Can't update Windows from USB drive

wpcoe said:

Stop the presses!
... I changed mine from 1 to 0. After a reboot (for good measure) I was able to proceed with the Win10 upgrade process. It is at 37% now and still going. Whew!

To clarify why your fix worked, the apparent 'flash drive' that Setup was objecting to was not the usb with the install media on it - it was your hard drive itself. Your system was erroneously telling Setup that it was a 'Windows To Go' system installed on a usb! See....


https://support.microsoft.com/help/2...tified-as-a-wi

Thanks, WPCOE. This was especially useful...
"I found another source that said "change the value to 1 or 0 depending on the current state" so I changed mine from 1 to 0. After a reboot (for good measure) I was able to proceed with the Win10 upgrade process. It is at 37% now and still going. Whew!" My value was 1 and I changed to 0. Then I was able to update with an external drive connected to USB. I didn't even reboot after making the change to the registry.

wpcoe said:

No, I'm not letting it check for updates since I don't have internet access. The very first time, I left the setting to check for updates at the default "check now" and all it did was add a several-minute-long pause (to time-out) before proceeding to the "can't run Windows 10" error.

The referenced Registry entry on my system was already set to "1".

Stop the presses!

The suggestion in the above answers.microsoft.com link was to "Change the value PortableOperatingSystem to “0” from 1."

I found another source that said "change the value to 1 or 0 depending on the current state" so I changed mine from 1 to 0. After a reboot (for good measure) I was able to proceed with the Win10 upgrade process. It is at 37% now and still going. Whew!

Thanks for all your help!

Good you figured it out, but what and where is this change the value to 0 or 1 meaning? Speaking from someone who has no idea what that means. I would like to know if it ever happens to me in the future.

I finally was able to use MS Media Creation Tool process to upgrade Windows 10 on an external drive pulled from my old computer.

Here are two quotes from this string that should answer your question. I booted into Windows on an external USB HDD, but the process should work with a flash drive.

"The suggestion in the above answers.microsoft.com link was to "Change the value PortableOperatingSystem to “0” from 1." (This value can be found in the registry. I used regedit to change the value. It's always safest to backup your registry before editing it.)

"I found another source that said "change the value to 1 or 0 depending on the current state" so I changed mine from 1 to 0. After a reboot (for good measure) I was able to proceed with the Win10 upgrade process. It is at 37% now and still going. Whew!" (I actually change mine from 0 to 1, so I do believe that changing what ever the current state is works.)

After I upgraded Windows 10 on the external USB HDD, devices on my new laptop computer were recognized, to include its internal SSD. I then cloned my external USB HDD drive onto my internal SDD. I then restarted the computer, booting from SSD and everthing worked as it should. Hope this is helpful.

dalchina said:

Are you accepting updates as part of the procedure?

Also see this:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...5-e7e83d488c63

wpcoe said:

No, I'm not letting it check for updates since I don't have internet access. The very first time, I left the setting to check for updates at the default "check now" and all it did was add a several-minute-long pause (to time-out) before proceeding to the "can't run Windows 10" error.

The referenced Registry entry on my system was already set to "1".

Stop the presses!

The suggestion in the above answers.microsoft.com link was to "Change the value PortableOperatingSystem to “0” from 1."

I found another source that said "change the value to 1 or 0 depending on the current state" so I changed mine from 1 to 0. After a reboot (for good measure) I was able to proceed with the Win10 upgrade process. It is at 37% now and still going. Whew!

Thanks for all your help!

sdowney717 said:

Good you figured it out, but what and where is this change the value to 0 or 1 meaning? Speaking from someone who has no idea what that means. I would like to know if it ever happens to me in the future.

That was over a year ago, so you're really testing my memory. LOL

I *think* the location was in the link in dalchina's post: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control and the suggestion was to Change the value PortableOperatingSystem to “0” from 1, but in my case I did the reverse: I changed the 1 to 0.

wpcoe said:

That was over a year ago, so you're really testing my memory. LOL

I *think* the location was in the link in dalchina's post: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control and the suggestion was to Change the value PortableOperatingSystem to “0” from 1, but in my case I did the reverse: I changed the 1 to 0.

One good thing, at least you still have a memory!