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#1
Using Rufus 3.7 to install Win 10 Pro USB stick fails, ruins stick(?)
Rufus 3.7 seems to have made a Windows installation "spanning" my USB stick and a Windows 10 folder/drive/volume on my HDD. This has rendered my USB stick useless. Plus, it needs formatting, says Win 10, but its size is reported as 128MegaB, not 32GigaB).
I had screenshots of the Rufus screens but careless editing in Word lost them. I hope to recreate them soon.
(To clarify the complexity of the situation, I have attached a Word document with lots of shapes and screenshots. It contains all of the text below, so I'd look at the attachment instead of what follows.)
Here’s where I am right now.
Volume H: on my HDD contains a Windows installation that should have been put onto my 32 GB USB stick, as I had asked Rufus to do. Its size is 29.40 GB and would have fit nicely onto the USB stick.
Volume F: is my 32GB USB stick. Not only did Rufus not put Windows 10 onto it, Windows says the stick needs formatting, but it says capacity is 128 MB. No thanks.
The “Safely Remove Hardware and eject media” dialog shows that somehow F: and H: have been “grouped” under the name “Extreme”, which is the name of the USB stick.
If I want to eject F:, I can’t—it’s grayed out, as is H:. So I have to eject both or neither. “Extreme” is more or less the union of the two volumes. How can that happen? Why would it happen?
If I remove the stick (volume F:), volume H: disappears from Disk Management. If I insert the stick, H: is back.
Volume F: never shows up in Disk Management since it supposedly needs formatting.
BTW, when Rufus finished, I didn’t at first notice that those two volumes were mentioned in the same textbox near the top of the Rufus dialog box, with a caption that said something like “Dual Partitions F: and H:”
I wish I had a screenshot. When I found that the USB stick did NOT contain Windows 10 Pro, I came back to the Rufus dialog and when I saw that message, I gave up. The day had been filled with other frustrations before Rufus.
If I format the USB stick, that’ll no doubt kill the Windows volume that Rufus added to my HDD. This would also kill the stick, I fear.
How did this mess happen? Can I save the USB stick?
(If that's not clear, even if it is, the attachment is worth looking at for more clarity. I hope.)