install windows 10 onto a drive

[emosun]

is there a way to install windows 10 onto a bare drive I have?

I have a bare drive in a usb dock and the pc its going in doesn't have usb booting and i don't feel like burning a dvd. is there a way to load the windows 10 installation files on it then then pop it into it's original machine and take it from there?

[NinJake]

You should be able to use the media creation tool and specify the drive you'd like to install W10 on.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Rufus should let you make a external hdd into a bootable windows isntaller. Also usb sticks are super cheap.

[emosun]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Also usb sticks are super cheap.

so is ramen but luckly it also doesn't have anything to do with what I asked as well

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, emosun said:

so is ramen but luckly it also doesn't have anything to do with what I asked as well

 

so why not use a usb stick for an insaller? It would work the best here.

 

Or just put the installer on the external hdd. Or boot from the network

[emosun]

3 minutes ago, NinJake said:

You should be able to use the media creation tool and specify the drive you'd like to install W10 on.

does that work within windows

[emosun]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

so why not use a usb stick for an insaller? It would work the best here.

 

Or just put the installer on the external hdd. Or boot from the network

 

5 minutes ago, emosun said:

and the pc its going in doesn't have usb booting

 

[NinJake]

Yup! Just make sure you select the correct drive.

[emosun]

Just now, NinJake said:

Yup! Just make sure you select the correct drive.

alright i'll give it a shot

 

will it load the instalation files then allow me to use the original pc for it to install itself?

[NinJake]

Well I haven't tried this myself so I can't give you any certain facts but it's definitely worth a try.

[Electronics Wizardy]

 

3 minutes ago, emosun said:

alright i'll give it a shot

 

will it load the instalation files then allow me to use the original pc for it to install itself?

Did you try using a usb install on anouther pc, the moving the drive with windows installed onto the pc that you want windows on?

 

Also network install works on almost all semi recent systems.

[emosun]

Just now, NinJake said:

Well I haven't tried this myself so I can't give you any certain facts but it's definitely worth a try.

I'm just thinking back to the xp days where it loads the instalation files first using a quick and dirty dos/windows9x os loaded into ram. then it reboots , and in that time you can pull the drive out and move it to any pc with the installation ready to go

[emosun]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Did you try using a usb install on anouther pc, the moving the drive with windows installed onto the pc that you want windows on?

so either make a usb boot disk and restart the computer and boot from that then load the files

or just install the files within windows

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, emosun said:

so either make a usb boot disk and restart the computer and boot from that then load the files

or just install the files within windows

You can just do the full install on the separate system, then move the drive over. It will detect the hardware change and change drivers as needed.

 

[NinJake]

Do you have a USB you can spare?

[emosun]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can just do the full install on the separate system, then move the drive over. It will detect the hardware change and change drivers as needed.

i think burning a dvd would quite literally be faster than watching windows 10 change every driver lol

[emosun]

1 minute ago, NinJake said:

Do you have a USB you can spare?

yeah but now i'm thinking i'd be easier to just put two hdds in the other pc and use one as the windows 10 disk

[NinJake]

I'll be off here shortly. So I won't have time to come back to this today. (Or at least for a few hours)

 

Since you have a USB. And it seems you are just trying to get this done fast.

 

Plug in your USB to your system. Go here --> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

Download the tool, install it do your USB flash drive. Once complete, make sure in your PC you don't have any currently IN USE DRIVES PLUGGED IN.(just make sure the one you want windows installed on is plugged in)

 

Power on machine, install windows 10. Done. This is likely the fastest way you can accomplish a W10 install. (Most of the time is taken doing updates)

[Windows7ge]

Using Rufus is fairly quick. Just have to download the Windows.iso. Usually the default settings within Rufus will suffice then it'll boot it just like a windows dvd.

[emosun]

1 minute ago, NinJake said:

I'll be off here shortly. So I won't have time to come back to this today. (Or at least for a few hours)

 

Since you have a USB. And it seems you are just trying to get this done fast.

 

Plug in your USB to your system. Go here --> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

Download the tool, install it do your USB flash drive. Once complete, make sure in your PC you don't have any currently IN USE DRIVES PLUGGED IN.(just make sure the one you want windows installed on is plugged in)

 

Power on machine, install windows 10. Done. This is likely the fastest way you can accomplish a W10 install. (Most of the time is taken doing updates)

my pc is a multi socket supermicro server while the pc that's getting windows 10 is just some old dell. waiting for windows 10 to sort itself out between the two systems will take long enough that I think i'll just go with the dual hard drive route

[NinJake]

Just now, emosun said:

my pc is a multi socket supermicro server while the pc that's getting windows 10 is just some old dell. waiting for windows 10 to sort itself out between the two systems will take long enough that I think i'll just go with the dual hard drive route

There's nothing to sort out, when you use the Media Creation Tool you tell it the installer is for "another PC" not, "This PC". It will probably take you the amount of time this thread has been active to finish. But if you think that way is faster, go ahead.

 

Just let us know if it was faster

[emosun]

2 minutes ago, NinJake said:

the Media Creation Tool you tell it the installer is for "another PC" not, "This PC".

yeah well nobody told me that