Windows 10: WIndows 10 install with no bootable USB/DVD, deleting the install files

Hi all,


I searched in vain for a solution for this, and in fact, what I have done appears a bit unusual, but I'm sure someone can help me.


I have just upgraded an old Asus K50IJ laptop (circa 2010, 4gb, Intel t4400@2.2Ghz, Windows 7 Home), with a new SSD, and a clean Windows 10 install. Since this machine won't boot from a USB (or I was unable to persuade it to, despite many tries), and the DVD drive is knackered, I had to get my clean win 10 install using the SSD as the install bootable. It went like this:


1) used old system/harddisk and attached the new SSD as an external USB drive.

2) used storage manager, to create a 32GB partition on the new SSD.

3) used windows 10 media creation tool to create the windows 10 install data on the new 32GB partition

4) took out the old hard disk and installed the new SSD.

5) Booted from the new SSD, and let windows installer do its thing - it create a partition with the remaining disk space, and installed win 10 on it, and it used the 32GB partition as the System partition, the one that is usually I believe just 100MB.

6) Rebooted, selected the new partition to boot from (the install partition, was also there as a boot option), and started the fun task of setting up windows 10. Ohhh the choices!


I was pretty pleased all in, except for two annoyances:

1) The 32GB partition was quite a waste. I partially solved this by shrinking it down to 6GB using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free (thanks to them), and merging the 18GB into the main windows partition. (I'm sure this is terrible practice, but it's an SSD, so I feel I'm getting away with it!) However, annoyance remains, this is still a wasted 6GB. I daren't go any smaller, since it still holds the 4GB worth of win10 install data, plus the System files.


2) I have a dual boot when I turn it on - option 1, my nice clean windows 10, option 2, the windows 10 installation! Kinda handy in a dire recovery situation perhaps, but I backup etc etc carefully enough to not warrant a recovery partition at all. Also, my 10 year old is starting to experiment...


So, if you have a suggestion on how to solve both of these, please let me know. In theory it should be easyish...

- how do I remove win 10 install data without reformatting the partition (I can find no answer to this)

- how do I stop a partition being bootable, without wrecking the purpose of the System partition


After that I can further shrink the partition down, and I shouldn't have an unwanted boot option.


Thanks all for any pointers.

Jason

:)

 

Multi-bootable USB

Hey guys from TPU, couldn't find any specific thread pertaining to the question asked on title. As mentioned, I'm trying to create a bootable USB, but with many specifics boots available.

I've been trying to create one with multiple boot device including one that enables me to run Windows 10 directly on the USB Thumb Drive but to no avail.

The list of bootable images i'm trying to create are

1. Windows 10 (A full OS running from thumb drive)
2. Windows 10 ISO (Bootable disk image for fresh install)
3. MemTest86+

Have tried YUMI or UUI from the website USB PenDrive Linux but as this is my first time, i don't know how am i screwing up or am doing it right.. Anyone got a rough idea on a step by step guide? Thanks!

 

C windows installer folder - Delete?

He can do symbolic link redirection and move the files in it to a different location. *Wink
Better try it out in a virtual of first. Just a suggestion.

Like:
First move everything in c:\windows\installer to d:\installercache
Then delete c:\windows\installer folder
Then type this in command mode as admin
mklink /d c:\windows\installer d:\installercache

Removing those installer files is a bad idea. it might prevent you from updating or uninstalling apps.

 

Installing Windows 10 on New PC?

I'm going to be building a new PC on Christmas and want to install Windows 10 on it. I have Windows 10 on my current PC, which I installed upgrading from 8.1 with the files on a USB. How do I go about installing a clean copy of Windows 10 on this new PC? I think I recall something about installing it once makes Microsoft recognize your hardware, but since this will be a PC I'm not sure what steps I need to take. Do I need to go 8.1 -> 10 or is there a method of going directly to 10?