usb - Windows 8.1 installation: Which drive is the F drive?

07
2014-07
  • sammyg

    I am doing a clean install of Windows 8.1 on an old PC. It was purchased as download from Microsoft Store and written to and booted from a USB flash drive.

    It went through all of these steps:

    1. Copying Windows Files
    2. Getting files ready for installation
    3. Installing features
    4. Installing updates

    Then at "Getting finished" I am stuck at this stupid dialog box.

    Please unplug the following external drive and click OK to restart your computer and finish installing Windows.

    F:

    How do I tell what physical drive this is? Can I drop to command prompt during installation? And is it safe to unplug it while powered on?

    There is no external hard drive connected, none that I can see. There is no USB or FireWire drive connected externally. I think it sees one of the internal drives as external... in some weird way?!

    • Answers
  • sammyg

    Solution

    1. Press Shift+F10 to bring up a command prompt.

    2. Type the following command:

      wmic logicaldisk get caption,filesystem,size,volumename

    Example output

    Caption  FileSystem  Size          VolumeName       
C:       NTFS        366997504     System Reserved  
D:       NTFS        20974428160   System           
E:       FAT32       80004153344   80 GB            
F:       FAT32       7721713664    ESD-USB          
G:       NTFS        53884649472   Datadisk N
H:       NTFS        315183595520  Backup           
I:       NTFS        59073925120   Datadisk         
J:       NTFS        130668294144                   
K:                                                  
L:                                                  
X:       NTFS        533640192     Boot

    Further reading


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  • gladiator2345

    I cloned my windows 7 installation on c: to external hard drive. I applied usb patch using pwboot and i could successfully boot into windows. But My problem is even though i am booting in to external hd the file reference and system path is pointing to c: on my internal hard disk. If i remove internal hd and boot it will get stuck at login screen. Is there any way i can force drive letter c: to my boot partition on external hd while booting from it.


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  • gladiator2345

    I found the solution for drive letter conflict.Hope it may help someone. Please hit up if you liked it.

    Here are the steps from scratch.

    1.Install windows 7 to an internal hard drive.

    2.After installation is complete copy the entire partition to external hard disk using easeus partition wizard.Preferably install os in c: of internal and copy the partition to starting of external hd. install bcd to external using easy bcd. donot forget to add the cloned partition to boot menu.

    3.Apply USB patch using pwboot(important) http://reboot.pro/6851/.

    3.After that boot into external hard disk while internal hard disk is connected.

    4.Internal hard disk will be detected as c. Booting will start from external hd partition but after os boot all file references will go to internal hd as it is detected as c:.

    5.Note down the drive letter of cloned partition in external usb.say D:

    6.Now disconnect internal hard disk and reboot into external usb. You will end up in desktop without any toolbar or wallpaper.

    7.Press ctrl+alt+del to bring task manager then in run type regedit.

    1. In registry navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

    2. Rename "\DosDevices\C:" to say "\DosDevices\B:"

    10 Then rename "\DosDevices\D:" (where d: is the drive letter of windows installation in external usb.) to "\DosDevices\C:"

    11 Reboot and enjoy windows 7 from external usb hdd.