topic Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems in Tech Help - Software/Hardware etc

Windows 11 bootable usb problems

shutter — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 15:50:47 GMT

For the past couple of days, I have been trying with no success, to make a bootable windows 11 usb ( Also tried to make a bootable DVD - but Win 11 is too big for the DVD ! ) ( shame cos Win 10 worked fine on that)

so... I have used the following

Linux Mint 21.3 virginia o.s.

USB Stick formatter - followed by USB Image Writer

VENTOY

WoeUSB-ng

And other USB writing software

RUFUS, UNetbootin Universal USB installer & Balena Etcher.

some of the last one`s reported that WIndows .iso needs special softwares and suggested Rufus and Ventoy and WoeUSB

WoeUSB-ng did (eventually after a couple of hours waiting time ) make a usb install, but when I plugged it in to my 2nd laptop, to install it, it reported that there was no bootable media !. ( VENTOY did the same thing ) .

Looking on line for other methods, I also tried ddrescue. via the Terminal command lines.

from this linky ....... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-create-bootable-ms-windows-usb-under-linux

Don`t understand the "Can`t open input file : No such file or directory"... cos it is a copy and paste from this

Where am I going wrong?

I have got Windows10 operational but not "Activated" as I do not need it "activated"... for my use... but assuming that I would have to have it "activated" for it to be "updated to WIN11 , I do not have a activation key for WIN10. hence the need for the above USB version.

( I am only using it to gain some experience, and maybe support, for my great grand daughter who is going to college to be a vet, and I am giving her a laptop to do her study work on ) .

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

archerry — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 16:23:19 GMT

Does ddrescue need the full / relative path to the source file?

You appeared to be in your home directory to issue the command, but the source appears to be in "~/Downloads/".

Regards,

Alistair

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

shutter — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 18:18:20 GMT

@archerry Erm ......

Possibly,.... but It is not clear from the "instructable" page on that bit.... so if you could give me the correct(?) "relative path" to get the "source file".. then that might be the way forward.

Thanks

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

archerry — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 18:33:03 GMT

@shutter

I usually use the full path within such commands, to remove potential errors about which directory I am currently in.

Looks like the full path should be "/home/gerry/Downloads/Win11_23H2_EnglishInternational_x64v2.iso"

Regards,

Alistair

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

Dan_the_Van — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 18:50:19 GMT

Hi @shutter a windy night ahead! ?

Have you looked at https://etcher-docs.balena.io/ https://www.linuxstart.com/etcher-ubuntu/

It has a GUI which make life easier

Dan.

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

shutter — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 18:56:21 GMT

@archerry OK... thanks for that.... will give it a go later on, as busy doing other stuff now. Will report back !

@Dan_the_Van Yes, I have used Balena Etcher before for this kind of stuff...but for some reason it didn`t work for me this time.( can`t remember why,.... cos I used so many different one`s ! ) . Thanks

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

TheRoadCrew — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 22:24:20 GMT

Personally, I always use WoeUSB if I need to create bootable Windows USB sticks.

Insert USB stick and check its mount point; then unmount it.

susie:/home/waldo/Downloads/ISO # lsblk | grep sd sda 8:0 1 28.9G 0 disk /run/media/waldo/600BC17012909F3B susie:/home/waldo/Downloads/ISO # umount /dev/sda*

Let WoeUSB loose on the Windows .iso and put the kettle on (it'll take a while).

# woeusb --device Win11_23H2_EnglishInternational_x64v2.iso /dev/sda WoeUSB v5.2.4 ============================== Info: Mounting source filesystem... Info: Wiping all existing partition table and filesystem signatures in /dev/sda... /dev/sda: 8 bytes were erased at offset 0x00000003 (ntfs): 4e 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 /dev/sda: 2 bytes were erased at offset 0x000001fe (dos): 55 aa /dev/sda: calling ioctl to re-read partition table: Success Info: Ensure that /dev/sda is really wiped... Info: Creating new partition table on /dev/sda... Info: Creating target partition... Info: Making system realize that partition table has changed... blockdev: ioctl error on BLKRRPART: Device or resource busy Info: Wait 3 seconds for block device nodes to populate... mkfs.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31) mkfs.fat: Warning: lowercase labels might not work properly on some systems Info: Mounting target filesystem... Info: Copying files from source media... Splitting WIM: 5676 MiB of 5676 MiB (100%) written, part 2 of 26% Finished splitting "./sources/install.wim" Info: Installing GRUB bootloader for legacy PC booting support... Installing for i386-pc platform. Installation finished. No error reported. Info: Installing custom GRUB config for legacy PC booting... Info: Done :) Info: The target device should be bootable now Info: Unmounting and removing "/tmp/woeusb-source-20240121-214301-Sunday.TNbhcq"... Info: Unmounting and removing "/tmp/woeusb-target-20240121-214301-Sunday.NBox2C"... Info: You may now safely detach the target device

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

shutter — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 23:24:36 GMT

@archerry & @TheRoadCrew & @Dan_the_Van

update... no success !. with ddrescue. I did cd Downloads, and then continued, it took 2.5 hrs to finish.. !.. when I put the usb on Windows 10 laptop. to check ... it showed the files and folders, as expected. ( originally) but on a subsequent occasion it said "unrecognisable file format " !

As for using WoeUSB... again 2.5 hours of time wasted... ! it did not complete properly , the final part of installing the GRUB files just kept on running, eventually, freezing the laptop, so I had to do a "hard reboot". which. presumably messed up the USB finalizing...

so I have now given up on this episode, and confining my self to Windows 10 for experience..( can`t be that different from Win 11) .

What I find really annoying is how long it takes to download the windows .iso file, and then the length of time it takes to burn it to a DVD ( win 10 version ) , then again, another hour and half ( at least ) to install it on the machine, then all the pratting about going through the set up process, ( half a day wasted in total ) , before you can get to your Browser, and email setups !.

SOooooooooo Glad, I changed over to LINUX MINt when Win 7 stopped being supported.

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

Batfrog — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 09:30:51 GMT

Hi@shutter. For installing Windows 11 you might find the following useful?

I’ve used it to install Windows 11 on several laptops with complete success, even an ancient Dell Vostro 3500 series. Of course the purists will say you should get a modern machine with TPM but - hey it works without any problems so.............

’s a year or so since I last used it but should still work OK. Good luck

How to Create Windows 11 bootable USB with requirement bypass (or not)

Once you complete the steps, Rufus will create a bootable USB media that will bypass the requirements to upgrade or install a fresh copy of Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. It will also upgrade an existing Windows 10 installation if required.

To create a Windows 11 bootable USB to bypass system requirements, use these steps:

Open Rufus (3.18) (Rufus Website - https://rufus.ie/downloads/
Double-click the 3.18.exefile to launch the tool.
Under the “Device” section, use the drop-down menu and select the flash drive to create the Windows 11 bootable USB media.
Under the “Boot selection” section, use the drop-down menu and select the Disk or ISO image
Click the Select
Select the Windows 11 ISO (Download if you don’t have the ISO file)
Click the Download/selection
Select various options clicking continue on each. Click Download.
Click Save and wait for the download to complete.

Under the “Image option” section, select the Extended Windows 11 Installation (no TPM/no Secure Boot/8GB – RAM)
Under the “Partition scheme” section, select the GPT orMBR option. (Depending on the target machine)
Under the “Target system” section, select the UEFI (non CSM)or BIOS option. (Depending on the target machine)
Under the “Volume label” section, specify a descriptive name for the Windows 11 bootable USB flash drive – For example, Win11USB_Bypass.
Use the default settings for the File systemand Cluster size
Check the Quick format
Check the Create extended label and icon files
Click the Start
Click the OK
Various messages appear but will default / disappear.
Wait for the creation of USB to complete.
Click Close.

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

shutter — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 13:35:02 GMT

@Batfrog Thank you very much for your input.... seems like a very long winded procedure, for something that should be "reasonably easy" !.. Will give that a go at the weekend probably...when there is nowt on the telly....

although

have been advised by someone else... that it is not really worth updating or installing Win 11 if Win 10 works ok.. as Win 11 can be a bit twitchy, and also sometimes very laggy in its workings.

As it is only for my "re-education" to be a support for my GGD, if she needs it.... it is not a priority action right now..

Yesterday, my own specially installed W10, laptop took on an update automatically, and after the install, it shut down, fo "configure" it... before restarting automaticlly, and then did some more "configuring" for another HOUR... effectively blocking my from using the machine....

So, although Linux was a bit tricky to get used to, "back in the day" of end of Windows 7 support... it was well worth persevering with it, and now updates take from a few seconds to, at most, a couple of minutes.. no reboot needed most times... and if a reboot is needed, it can be at the end of your user session, and on restarting, you are "good to go" as soon as the "Desktop" screen appears.. no more hanging about for it to be "configured".... Go Figure ! ! ! ! ..

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

TheRoadCrew — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 23:48:36 GMT

@shutter wrote:

[...]

As for using WoeUSB... again 2.5 hours of time wasted... ! it did not complete properly , the final part of installing the GRUB files just kept on running, eventually, freezing the laptop, so I had to do a "hard reboot". which. presumably messed up the USB finalizing...

Are all those failed attempts using the same USB stick and / or USB port on the same laptop (wondering if there is some hardware problem at play)?

I've tried WoeUSB-ng (no WoeUSB package in Debian had to install -ng through the Python package manager) on an old netbook which originally shipped with Windows XP; it chugged away for over two hours, often with the CPU at 100%, but still succeeded in a bootable Win11 stick.

SOooooooooo Glad, I changed over to LINUX MINt when Win 7 stopped being supported.

I'm sure we can all learn from Microsoft 😎

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

shutter — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:15:25 GMT

Yes, it was the same usb and the same usb slot...but... I found a bit of info, that all the USB stick burners fail to point out.... when using the FORMAT part... it offers NTFS FAT or ex-FAT... generally suggesting that FAT is the best one as it can be used by all (most) systems... Unfortunately, it fails to mention that FAT has a max of 4GiB.... and the Windows 11 download is 6.3 GiB... so when the FAT is full !.. it stops and hangs with no message to say why !.

So... I reformatted same usb to NTFS and put it in the same usb slot, at about 5PM... and started the Woe USB-ng.... after 3 hours it was showing 4.1GiB. aand the usb stick was still flashing away, indicating that something was happening... after another hour and half, it started to progress, and eventually, about 10PM,, it showed a message saying it was installing a GRUB files or something ... which continued forever until it finally finished the Burn ( should be "smoulder") at just before midnight.

Going to take a holiday in the Maldives or Skegness now... to give me a break, and then MAY accept the challenge of actually installing Windows 11, on a spare HDD, to see what all the fuss is about ! .

Thanks to all for your interest.

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

TheRoadCrew — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 08:03:04 GMT

@shutter wrote:

[...]

Yes, it was the same usb and the same usb slot...but... I found a bit of info, that all the USB stick burners fail to point out.... when using the FORMAT part... it offers NTFS FAT or ex-FAT... generally suggesting that FAT is the best one as it can be used by all (most) systems... Unfortunately, it fails to mention that FAT has a max of 4GiB.... and the Windows 11 download is 6.3 GiB... so when the FAT is full !.. it stops and hangs with no message to say why !.

Not necessarily true.

If you look at the output of WoeUSB from post no. 7 you'll see it creates a new partition on the USB device and runs mkfs.fat to create a FAT filesystem.

Re: Windows 11 bootable usb problems

shutter — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 09:13:57 GMT

Last evening, I decided on installing Linux Mint 21.2 on a spare HDD for comparison to windows. Mint 21.2 was recently upgraded to 21.3. so I wanted to see what the difference was between Windows and Linux, as regards upgrading times .. Also wanted a standby hdd for a spare laptop !.

So. I already had Mint 21.2 downloaded..(3.1GiB compared to Win 11 at 6.8 ! ) .. found the Linux Mint USB stick formatter, and formatted a USB stick... then used the Linux Mint USB Image Writer, to write the downloaded .iso. It took about 40 minutes... then inserted the USB in the spare laptop, and within an hour and half, I had a working Operating system, connected to the internet and ready to inter-act with the rest of the world !.

And that included it being Upgraded to version 21.3.

Again.... Thanks to all for your interest.