How anyone can get Windows 11

Ghot · Sep 12, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Well Bob I have found in the BIOS a reference to the second D: drive as a second boot device so I have disabled that and in disk management, I have set that drive as offline and am wondering if that might save me taking the drive out of the machine?

You can just download the Win 11 (beta) (post #1) and follow the directions in post #1.
Just skip step #8.

And IF, like in the directions, you make a Macrium full OS image backup, and make the Rescue Media.... if anything goes wrong you can just restore from the backup.

cineman195 · Sep 12, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Ok well I got the ISO from the media creation tool and have it in Downloads and the only problem I can see is that the Rufus app did not set the - or would not let me set the format as FAT32 it would only let me click on NTFS format is this going to be a problem?

I tried the media creation tool from a PC that was running Windows 11, the ISO I got was windows 10-19041.928 !

Ghot · Sep 12, 2021

@ICIT2LOL

UUP Dump walk through...

Windows 11 ISO download (beta)

Pick your language...

Pick Windows version...

Choose these options...

When you click "Create download Package" it will bring up a download box. Save it to your Desktop.
Then go to post #1 and follow the directions. Start with step 6 and skip step 8. :)

NavyLCDR · Sep 12, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Well Bob I have found in the BIOS a reference to the second D: drive as a second boot device so I have disabled that and in disk management, I have set that drive as offline and am wondering if that might save me taking the drive out of the machine?

Why do you think you need to do anything with D: drive just to upgrade Windows 10 to 11?

Kari · Sep 12, 2021

NavyLCDR said:
Why do you think you need to do anything with D: drive just to upgrade Windows 10 to 11?

I was wondering the same.

bobkn · Sep 12, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Yes Bob but my main concern or worry is how to disconnect the D: drive without actually taking it out of the machine. I know this subject has been done to death and from what I have read it is either take the drive right out or disable the SATA port in the BIOS or do it through DISKPART so I am just wondering if it is all worth it as I just cannot be without this machine. I am thinking that posting a thread on the subject might land me in hot water with the mods as there probably is a thread already?

I'm not sophisticated enough to have done that. I leave the drive in the case, and disconnect the SATA power and signal cables from it.

I doubt that you need to do anything with a non-OS drive to upgrade Windows. If you do a clean install, that might be different, although I have no idea how people end up with boot files on a secondary drive. It has never happened to me, as far as I know.

Bree · Sep 12, 2021

bobkn said:
I'm a little surprised that the ISO from uupdump.net had an install.wim that was smaller than 4GB.

If/when and install.wim from UUPDump is larger than 4GB there are a couple of options to get back below 4GB. That would mean you can create a bootable usb just by copying the files to a Fat32 usb using File Explorer.

The first is to untick all the editions you do not need, leaving just Pro and/or Home.

The second is to select UUPDump's option to make an install.esd instead of install.wim.

Ghot · Sep 12, 2021

bobkn said:
I'm a little surprised that the ISO from uupdump.net had an install.wim that was smaller than 4GB

Before you "build" the ISO, they all say they are small... like 2,98 GB.
But even building JUST Win 11 Home, comes out at about 5+ GB when all is said and done.

These are both HOME...

ICIT2LOL · Sep 12, 2021

NavyLCDR said:
Why do you think you need to do anything with D: drive just to upgrade Windows 10 to 11?

Hello, Navy well mate I am sure I read somewhere it is advisable to disconnect any other drives and disable the installed security suite in the machine to prevent any parts of the new install/upgrade from getting installed on the second drive?

Ghot said:
When you click "Create download Package" it will bring up a download box. Save it to your Desktop.
Then go to post #1 and follow the directions. Start with step 6 and skip step 8. :)

Yes that is what I did do Ghot and I made a drive using the Rufus app from the downloaded ISO. So what I have now is the ISO onmy desktop and also on the stick.
Look I am getting terribly confused by the different ways of upgrading and do you reckon I should wait until the upgrade comes out in 10 updates??

Ghot · Sep 12, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Hello, Navy well mate I am sure I read somewhere it is advisable to disconnect any other drives and disable the installed security suite in the machine to prevent any parts of the new install/upgrade from getting installed on the second drive?

Yes that is what I did do Ghot and I made a drive using the Rufus app from the downloaded ISO. So what I have now is the ISO onmy desktop and also on the stick.
Look I am getting terribly confused by the different ways of upgrading and do you reckon I should wait until the upgrade comes out in 10 updates??

Do this.... this is an In-Place upgrade. It will upgrade Windows 10 to... Windows 11.

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software

If unsure about the move to Windows 11, or doing an In-Place upgrade...
make a full OS image backup with a program like: Reflect Free Edition
[make the Macrium bootable rescue media, too]

The reason we want the full backup, is so that IF something goes wrong, we can just restore from the backup.

Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will look like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe (yours might just say setup), and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.

The ONLY thing you will lose (doing an In-Place upgrade), is some of your personalizations. Your programs and data will be intact.

P.S. The only time you have to disconnect the other drives is when doing a "clean install". We are not doing that, we are doing an "upgrade".

/edit

I also did an In-Place upgrade. It took about 30 mins after I had the ISO image. This is how my Windows 10 and my Windows 11, look now. I had to redo some of my "personalizations" ofc, on Windows 11.

ICIT2LOL · Sep 12, 2021

Ok Ghot mate thanks for that so you mean do the upgrade from the desktop ISO? Plus I will just have to get an external hard drive first to do that although I am still not sure of how to restore from the backup on that external drive. The point is I don't want to be left dead in the water on this machine so I shall have to look up how to do this as I am not that tech-savvy.
Just as by the by this is what I have

in my downloads and the marked ISO is the only one offered as "MOUNT".

Ghot · Sep 12, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Ok Ghot mate thanks for that so you mean do the upgrade from the desktop ISO? Plus I will just have to get an external hard drive first to do that although I am still not sure of how to restore from the backup on that external drive. The point is I don't want to be left dead in the water on this machine so I shall have to look up how to do this as I am not that tech-savvy.
Just as by the by this is what I haveView attachment 7827 in my downloads and the marked ISO is the only one offered as "MOUNT".

Yes... use the desktop ISO.

You can make the backup and save it to your D: drive. I assume that's a different physical drive (different Disk #), in Disk Management. That way you won't need an external drive at all. :)
The Macrium Reflect full backup will be just a teeny bit bigger than one half of the data on the C: drive.

Here's a quickie guide to making a full backup of the C: drive.... and for how to make the Macrium Reflect Rescue media.
In step #2, instead of G:\ ........ you would use whatever drive letter has the space to store the backup.

If you post a screen shot of Disk Management, I will be able to know if you can save the backup on the D: drive, or not. :)

Here is MY Disk Management. I have 36GB on my C:\ drive, so my full backup, will be about 19 GB.
I can save the backup anywhere, except.... Disk 0.

/edit

You probably won't need to, but IF you need to restore from a backup, just put the USB stick you made the Rescue Media on, into a USB port, then reboot the computer. As soon as it starts to reboot, hit the ESC key or the F8 key to bring up the "Boot Menu".
On some ASUS laptops, it's the ESC key, on some it's the F8 key.

Just choose the.... UEFI USB stick, and click OK. This will start Macrium Reflect Rescue Media.

1. Find the most current backup on the list. Right click it and choose: Restore.
2. Click on a few "Next" and then a "Finish", to start the restore.
3. A small window will pop up with a warning. Just check mark the box at the bottom, and click OK.
4. That's it. You'll see a progress bar. When it's done, the backup will be restored.
5. Just close out the two windows and the computer will reboot into your restored Windows 10.

I'm not sure which version of Macrium Reflect you'll install, version 7 or version 8, but they are very similar.
This is a pic of version 7 Rescue media. On version 7 you just highlight the backup and click restore.
On version 8 you right click the backup and choose restore.

0000 Macrium Rescue Media screenshot.png

ICIT2LOL · Sep 12, 2021

Hello Ghot here is my disk management shot and oh I meant to mention the desktop ISO is just the info downloaded from UUP dump so should I save the marked ISO I have in downloads as per the marked picture?

Ghot · Sep 12, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Hello Ghot here is my disk management shot and oh I meant to mention the desktop ISO is just the info downloaded from UUP dump so should I save the marked ISO I have in downloads as per the marked picture?
View attachment 7831

Ok... the size of your backup at default settings will be about 52-54 GB.
I assume that the E:\ drive/Disk 1, is an internal drive. You can save the backup there. :)

It should take approx. 6 mins, or less, to make a FULL backup, following the picture guide in post #32
In step #2 of the picture guide... just put E:\ where mine has G:\

The picture guide is version 8, but again... it's pretty much the same as version 7, so either way...

As for UUP dump....

1. The downloaded beta file
2. The unzipped file
3. Double click (in red box) to build the ISO, (takes about 30-40 minutes to build)
4. The built ISO.

Ignore the version numbers. It's just w/e I had handy.

bobkn · Sep 12, 2021

Bree said:
If/when and install.wim from UUPDump is larger than 4GB there are a couple of options to get back below 4GB. That would mean you can create a bootable usb just by copying the files to a Fat32 usb using File Explorer.

The first is to untick all the editions you do not need, leaving just Pro and/or Home.

(snip)

The second is to select UUPDump's option to make an install.esd instead of install.wim.

(snip)

I have always chosen just the Pro version. (No Home, no N.) I still get ISOS larger than 5GB.

I have not tried the ESD option. Maybe it's instinctive, because in my working life, I received anti-ESD (electrostatic discharge) training.

Ghot · Sep 12, 2021

bobkn said:
I have always chosen just the Pro version. (No Home, no N.) I still get ISOS larger than 5GB.

I have not tried the ESD option. Maybe it's instinctive, because in my working life, I received anti-ESD (electrostatic discharge) training.

The ESD option (not electro-static discharge

), functions just the same. A few of the files inside the resultant ISO are different, but otherwise is fine for an In-Place upgrade. The ESD option is about 1-1.5 GB smaller for a single version build.

@Kari would know the difference, I'm sure. Something related to install.wim and/or boot.wim or some such.

ICIT2LOL · Sep 13, 2021

Ghot said:
Ok... the size of your backup at default settings will be about 52-54 GB.
I assume that the E:\ drive/Disk 1, is an internal drive. You can save the backup there. :)

It should take approx. 6 mins, or less, to make a FULL backup, following the picture guide in post #32
In step #2 of the picture guide... just put E:\ where mine has G:\

Ok Ghot that drive is a 1TB drive and I do have some pictures and other backup stuff like some docs on it and do you think I should make a small partition on that drive/disk to put the backup on?? Sorry mate but like I said I am not that savvy when there is so much to take in (probably too old too) and what I don't understand is that 260MB partition for Healthy EFI system just what is that for??
I have an idea to copy the data I mentioned on that disk onto a USB stick and completely reformat the whole drive so it is completely empty to avoid any issues with the backup getting mixed up with that data - what do you reckon??

Ghot · Sep 13, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Ok Ghot that drive is a 1TB drive and I do have some pictures and other backup stuff like some docs on it and do you think I should make a small partition on that drive/disk to put the backup on?? Sorry mate but like I said I am not that savvy when there is so much to take in (probably too old too) and what I don't understand is that 260MB partition for Healthy EFI system just what is that for??
I have an idea to copy the data I mentioned on that disk onto a USB stick and completely reformat the whole drive so it is completely empty to avoid any issues with the backup getting mixed up with that data - what do you reckon??

You don't have to make a new partition for the backup.

When you make the backup as in the pictorial guide, it will backup C: + EFI + Recovery partitions all in one backup.

Yes, you can format the Windows drive and do a clean install of Windows 11, but there is no need to do that.

The method I've given you is the easiest and simplest way to do it, and with the backup, there is no chance of failure.
Plus, all your current programs and files will already be on Windows 11 when you're done.

Additionally, you can always do a clean install of Windows 11 at a later time if you want.
With backups... nothing is permanent, things can always be undone if desired.

After you do the In-Place upgrade, and get Win 11 personalized as you like, you can make a backup of Windows 11.
Then if you want to go back to Windows 10, you can... or you can just stay on Windows 11.

Once you get good at using backup software... the rest is easy. :)

Post #34 is how to make the ISO from UUP dump.
Post #32 is all about Macrium Reflect and backups.
Post #30 is how to use the ISO to do an In-Place upgrade.

Or... the short version is all in post #1.

cereberus · Sep 13, 2021

Why not just install Windows 11 in a virtual hard drive on one of you free drives and make a dual boot pc. That way you do not afffect the current version to your hearts content, and to remove it is simple i.e. delete the vhd and remove boot entry from msconfig.

If you want to, you could clone current installation to vhd using Macrium Reflect, then upgrade to W11. If you clone the boot partitions as well, you can mount vhd in HyperV as well.

Bree · Sep 13, 2021

bobkn said:
I have not tried the ESD option. Maybe it's instinctive, because in my working life, I received anti-ESD (electrostatic discharge) training.

here it stands for Electronic Software Distribution....

Ghot said:
The ESD option is about 1-1.5 GB smaller for a single version build.

@Kari would know the difference, I'm sure. Something related to install.wim and/or boot.wim or some such.

The only different file is an install.esd instead of an install.wim (boot.wim is so small it's not worth compressing further). The only difference between .esd and .wim is the level of compression used.

For almost all purposes the install.wim and install.esd are interchangeable (install, in-place upgrade, source for Dism /restorehealth, etc.). Due to the higher compression the .esd will be a fraction slower in use, but the difference is negligible.

The only case where you cannot use the .esd is if you want to modify the Windows image using Dism to inject drivers or packages into the image. For that you need the .wim. A .esd can be converted to a .wim (or vice versa) if needed.