Hi all, brand new here. Got a problem and hope to get some help. Thanks in advance!
Today I successfully installed a win10-1803.iso on an external/usb drive using WinToUsb (latest version).
I can boot the drive and Windows 10 starts, logo appears, then the spinning dots appear and the logo disappears, and then...... the dots just keep spinning for hours and set up does not continue.
What could be the cause?
Welcome to TenForums Win10trial.
I'm not sure why it won't boot, but let's take a step back here. Why are you trying to boot from it in the first place?
I assume you want to upgrade your existing 'win7pro' to Windows 10 Pro. That would be what I would be doing in your place because an existing licenced copy of Win7 Pro will be given a digital licence for Win10 Pro as part of the upgrade. A digital licence for Windows 10 is stored on Microsoft's activation servers and is linked to the hardware ID of your PC. Once you have a digital licence you can clean install 10 without providing a key and it will activate automatically from the digital licence.
You should only boot from the setup usb if you want to do a clean install, but that would not activate as you would have wiped your existing Win7 in the process, along with any entitlement to a digital licence for Win10. To upgrade from Win7 to Win10, from within your running Windows 7, insert the usb and look for Setup.exe on the root of the usb. Run that to start the upgrade.
Upgrade to Windows 10 | Tutorials
Whatever you do, you should first make a system image of your existing Windows 7 so that you can restore your original working system should anything go wrong. Macrium Reflect Free is most often recommended for that.
Thanks for the answer, Bree. However:
Probably I was too short on words, but I do NOT want to upgrade Win7.
I want to have a dual boot option: 1. internal drive/Win7, 2. external drive/Win10.
So I downloaded a Windows 10-1803.iso and installed that successfully on an external/usb drive using a freeware tool called WinToUsb. (See https://www.pcworld.com/article/3185...nal-drive.html)
After giving boot priority to the external drive, it succesfully boots into Windows 10 and then follows like I wrote before:
Windows 10 starts, logo appears, then the spinning dots appear and the logo disappears, and then...... the dots just keep spinning for hours and set up does not continue.
Last edited by win10trial; 30 Dec 2018 at 16:56.
Thanks, Mike. But that's not the case. Both chipset, drive and port are up to USB 3.0
Let me rephrase my initial question and order of events:
WinToUsb makes it possible to fool the iso to install Windows 10 on an external drive. (For explanation see my link to the article above).
And it succesfully installed Windows 10 on the external drive. Giving it boot priority it DOES start Windows 10, W10 shows its logo, spinning dots appear and keep spinning till eternity....
Must be a Win10 thing, I guess.
There is little you can do to troubleshoot this via software. I still suspect this is a hardware/firmware/driver thing and, as a first step, would try installing onto different types of USB storage devices as another one is likely to work.
Do not use 1809. There is an un-addressed To Go issue which causes a fatal BSOD involving WppRecorder.sys on a boot device that implements UASP.
Driver problem? Yeah, that sounds probable.
And no, I won't install 1809. I know about its hiccups. That's why I installed 1803.
You cannot fool Windows 10 to load a regular installation from USB, hence the problem. This also happens if you try to clone an existing Windows 10 installation on a USB hard disk and boot from there. You have to do an actual Windows-to-go installation which boots from USB at any PC but cannot be upgraded when a new build is out. Apart from the official Microsoft way (create the Windows-to-go from a Windows 10 Enterprise machine), you can use a third party tool such as gimagex to extract the necessary files from install.wim on the USB drive. If you have install.esd instead, you have to convert to install.wim Then you have to make the partition active (bootable) and transfer Windows Boot Loader on the drive with some specific attributes marking it a Windows-to-go installation. I cannot go into details because I'm not sure this method is legit. This is like installing Windows 10 on the USB and you are at the first restart state. Once you boot the first time, installation resumes and then you create the user etc until you see the desktop. Install any drivers and applications necessary. Then shutdown and move the USB to another PC. It should boot without any problem and install the appropriate drivers. Probably it will need activation again, but you will be able to use it until the end of the grace period.
I have to ask the OP, I presume he downloaded the 1803 ISO from the Microsoft servers ? If so and you don't have a LIC for that version Windows, that maybe the problem. I was reading the OP's article he linked to. I read this paragraph:
"If you already have a DVD, an image file, or an installation USB stick for Windows, you’re set on this one. If not, it’s easy to download a Windows 10 installer ISO image file directly from Microsoft. Just make sure you pick the image for the edition and language of Windows for which you own a license." I wonder why they stated that sentence in RED ?
Maybe it doesn't work on an external USB drive if its not already LIC ?
Wow. Coming back to this thread after a few days, I can't understand why this discussion has strayed so far from the OP's original question.
He is creating a WindowsToGo using the current build of WinToUSB - a recognized utility which has a proven track record of creating functioning ToGo installations. So post #8 (you can't fool Windows) is totally off base as he is already well past that limitation. He is using a utility whose specific function here is, yes, to fool Windows. (Most of these utilities seem to automate what you could do manually; i.e. use imagex or DISM to unpack install.wim onto a formatted and "active" partition on the USB device).
When creating ToGo manually or using third-party utilities, you are free to choose any ISO compatible with your machine's hardware and architecture (post#9). The "gotcha" comes when the activation routines come into play, but licensing issues will not prevent you from successfully completing the boot process, which is the OP's problem.
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