Win 10 clean install on a new SSD - Activation Questions

dalchina said:

As for bootable disks- burn a DVD. Easy. Assuming you have a drive of course.

USB is more convenient for me. DVD is on the old system, and for some reason wasn't detected. Removed it from the SATA port.

So the entire Win 10 PE OS runs off a USB? What should the capacity be? I have a 16GB USB. After installing this PE OS, will a Win 10 clean install be somehow easier? I'm finding it a bit hard to understand the concept of this thing.

CountMike said:

Did you ever try a Live Linux distro ?? This one works same way but it's based on portable PE Windows. You plug it in and BOOT from it, everything else is just as ordinary windows installed on a HDD.

Okay, Thanks.
So, once I have it up and running, can I clean install win 10 through it (using Edge/Chrome)? If I can, I guess it would be to "get windows 10 for this PC", rather than for "bootable USB". Would I better off trying to do this in safe mode, since the drivers access/availability for my mobo/chipset are suspect? If there is a safe mode, that is.

I like to make "combination" bootable USB flash drives. I create the standard Windows 10 USB installation flash drive created by the Microsoft Media Creation Tool. Rename \Sources\boot.wim file on it to \Sources\boot.bak. Then I mount Kyhi's Recovery Tools ISO file. Copy the \Sources\boot.wim file from the mounted ISO file to \Sources\boot.wim on the Windows 10 installation flash drive.

I now have a flash drive that boots into Kyhi's Recovery Tools and if I want to run Windows 10 setup all I have to do is run setup.exe from the same flash drive.

Thanks for your responses. I understand the tool and what it's meant to do. However, when I boot from it, it brings me to the same windows logo as with the windows install media.



I used rufus to create the bootable drive. Tried booting from it thrice, all three times the result was the above.

Can someone clarify a little issue that's been circling around in my head with no real answer. When I upgraded to Win 10 on my PC, I don't quite remember if I linked it to my MS account. I certainly didn't check on the activation screen in settings. However, as mentioned earlier, until a few days before it shut down, I was receiving alerts I had set on my laptop.

So, I use my laptop more frequently, and the desktop was a standby. I often set myself deadlines and time alerts on the laptop (sometimes days in advance). On a couple of occasions I noticed these alerts pop up on the right hand side of my screen on the desktop. At first, I was surprised, pleasantly actually, that the alerts I set on my laptop were activated on the desktop, too. I guess that's the reason I thought it was linked to my MS account. How else would it share calendar/time alerts on multiple devices.

Is there a chance that the PC is linked to the MS account, but just isn't showing under devices in my MS account? Could it be because of the settings I had opted for (privacy settings, location off settings, etc.) on the desktop? If it is linked, can I not just build a new upgraded system and install Win 10 with the license from the PC?

The device must be showing on the device list on your Microsoft Account in order to be able to transfer the license for Windows 10 from it.

I would make sure you have a good USB flash drive you are booting from. It seems like just plain USB 2.0 8 to 32 GB flash drives work best, I like SanDisk. Also make sure you are plugging the flash drive into a black USB 2.0 port when you are trying to boot the computer from it. I would not use Rufus to put Windows 10 on it - it has way too many settings you have to get just right and in the right order to make a proper flash drive. The easiest way to make a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive is to just run the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft and let it make it for you. If you want to have an ISO file to keep, then use that option in Media Creation Tool to save the ISO file. Make sure to download a fresh ISO file, your current file might be corrupt and that might be causing the problems.

To reliably make a bootable USB flash drive from an ISO file, insert it with Windows running, open a Command Prompt (Admin) and run:

diskpart
list disk
select disk # <replace # with the disk number of the flash drive. Make sure to use the correct disk number!
clean <this will erase the flash drive, that's why you need to have correct number selected above!
create part pri
format fs=fat32 quick
active
exit
exit

Then mount the Windows 10 ISO file you saved from the Media Creation Tool and copy all the files and folders from the mounted ISO file to the flash drive. You now have a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive that will boot in both Legacy BIOS and UEFI computers.

Then, optionally, you can replace the standard Windows 10 boot.wim file with the boot.wim file from Kyhi's Recovery Tools.

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.15063]
(c) 2017 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.15063.0

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: DESKTOP-RJ0VISR

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          111 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online          931 GB  1536 MB        *
  Disk 2    Online           28 GB      0 B

DISKPART> select disk 2

Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> clean

DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

DISKPART> create part pri

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

DISKPART> format fs=fat32 quick

  100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

DISKPART> active

DiskPart marked the current partition as active.

DISKPART> exit

Thanks, NavyLCDR. Your explanation and attached code on making a reliable bootable drive is quite detailed and perhaps better in a way than one would find in an article/blog. I have used Diskpart before, but it was for the HDD/SSD on my laptop. Didn't think it could be used on a pen drive.

NavyLCDR said:

Also make sure you are plugging the flash drive into a black USB 2.0 port when you are trying to boot the computer from it. I would not use Rufus to put Windows 10 on it - it has way too many settings you have to get just right and in the right order to make a proper flash drive. The easiest way to make a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive is to just run the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft and let it make it for you. If you want to have an ISO file to keep, then use that option in Media Creation Tool to save the ISO file. Make sure to download a fresh ISO file, your current file might be corrupt and that might be causing the problems.

My mobo is quite the old hag. :) It is not compatible with a USB 3. No USB 3.0 connections either. With regards to the media installation tool, I did use the one Microsoft made out for me - i.e. not the ISO file. But on trying to install it, it gave me the above blue logo screen.

In fact, the first ISO file I made and burned to USB (after finding out how to do so with rufus) was for the Kyhi tool mentioned above. I uninstalled and reinstalled it as well (once with FAT 32, then with NTFS). I used the MBR version because mine is an old system. Both times, I got the same screen as above.

There are some who refuse to believe that I could have gotten (and run flawlessly) the Windows 10 upgrade on this old system. After the issues I am facing now, I'm surprised myself how it upgraded and ran Win 10 seamlessly. But if I think about it, it was perhaps because the old system had all its drivers intact. Now, however, with mobo reset to factory settings (had to do it to boot from USB), the Windows 10 installation is perhaps not able to access/read the drivers correctly.

The more I think about it, the more I feel I should try re-install the old system (Win 7); the one it was quite happy with. Along with that, reinstall all the drivers (from the preserved DVD). I even have the product key for it. So I guess I can activate it too. Then upgrade to Win 10. What I'm hoping for is that it would retain/recognize the Win 10 free license I received during the upgrade. Does anyone see a flaw in this plan?

I would go with the Windows 7 and associated drivers. When you get a good, stable system with Windows 7, then I would make an image of it with a program like Macrium Reflect Free. You will need somewhere to store the image - you can create a partition at the end of the hard drive to store the image on, but an external hard drive would be better. Then do the upgrade to Windows 10.

A quick update and a couple question.

I tried installing Win 7 from the original DVD on the desktop. Initially it would freeze on Starting Windows. After a lot of googling on the issue and disabling a ton of stuff in the BIOS settings, I get as far as a couple of BSOD screens - first memory management (0x1A), and then IRQL_not_less_or_equal. It appears to be a driver issue, but without loading an OS it's impossible to re-install/update the drivers. Is there anything I can do to rectify this issue?

If I were to upgrade the desktop to a 7th gen Intel processor, will I be able to install and activate win 7 (32-bit) from the original DVD I have for my current desktop? I do have the 25-digit product key with me. My concern here is that there are some rumors doing the rounds that Kaby lake processors do not support win 7 any longer.