[SOLVED] How do I install Windows 10 media on USB when I keep getting this error?

[knocc]

Sorry for the flash. I also tried booting from just the USB that I want to put W10 on, but it states" An Operating System wasn't found.....press any key to restart" which of course...

This seems like an easy fix so what am I doing wrong? My USB is 16GB and I've tried searching the forums and watching a lot of videos where it recognizes the USB in a dropdown menu for people doing it.

 

[USAFRet]

Please list the full and exact steps that led you to this point.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Are you intending to use the USB drive to install Windows 10 to a hard drive, or are you trying to install Windows for use to that USB stick?

 

[clutchc]

If I'm reading the message right looking thru the flash, it appears it's saying you don't have enough room left on the boot drive (C for the installation program to work.

 

[USAFRet]

If I'm reading the message right looking thru the flash, it appears it's saying you don't have enough room left on the boot drive (C for the installation program to work.

Yeah, that's what I think as well.

Not enough free space on the C drive to download the needed stuff to create the USB installer.

 

[britechguy]

I noticed this message specifying C: as well, which is a big red flag in a number of ways.

If you have less than 8GB of space on your system drive, even if you were able to install to it, you would have a very, very sluggish and unhappy Windows installation indeed.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

I'll be honest, I'm not quite understanding what it is your are asking for?
Are you having trouble creating a bootable flash drive so that you can install Windows 10?

Or are you trying to install Windows 10 onto a flash drive to make it portable or something?

 

[Colif]

You need to make space on the PC itself so it can create the Installer. It need 8gb as it says on screen.

try making it on another PC if you can't make any space.

 

[TerryLaze]

a lot of videos where it recognizes the USB in a dropdown menu for people doing it.

On newer hardware all USB are being detected as USB 3 which means that you will have to slipstream USB 3 drivers onto your windows installation media,or load them up at the HDD selection screen but since it won't recognize your USB flash drives that's gonna be difficult.

Also only some versions of windows allows you to create a windows to go installation.

 

[knocc]

I am trying to create a bootable flash drive so that I can install Windows on a new build. I am following this tutorial link on the Windows 10 thread: *Windows 10 media creation tool only up to step 8.

I only want to create the media installation, not install Windows 10 yet. I can create 8GB of free space to do this, but I thought installing this tool would erase everything on whatever drive you installed it on.

 

[britechguy]

You are doing something wrong, or else your C: drive is grossly overfull.

The message you show in your original post shows, clearly, that the complaint is about lack of space on the C: drive, which certainly is not the USB drive.

You are correct in that if you use the Media Creation Tool to directly create the bootable USB media that it will eliminate everything on that USB drive as part of the process and, indeed, warns you about this.

I cannot imagine that you don't have 8GB free on your main system drive, which is virtually always assigned the drive letter C:, but if you really don't then you need to offload material from it anyway. You will have horrible performance with any Windows version on a drive that does not have sufficient "breathing space" to deal with swap files and virtual memory management, and less than 8GB is not nearly enough.

 

[britechguy]

By the way, have a look at my tutorial, which is downloadable as a PDF or .docx file. There are two versions depending on whether you wish to have the MCT create the bootable media or just download the ISO, so you have it, and create the bootable USB media with a utility.

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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 2, 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:

- MS-Word Format: Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Create a Bootable USB Drive

- PDF Format: Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Create a Bootable USB Drive


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

- MS-Word Format: Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Download Win10 ISO File

- PDF Format: Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Download Win10 ISO File

 

[knocc]

Thanks for all the answers.