Setup Installation :: 8GB USB Flash Drive Not Eligible As Installer Boot Media?
Feb 28, 2014
For some reason, Windows 8.1. downloader package refuses to see my 8GB SanDisk flash drive as a target for creating bootable Windows 8.1 installer USB media. A 16GB Patriot drive is detected and processed properly, but 8GB SanDisk is ignored. The same is true for the Windows 7 USB/DVD tool.
What could be causing this?
When I create the media on the 16GB drive, only 3+GB is used, which means that 8GB drive should be sufficiently large.
UPDATE: It appears that the SanDisk drive is not detected as "removable", so neither Windows 8 downloader nor Windows 7 USB/DVD tool see it as a valid target. There are quite a few reports of that issue on the Net. So, how do I create a bootable Windows 8.1 install media from that SanDisk drive?
I am trying to upgrade from windows 8 pro to windows 8.1 on a samsung laptop. The download completes and installation starts.
After a while the following message appears "you cant install windows on a usb flash drive with setup"
I am not actually trying to install to a flash drive. I contacted Microsoft and after 5 hours they said that I should connect to the internet with a cable and not by wireless in order to solve the problem (this didn't work of course and I had told them that it was an install problem and not a download problem).
After entering a valid retail key into the installer located here I get the following error:
I have tried running the installer on another computer with the same results. I have also tried the netsh command and deleting the Panther folder. The problem arised after doing the trick to download 8.1 with a 8 product key and cancelling the 8.1 installer. It was working yesterday and this morning.
When I get to the part in the Windows 8 installer that it tells me what needs to come to my attention, instead of opening a little browser inside of the program as I guess it's trying to do, it opens up 2 tabs in whatever browser is my default. This would be fine if the buttons in the web pages still modified the actual installer, but they don't and therefore the installer is effectively stopped.
I'm trying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8. Key word: Upgrade. I would like to avoid re-installing the OS altogether, but I can do that by myself if it comes to that.
Here's what it looks like:
I read on another thread that making IE the default would fix it, but I tried that and it did not work.
I got this new Asus Transformer which is a Windows 8.1 system.
I made a few images with Macrium Reflect and created an UEFI recovery Flash Drive (with Macrium) for the Macrium recovery program. I can set the BIOS to boot from the stick (in the temporary or permanent BIOS settings). Problem is, when I hit Enter, it ignores the stick and boots directly into 8.1.
Is there another setting in the BIOS that I have to make in order to have it boot from the stick.
I installed Windows 8/8.1 on a system with a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H MB. When I look at the SSD where Windows is installed I have one partition. I also installed Windows 8/8.1 on an ASRock Z77 OC Formula MB. When I look at the SSD where Windows is installed I have three partitions - 300MB (Recovery Partition), 100MB (EFI System Partition) and 111.27GB (Boot,....Partition). Why did the Windows 8 installer create three partitions on the ASRock system? I think I understand the EFI partition since the ASRock BIOS has a "Load UEFI Defaults" option. The Gigabyte MB does not have this option in the BIOS? Is that because the ASRock MB has truly implemented EFI and uses the EFI System Partition to store boot information?
Why was the Recovery Partition created? I built this system from scratch so there is not any third party involvement. If I reinstall Windows 8 using a new - never used SSD will I get the three partitions? If I format the SSD with one partition prior to Installing Windows 8 what will I get?
I not concerned about the loss of 300MB,why I got different partition configurations on fresh installs of Windows 8 on two different MB's/Systems?
I am planning on building a new computer, and I want to put a 250GB SSD (Samsung 840 EVO) in it to use with 8.1 Pro. However, most of the programs and data I need are still on the old computer's boot drive, specifically all of my STEAM games (none of which I have the DVDs for.)
My question is if I can create symlinks to the old boot drive without losing data on it. This will most likely be a temporary measure, as the drive's a fairly slow 5900RPM Barracuda, and I want something faster, but I can't afford a better one just yet...
Ok, I'm up the wall on this, I'm trying to get a copy of Windows to install on a flash drive and boot from BIOS, but there's almost now way of doing so.
I remembered that Windows 8 7850 build had or has a feature called Portable Workspace where Windows will install onto a flash drive so you can take it to any puter you please. That's great and all, but where in the blue hell is it?! :stomp: It's like it's not there. Do I need something special to do something to it or what?
I built a large desktop system a few years back and it's been upgraded with various bits and pieces including an SSD boot drive. I'm looking at putting together a much smaller system in a Shuttle XH61V and I want to use my existing 2.5" SSD. Can I just put the SSD in and clean install Win 8 from the original system builder disk I bought or will something go wrong because there's already an installation on the drive?
Used to run Win 7 on our main drive, and used a second one for storage (mainly games), however something happened, making us unable to boot. So we decided to upgrade to Windows 8, which we put on our secondary drive, and that's now the main one (boots from here, is Disk 0). When I turn on the PC, it asks me whether to run on Windows 7 or 8 (8 is the default). C: contains Windows 8, D: Contains Win 7.
MAIN PROBLEM: Since we're going to use the old main drive as storage (the one with Windows 7), I wanted to format it, but it won't let me because, I suppose, of the System files still on it (System, Active). Picture of Disk Management below. How do I format it?
If I remove the boot drive from my old Windows 7 computer and put it into my new Windows 8 computer, how can I set up the new computer to allow dual boot at start-up?
I ended up managed to be able to boot into windows after i swapped out my motherboard and CPU to the new ones and everything seems to be working as it should, windows automatically installed the intel drivers and all my old programs and settings are there perfectly.
I can only boot into windows if i select my backup drive as #1 boot device in the BIOS, the SSD isnt even on the list.
The thing I don't understand lies in that, if i select my SSD as priority, where the directory of windows is installed, i get a bootmgr missing error - I've tried the various methods of recovering this using the cmd and a windows installation disc.
This isn't a huge issue but it's really tripping me out as to why this is occurring? I initially had some issues getting windows to boot so i installed a clean windows8 on this backup drive, i didnt change any settings at all. was only making sure that the SSD was being recognized and i hadn't corrupted it somehow. is it possible that the backup drive boot manager is directing it to the SSD.
I have a Dell Inspiron 7720 Win 8 x64 PC which includes UEFI (described in Microsoft link below). However, UEFI is accessed on Win 8 from Settings Charm > "Change PC Settings". This requires that you have booted the system already. In case of a main disk crash, you need to boot from another drive, like a thumb drive.
During restart my Dell PC displays "F12 Boot Options" in lower right of screen during restart, but multiple presses of F12 during startup are ignored. Likewise when I try F1 or F2 during startup. So I have no way to specify an alternate boot drive.
I am thinking maybe my PC is defective, but also maybe I'm missing something. What is UEFI? - Microsoft Windows Support
I'm trying to install windows 8.1 on a sony vaio E series laptop which had windows 8 preloaded on it. I made a bootable usb thumb drive with Windows USB CD/DVD Download tool. When i try to boot through the pdrive it doesn't boot. I selected the option to boot from external device and selected the boot mode as UEFI. But it doesnot go into the windows 8.1 setup.
Then i selected the legacy mode and started the setup but it booted into the 8.1 setup. I formatted the C: Drive and selected that partition to install windows 8.1 on it but it showed mean an error showing that the partition is of GPT style and windows cannot install. I was doomed...
it happens because it is not booted in the UEFI mode and then i tried again but it doesnot go into the windows setup and shows a black screen with the notification that no operating system was found.
I upgraded Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 via the Windows store and so. Do not have a DVD or any media to do a refresh or recovery ... I need to refresh Windows 8.1 as many of my apps do not open.
I tried this from this site here. All went fine but when i went to refresh windows cannot find any media again.
How to: REFRESH your Windows 8.1 installation without installation media.
I have in my possession an HP Pavilion a1230n desktop compulator. I was told that it crashed some time ago and was only used for simple things as it was deemed not trust worthy and stable. It was running Windows xp until about two weeks ago when the power at the person's house went out suddenly and the ntldr was corrupted and wouldn't boot, obviously the solution to that was to do a clean install but as xp is to be dead soon, the decision was made to go to the Windows 8.1.
It seems as if this is genuinely possessed by an evil spirit, as I was told by the owner, because LITERALLY NOTHING I've done is allowing me to install Windows 8.1, not even booting into the USB installer of 8.1, or even trying to run Windows 8.1. Normally I deploy Windows through DISM and my custom .wim file onto the hard drive and I boot into WinPE or a neutered Windows installer USB and apply boot files to the drive and it works just fine. That hasn't worked. I had 8.1 on the target drive, was actually able to get the DVD installer to run, although this was the second time since the first run of it didn't even find a hard drive when I plugged it back in, and apply boot files successfully. I restarted, but it ran for about a few seconds and ran into continuous reboots before it said that the install needs to be repaired.
Then I tried to actually run the DVD installer of straight up vanilla Windows 8 to see if maybe there was a CPU requirement not being met, but the installation failed about 47% through. I THINK the error code was 0xc0000221, not sure though. Next I tried remaking a THIRD USB installation of 8.1, but EVERY single time when I boot off into the USB drive, it takes at least five minutes (normally it shouldn't take so long) before any activity on screen shows. But EVERY time, it hangs up and restarts. The error code I got for sure with that was elxstor.sys 0xc0000221. In one of the failed attempts of installing, it was the same thing but with a different .sys file.
The thing is I KNOW for sure my .iso images of Windows are perfectly fine I was just recently used the previous USB installer to deploy 8.1 onto a laptop just yesterday but doesn't work on this PC. The compulator in question is 64 bit capable and as far as I know meets the Windows 8 CPU requirements. I've disconnected EVERY peripheral even the keyboard, and obviously reconnected the keyboard and ran it again. I've cleared the CMOS. I have the USB and keyboard connected to the motherboard's USB ports and not the headers. I've also gone to the extent of using a third party, non-partisan hard drive with Windows 8.1 deployed on it to try and install boot files on that to see if hard drive issues may be present from the PC's drive. That also didn't work nor did installing Windows onto that separate drive from the DVD work either. I've checked the PC's hard drive for errors, everything is ok.
I've installed Windows at least over 100 different times from VMs to many different PCs, but this is literally the first one to cause such an issue I can't even think of why. Although, thinking about it, I do remember once with a slightly older HP desktop when I was trying to run a Windows 7 To Go drive off of it, it just wouldn't run whatsoever and I had to fix the bcdboot files for it run again.
I've had Win 7 Pro on my laptop for over a year. I installed a 2nd hard drive to it recently and today I installed Windows 8 Pro on the 2nd hard drive. It's been a roller coaster of good & bad luck.
The first install went fine, until I tried to install the Windows 8.1 upgrade from the Windows store, then things went bad and I had to go into Windows 7 and eventually delete the Windows 8 volume and change it from MBR to GPT because of UEFI (no secure boot enabled). What a stretch of error messages telling me I can't install Windows 8 on the blank hard drive because it was or wasn't MBR or GPT, or the automagically made partitions weren't in the right order.
After spending over 7 hours twice in a row installing Windows 8, I finally find out that there's no boot option for Windows 7 anymore.
The only clue I have is to use a Windows 7 repair disk and use diskpart.exe and make the Win 7 drive "active" but that's a little foreign to me at this point.
I'm looking in Computer Management / Disk Management from within Windows 8.
Disk 0: SYSTEM D: 438 MB NTFS (lengthened from 199 MB with EaseUS because Acronis 2014 thought it too small while crashing), Healthy (Active, Primary Partition); Win 7 E: 930.98 GB NTFS Healthy (Primary Partition); HP_TOOLS F: 102 MB FAT 32 Healthy (Primary Partition)
All of a sudden I can't reliably play any video media on my Win 8 64bit computer -- was working fine yesterday and AFAIK nothing (other than perhaps Windows automatic updates) changed. My first thought was to try and restore but even though I'm sure I created a restore point it tells me there isn't one. Sigh.
Okay, so then I try to perform a reset (but keeping all my files) and it tells me some files are missing and to insert my recovery media. All well and good, I actually have that (and know where it is) but when I insert the disk it tells me it is NOT a recovery disk.
It is, of course, precisely that -- a Windows 8 Recovery Media for Windows 8 Products 64 bit. I am running an official copy of Win 8 (well, 8.1, but I have no media for that since it was a free update). Yes, it's OEM (Dell) but that shouldn't make a difference. And, more importantly, what I am to do now?
I have upgraded my system from windows 7 to windows 8 through digital delivery (no dvd). later it was upgraded to 8.1 pro now its in 8.1 pro with media center. Now i want to do a clean install of windows 8.1 pro with media center but i have no media, i have only windows 8 purchase product key and current product id.
Not sure if it's Lenovos only, but trying to migrate Windows 8 OEM to an SSD has been a huge pain in the ass. This process should not be as difficult as Lenovo/Microsoft has made it.
I purchased a Y400 along with a 256G SSD. I'd like to clean install Windows onto the SSD, I did not want to copy image. I went through forums for hours trying to put a recovery system on a usb with no luck (even with the instructions given by a Lenovo moderator on their website), I kept getting "missing partition drive". I broke down and paid Lenovo the ridiculous "shipping charge" of $59 for the recovery disks.
These are my steps so far:
-My SSD is installed and I removed the HDD (until Windows 8 was installed, I'd then format it) -Put Disk 1 into the optical drive (Disk 1 states it's the format sequence and starting point for restore, Windows 8 actually on disk 2, I believe) -Pressed the "Novo" button on the left side of the machine (gives options of Normal Startup, BIOS Setup, Boot Manager and System Recovery)
*FYI - Boot Manager lists: Windows Boot Manager and 2 EFI volumes (when HDD is plugged in, just the EFI's when uninstalled) System Recovery only works with the HDD installed and it's Lenovo's One Key Recovery which just restores to a restoration point.*
Went into BIOS setup Tabbed over to "Security" Disabled the "Secure Boot" Tabbed over to "Boot" Changed the Boot Mode to "Legacy Support" Changed Boot Priority to "Legacy First" Saved then exited.
Pressed the "Novo" button once more, went into BIOS setup Tabbed back to "Boot" Boot device priority was now displayed with SATA ODD, SSD and Network Boot. I reordered to boot from SATA ODD Saved and exited
Upon restart, I pressed F12 (select boot device), and chose the SATA ODD It went into a DOS looking screen and gives "No Bootable Device - Insert boot disk and press a key" I've also tried variations of the above procedures for a few hours with no luck.
I have not tried to boot from "Lenovo Recovery System" (which is only available with the HDD installed), I figured it would default to the HDD and not let me chose to install onto SSD.
I am trying to install a oem copy of windows 8 64 bit onto my desktop, using a microsoft install dvd. I've installed xp, vista, and windows 7 onto it without any issues whatsoever, however when trying to install windows 8, I keep getting an error in windows setup that states the following:
Load Driver : A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USP or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now.
Since I'm using an actual microsoft disc, and the hash checks out okay, I'm not really sure how to proceed, as it doesn't seem to be the disc image.
The solutions I've come across are vague, and usually relate to USB/VMware installs instead of using a retail DVD. How I can get past this error?
My system: EVGA Z77 FTW Mobo, updated firmware/bios Intel 3770k CPU Antec Quattro 1000 PSU Kingston HyperX 3K SSD EVGA GTX 580 3GB GPU LG M-Disc Super Multi DVD/CD Reader/Burner
I did a factory reset on my windows 8, and it messed up, not completing. so it is now stuck on a cycle of 'preparing automatic repair' and 'diagnosing your pc'.
And I today recieved the windows 8 cd to reinstall the os.
But after I've chosen language, I get error message saying I'm missing 1 of the media drivers.
