Windows 11 bootable usb problems
For the past couple of days, I have been trying with no success, to make a bootable windows 11 usb ( Also tried to make a bootable DVD - but Win 11 is too big for the DVD ! ) ( shame cos Win 10 worked fine on that)
so... I have used the following
Linux Mint 21.3 virginia o.s.
USB Stick formatter - followed by USB Image Writer
VENTOY
WoeUSB-ng
And other USB writing software
RUFUS, UNetbootin Universal USB installer & Balena Etcher.
some of the last one`s reported that WIndows .iso needs special softwares and suggested Rufus and Ventoy and WoeUSB
WoeUSB-ng did (eventually after a couple of hours waiting time ) make a usb install, but when I plugged it in to my 2nd laptop, to install it, it reported that there was no bootable media !. ( VENTOY did the same thing ) .
Looking on line for other methods, I also tried ddrescue. via the Terminal command lines.
from this linky ....... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-create-bootable-ms-windows-usb-under-linux
Don`t understand the "Can`t open input file : No such file or directory"... cos it is a copy and paste from this
Where am I going wrong?
I have got Windows10 operational but not "Activated" as I do not need it "activated"... for my use... but assuming that I would have to have it "activated" for it to be "updated to WIN11 , I do not have a activation key for WIN10. hence the need for the above USB version.
( I am only using it to gain some experience, and maybe support, for my great grand daughter who is going to college to be a vet, and I am giving her a laptop to do her study work on ) .
@archerry Erm ......
Possibly,.... but It is not clear from the "instructable" page on that bit.... so if you could give me the correct(?) "relative path" to get the "source file".. then that might be the way forward.
Thanks
@archerry OK... thanks for that.... will give it a go later on, as busy doing other stuff now. Will report back !
@Dan_the_Van Yes, I have used Balena Etcher before for this kind of stuff...but for some reason it didn`t work for me this time.( can`t remember why,.... cos I used so many different one`s ! ) . Thanks
@shutter wrote:
[...]
As for using WoeUSB... again 2.5 hours of time wasted... ! it did not complete properly , the final part of installing the GRUB files just kept on running, eventually, freezing the laptop, so I had to do a "hard reboot". which. presumably messed up the USB finalizing...
Are all those failed attempts using the same USB stick and / or USB port on the same laptop (wondering if there is some hardware problem at play)?
I've tried WoeUSB-ng (no WoeUSB package in Debian had to install -ng through the Python package manager) on an old netbook which originally shipped with Windows XP; it chugged away for over two hours, often with the CPU at 100%, but still succeeded in a bootable Win11 stick.
SOooooooooo Glad, I changed over to LINUX MINt when Win 7 stopped being supported.
I'm sure we can all learn from Microsoft 😎
Yes, it was the same usb and the same usb slot...but... I found a bit of info, that all the USB stick burners fail to point out.... when using the FORMAT part... it offers NTFS FAT or ex-FAT... generally suggesting that FAT is the best one as it can be used by all (most) systems... Unfortunately, it fails to mention that FAT has a max of 4GiB.... and the Windows 11 download is 6.3 GiB... so when the FAT is full !.. it stops and hangs with no message to say why !.
So... I reformatted same usb to NTFS and put it in the same usb slot, at about 5PM... and started the Woe USB-ng.... after 3 hours it was showing 4.1GiB. aand the usb stick was still flashing away, indicating that something was happening... after another hour and half, it started to progress, and eventually, about 10PM,, it showed a message saying it was installing a GRUB files or something ... which continued forever until it finally finished the Burn ( should be "smoulder") at just before midnight.
Going to take a holiday in the Maldives or Skegness now... to give me a break, and then MAY accept the challenge of actually installing Windows 11, on a spare HDD, to see what all the fuss is about ! .
Thanks to all for your interest.
@shutter wrote:
[...]
Yes, it was the same usb and the same usb slot...but... I found a bit of info, that all the USB stick burners fail to point out.... when using the FORMAT part... it offers NTFS FAT or ex-FAT... generally suggesting that FAT is the best one as it can be used by all (most) systems... Unfortunately, it fails to mention that FAT has a max of 4GiB.... and the Windows 11 download is 6.3 GiB... so when the FAT is full !.. it stops and hangs with no message to say why !.
Not necessarily true.
If you look at the output of WoeUSB from post no. 7 you'll see it creates a new partition on the USB device and runs mkfs.fat to create a FAT filesystem.
Last evening, I decided on installing Linux Mint 21.2 on a spare HDD for comparison to windows. Mint 21.2 was recently upgraded to 21.3. so I wanted to see what the difference was between Windows and Linux, as regards upgrading times .. Also wanted a standby hdd for a spare laptop !.
So. I already had Mint 21.2 downloaded..(3.1GiB compared to Win 11 at 6.8 ! ) .. found the Linux Mint USB stick formatter, and formatted a USB stick... then used the Linux Mint USB Image Writer, to write the downloaded .iso. It took about 40 minutes... then inserted the USB in the spare laptop, and within an hour and half, I had a working Operating system, connected to the internet and ready to inter-act with the rest of the world !.
And that included it being Upgraded to version 21.3. 
Again.... Thanks to all for your interest.