Windows 10: Win 10 clean install on a new SSD - Activation Questions

I used Option 1 - created a bootable Win 10-32 bit USB. The earlier version on my PC was Win 7-32 bit, which got upgraded to Win 10-32 bit.

Yes, it's a new SSD. I am able to see the SSD in BIOS, and switch from/to it in Boot Device Priority. I was having trouble seeing the USB drive in boot device priortiy, but I resolved that issue. Both the SSD and USB drives are visible in boot device priority. They are also both visible under Hard Drives in Boot configuration.

I saved and exit BIOS after setting the USB priority and disabling fast boot. The USB LED light began flickering, the HDD LED light flickered twice and went off, the screen showed the blue logo in the center, no spinning dots, and it stayed that way thereafter. The USB LED kept flickering for about 15-20 minutes, then it went off, with the logo still there on the screen. Waited for 10 minutes for any change, but nothing - logo on screen, USB light off. Switched off and retried, no luck.

Yes I did try to boot from it. Rather, I thought I'd see if I can get to the Install Now (and Repair Your Computer) screen. Nope. It went to the windows logo (no spinning dots, USB LED flickering) and remained there for a while (about 10-15 minutes). Then the PC shutdown and restarted on its own, but got back to the same screen, with the USB LED flickering once again. I didn't wait much longer thinking it would perhaps keep repeating that process over and over.

Haven't heard of that disk before, but what is it primarily used for? I don't mind trying it, if it gets things going. I just don't want to brick a brand new SSD, or completely wreck a mobo that is clearly old and struggling. It may be an old hag, but it holds a precious Win 10 license.

 

Kyhi's Recovery Tools:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

 

Thanks, NavyLCDR. Not so sure how to use it at first glance. Do I just download the x-86 (32 bit) version on a USB and install it like I would a media creation tool?

Also might be worth mentioning that I do have the original Win 7 CD (with external recovery media etc.) along with the driver DVD for the mobo. Would it be worthwhile to load Win 7 (and the drivers) on the new SSD, and then upgrade/clean install to Win 10 via a bootable USB? Since I have already activated Win 10 on this system before, shouldn't it accept the new install and allow me to link to an MS account?

 

You boot from it, and Win 10 is loaded from that disk (not the hard disk). And you get a stack of programs on a Win 10 desktop which you can use. Thus you can use file explorer as normal. However your 'C:' may no longer be C.





That's what you should see when you have booted from it. Use it just like Win 10, which is what it is based on.

No, do a clean install to Win 10. There's absolutely no need to do 2 installs. Win 10 will load its own set of compatible drivers.

Clean Install Windows 10 Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

 

Thanks, dalchina.
Will try it. The reason I was considering loading Win 7 first was the drivers. I was told that this mobo/chipset is fairly old, and that win 10 may not be able to access the drivers for it. Perhaps if I load the drivers from the original DVD, and then update the BIOS from within Win 7, I might be able to clean install Win 10. Long shot from the sound of it.*Huh

 

So, I've started downloading Kyhi's recovery tool. It is about 1 GB. Do I simply copy the downloaded file onto a USB and then plug it into my old desktop? Might sound kinda noobish, but all the talk about 'burning to USB' and 'rufus' and 'FAT32 partition' on that thread is very confusing.

 

What I suggest is you do a bit of research using your MOBO identity (G41 ->Intel graphics when I tried it?? ) Maybe using the manufacturer too will help- For example a search such as

<manufacturer> G41 "Windows 10"

e.g.
ASUS G41 "Windows 10"

and see if people have comments on that MOBO and Win 10.

For older hardware, you may find Win 10 runs normally, but low level drivers are incompatible resulting in thermal management issues e,g, in Safe Mode. Perhaps ore the case for laptops.

Note too the minimum CPU requirements for Win 10.

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.

 

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.

 

No. Kyhi's disk just runs a version of win 10 from its disk.

A MS Win 10 boot disk (created from an iso downloaded from an MS site, not this one, is a different thing. That is
a. A boot disk offering some repair features like Startup Repair, System Restore...
b. A disk you use to install Windows

To do a clean install of Windows, use the latter.

Think of it like this. Kyhi's disk is a toolbox for fixing the car which happens to be made of car parts.

A MS Windows bootable disk contains all the car parts to build the car and the instructions to do it. It happens to contain the odd tool like a pump, a jack and so on.

 

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[/quote]

 

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.

My mobo is quite the old hag. *Smile 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?