Windows 10 Won't install from supplied USB Drive

Steve Foley

New Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Location
Toulouse France
As a Newbie here I am not sure if I posted this on the wrong section so please forgive the duplication.

I purchased from Amazon Win10 Pro on a USB Datastick. My current set-up is as follows.

Toshiba Satellite S50T A117 Laptop running Windows 8.1 which works properly.

ùP is i7 2.4Ghz
Ram 16.0GB 15.9 usable
System 64 Bit x64 based processor.
765Gb of free space on Drive C HDD

I paid for the USB Stick of Win 10 Pro from Amazon and will probably return it for a refund. Why didn't they stick to CD-ROM as the vehicle as was the case with Win 8.1 which I also bought about 18 months ago and worked beautifully, It seems to me that either this particular USB Drive may have defective or missing files or that the script to install the software from it onto the HDD of the PC is badly written as it appears to run properly to begin with even asking for the Product Code Number, displaying the customary EULA, and asking if one wants a new install or an upgrade. Once the selection is made, in my case an upgrade, it shows a screen saying amongst other things to REMOVE the USB Stick from the socket and reboot the PC then once it has booted up to re-insert the stick and the installation will restart. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN. At this stage the only way to reboot the PC is to press the off button in effect to crash it and when it does re-boot it is back on the HDD under Win 8.1 and whatever was in Memory from the USB stick is lost and the whole process would start again.

Surely whoever wrote this programme would have included an on screen button to appear on the screen which would perform a soft re-boot of the PC without it being actually switched off? Also the entire process is very clunky as many users would not know how to access the BIOS on the PC and change the boot order to USB before HDD. The Install program should have been written to run from the USB stick ab-initio or as I say they should have stuck to using a CD-ROM as the vehicle for the software.

I am wondering if I have to install the free download of Win 10, which I am dubious about doing as I have been told it is a cut-down version with many features missing, then use the USB stick to upgrade to Win 10 PRO or forget the whole idea and stick with Win 8.1 for all its faults and wait till I buy a new laptop at the end of the year with Win 10 pre-installed?

If anyone who is a computer expert be that amateur or professional out there has a work-round for this problem or can tell me what I am doing wrong I'd be very grateful to them. I would also add that I tried setting up a directory on the PCs HDD and copying all the files from the USB Stick to that then trying to run the Install from there but all I got after a couple of screens was that I couldn't run Set-Up from a USB Drive.

I am reasonably Computer literate but I am not a programmer. Has anyone been successful installing from a USB Drive and can they tell me what I am doing wrong? Microsoft's Website is NOT a lot of use on this problem.
 
Hi Steve,
I'm a little puzzled as to why you went and bought a copy of windows 10 when there is a free upgrade on offer?
You can initiate the upgrade process yourself by using the media creation tool found on this page from Microsoft:
Windows 10
Download the media creation tool and click upgrade now. The process will begin and just for your information what will happen is this.
In order to qualify for the free upgrade you must first 'upgrade'. Windows 10 set up process will then check online to see if your copy of 8.1 is genuine and activated. If all is good then a win 10 licence is issued and stored in the same place as your windows 8.1 licence. This now means that once the upgrade is completed you can then download the windows 10 iso and perform a clean install. As the activation info is now stored online you do not need to activate windows just keep pressing skip. ( more info on the new activation rules see my thread here: Windows 10 Activation explained.. )

I'd take that Amazon USB stick back and get a refund.
 
Thanks I am downloading the Win 10 upgrade but it is taking eternity. I have ADSL not as yet Fibre Optic as it has not yet arrived in this part of the town I live in near Toulouse France.
 
We are talking about Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro?

If it is telling you to remove the Flash Drive and then reboot without it, it usually means you are doing an upgrade. If you have a retail copy, you don't have to do that unless you want to keep your previous data. So the choice you make regarding upgrade or Custom Install can make a difference.
 
Yes that is what occurred. I am trying to upgrade from Win 8.1 to Win 10. I certainly DO want to keep all my previous data and only to update the OS and not do a tabula rasa clean install. I have given up on the Win 10 on a Flash Drive i bought and will send it back to Amazon for a refund. Instead as advised I have downloaded the free update onto an empty Flash Drive . It took ages to download and I left my computer doing it overnight but it was at 98% 7 hours later when I got up. It is now fully downloaded but as I work Monday to Friday I will leave performing the Upgrade until I have the time as I do NOT expect it to be plain sailing.

I have to say that having been a user of home computers since the early 1980s early Commodores, and Sinclairs, and what used to be called IBM compatibles running DOS 3 and subsequently all the MS Windows versions up to 8.1, THIS Upgrade the most clunky, difficult and annoying one I have ever had for any software whether a piece of freeware or shareware off of a cover disc on a PC Mag up to a complete commercial product in a plastic wrapped box. I feel sorry for any average PC user who may not even know what a BIOS is far less how to alter the boot order of their computer.

In conclusion 2/10 to Microsoft for this upgrade and I only hope that Win 10 itself is better than its upgrade process and does not prove to be yet another MS Turkey!
 
I must agree that it has been a bit of a mess but that's no different to when vista, Windows 7 and 8 appeared. We still get the same type of issues everytime and you'd think they would have improved the process somewhat. Personally I despise the upgrade process and will avoid it whenever possible. At least you know once the upgrade has completed you can do a clean install.
 
I would not recommend anyone download the update directly to a flash drive. I know you have a slower internet connection, but I have a 50 Mbps and normally downloads at close to that speed. While downloading to the flash drive, which I tested, it was limited to something like 2 Mbps.
 
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