Copy W10 files to target media and install from there?

teckneeculler · 21 Feb 2023

Way back when, I sometimes used this method with Windows 7 installs, ie, copy the contents of the Windows DVD (or expanded ISO) to the target HDD, then run the exe. It always seemed to be quicker than installing from the DVD.
Could one do that with modern gear, ie, copy an expanded Windows ISO to empty SSD then run the exe?

Ghot · 21 Feb 2023

teckneeculler said:

I used to do this way back with Windows 7 installs, ie, copy the contents of the Windows DVD (or expanded ISO) to the target HDD, then run the exe. It always seemed to be quicker than installing from the DVD.
Could one do that with modern gear, ie, copy an expanded Windows ISO to SSD then run the exe?

If you're installing Windows just go here, and get the Media Creation tool, and create a USB stick with the Windows installation media on it.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10

If you want to do an In-Place Upgrade, use the same media Creation Tool, to create an ISO image, and use that for the In-Place Upgrade.

Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10

Clean Install Windows 10

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

If you're starting with a real DVD, you can use the free program AnyBurn to turn the contents of the DVD into an ISO image.

The Official AnyBurn Website

One of these will do it...
The AnyBurn home page has easy tutorials.

Copy W10 files to target media and install from there?-image1.png

Megahertz · 22 Feb 2023

Ghot said:

Yes.

Put the Windows ISO on your desktop. Right click it and choose: Mount.
Open File Explorer. You will see a new drive letter. It will look like a DVD optical drive.
Double click on that, to open it, then click on Setup.exe to start it.

You can do either an install or a repair install this way.

Ghot, for what I know, the procedure you described is for a Repair install.

To make a Win 10 USB boot able drive (>= 8G)

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary
select part 1
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
active
exit (to exit diskpart)

On Win 10, mount the iso file and copy all files and folders to the USB drive.

Windows can be installed in two ways: Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT
To install as Legacy-MBR you must boot the installation drive as Legacy
To install as UEFI-GPT you must boot the installation drive as UEFI.

If you have a UEFI BIOS, you should install as UEFI-GPT
Detach any other drives (SATA or Power cable) from the MB.

During POST, press F12(?) to launch the boot menu. You will see two options for the USB drive. USB UEFI (Name) and USB (Name). Select USB UEFI (Name) if you want to install as UEFI-GPT or select USB (name) if you want to install as Legacy-MBR.
Go to install and delete ALL partitions on the main drive till you have one and only one unallocated space and then proceed.
If you don't want to use MS account, don't enable updates or connect to the internet during installation.

Ghot · 22 Feb 2023

@Megahertz

Nice catch. Fixed.

NavyLCDR · 22 Feb 2023

teckneeculler said:

Way back when, I sometimes used this method with Windows 7 installs, ie, copy the contents of the Windows DVD (or expanded ISO) to the target HDD, then run the exe. It always seemed to be quicker than installing from the DVD.
Could one do that with modern gear, ie, copy an expanded Windows ISO to empty SSD then run the exe?

Yes you can do it that way, but there is a catch....
Create an 8 GB partition on the hard drive. If you are going to be installing in Legacy BIOS mode the HDD needs to be MBR partitioned, the 8 GB partition can be NTFS or FAT32, and it has to be marked as Active.

If you are going to be installing in UEFI mode, the HDD needs to be GPT partitioned, and the 8 GB partition will probably need to be FAT32 which may cause an issue if your installation ISO file has install.wim in the Sources folder rather than install.esd.

Copy all the files and folders from the installation USB flash drive, DVD, or expanded ISO file to the 8 GB partition. Boot the computer from the HDD, which will go into Windows setup. On the screen that shows the list of drives and partitions asking where to install Windows to, select the remaining unallocated space on the HDD and click next.

Here's the catch, though. You will finally end up with a dual boot menu at the end, with one entry being Windows Setup, and the other entry being the installed Windows OS. You will have to manually fix that.