I can't upgrade my Win 10 Pro; Setup thinks my hard drive is a Flash


  1. Posts : 2
    Windows 10 Pro 21H1
       #1

    I can't upgrade my Win 10 Pro; Setup thinks my hard drive is a Flash


    Hello,
    I hope someone has the answer to my dilemma! I purchased a HDD hard drive on ebay with Win 10 Pro installed on it already, but when I tried to upgrade Win 10 Pro 21H1 to 22H2, it attempted to install and quit with the message "You can't install Windows on a USB flash drive using Setup."
    I went to disk manage and saw that I have only 2 partitions, one "WINTOUSB" 832 MB FAT32 Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition. The other is "OS (C:) 930.70 GB NTFS Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

    Is there a solution as simple as renaming the smaller "WINTOUSB" partition, or setting one active and the other logical - or just start from scratch and format, partition and re-install Win 10 Pro?
    I have spent a lot of time on this and I am lost.
    Also it was listed as 500 GB (nice error to have) and actually has 2x that amount of space. I have no recovery drive either. Perhaps I can partition off part of C and create a recovery drive?
    Thank you in advance!!!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 18,432
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2

    You need to start with a clean install of Windows 10. Erase the bogus software installed on the HDD and clean install Windows 10.

    Clean Install Windows 10

    Here's how to get Windows 10, I recommend option 1:
    Clean Install Windows 10

    And I am willing to bet this HDD came from Ebay with a "pre-activated" version of Windows 10?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 1,775
    Windows 10 Pro
       #3

    NavyLCDR said:
    You need to start with a clean install of Windows 10. Erase the bogus software installed on the HDD and clean install Windows 10.

    Clean Install Windows 10

    Here's how to get Windows 10, I recommend option 1:
    Clean Install Windows 10

    And I am willing to bet this HDD came from Ebay with a "pre-activated" version of Windows 10?
    @NavyLCDR

    Are you somehow insinuating that not every eBay seller is 100% honest? And that eBay management doesn't do enough to eliminate fraudulent and crooked resellers from using the website? I am shocked, shocked, at these allegations. (Round up the usual suspects.)
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 18,432
    Windows 11 Pro
       #4

    x509 said:
    @NavyLCDR

    Are you somehow insinuating that not every eBay seller is 100% honest? And that eBay management doesn't do enough to eliminate fraudulent and crooked resellers from using the website? I am shocked, shocked, at these allegations. (Round up the usual suspects.)
    Do forget to include that absolutely everything you read on the internet is absolutely true!
      My Computer


 

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