XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11
On 11/2/2023 2:19 PM, Simon wrote:
Can you use Microsoft's MediaCreationTool to create a flash drive from
ISO already downloaded? I don't see anywhere in MCT to browse the file.
I don't want want to download again because of bandwidth/quota
limitation of my ISP subscription.
I know I can use Rufus and other 11 tools but I want to know if MCT can
be used. Please just answer yes or no because I don't want to read unnecessary
information for this question.
Rufus will put the ISO on a USB stick for you.
https://rufus.ie/en/
This tool will also do it.
"Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool.exe" <=== installer
https://web.archive.org/web/20181004075559if_/https://download.microsoft.com/download/C/4/8/C48F6E20-FE20-41C6-8C1C-408FE7B49A3A/Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool-Installer-en-US.exe
This was written by someone outside Microsoft, and it used to be
delivered from the MicrosoftStore.com site or so. It was used
in Windows 8 era, for putting online purchased Windows8 onto
USB sticks. It "installs in a weird place", and Microsoft staff
wouldn't do it that way.
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apps\Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool
README
Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool.exe
Name: Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool.exe <=== this is the file in that folder (name is different than the installer)
Size: 477,048 bytes (465 KiB)
SHA1: 6B6ECD554C96ABA07CDFE08EA47541E485A8E9E3
*******
There are two general problems with converters:
1) They do not make hybrid USB sticks properly.
Rufus may outright ask you whether you want a legacy BIOS (CSM) stick or a UEFI stick.
You boot the machine in the mode of installation you want, for
clean installs. You boot in UEFI, if the computer supports UEFI,
and you plan on, say, a GPT partitioned disk because the disk
is more than 2.2TB in size. GPT partitioning allows very large disks,
like booting from a 22TB Seagate disk for example.
2) The "handling" of the USB sticks, will cause hair loss.
Generally, the programs delete the stick contents and overwrite with
new structure.
You would think this would make it easy for the program developer,
to work with a USB stick.
Yet, they refuse to touch a stick, unless it is "served to them, just right".
The stick might need a partition to be already on it (even though,
the partition will be deleted!!!). The partition may not be allowed to
span the whole stick. Maybe on a 32GB USB stick, you make a "teaser partition"
of 8GB, leaving 24GB of slack.
"Cleaning a stick, so you can put one partition on it" will drive you nuts as well.
Some of your install materials on USB sticks, occupy multiple partitions,
and the idiot converter program can spot a 2MB partition and try and stuff
a 5GB ISO into it :-) Comedy ensues. You can attempt to use "diskpart" from an
admin window, select the USB stick as a disk, and use the "clean" command which
should just zap the partition table. Then use Disk MAnagement to easily make
the teaser partition for it.
This is all the very definition of insanity, but it is what it is.
It would not be uncommon for me, to have to do this four or five times,
until I get the blasted details right. There are just so many ways
to foul up a USB stick... the flow chart is of unlimited dimension.
And yet, the stick will just be deleted and overwritten, when all is
said and done.
So don't despair while working on your project. Working with USB sticks
was meant to annoy, that's for sure.
For Windows 11, Rufus has a separate dialog for "hacking the installer".
You do not need to hack the installer for install on a W11 compliant computer (modern CPU, TPM 2.0 present). Hacking the installer, also tends to make
the OS not want to upgrade a year later. But if there is a tick box for "legacy" or "UEFI", you do need at some point in the Rufus process,
to tell it which kind you want.
It's possible the Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool makes a hybrid on its own (fully working, dual mode) just like the ISO it is made from.
HTH,
Paul
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