Question Cant boot

Aug 3, 2019
1
0
10
hello guys
im having a problem with my lenovo thinkpad t400
a while back when its screen broke i took out its HDD and comletley wiped it for external use
now im trying to revive my laptop again for i have found a use for it.
i put it back and it shows up in BIOS .
i plug in a usb stick which contains win 10 pro x64 installation file on it
but it doesnt boot with the usb . just says cannot boot from any device .. and a list of hardwares .. the one with usb stick says no valid operating system
i tried to boot other laptops with same usb stick and it works fine
cant determine the problem here is it my usb stick or HDD or is it the laptop itself ?
my USB stick is TRANSCEND 4GB usb 2.0

PLEASE HELP AND THANK YOU
 

britechguy

Commendable
Jul 2, 2019
1,479
243
1,340
It sounds like the drive you're using was created "a while back" and one should never do this when trying to do a fresh install of Windows 10 on any system. It is important to download the most recent ISO file, whether as the file itself or having the Media Creation Tool do the bootable USB creation for you.

See the following, virtually all of which applies to you, as you are doing a completely clean reinstall on a machine that previously was running Windows 10.
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Important Reminder 1:
If your computer has ever had a valid, licensed copy of Windows 10 installed, even if that's been later replaced by, say, Linux, you can still do a completely clean install of Windows 10 without having to acquire a new license. Windows 10 licenses are stored electronically on Microsoft servers, and are linked to your computer's motherboard. The installer will locate that existing license if you are reinstalling Windows 10.
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Important Reminder 2:
It should go without saying, but, if you have a functioning, even poorly functioning, system that you're hoping to wipe clean to get a fresh start you should definitely do a full system image backup and a separate user data backup before following the instructions for doing a completely clean reinstallation. It also makes sense to use a utility such as Belarc Advisor to create an inventory of the software you have installed and the license keys for same so that you have a handy list when it comes time to put them on your brand new Windows 10 installation.
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You can use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool either to create bootable USB media directly, or if you want to have a copy of the ISO file, to download that and use a separate utility to create the bootable USB media. Either way will work.

These instructions are current as of July 29, 2019. They have changed little during the life of Windows 10.

Doing a completely clean (re)installation of Windows 10 using the Media Creation Tool (MCT):

A) To create a bootable USB drive using the MCT itself:

B) To download the Windows 10 ISO file and use Rufus to create the bootable USB