insert it, select it as a boot drive and it will load the W10 OS on that machine. Regardless of whether it's MBR or GPT and if it's even bootable at all.
That USB drive will boot it and load W10 off the system drive inside the machine. If you want a system to be usable only to the holder of that USB key, that's one way to make it safe. There are at least a dozen others but that's beyond the scope of your quest.

The beauty of W10 IMHO is that it does not require much computer knowledge to get it going as opposed to say twenty years ago.



Cheers,

I thought the boot sector files that I kept seeing mentioned mustn't have been something that was needed to create a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive or I'm sure Bree or yourself would have mentioned it. I thought it was strange how it was mentioned in some tutorials but not in others. You guys on here are really good..you'll always take the time to explain things

Hi,

You guys on here are really good..you'll always take the time to explain things

Thank you but I feel it's the forum management that's exceptionally well thought out that makes the magic happen.
Glad to see anyone learning really.

Best and enjoy X-mass,

fdegrove said:

Hi,



Thank you but I feel it's the forum management that's exceptionally well thought out that makes the magic happen.
Glad to see anyone learning really.

Best and enjoy X-mass,

Cheers mate..Merry Christmas to you too and have a great 2018

Bree said:

No. There's no partition info at all after CLEAN - nothing there to convert. You could use CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY after CLEAN, that makes a MPR partition. Then format it with DISKPART, Disk Management or whatever you like.

After cleaning the GPT USB flash drive does the clean command default the disk back to MBR? i.e immediately after the clean command when you type create partition primary I wondered if it might just create another GPT partition on the flash drive?

Hi,

After cleaning the GPT USB flash drive does the clean command default the disk back to MBR?

No, what you end up with is a drive with no partition table at all, just a raw, blank drive.
If you then run the diskpart command as per @Bree 's posting it will then create the MBR and a primary partition for you.

Cheers and best wishes,

fdegrove said:

Hi,



No, what you end up with is a drive with no partition table at all, just a raw, blank drive.
If you then run the diskpart command as per @Bree 's posting it will then create the MBR and a primary partition for you.

Cheers and best wishes,

Sorry I didn't explain myself clearly. After cleaning the GPT USB flash drive does the clean command know that you are going back to MBR by default? i.e when you type create partition primary does that also setup MBR by default...or do you have to enter the convert mbr command too?

Bree said:

Diskpart's Clean command removes everything - there's no partition information at all, so nothing to say if it's gpt or mbr.

Diskpart's create partition command will use mbr by default on a 'clean' usb.

Thanks again Bree for clarifying