Having problems installing win 10 from bootable USB

x509 · 24 Jun 2023

Paul Black said:

Hello @Eaglepi,

- During Boot [ POST ], you will see TWO options on the USB drive.
- USB UEFI [ Name ] and USB [ Name ].
- Select USB UEFI [ Name ] if you want to Boot as UEFI-GPT, or select USB [ Name ] if you want to Boot as Legacy-MBR.

This may help you decide which one is best suited for you:

> MBR vs. GPT Guide: What's The Difference and Which One Is Better [MiniTool Tips]

I hope this helps.

With GPT you are free of the 4 primary partition limit.

Logical Ron · 24 Jun 2023

x509 said:

With GPT you are free of the 4 primary partition limit.

Thanks but i don't partition my drives I use just big whole drives. It was never a problem with HDD's and now thtat I have all SDD's I am sure that things will be fine.

Thanks

Megahertz · 25 Jun 2023

If your computer is the one in "My computer" the MB is UEFI and you should install as UEFI-GPT.

Now that you have Win 10 installed it may be late.

As a reference:
Reset BIOS or load defaults.
Set Disk mode to AHCI, not RAID
Select OS mode = UEFI
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.

As 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.

Please post a whole window Disk Manager image of ALL your drives. Don't forget to expand the columns so we can read them. How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management
If you have a MiniTool or AOMEI Partition use it instead or Windows disk manager.

Logical Ron · 25 Jun 2023

Megahertz said:

If your computer is the one in "My computer" the MB is UEFI and you should install as UEFI-GPT.

Now that you have Win 10 installed it may be late.

As a reference:
Reset BIOS or load defaults.
Set Disk mode to AHCI, not RAID
Select OS mode = UEFI
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.

As 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.

Please post a whole window Disk Manager image of ALL your drives. Don't forget to expand the columns so we can read them. How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management
If you have a MiniTool or AOMEI Partition use it instead or Windows disk manager.

Thank you for all that detailed info, However I have installed Win 10 about 2 weeks ago and installed most of my software. The last time I had to rebuild a system was 2015 so I doubt I'll be building a new system or installing Win 10 again for quit some time. If I do have to I will be sure to reference this post. I am sure others will benefit from it as well.
I think you for your help.

Megahertz · 25 Jun 2023

Please mark this thread as Solved.

Logical Ron · 25 Jun 2023

Megahertz said:

Please mark this thread as Solved.

I can't find where to close the thread or make it solved I meant

- - - Updated - - -

Megahertz said:

Please mark this thread as Solved.

I can't find where to close the thread or make it solved I meant

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry I couldn't find it because that big green bar at the bottom that says "Mark as solved" was in my way............lol

spapakons · 26 Jun 2023

If you don't care about the 4 primary partitions limit, as I guess most of us here, then go for MBR to get the most out of your precious SSD space. GPT creates 3-4 system partitions reducing the available disk space for the Windows partition, while MBR creates only one system partition and there is even a workaround to avoid this system partition and use the whole disk. All you need to do is create a single NTFS partition BEFORE running Windows Setup. Then click on than and then Next to start installation without formatting or modifying the disk. There is no perceivable difference in performance between a legacy MBR installation and a GPT UEFI installation, so why not keep legacy?

Paul Black · 26 Jun 2023

spapakons said:

If you don't care about the 4 primary partitions limit, as I guess most of us here, then go for MBR to get the most out of your precious SSD space. GPT creates 3-4 system partitions reducing the available disk space for the Windows partition, while MBR creates only one system partition and there is even a workaround to avoid this system partition and use the whole disk. All you need to do is create a single NTFS partition BEFORE running Windows Setup. Then click on than and then Next to start installation without formatting or modifying the disk. There is no perceivable difference in performance between a legacy MBR installation and a GPT UEFI installation, so why not keep legacy?

Nice information for the OP.

Megahertz · 26 Jun 2023

spapakons said:

If you don't care about the 4 primary partitions limit, as I guess most of us here, then go for MBR to get the most out of your precious SSD space. GPT creates 3-4 system partitions reducing the available disk space for the Windows partition, while MBR creates only one system partition and there is even a workaround to avoid this system partition and use the whole disk. All you need to do is create a single NTFS partition BEFORE running Windows Setup. Then click on than and then Next to start installation without formatting or modifying the disk. There is no perceivable difference in performance between a legacy MBR installation and a GPT UEFI installation, so why not keep legacy?

In my opinion, as a system drive, MBR is dead tech
Let's compare the two on a default installation

The EFI partition on a GPT drive is 100MB
The System partition on a MBR drive is 100MB.

The MSR partition on a GPT drive is 16MB

The Recovery partitions size don't depend on the drive type. It depends on the WinRE and the tools you add.

So the only real difference is 16M.

Even if you tweak the two, deleting the System partition on a MBR drive and the MSR partition on a GPT drive the difference would be less than 100M
100M on a 1T drive is 0.01%

And as the MBR drive has a 2.2T limit, any drive bigger has to be GPT

Win 11 (default installations) require to be installed as UEFI-GPT.

I'm not sure if @Eaglepi installed as Legacy - MBR or UEFI-GPT so I asked to post a whole window Disk Manager image of ALL drives.

Logical Ron · 26 Jun 2023

Megahertz said:

In my opinion, as a system drive, MBR is dead tech
Let's compare the two on a default installation

The EFI partition on a GPT drive is 100MB
The System partition on a MBR drive is 100MB.

The MSR partition on a GPT drive is 16MB

The Recovery partitions size don't depend on the drive type. It depends on the WinRE and the tools you add.

So the only real difference is 16M.

Even if you tweak the two, deleting the System partition on a MBR drive and the MSR partition on a GPT drive the difference would be less than 100M
100M on a 1T drive is 0.01%

And as the MBR drive has a 2.2T limit, any drive bigger has to be GPT

Win 11 (default installations) require to be installed as UEFI-GPT.

I'm not sure if @Eaglepi installed as Legacy - MBR or UEFI-GPT so I asked to post a whole window Disk Manager image of ALL drives.