How to read USB pen drive

You must be very careful on executing commands, specially under Diskpart
I instructed you:

create part primary
select part 1
format fs=NTFS quick

And you executed
create part primary
select 1
format fs=NTFS quick

You were lucky it did not format the wrong partition

Megahertz said:

You must be very careful on executing commands, specially under Diskpart
I instructed you:

create part primary
select part 1
format fs=NTFS quick

And you executed
create part primary
select 1
format fs=NTFS quick

You were lucky it did not format the wrong partition

Hi Megahertz

Lot of thanks for your further advice.

I have another idea avoiding the risk formatting a wrong hard drive.

Since your advice on #8 above works for me seamlessly. I'll purchase a new 4TB WD hd, dumping all data on the 2 WD 2TB hard drives on it. Then I add a old 2TB WD hd to the USB external hd device which I use sharing data with my other PCs. Use your step on #8 above to format the old 2TB WD hd on the said device as NTFS. Then I will use it for file sharing amongst Windows and Linux OSs. Before start I'll disconnect all other hard drives on this PC.

I just finished testing sharing USB device with Linux VM/Guest and Linux Host on Oracle VirtualBox. It works seamlessly. I'll test sharing USB device with Windows VM/Guest and Linux Host. If successful I'll come back.

Thanks again
Regards

Hi folks

@satmis

Anaconda is probably a Fedora Linux install / grub partition -- could have been made when choosing install to HDD from a Fedora Live distro.

OT here but these days I wouldn't recommend using EXT4 on Linux systems -- much better file systems around -- my choice is XFS. Linux can read /write NTFS files BTW -- just ensure package ntfs-3g is installed - most distros might have that installed by default but check via your package manager.

then to format / create the FS ==> as root /sudo mkfs.xfs -f /dev/xxx

For a decent partition manager with decent GUI install gparted on your Linux system. It can create Windows NTFS/EFI/FAT32 partitions.

Cheers
jimbo

satimis said:

Since your advice on #8 above works for me seamlessly. I'll purchase a new 4TB WD hd, dumping all data on the 2 WD 2TB hard drives on it. Then I add a old 2TB WD hd to the USB external hd device which I use sharing data with my other PCs. Use your step on #8 above to format the old 2TB WD hd on the said device as NTFS. Then I will use it for file sharing amongst Windows and Linux OSs. Before start I'll disconnect all other hard drives on this PC.

A MBR drive has a limit capacity of 2.2G.
Bigger drives (>2.2G) must be initialized as GPT to access full capacity.

The commands on post#8 instructs to clean the drive, convert it to MBR, format as NTFS and then assign a letter to the partition.
It should be used only on drives up to 2G.

Megahertz said:

A MBR drive has a limit capacity of 2.2G.
Bigger drives (>2.2G) must be initialized as GPT to access full capacity.

The commands on post#8 instructs to clean the drive, convert it to MBR, format as NTFS and then assign a letter to the partition.

It should be used only on drives up to 2G.

Hi Megahertz,

Those 2TB WD hd are very old hard drives, more than 10 years. I removed them from another old desktop PCs. Some of the data may be out-of-date without use. I just keep them there not to touch them. I think that they are on ext4 format without OS. I only use them for data storage.

Whether following document will be suitable for me to format the complete 2TB WD hd as NTFS. I'll use it for files sharing only between Windows and Linux

How to Format Hard Drive from Command Prompt or DISKPART.
How to Format Hard Drive from Command Prompt or DISKPART. - wintips.org - Windows Tips & How-tos

Thanks

Regards

- - - Updated - - -

jimbo45 said:

Hi folks

@satmis

Anaconda is probably a Fedora Linux install / grub partition -- could have been made when choosing install to HDD from a Fedora Live distro.

OT here but these days I wouldn't recommend using EXT4 on Linux systems -- much better file systems around -- my choice is XFS. Linux can read /write NTFS files BTW -- just ensure package ntfs-3g is installed - most distros might have that installed by default but check via your package manager.

then to format / create the FS ==> as root /sudo mkfs.xfs -f /dev/xxx

For a decent partition manager with decent GUI install gparted on your Linux system. It can create Windows NTFS/EFI/FAT32 partitions.

Cheers
jimbo

Hi jimbo,

Lot of thanks for your advice.

Those 2 hard drives are very old devices. I removed them from other old PCs. Some of the data may be out of them without use when I ran FreeBSD, Red Hat, etc in the past long long time ago.

I have no problem to format hard drive on Linux and have done it multiple times in many formats. I expect to learn it the Windows way running commands on Command Prompt.

Regards

- - - Updated - - -

Hi all,

After adding Guest Addition to Win10 VM, now I can add USB pen stick to it sharing files.

Thanks again for your advice.

Regards

satimis said:

Hi Megahertz,

Those 2TB WD hd are very old hard drives, more than 10 years. I removed them from another old desktop PCs. Some of the data may be out-of-date without use. I just keep them there not to touch them. I think that they are on ext4 format without OS. I only use them for data storage.

Whether following document will be suitable for me to format the complete 2TB WD hd as NTFS. I'll use it for files sharing only between Windows and Linux

How to Format Hard Drive from Command Prompt or DISKPART.
How to Format Hard Drive from Command Prompt or DISKPART. - wintips.org - Windows Tips & How-tos

Thanks

Regards

- - - Updated - - -



Hi jimbo,

Lot of thanks for your advice.

Those 2 hard drives are very old devices. I removed them from other old PCs. Some of the data may be out of them without use when I ran FreeBSD, Red Hat, etc in the past long long time ago.

I have no problem to format hard drive on Linux and have done it multiple times in many formats. I expect to learn it the Windows way running commands on Command Prompt.

Regards

- - - Updated - - -

Hi all,

After adding Guest Addition to Win10 VM, now I can add USB pen stick to it sharing files.

Thanks again for your advice.

Regards

Hi there

@satimis


Another interesting project for you to try with Windows is to have several Windows installs on one HDD / SSD using "Physical Virtual Hard drives" --not VM's by the way.

If you download W11 as well as W10 editions from UUPDUMP you can create W10 and W11 editions on the same HDD with no problem --even when W10 says "This system is not capable of running W11" !!! -- BTW creating the ISO from UUPDUMP is far faster using aria2 on Linux than using the Windows version - but either way you can create the iso's for the editions of Windows you want.


Then to build using "VHDX" files without an initial Windows system installed -- i.e Native VHDX boots :

I assume you have created a valid ISO which would normally boot on a standard system. If the ISO image is faulty then "all bets are off" -- you must have a valid iso / install.wim - I assume that's OK. Nothing wrong in using custom "Wims" but they must be correct.

Start with boot into a Windows system or PE type system . Winpe or Macrium Free - use cmd line at bottom of screen if you don't have Windows system and only have stand alone restore).

Here's a way to create bootable external Windows systems ("Windows to go") simply and easily -- works also for internal systems too.

Easy way -- use the vhdx method to boot from physical disks - note this is NOT a VM !!!- forget about Hasleo wintogo usb. You've got the iso image -- mount to say I:

Now follow these instructions in elevated command mode (run as administrator)

ist task set - "prep" external USB drive / target drive.


1) diskpart
2) list disk
3) select disk xxxx <========== disk nr of the external disk / target disk
4) clean
5) convert gpt
6) create partition efi size=100
7) format quick format fs=fat32 label="SystemExt" <===== label optional but it makes finding correct disks easier
8) assign letter=S
9) create partition msr size=128 <=== Ms's MSR partition - don't format it
10)create partition primary
11)format quick fs=ntfs label="MainExt" <===== again label optional easier for finding correct disks
12) assign letter=M

Next task set create a virtual HDD for the target installation -- note this is NOT a VM !!!

13) create vdisk file=M:\Windows.vhdx maximum=85000 type=fixed <==== name of file and size up to you here's 85GB but around 55GB should be more than enough -- especially if you keep data and OS separate.

14) select vdisk file=M:\Windows.vhdx
15) attach vdisk
16) list disk
17) select disk yyyy <===== disk nr of the vdisk attached - easy to find should be the one with size 85GB
18)create partition primary
19) format quick fs=ntfs
20) assign letter=U <============= these vdisks don't (shouldn't be) gpt formatted
21) exit


Now what you do next is to apply the image to the vdisk created and install the boot mgr. I'm assuming your install.wim is in file named sources in the iso you created and there's just 1 version of Windows edition --- so default will be index = 1. If other editions change the index number to the one you want.

So we wiil apply the image from device I to the virtual disk U and apply the boot manager to disk "S" (partition S) on the USB device

again in "elevated command mode".

final task set - apply image and create boot mgr


apply the image

22) dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:I:\sources\install.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:V:\

Add the boot mgr

23) V:
24) cd V:\windows\system32
25) bcdboot V:\windows /s S: /f UEFI
26) exit

boot and choose external device / boot file from internal HDD and you should see the Windows boot mgr / menu and boot into windows which is installed on this disk which windows will think is "C" !!!

You can add other windows systems etc to the max space your external USB / target drive is on. Just create additional vhdx files and follow same instruction set skipping the first set. Using as SSD is much better if you have spares -- use usb3 or 3.1 ->sata connector or esata connector to mobo if you have one.

Have fun !!!


cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Another interesting project for you to try with Windows is to have several Windows installs on one HDD / SSD using "Physical Virtual Hard drives" --not VM's by the way.

- snip -

Hi jimbo45,

Lot of thanks for your detail advice. I'll test it as for fun. I have following questions expected to clarify before testing:

1) Long before virtualization came to birth, I ran several Windows on One physical HD in partitions. It worked without problem. Does your suggested test need partition to work?

2) Running VirtualBox and Docker (Container) I can run many different OSs on One physical HD without problem. Visualizer is for sharing hardware and Container sharing software. It is a wonderful combination. I have tested it before. Can I add another Windows on the same HD?

3) Is Windows 11 Free to use ? I'll just make this test for fun NOT for practical use.

Best Regards

satimis said:

Hi jimbo45,

Lot of thanks for your detail advice. I'll test it as for fun. I have following questions expected to clarify before testing:

1) Long before virtualization came to birth, I ran several Windows on One physical HD in partitions. It worked without problem. Does your suggested test need partition to work?

2) Running VirtualBox and Docker (Container) I can run many different OSs on One physical HD without problem. Visualizer is for sharing hardware and Container sharing software. It is a wonderful combination. I have tested it before. Can I add another Windows on the same HD?

3) Is Windows 11 Free to use ? I'll just make this test for fun NOT for practical use.

Best Regards

@satimis

Hi there

You only need 1 EFI system partition formatted fat32 (100mb) , 1 msr partition (leave unformatted) (128 mb) and 1 primary ntfs partition only to contain all the vhdx virtual disk files. You don't need any existing Windows systems or partitions on the disk at all.

As far as W11 is concerned it will work without activation but you won't be able to personalise it etc. It should activate though if you've already got W7/W8/W8.1or W10 system anywhere already activated.

The only thing to be very careful with is in creating the boot files

so I Always do this from a winpe type of system - and from the winpe system you need to ensure that the 100 mb efi partition on the main disk is acessible -- e.g volume H and the windows system on its virtual disk say "WINDOWSXXX.vhdx" is accessible as volume W then you run from W:\windows \system32 : bcdboot w:\windows /s H: /f UEFI

Note that the last system you create is always the default one - but you can change it in the boot menu screen that appears when there's more than one Windows system. -- if there's only one windows system then that boots by default without showing the boot menu screen.

Have fun. -- Do it first to an external USB device !!! USB3 connection with SSD is perfectly fast enough !! even on an older laptop.
On a 1TB external SSB device I've got 6 different Windows versions on it - a mixture of W10 and W11 releases in English and Icelandic and am about to see if I can get a 180 day free trial of W2K22 server to work on it too. I think the only problem with W2K22 server is that there's no install.wim image on the iso but an install.esd instead - however I think this can be modified --This might work :


ESD->wim
How to Extract Install.ESD to Install.WIM (Windows 10/8) - wintips.org - Windows Tips & How-tos

wim->ESD

How to Convert Install.WIM to Install.ESD or Vice Versa. - wintips.org - Windows Tips & How-tos

As for Virtualisation -- I loathe Virtual box but that's for others. Dockers are a great idea but on Linux I use Arch Linux (I can run this really lean and mean) and use KVM/QEMU for virtual machines -- being able to pass thru Video (needs IOMMU etc) and other hardware directly to the VM can make the VM's run almost as fast as Native and will even run some games decently but there are times when one needs to 100% test things on physical real hardware on a 100% real OS and this is where the physical vhdx method comes in as these are Windows systems 100% on real hardware.

Cheers
jimbo