creating bootable USB for win 10 64bit clean install

danlightbulb · 8 Jun 2016 at 23:36

Hi all,

I will be installing 64bit win10 on my new pc (building myself - don't have it yet).

I have access to a win7 pc at work which I was going to use to create the bootable USB. This system will just be used to create the bootable usb with win10 on it, and other than that is nothing to do with my new pc or new version of win10.

However I have come across a lot of information online that seems to suggest it is not possible to create a 64bit bootable usb from a 32bit system, using the microsoft media creation tool. My win7 pc at work is 32bit.

Can someone clarify this for me please - the information online is so sketchy and its totally unclear whether or not this can be done.

Thanks

spleenharvester · 9 Jun 2016 at 03:42

danlightbulb said:
Hi all,

I will be installing 64bit win10 on my new pc (building myself - don't have it yet).

I have access to a win7 pc at work which I was going to use to create the bootable USB. This system will just be used to create the bootable usb with win10 on it, and other than that is nothing to do with my new pc or new version of win10.

However I have come across a lot of information online that seems to suggest it is not possible to create a 64bit bootable usb from a 32bit system, using the microsoft media creation tool. My win7 pc at work is 32bit.

Can someone clarify this for me please - the information online is so sketchy and its totally unclear whether or not this can be done.

Thanks

Try downloading the ISO from TechBench (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench) and then creating a stick (using the Win7 USB/DVD Tool or WinSetupFromUSB).

CaptainCrash · 9 Jun 2016 at 09:25

danlightbulb said:
However I have come across a lot of information online that seems to suggest it is not possible to create a 64bit bootable usb from a 32bit system, using the microsoft media creation tool. My win7 pc at work is 32bit.

Can someone clarify this for me please - the information online is so sketchy and its totally unclear whether or not this can be done.

Thanks

The MS media creation tool will allow you create a 32-bit setup USB drive, 64-bit or both combined (you'll need an 8GB flash drive for the latter) - just run the tool, select "Create installation media for another PC" at the appropriate point, and uncheck "Use the recommended options for this PC" when it asks you to "Select language, architecture and edition."

Quartz · 9 Jun 2016 at 10:19

Another useful tool is Rufus. It seems to work better for me than the MS utility.

Orcvader · 9 Jun 2016 at 10:58

Quartz said:
Another useful tool is Rufus. It seems to work better for me than the MS utility.

While I did try the Micrsoft Toolkit, I sometimes found it doesn't always work for some systems, but Rufus did, so +1 to that. You can use the toolkit to download the Win 10 ISO, with a choice of 32, 64-bit, or both.

darael · 9 Jun 2016 at 11:41

Run CMD as Administrator

Run DISKPART from the command prompt

To list available current disks, type LIST DISK

Identify your disk number (in this example I will use Disk 2)

Type in the following:
SELECT DISK 2

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=FAT32 QUICK

EXIT

EXIT

Now, using a tool like 7-Zip, extract your ISO to the USB disk and it should work.

danlightbulb · 9 Jun 2016 at 12:05

I think its worked.

I used windows media creator to download the 64bit windows 10 iso. This failed first time but worked the second.

Then i used rufus to burn that iso to my usb stick as a bootable drive. Although i selected fat32 i noticed rufus overwrote this setting to ntfs when it started the burn from the iso.

However the usb stick will open fine on my pc, so all that is left is to test whether it boots.

I didnt expect to be able to read the usb stick on my 32bit system. Is therea way to varify that i do have the 64bit version?

El_Watcher · 9 Jun 2016 at 12:16

Don't worry about whether the files are readable or not, as files saved on a 32-bit or 64-bit system are no different.

The difference comes in the actual files included in some of the folders which control the resulting operating system when installed.

Follow this if you want to be sure.

danlightbulb · 9 Jun 2016 at 12:59

Thanks. Didnt work at first but i think that link gives the wrong file, as it worked on the boot.wim file instead of the install.esd file which came back with an error. The boot.wim file is tagged as x64.

marc2003 · 9 Jun 2016 at 13:19

danlightbulb said:
Then i used rufus to burn that iso to my usb stick as a bootable drive. Although i selected fat32 i noticed rufus overwrote this setting to ntfs when it started the burn from the iso.

Looks like you used MBR mode but really, you want GPT for UEFI on a new system.

danlightbulb · 9 Jun 2016 at 13:52

I could do it again with those settings? I just left everything as the default.

danlightbulb · 9 Jun 2016 at 14:16

Right so just gonna do this again. When i select the iso file ive noticed it puts the settings back to default. So i need to select the iso file first and then change the settings.

I choose?

Gpt partition scheme for uefi
Fat32 (default)
8192 bytes (default)

Should i choose 4096 bytes cluster size even though 8192 is the default?

Orcvader · 9 Jun 2016 at 15:01

Leave it on default. All I just did change the scheme to GPT and left the other options to default.

danlightbulb · 9 Jun 2016 at 15:13

Great. That seemed to work fine. Can still open the usb from my pc and it looks no different to the first one lol.

Ben Cole · 10 Sep 2016 at 22:17

Useful thread. Thanks everyone.