Installing Windows 10 from a mounted ISO

By PGHammer
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Grand Master

PGHammer

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Okay, here's the issue - I have the Windows 10 Creator's Update ISO copied to a secondary drive, and mounted - I would like to blank my existing primary partition and install Windows 10 TO that partition.  The partition itself is GPT (and it will remain that way, and be a primary partition).  The reason I am using this methodology is due to lacking a thumb drive or USB stick.  In short, it will be a modified clean install; the difference is that it will be started from within the original installation.

 

Is this, in fact, doable?

Grand Master

devHead

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To do a clean install, I believe you have to boot to the drive with the installation, then wipe out the drive where it will be installed.  Even if you mount it from another disc, the installation files will copy over to your current OS drive (if you run setup from within Windows), so you can't continue that installation, then continue to format that disc - it has your installation files on it.  You have to boot to the image.  

 

Of course you can't boot to the mounted ISO, since it's mounted from within your already running OS.  You have to get it on a DVD or a jump drive to do a clean install.  At least I think.  

 

Or, you can install it from the mounted image, and select to get rid of everything (do a clean install), but it won't reformat that drive before installing the new version of Windows.  You'll have to remove that afterwards, I'm pretty sure.

Grand Master

Danielx64

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  On 01/04/2017 at 03:09, devHead said:

Or, you can install it from the mounted image, and select to get rid of everything (do a clean install), but it won't reformat that drive before installing the new version of Windows.  You'll have to remove that afterwards, I'm pretty sure.

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That what I did when AU come out so I would expect that you can do the same for CU. Once done you just need to use disk cleanup to remove the windows.old folder.

Grand Master

Danielx64

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  On 01/04/2017 at 03:15, Jim K said:

Yea, not sure about the mounting thing.  Believe that will just result in an in-place upgrade.  You could always just "upgrade" and then do a reset.

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I'm sure that setup copies the content of the ISO/DVD into several hidden folders that are deleted once install is finished.

Grand Master

PGHammer

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  On 01/04/2017 at 03:59, Danielx64 said:

I'm sure that setup copies the content of the ISO/DVD into several hidden folders that are deleted once install is finished.

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UNfortunately, you're right on that - it does NOT get rid of the (unused) contents - it simply moves them to the Windows.old folder. (Nertz.)  Even though I can still access that folder, I was actually hoping it would get rid of those folders - not simply move them.  Still, I can move those folders - but I have to wait until I get a proper thumb drive first and install the CU properly..

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Jim K Global Moderator

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  On 01/04/2017 at 03:59, Danielx64 said:

I'm sure that setup copies the content of the ISO/DVD into several hidden folders that are deleted once install is finished.

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Well yea .. I know that.  The problem is ... when you create a DVD/USB from the ISO you're basically making a bootable installation device.  Mounting an ISO will just do an in-place upgrade ... not a full format and install (afaik).   

 

Edit:  Maybe these instructions would work (for 7 but may be applicable here)

 

 

Grand Master

goretsky Supervisor

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Hello,

 

Are you booting from the secondary drive?  If so, try opening a Command Prompt (filename: CMD.EXE) when the installation screen appears by pressing F10, then running DiskPart, selecting the first drive, and issuing a "clean" command to erase it.

 

If that doesn't work, I'd just suggest purchasing a USB flash drive and using that for installation.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

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Daedroth

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IMPORTANT: Before you perform any installation steps, ensure that your data is backed up.

 

You can use the Rufus bootable USB tool to correctly 'burn' the ISO to the USB drive. That way it will be bootable to the system.

 

Windows will only create a Windows.old folder if you do an in-place upgrade. If you perform a clean install, you will be formatting the hard drive, therefore there will be nothing to create a Windows.old with.

 

Also, during the initial stages of a clean install, it will create an unseen X: drive which is copies the necessary data to from the installation media. It then uses this data to install the core files to your HDD and then expand them from there. I can't remember if  the X: drive is a HDD partition or RAM.

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Daedroth

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  On 03/04/2017 at 09:28, Daedroth said:

IMPORTANT: Before you perform any installation steps, ensure that your data is backed up.

 

You can use the Rufus bootable USB tool to correctly 'burn' the ISO to the USB drive. That way it will be bootable to the system.

 

Windows will only create a Windows.old folder if you do an in-place upgrade. If you perform a clean install, you will be formatting the hard drive, therefore there will be nothing to create a Windows.old with.

 

Also, during the initial stages of a clean install, it will create an unseen X: drive which is copies the necessary data to from the installation media. It then uses this data to install the core files to your HDD and then expand them from there. I can't remember if  the X: drive is a HDD partition or RAM.

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Just an amendment:

I noticed that you are planning on using a normal HDD instead of a USB. Whilst I have never done this myself, it may be possible. If Rufus cannot do it, then you may need to use Disk Part.

 

To use Disk Part:

1) Open an elevated command prompt

2) Type the following commands

a) List disk

b) select disk x (x = specific disk number listed by the above command)

c) clean

d) format quick fs=ntfs

e) active

f) assign

 

3) Copy the contents of the ISO onto the newly partitioned drive.

4) Reboot the PC and attempt to boot from the drive

Proficient

SarK0Y

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Posted
  On 01/04/2017 at 02:45, PGHammer said:

Okay, here's the issue - I have the Windows 10 Creator's Update ISO copied to a secondary drive, and mounted - I would like to blank my existing primary partition and install Windows 10 TO that partition.  The partition itself is GPT (and it will remain that way, and be a primary partition).  The reason I am using this methodology is due to lacking a thumb drive or USB stick.  In short, it will be a modified clean install; the difference is that it will be started from within the original installation.

 

Is this, in fact, doable?

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you can install w/ qemu -- it works like a charm for lnx/bsd, but w10 will complain about hardware.. so it takes additional legworks.

Mentor

jesseinsf

Posted
Posted (edited)

What you want cannot be done because after it reboots you will be deleting the Operating system that mounted the image, Plus, after every reboot the image will be unmounted, (and in your case) it cannot be remounted. It only works with bootable removable media like DVD disks, Blu-Ray disks or a USB thumb drive. Now if you already have Windows 10 on your device then you may want to do what they call "Fresh Start". You may want to wait through the month to do the Fresh start because it may only install a clean copy of the Anniversary update.

 

Microsoft's Fresh Start can be found at this Microsoft Website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10startfresh

 

Edited by jesseinsf
corected spelling
Proficient

SarK0Y

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Posted
  On 05/04/2017 at 23:20, jesseinsf said:

What you want cannot be done because after it reboots you will be deleting the Operating system that mounted the image, Plus, after every reboot the image will be unmounted

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it doesn't matter: iso needs to be mounted to boot installation from there.

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jesseinsf

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Posted (edited)
  On 05/04/2017 at 23:35, SarK0Y said:

it doesn't matter: iso needs to be mounted to boot installation from there.

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He does not have boot media like a Flash drive or DVD. So , in his case he CANNOT install Windows. The only other way is Windows Deployment Services (WDS) which it can install windows over the network. So, If I were him, I'd upgrade and then go in to the new Windows Defender settings and under "device performance and health" choose "Additional info" under "Fresh Start". In his case this is the only option which would be closest to a clean fresh install. The problem is, I cannot guarantee that it will install the Creator's Update. Instead, it may install the Anniversary update.

Proficient

SarK0Y

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 06/04/2017 at 01:12, jesseinsf said:

He does not have boot media like a Flash drive or DVD. So , in his case he CANNOT install Windows.

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i installed w7 w/ qemu onto real drive w/o dvd/usb. here how it looks like..

kvm.thumb.png.d5ea8d8dfd53a1542104111b1ee76fbb.png

it takes iso + free space of hdd/ssd where you want to install. only trouble is, to boot that system w/ your real hardware. there need some tricks to perform. :)

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jesseinsf

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Posted
  On 06/04/2017 at 22:10, SarK0Y said:

i installed w7 w/ qemu onto real drive w/o dvd/usb. here how it looks like..

kvm.thumb.png.d5ea8d8dfd53a1542104111b1ee76fbb.png

it takes iso + free space of hdd/ssd where you want to install. only trouble is, to boot that system w/ your real hardware. there need some tricks to perform. :)

Expand  

But you still cannot delete the host operating system. His best bet is to use the Fresh Start option after the 11th of April 

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