Sorry for the confusion. I just my W10 back.
I've got a functioning W10 on an External HDD.
The internal one is set to read-only, and it's not about administrator rights.
I think it has to do with the fact it has some residue of boot files; Paragon Hard Disk Manager detects an OS there (internal), and DISKPART can't format or do anything about it, actually.
I am confused now. Let's get back to basics.
1) Are you trying to install windows 10 or 7.
2) you cannot just clone a windows to go drive to an internal drive to install windows 10 as it will not boot properly.
3) you need a usb flash drive or dvd to install windows on a pc.
4) you may need to nuke existing internal drive using diskpart clean command or a tool like dban in some cases.
Use Windows PE
Not Windows To Go (which is Locking the internal disk)
use any one of my Bootable PE Rescue Disks...
OK, so I solved everything. For future viewers, I'll explain what solutions I used:
Problem: Wanted to Install W7 on a new laptop.
Solution: Don't. It's better of to get used to W10 and solve its problems.
P: Wanted to boot from external HDD
S: startup settings - uefi - secure boot = disabled, boot = legacy, boot order = external HDD
Problem: Deleted system partition when my only hope was a W10 ISO in an external HDD
Solution: WinToUSB
P: Once booted from external HDD, I wanted to copy the OS to a local HDD
S: Paragon Hard Disk Manager (migrate OS)
P: Internal HDD was read-only
S: in DISKPART, attributes disk clear readonly
P: Couldn't boot to uefi settings to change the boot order again
S: Internal OS disk needs to be GPT and not MBR.
In DISKPART: convert gpt
:
Here are the relevant DISKPART commands I used. DON'T USE THEM ALL, it's just a collection:
Hope that helps.Code:diskpart list disk select disk [] detail disk online disk select volume [] detail volume clean create partition primary select partition 1 active (only works when disk is MBR) format fs=ntfs quick assign convert mbr / gpt attributes disk clear readonly
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