Help - installing Windows on a blank hard drive

[Andeh13]

I have a Levono Yoga 300 - cracking little laptop. It had a 32gb hard drive though, which meant that when windows forced itself to update to windows 10...it ran out of space & gets itself stuck in a perpetual loop of trying to install, running out of space & failing.


Bit of research showed that you could install a SSD pretty easily in the Yoga book, cloning the 32gb boot drive onto the SSD & you are all set....or so I thought!

I used Macrium Reflect, but got a random ''Error 8 - unable to clone'' when I tried. Despite a few attempts & struggling to find an effective solution I gave up.

I figured I would try a USB stick, install windows 10 onto it & boot off it and install off that - something I failed at beforehand when I was trying to update windows 10 on the 32gb SSD it came with.

Once again, despite two different memory sticks ( a 64gb USB3 and a 32gb USB2) I get an error message saying unable to create boot disc on this machine.

So I am really fed up of technology now & how bloody difficult it seems to be to just do as its told!

Can anyone suggest another route I might try? I have a USB -> Sata/Power (first one failed, second one works...)

[Penelope Stopit]

Andeh13 said:

I have a Levono Yoga 300 - cracking little laptop. It had a 32gb hard drive though, which meant that when windows forced itself to update to windows 10...it ran out of space & gets itself stuck in a perpetual loop of trying to install, running out of space & failing.


Bit of research showed that you could install a SSD pretty easily in the Yoga book, cloning the 32gb boot drive onto the SSD & you are all set....or so I thought!

I used Macrium Reflect, but got a random ''Error 8 - unable to clone'' when I tried. Despite a few attempts & struggling to find an effective solution I gave up.

I figured I would try a USB stick, install windows 10 onto it & boot off it and install off that - something I failed at beforehand when I was trying to update windows 10 on the 32gb SSD it came with.

Once again, despite two different memory sticks ( a 64gb USB3 and a 32gb USB2) I get an error message saying unable to create boot disc on this machine.

So I am really fed up of technology now & how bloody difficult it seems to be to just do as its told!

Can anyone suggest another route I might try? I have a USB -> Sata/Power (first one failed, second one works...)

I have very recently solved the same issue for somebody but only by instructions not physically doing the job as the laptop is out of reach

I suggested they download a windows 10 ISO rather than attempt writing a copy of what they have, fit an SSD into the spare slot and install windows to the new SSD from USB and then wipe the original HDD/SSD and use it for storage
Pop over to Microsoft for a fresh Windows 10 if you must have this OS, I wouldn't install Windows 10 as there are big problems with it

[Andeh13]

So use a separate laptop to install Windows 10 to the SSD (plugged in via usb)....then fit this into the Yoga Laptop & boot to SSD?

[grumbledoak]

This looks to be instructions for creating the correct type of USB stick to allow the install from ISO:
https://justworks.ca/blog/creating-a-bootable-wind...

[Mr Pointy]

Error 8 seems to be an issue with creating a FAT 32 partiton on the USB disk - see here:

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Tr...

Have you made the USB sticks bootable? They may not be if you haven't done so:

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Pr...

[Penelope Stopit]

grumbledoak said:

This looks to be instructions for creating the correct type of USB stick to allow the install from ISO:
https://justworks.ca/blog/creating-a-bootable-wind...

I deleted my post having visited the above link, fortunately the person that i have given instructions to will be having the work carried out by an IT pro
Good post

[Andeh13]

Mr Pointy said:

Error 8 seems to be an issue with creating a FAT 32 partiton on the USB disk - see here:

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Tr...

Have you made the USB sticks bootable? They may not be if you haven't done so:

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Pr...

Thanks very much all & especially me pointy. Hanging the format to NTFS worked like aaaah charm.

I then managed two install windows 10 to the memory stick, plugged in & booted off that to install windows to the SSD.

All up & running now. Thanks again all.