Question Can I Use SanDisk Ultra to Hold Windows 10?

[curiousnewcomer]

Hello,

Silly question that I need to make sure of because I am new.

I will be building a PC for the first time, and have learned that if you load Windows onto a flash drive, you need a blank USB and that anything on them will get deleted. I have a couple of SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drive 16GB flash drives. When I plug them in, they come loaded with 3 files, 2 text documents, and 1 application, all related to "private access" or "secure access".

Will these pre-loaded items somehow impede me from installing Windows onto the drive, or perhaps complicate things when I use the flash drive to install Windows onto my PC?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Here is what it looks like.

https://imgur.com/CqEeYr6

 

[Colif]

the installer should format the drive before it puts anything on it, so that should be fine.

 

[USAFRet]

Use them with the MediaCreation tool to install Windows on a drive in your system?
Yes you can.

Whatever is on there WILL be wiped out, so if you want those files, save them elsewhere first.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[curiousnewcomer]

the installer should format the drive before it puts anything on it, so that should be fine.

Thanks!

 

[curiousnewcomer]

Use them with the MediaCreation tool to install Windows on a drive in your system?
Yes you can.

Whatever is on there WILL be wiped out, so if you want those files, save them elsewhere first.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Thanks for the response and link! I don't care for the files, so they shall be wiped out.
I only know of installing things externally using a USB or DVD drive (don't have a port to put DVDs into, though). I will read that post and learn much, maybe even use a MediaCreation tool.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for the response and link! I don't care for the files, so they shall be wiped out.
I only know of installing things externally using a USB or DVD drive (don't have a port to put DVDs into, though). I will read that post and learn much, maybe even use a MediaCreation tool.

Yes, use the MediaCreation tool from MS.

 

[Inthrutheoutdoor]

Be advised though, that after using the media creation tool to install windows, you will STILL have to buy a license key to legally use your installation....

Just sayin

 

[Cj-tech]

Be advised though, that after using the media creation tool to install windows, you will STILL have to buy a license key to legally use your installation....

Just sayin

You can use it without a license for as long as you want. There is not a requirement to purchase a license, but Windows will have some restrictions in some of the settings you can change.

 

[Colif]

You can use it without a license for as long as you want. There is not a requirement to purchase a license, but Windows will have some restrictions in some of the settings you can change.

nothing you can't live with.

I wonder when they change BIOS so you can use exfat as one day anything smaller than 32gb USB sticks will be hard to find (outside of dodgy websites who advertise them as having way more capacity than humanly possible)

 

[hotaru.hino]

I wonder when they change BIOS so you can use exfat as one day anything smaller than 32gb USB sticks will be hard to find (outside of dodgy websites who advertise them as having way more capacity than humanly possible)

The 32GB limit is just something Microsoft imposed. FAT32 can service a 2TiB partition with 512 byte sectors.

Even then you could just make smaller partitions and leave the rest of the drive blank. No sense in making the entire thing a boot disk when you only need about 8GB.

 

[Colif]

I thought it was the bios that wouldn't boot off exfat. Not anything Microsoft did. Its the bios makers who set the limit. Some boards do actually let you boot off exfat but I couldn't tell you which ones. Its not standard yet.

i love statements that don't answer the question they ask

Unless you’re in the habit of formatting USB drives in NTFS, can you use exFAT to install Windows 10?
Luckily, yes. It’s as easy as following a few simple steps. First, right-click the device, select “format,” and select the FAT32 file system. Select “Quick Format,” tick “Use this format for Windows” and click “OK.” Then, the device will be formatted into FAT32.

Can I Use Exfat For Bootable Usb Windows 10? [Answered 2023]- Droidrant

When creating a bootable USB drive, it is necessary to format the disk with FAT32+. The file system is not the same as NTFS, but it is faster for small files than NTFS. You can format your USB drive with FAT32+ by selecting a “Quick Format” option. Once you have done this, you can boot …

droidrant.com

they didn't answer question, they just showed how to format it as Fat32... at every step they say you can use exfat by formatting as Fat32 ...

Fat32format lets you make the drives any size you like. Yes, but its not widely known so the chances are bios will have to just accept Exxfat at some stage going forward. probably when Windows lets you install off them, or includes tool as part of Media Creation tool process of creating the USB installer.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I thought it was the bios that wouldn't boot off exfat. Not anything Microsoft did. Its the bios makers who set the limit. Some boards do actually let you boot off exfat but I couldn't tell you which ones. Its not standard yet.

The 32GB limit in BIOS applies to hard drives in general, not the file system (because BIOS doesn't care about the file system). See https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/Limits.htm

There's nothing about FAT32 that limits it to 32GB other than some artificial limitation. Allegedly Microsoft implemented it to force people to move to NTFS.

EDIT: It looks like for the purposes of booting into a UEFI compatible boot drive, it's a moot point because the UEFI boot part is it's own special partition that just happens to be compatible with FAT32: https://superuser.com/questions/1025423/uefi-exfat-partition