Win7 :MCT won't write Win11 to USB stick

Hello,
I have spent some time on Sevenforums, but am new here. As tiltle says, I'm on win 7...just a stubborn hiuman being, I guess.
Now, I'm about to build a new machine, all the parts have arrived and I'm ready to start the build
Time to make a bootable USB for the OS. I have a Windows 10 DVD, but would like to skip win10 and go directly to win11, seeing I will probably have to in a year and half anyway.
So, I downloade the MCT for win11 23H2 today, and ran it as administrator as required. It downloaded and verfied the files. At the "creation" step, it worked up to 47%, and then I got Error 0x8007007B. I tried several times, both with the same stick and another one, with the same result. Even turned off my antivirus...no dice. I even tried to go the ISO route, with the same result.
Just for a test, I downloaded the MCT for win10, and that worked like a charm.
My copy of win7 is verified, file checker doesn't find anything. What could be the problem here ? Help much appreciated !

Do you know that you will need a Win 10 or Win 11 license key to install Win 11?
Does your computer meets the hardware requirements for Win 11? If it doesn't you will need to use a workaround. I can guide you.
Download the Win 11 iso using MCT

Prepare the drive to load the Win 11 installation files. The USB drive must be at least 8G.

As you have a pure Sources\install.wim bigger than 4G and as you want to make a UEFI USB boot able drive you have two options:
On Win 7 use 7Zip to extract all files and folders from the Win 11 iso file to a temporary folder.
On Win 10, mount the iso file and copy all files and folders to a temporary folder.

Option 1) Split \Sources\install.wim into smaller Install.swm (this option only work on a Win 10)
Open a CMD window on the Sources\install.wim on the temporary folder (Shift+rightclick inside the folder + Open command window here)
run the command
Dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:install.wim /SWMFile:install.swm /FileSize:3600
It will create two install.swm. Delete Sources\Install.wim on the temporary folder.
Copy all files and folders from the temporary folder to the Fat32 partition on the USB drive.

Option 2) Create two partitions on the USB drive. (I suggest to use this option)
- One Fat32 - 850M set as active
- One NTFS = 7G

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary size=820
select part 1
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
active
create part primary
select part 2
format fs=ntfs quick
assign
exit (to exit diskpart)

Copy all files and folders from the temporary folder to the Fat32 partition EXCEPT the /Sources folder
Create a /Sources folder on the NTFS partition. Copy all files and folders from the temporary /Sources folder to the NTFS partition /Sources folder EXCEPT boot.wim
Create a /Sources folder on the Fat32 partition. Copy Boot.wim from the temporary /Sources folder to the Fat32 partition /Sources folder.

Option 1 or Option 2 allow you to boot the USB as Legacy or UEFI to install as Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT


Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs. It will help us to help you

I dump this link here because I'm currently on mobile and it's a pain to type out everything, at least one of the options will fix your issue almost certainly.

PartitionWizard.com - MCT Error 0x8007007B-0xA001B

Recent versions of MCT don't run to completion on W7. I doubt MS cares that it's no longer working. You can still download an offical ISO using the browser agent trick.

garlin said:

Recent versions of MCT don't run to completion on W7. I doubt MS cares that it's no longer working.

Click to expand...

That's probably true for Win7 and Win8/8.1 since Microsoft stopped the free upgrades from those to Win11 couple three months ago.

Thank you for the replies
@Megahertz : Ewww....ran into 4GB fat32 limitation when extracting the files to the USB stick. Should perhaps try to set up the USB with two partitions ? I'm not tempted to try with Rufus on a win7 machine...

@SlicEnDicE : I'm down to method 4 in the page you linked. Is the MiniTool Partition Wizard a must ?

garlin said:

Recent versions of MCT don't run to completion on W7. I doubt MS cares that it's no longer working. You can still download an offical ISO using the browser agent trick.

Click to expand...

Downloading the ISO was no problem.

Treespider said:

Thank you for the replies
@Megahertz : Ewww....ran into 4GB fat32 limitation when extracting the files to the USB stick. Should perhaps try to set up the USB with two partitions ? I'm not tempted to try with Rufus on a win7 machine...

@SlicEnDicE : I'm down to method 4 in the page you linked. Is the MiniTool Partition Wizard a must ?

Click to expand...

You didn't follow my instructions for option 2 on my post #2.
I've edited the post to make it easy to assemble.

I'm assuming you're selecting the option to build an .ISO for another machine?

Could you please check if the following log file exists:


Please attach it to your next post if it does.

@Megahertz : I created just one partition per your instructions from before you edited the post. And of course that didn't work, with the large .vim file.
So, need to create two partitions. But you are asking me to create two primary partitions on the USB drive ?

x BlueRobot said:

I'm assuming you're selecting the option to build an .ISO for another machine?

Could you please check if the following log file exists:

Code:

%systemroot%\Logs\MoSetup\BlueBox.log

Please attach it to your next post if it does.

Click to expand...

Yes...I'm on a win7 machine, trying to create installation media for the computer I'm about to build.
The BlueBox log file is attached.

Treespider said:

@Megahertz : I created just one partition per your instructions from before you edited the post. And of course that didn't work, with the large .vim file.
So, need to create two partitions. But you are asking me to create two primary partitions on the USB drive ?

Click to expand...

Sorry for that.
Iso from MCT used to have \Sources\Install.esd (Very compressed) so it was smaller than 4G so my original post should work.
To make sure I've downloaded the Win 11 23h2 iso and found out that it has \Sources\Install.wim almost with 6G.
So I made a revision using the two partition method.
Yes, I create two primary partitions on the USB drive. One 850M Fat32 and one NTFS with the remaining space.

Where are you saving the .ISO to? It's been some time since I last ran MCT so I can't remember if it asks you where you would like it to be saved.

Could you please check if the following files exist:

x BlueRobot said:

Where are you saving the .ISO to? It's been some time since I last ran MCT so I can't remember if it asks you where you would like it to be saved.

Could you please check if the following files exist:

Code:

%systemroot%\setupact.log
%systemroot%\setuperr.log

Click to expand...

I downloaded the ISO to desktop, then moved it to a new temporary folder on my data disk.
Both those files are there. The setuperr.log is empty. The setupact.log is attached.

That error code seems to correspond to an invalid file location, I would suggest moving it back the Desktop or your Documents folder, and then try run the setup.exe from there.

Megahertz said:

Sorry for that.

Click to expand...

NP

Megahertz said:

Iso from MCT used to have \Sources\Install.esd (Very compressed) so it was smaller than 4G so my original post should work.
To make sure I've downloaded the Win 11 23h2 iso and found out that it has \Sources\Install.wim almost with 6G.
So I made a revision using the two partition method.
Yes, I create two primary partitions on the USB drive. One 850M Fat32 and one NTFS with the remaining space.
View attachment 85579
View attachment 85580

Click to expand...

Is there some missing command(s) in post 2 ? With part 1 active, I get this :

Treespider said:

@SlicEnDicE : I'm down to method 4 in the page you linked. Is the MiniTool Partition Wizard a must ?

Click to expand...

No you can use any partitioning tool you want

Treespider said:

NP

Is there some missing command(s) in post 2 ? With part 1 active, I get this :

Click to expand...

The difference is:
create part primary size=820
And you typed:
create part primary size 820

It probably created the partition with all the available space. so when you asked to create another partition there was no free space to do it.

Megahertz said:

The difference is:
create part primary size=820
And you typed:
create part primary size 820

It probably created the partition with all the available space. so when you asked to create another partition there was no free space to do it.

Click to expand...

Ooops...sorry about that, I tried several times, of course, (correctly) and the result is the same.
I have tried with onboard Disk Manager and MiniTool, and investigated a bit, and it looks like making two partitions on a removable flash drive is not supported in Windows 7.

Treespider said:

Ooops...sorry about that, I tried several times, of course, (correctly) and the result is the same.
I have tried with onboard Disk Manager and MiniTool, and investigated a bit, and it looks like making two partitions on a removable flash drive is not supported in Windows 7.

Click to expand...

You're right.
The script doesn't work under Win 7 because Microsoft created a Fat32 partitions restriction on USB drives.
Try option 1 (split Install Wim into smaller files)
Use the attached file. Read the ReadMe.txt