Windows 10: Can't create Windows 10 Installation Media. Any ideas?

I'm in the process of building a new computer for my wife. I've purchased a new Windows 10 Home license and planned to use Microsoft's installation media creation tool to create an install flash drive. It seems like a no-brainer but the tool won't recognize any of my flash drives and I have no idea why.

I had a spare 4GB drive that was supposedly big enough but it wouldn't show up on the drive list in the tool. The only thing that showed up was my external hard drive. I've tried three different 16GB drives thinking maybe there wasn't quite enough free space on the 4GB, but they don't show up either. The only drive that shows as available is my external backup drive.

I'm not certain if it makes a difference but I thought I'd mention that all of the drives I've tried, the only ones that I have access to, are SanDisk brand.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

:)

 

Trying to reset a W10 PC after a free upgrade to sell on.

Did you use the Media Creation Tool to create your Windows 10 installation media. If you can't get your PC to boot from a USB then you should create a boot DVD. If you download the Windows 10 ISO you can use this to create a boot DVD.

 

Resetting windows 10

If i reset windows 10 from,

1. Reset function available within windows

2. Recovery media i created on windows 10

3. Installation media i created for windows 10 using media creation tool

Will there be any difference between the three situations? Will any of them keep the apps that my pc manufacturer installed ?

 

Will File Explorer see any of the USB drives? Could be your ports have a problem. And you may need to assure you are plugging them into a USB 2.0 port, not USB 3.0. An issue exists in that the BIOS supports onboard USB 2.0 [Legacy] but needs the OS installed to get support for USB 3.0, can prevent booting to the USB drive. Also, the drive needs to be formatted as FAT32, usually the way they come.

 

Thanks for your reply. The computer I'm using to try and create the media doesn't have any USB 3.0 ports, so I know that's not the issue. Also, the drives I'm using are brand new and are all still formatted as FAT32. Yes, File Explorer sees the drives and I can moves files to and from them.

They just don't show up as USB drives from within the tool. From everywhere else they're perfectly fine.

 

I don't know what this is is/was, but it must be related to something on my desktop. I tried it from my wife's older (2009) Dell laptop and it picks the flash drive up without a hitch. It is installing to the flash drive as I type. I still don't know why it wouldn't work from my computer, but as long as I get it created, I guess I really don't care.

Thanks anyway for your reply.

 

Some USB flash drives show up as fixed disk, instead or removable media. It's a bit set in the firmware or the USB drive. Sandisk I believe may be one of them? This can cause issues with some utilities, they exclude them from the list of suitable drives. Also as you found out, 4 gig drives aren't big enough, you need at least 8 gig.

 

I saw some other people saying similar things, but it worked fine on my SanDisk drive, once I moved to my wife's laptop, just not from my desktop.

I saw others saying that they needed more space too, but I created a Windows 10 64-bit installation with all the options I had available to me, and it would've fit onto a freshly formatted 4GB flash drive in the typically available free space. These days, with the low price of flash media, who doesn't have several flash drives larger than 8GB lying though? Heck, I just purchased a SanDisk 3-pack of 16GB drives for $20 and some change.

Thanks again for the replies.

 

The OS in use might factor into too. You wife's laptop may not have detected them as fixed disks. Anyway, you got there eventually and that's what counts. I use diskpart to create my bootable install media. It gets around all those little niggles.

 

Hey, Alphanumeric!
Could you provide a quick list of steps to use diskpart for creating and building bootable media, or use Screen Recorder to capture your actions while creating such a device? I'd find it immensely interesting and helpful. Have encountered problems with both MCT and Rufus and would like to learn "another way!"
Thanks in advance,
--Ed--

 

Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive

Pay particular attention to the important note after step 9. Personally, I just always use FAT32 because FAT32 is compatible with both legacy BIOS and UEFI. For step 12 you mount your ISO file and copy all the files and folders from the mounted ISO file to the USB flash drive.

 

Thanks, and *Ditto to using Fat 32. For the same reason. One thumb drive/procedure good for both Legacy and UEFI.

 

Thanks, NavyLCDR and alphanumeric! I should've known there'd be a tutorial on this (it's kind of like "we have an app for that" around here! ;-).
--Ed--

 

Option 2 here, http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials...e-windows.html was the original guide I followed. If you selected the wrong drive you could get your self in trouble so you do have to be careful. It's usually pretty obvious which one is the thumb drive when you look at the size in the list disk output.