Windows 10: WinRE Not offering option to boot from USB - Unable to clean install.

Hello,I recently purchased an MSI Laptop. The Katana 15 B12VEK. This product came with a preinstalled version of Windows 11 Home. This laptop came with various pieces of software which I wanted to remove, so I began the process of performing a clean install of Windows 11 Home from a USB drive and the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool. I installed the media creation tool, along with the Intel RST Driver from the Manufacturers website as this is required to locate the drives on the device to install Windows. Upon first attempt, the installation proceeded normally, however, I was unable to "Finish S

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Clean Install Workaround for Vista

You may remember this news story on techPowerUp! a couple of days ago relating to the lack of clean installs when using the Upgrade Editions of Vista, which required an old OS to be installed. However, Paul Thurrott has managed to find a workaround for this issue, which ironically lets users do a clean install Vista without any previous version of Windows, albeit a little tedious. Here are the steps:

• Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD as normal
• When prompted for a product code, leave this blank
• Select the version of Vista you have purchased and let Vista install
• When you boot to your desktop for the first time, run the Vista setup from Windows
• This time enter your product key
• When asked whether you want to do an Upgrade of Custom install, select custom and choose a clean install
• Windows will now install for a second time and you should be able to activate it

Remember, these steps are only advised for use in order to achieve a clean install of Vista, it is only legal to use the upgrade editions if you have previously purchased the appropriate version of Windows.

Source: DailyTech

 

Unable to boot the PC stuck in WinRE mode

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand how difficult it can be when the PC doesn’t work the way it is supposed to. I appreciate your effort in trying to resolve the issue by performing troubleshooting steps. For better understanding of the issue, please
respond to the questions below:

1. Are you aware of any changes being made to the PC?
   
2. Do you receive any error code when you try to boot the PC normally?
   
3. What are the troubleshooting steps you have tried?
   
4. What is the error you receive while performing reset?
   
5. What was the result of automatic repair?
   

Meanwhile, you can try removing any external devices connected to the PC and check if you are able to boot the PC.

However, I would suggest you to follow the steps mentioned below and check if that helps.

Method 1:

I would suggest you to try booting the PC to safe mode and check if that helps.
Refer the article
Start your PC in safe mode in Windows 10. If the PC is working fine in safe mode, perform a clean boot being in safe mode environment check.

Performing a clean boot will start the computer with minimal set of drivers and programs, to determine whether a background program is causing the issue. Some of the Startup programs will not load after performing a clean boot
on the computer. However, that functionality will return when you reset the computer to start normally after finishing the troubleshooting.

To perform a clean boot on the computer refer to the article

How to perform a clean boot in Windows.

Note:
Please refer the section Reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting
to boot the computer in to normal mode after troubleshooting.

Method 2:

Try troubleshooting startup issues. You can refer the article on

troubleshooting common startup issues and see if that helps.

Note: While performing chkdsk on the hard drive, if any bad sectors are found on the hard drive then chkdsk tries to repair that sector if any data available on that might be
lost.

If you have an external hard drive, you can take the backup of the data by following the steps mentioned below.

1. Open command prompt window by following the article
   
   troubleshooting common startup issues.
   
2. On the command prompt window type,
   notepad.exe and hit enter.
   
3. Now click on File
   and click Open…
   
4. On the Open file window, click on
   This PC
   
5. Now navigate to the location
   C:\Users\UserName\ select the folder that you want to backup to the external drive.
   
   Note:
   To see all the files on the Open dialog box, change the
   files of type to All files.
   
6. Right click on the file/folder
   and select Send to and select the external hard drive.
   

If the issue persist, please get back to us with the result of troubleshooting steps to assist you further with the issue.

Regards,

Prakhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Installing windows off of a USB stick

Step By Step from vista:
From admin cmd prompt

1. diskpart
1a. list disk
2. select disk 1 (replace 1 with your usb drive)
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1 (replace 1 with your usb drive)
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit

Copy Windows Vista's DVD ROM content to the Flash Drive

xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\ (d being your vista cd and e being your usb stick)

And that's it, boot off your usb disk