Is there a way I can force a SATA SSD drive to show up in the media creation tool after selecting USB Drive in the wizard?
Like some tag I can set so windows will think the SSD is removable storage?
You're going to use it in a caddy if you're planning to use it to install Win 10, so .... put it in a caddy..
Actually I'm planning of packing it all into an ISO and then burning it to a USB with Rufus after I'm done editing the image. I just want to have the installation files extracted to a directory first instead of packed into an ISO that then needs to be extracted. And the USB option is the only way I know of to do that. But I can't use a USB because making the WIM with DISM exceeds the limit on USBs and causes the DISM extraction to fail. It's a really specific problem I'm aware.
I never use the MCT to make a bootable drive, even if is a USB stick. I use the MCT to make an ISO file.
With an ISO you can easily make as many bootable drives as you like, USB or SSD.
- Create a Fat32 partition, at least 8GB.
- Mount the ISO by double-clicking on it.
- Copy all files and folders from the mounted ISO to the Fat32 partition.
- This will now be bootable in UEFI mode, if you also need it to be able to boot in Legacy MBR mode then mark the partition as ACTIVE.
Yes, it's as simple as that. That's all the MCT would do once it has downloaded the files, the end result will be identical. The advantage of using the MCT to make the ISO is that you can use it again and again to make as many USBs as you like. If you use the MCT to make the USB it has to download all the files again for each USB you make.
The MCT does not make install media for the most up to date version of Windows 10. That is currently 19045.3086, but the MCT still make media (ISO or USB) that installs 19045.2965. MS don't update the MCT every time there's a new build, they only update it a few times a year at most. Rather they let the installer check for updates during the install, and if you choose not to let it, then Windows can check for updates after it is installed. Then end result is that you will have the latest Windows installed, even if the installer was not for the latest version.
yes.
No special tools required. Format usb stick to fat32 and mark the partition active..
Copy the distribution files and folders onto the usb stick.
Supports both bios and efi boot.
You could use something like usb7ice for convenience which does the same thing apart from splitting.
The only potential difficulty is fat32 only supports a file size up to 4gb. If the install.wim is bigger, split it before copying it over.
Some motherboard bios can efi boot from ntfs, but many can't.
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