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My understanding is that this is the page to download the ISO file from. It gives you options of Windows 10 or Windows 10 Fall Creators update. Any recommendations on which one to start with?
My understanding is that this is the page to download the ISO file from. It gives you options of Windows 10 or Windows 10 Fall Creators update. Any recommendations on which one to start with?
I'm seeing two different types of links. The Fall Creators Update will download the update tool for an existing installation, where the media creation tool will build installation media for you (probably with the latest version).
Ok, so I've downloaded the ISO file....and windows xp doesn't know how to open it. I thought I was going to create installation media from it, but now I'm confused. Will my laptop boot directly from this ISO file?
Unfortunately XP is awful when it comes to having built in support for anything that modern versions of Windows know how to support out of the box (ISO files of course predate XP, but support just wasn't included).
Unfortunately XP is awful when it comes to having built in support for anything that modern versions of Windows know how to support out of the box (ISO files of course predate XP, but support just wasn't included).
Thanks for your help.
But, as it turns out, my question is moot anyway for the moment because I'm unable to copy the ISO file to the new flash drive I bought for this purpose - insufficient disk space available. I'm using my old XP machine that I resurrected with the 13GB IBM HD that I bought 18 years ago for my first W98SE build. It's bigger and newer HD bit the dust after 13 years. The old IBM is still going strong, though.
I knew I didn't have enough disk space left on the C: drive for the ISO and my plan was to save it directly to the USB anyway. Tried to do that and couldn't - XP gave me no save option but to the default downloads folder in C:. So I spent most of 2 hours finding things to delete, compressing files, and defragging to free up enough space on C:. So then the download worked, but there is less than a GB of free space left. Now there's not a damn thing (that I know of) that I can do with that file.
I'm going to have to find someone with a modern machine who can download that file directly to my flash drive and then create the bootable USB. Maybe if I can find the right person at Best Buy, they would do it for me. I bought my new hard drive there and lots of other stuff over time, including this laptop I'm trying to fix. There was a young guy there this morning who had done several of these and seemed to know all about it. I hope he's there tomorrow.
Last edited by CrownVic95; 02-11-2018 at 06:19 PM..
You cannot just copy the ISO file itself as data file, there is specific procedure. I don't recall XP having the ability to work with ISO files out of the box. This is kind of like a zip file, try using using 7-zip and extract the .ISO file directly to the USB media. Optionally You should be able to use the ISO file to create a DVD if you have DVD burner. Your DVD burning software should be able to do this properly.
Also note you may want to go to HP's site and look up you model. Windows 10 does a a really good job but software and drivers specific to HP should probably be installed from files there because windows may not install them. Power management, drivers for keyboard buttons etc. There is going to be a fairly big list, you don't need all of them.
If you still need space download CClenaer and run it, pay particular attention to "remove old system updates" or something along those lines. If you still do not have enough space disable hibernation mode and restart the computer.
Unfortunately XP is awful when it comes to having built in support for anything that modern versions of Windows know how to support out of the box (ISO files of course predate XP, but support just wasn't included).
Well, I got her done....finally.
Replacing the hard drive was no problem at all, and it's good to have that experience so that going forward I'll be much more comfortable with tackling laptop issues. Had never disassembled one before - but that's because I had never owned one prior to 18 months ago.
In my circles, Seagate has had a bad reputation for at least 20 years and guess what brand my dead hard drive was? Seagate, of course. Replaced it with a WD.
The software part was what made me tear my hair and keep me up nights - literally. When I first looked at the link you posted above, it looked pretty intimidating and my gut told me I'd be over my head if I attempted it. But this morning I dug into it and found that Rufus was able to create the bootable USB directly from the downloaded ISO file. So no need to copy it anywhere.
So I created the USB drive, plugged it in, went into the BIOS to confirm that USB boot was enabled and in the boot order....and nothing. Would not boot...."no boot device found"...."you need to install an OS on your HD". Tried it again and again to no avail....in different USB slots, etc. Got nowhere.
So I went back into the BIOS prepared to try any change that I felt might have a "hail Mary" chance of working. There was an enable/disable setting for Legacy Boot Order, which was disabled by default. It said that it should be enabled for older Windows versions that didn't use UEFI. What the heck....I enabled it, saved and exited, and low and behold....the next screen is a W10 window icon that starts the process. I was off and running and that's what it took - enabling the Legacy Boot Order. Makes no sense to me, but I suppose there's an explanation somewhere. I believe I even tried changing it back to defaults after finishing the installation, figuring it would work now. It didn't....same error message about no boot device. So now it's back to enabled and that's where it will/must stay.
This new computer is so much faster and smoother than it's former self. That because now I have none of the additional garbage that HP adds to the software installation. Always saw multiple HP apps (in addition to Microsoft's) running in the task manager when the computer would get bogged down. It's like this machine has lost 50 pounds.
Thanks again for your help.
Edit: Oh, and I forgot to add....my new Windows 10 installation activated immediately and automatically. That was one of my concerns beforehand, but wasn't an issue at all.
With a Windows 10 laptop, is there not a program on it that creates rescue DVDs or USB drive for you? When you buy a new laptop you are supposed to create your own rescue media, then it's a piece of (free) cake to just restore it all from rescue media. I have that on all my Toshiba laptops for Windows 7. Or was yours an older laptop that some third party that installed Windows 10 on and didn't provide media to restore it?
Buy rescue media from HP would probably have been another option. Rescue media creates a restore partition on the hard drive, just like the original machine had. All the laptops in my family are used ones that I bought dirt cheap after someone trashed the hard drives on, or had dead or no hard drive. I restored the OS to factory and/or applied subsequent OS upgrades. It gets trickier if you have to upgrade to OS to something other than what came stock on the machine. But the machine will run "lighter" anytime you have freshly installed an OS, even if you do a restore to factory oob with all the "bloatware."
It looks all through your system and generates a very detailed report on hardware (including many serial numbers), and software (including CD-Keys).
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