creating USB BOOTABLE MEDIA for clean install of windows 10

[abrar_50]

hi, i want to perform a clean install of windows 10 on newly installed SSD on my laptop.

my SSD is M.2 SATA SSD 500gb

SO, I downloaded the ISO file from microsoft and while creating 'USB BOOTABLE MEDIA" on my 128gb pendrive using "RUFUS" software , there are two options -

one is for GPT or MBR

and the other is FAT32 or NTFS

which ones should i select?

i still didn't created partition of that SSD. it is now as UNALLOCATED space.

my HDD is GPT as far as i know and NTFS too.

should i create NTFS partition of SSD and then perform the clean install or there are other options.

I am just confused about the above mentioned options( GPT/MBR and FAT32/NTFS) for creating usb bootable media.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You want to select the GPT partition scheme in the Rufus utility since your notebook supports secure boot.

In order to enable Secure boot, you need to install W10 in GPT.

MBR is legacy mode, and you will not be able to set the secure boot setting if W10 is installed in legacy mode.

Use all of the other default modes on the Rufus menu.  You just need to make sure that GPT is the default setting in the partition scheme,

You don't need to do anything to the SSD.  Just install it and use the bootable W10 installation flash drive you created with Rufus, and it should go just fine.

[abrar_50]

thanks a lot for the answer. i understand now.

and i just want to know if FAT32 or NTFS makes any difference.

will it cause any problem if i choose wrong option?

and which option is better to choose? plz let me know.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You need to use NTFS because there will be some files that are larger than 4 GB.

Rufus should take care of everything because it automatically formats the USB flash drive in the way it needs to create a bootable USB flash drive.

[danios2]

If your main system is GUID Partition Table (gpt) it must be using Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (uefi) for booting your main system disk, so when you create the media it should create it with a bootmgr.efi file on it and also a folder with the name efi, I would format the disk as gpt since your system is using efi and to be compatible with more systems I would go with the fat32 instead of the ntfs, also when doing the ISO make sure your copying the files in the ISO and not the ISO itself (using RUFUS it should do this for you automatically). One other thing, I have found frustrating with HP using the M.2 ssd with INTEL drivers is that when booting  up with recovery or a install disk on usb stick is that after boot up the system can not see my M.2 ssd drive, they have a work around they say on here to download the drivers and install them when you go to install the system, however I have tried the solution and the drivers do not install and I can still not see the M.2 ssd, so if I ever have to do a recovery on my system, its going to be awful....I have 6 PC and it is only the HP with INTEL disk drivers that this happens on.....its a work in progress one could say.

[abrar_50]

yeah. i got it . thanks Paul_Tikkanen

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

[abrar_50]

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@danios2 wrote:

If your main system is GUID Partition Table (gpt) it must be using Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (uefi) for booting your main system disk, so when you create the media it should create it with a bootmgr.efi file on it and also a folder with the name efi, I would format the disk as gpt since your system is using efi and to be compatible with more systems I would go with the fat32 instead of the ntfs, also when doing the ISO make sure your copying the files in the ISO and not the ISO itself (using RUFUS it should do this for you automatically). One other thing, I have found frustrating with HP using the M.2 ssd with INTEL drivers is that when booting  up with recovery or a install disk on usb stick is that after boot up the system can not see my M.2 ssd drive, they have a work around they say on here to download the drivers and install them when you go to install the system, however I have tried the solution and the drivers do not install and I can still not see the M.2 ssd, so if I ever have to do a recovery on my system, its going to be awful....I have 6 PC and it is only the HP with INTEL disk drivers that this happens on.....its a work in progress one could say.

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isn't there any way to install the required drivers to solve this problem?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @abrar_50 

Your notebook is not going to need any special drivers to install W10.

It has an Intel 7th generation core processor.

[danios2]

I have followed the directions on here about adding those drivers, does not work for a recovery disk, however I made a Windows 11 install disk and after a lot of playing around, I can see Drive to install Windows 11 onto the drive, but that is the problem, I do not want to install it as there is nothing wrong with my laptop, I just used the onboard "make a recovery disk to make a boot-able disk (you would think it would put needed drivers on the disk automatically like all other six PC's I have, guess Hp likes to keep one guessing. So I will have to try install disk I made and hope when I cancel install that the disk will still see my M.2 SSD, my laptop came with everything installed in it already, I purchased it new about 3 months or so back for my Business so I could experiment with Windows 11 to see if programs would work on it or not, it's ok, but really don't like the hassle of finding drivers for M.2 SSD with the Intel drive drivers.