Where/how do I get an ISO file for my Windows 7...

[ksjazzguitar]

OK, forgive me if this is a stupid question. Where is my ISO file?

Long story short. I try to instal a 4TB HDD. It won't go so they suggest I upgrade my BIOS. To do that I need an bootable USB. To make that, it appears that I need my Windows ISO file? I'm running W7-64 Home Premium on a system I put together and installed Windows. I have the original disk and product code.

Is the ISO file on the disk? Do I just make an ISO file of the whole disk?

Thanx

 

[Alabalcho]

You make the ISO with programs like ImgBurn using your original Windows DVD.

 

[ksjazzguitar]

So, it is just an image of the whole DVD? Or does the program know what to do? Is there a free program to do this?

Thanks

 

[James Mason]

You don't have to do anything special to make a bootable usb.

Just delete everything on the usb stick, format it as a FAT32 drive, and put the bios update in the root of the usb drive (that means the top, under no folders/ect.)

Then go into the bios and have it flash the bios with the ones from the usb stick.

Your bios has nothing to do with an ISO of windows.
You only need a bootable USB if you want to install windows from a USB stick.

 

[Pinhedd]

OK, forgive me if this is a stupid question. Where is my ISO file?

Long story short. I try to instal a 4TB HDD. It won't go so they suggest I upgrade my BIOS. To do that I need an bootable USB. To make that, it appears that I need my Windows ISO file? I'm running W7-64 Home Premium on a system I put together and installed Windows. I have the original disk and product code.

Is the ISO file on the disk? Do I just make an ISO file of the whole disk?

Thanx

Hi,

If you have a 4TB hard disk drive and are using an older motherboard that uses BIOS firmware (newer motherboards use UEFI firmware) you will not be able to install your operating system to the 4TB hard disk drive and access all 4TB at the same time. This limitation does not exist on newer motherboards.

The cause of this limitation is the scheme used by BIOS firmware to identify the partition layout of the drive. This scheme is known as the Master Boot Record, or MBR. UEFI firmware supports a newer partitioning scheme known as GUID Partition Table, or GPT, which does not have this limitation. Motherboards that have BIOS firmware understand only MBR, whereas motherboards that have UEFI firmware understand both MBR and GPT.

If your motherboard has BIOS firmware, you can still use the full 4TB on the hard disk drive but you cannot boot an operating system from it. Instead, you must convert the drive from an MBR format to a GPT format. This can be done in the Windows Disk Management tool. Note that this will erase all data on the drive.

 

[ksjazzguitar]

James -

I'm just following the directions that I got to make a bootable USB which was said to be necessary by the MB manufacturers. I'll experiment with what you've said.

pinhead, I have an ASUS P8 H67-M LE rev 3.00 that I bought in 2009. When I asked ASUS about how to upgrade the BIOS, mentioning the 4TB HDD, they didn't mention it as a problem, but maybe they missed it.

 

[Pinhedd]

James -

I'm just following the directions that I got to make a bootable USB which was said to be necessary by the MB manufacturers. I'll experiment with what you've said.

pinhead, I have an ASUS P8 H67-M LE rev 3.00 that I bought in 2009. When I asked ASUS about how to upgrade the BIOS, mentioning the 4TB HDD, they didn't mention it as a problem, but maybe they missed it.

Hi,

That motherboard has UEFI firmware. Upgrading it is usually a good idea if a newer revision is available but that will not help solve your problem.

However, all hard disk drives (or RAID volumes) over 2TB must use a GPT partitioning scheme in order to make the entire volume available.

If you purchased the drive new and directly from Western Digital or Seagate (rather than from another manufacturer who included it in an external enclosure) it should not have shipped preinitialized. Windows should prompt you to initialize the drive with either an MBR scheme or GPT scheme when the drive is first scanned in Disk Management. A drive letter will not be assigned until the disk is initialized and a volume is created on the disk. In other words, several steps need to be completed before the drive is available to be used.

If you post a screenshot of your Disk Management window with the drive installed I'll be able to direct you better.

 

[ksjazzguitar]

Thank you for all the help. A lot of good information here. James had the best answer directly to the question about upgrading the BIOS. Yes, I did not need a boot disk or ISO of anything - I don't know how I got led down that path. Just loaded the BIOS file into the USB, started up to the BIOS screen and found the flash utility and the whole thing was over in 90 seconds. Problem solved.

I'll mess around with the HDD problem and start a new thread if I run into problems.

Thanx