I'm upgrading my PC and planning to give my old setup to my little brother. Currently, I have two drives: an SSD with Windows that I'll keep and an HDD that's just for storage and will go to him. The trick is, I don't have a USB flash drive at the moment. I want to completely wipe the HDD and install Windows on it for my brother, and later, I plan to refresh Windows on my SSD for myself. I've looked into the Media Creation Tool and resetting Windows, but it seems like I can only reinstall Windows on my current OS drive. Is there any legit way to install Windows on the HDD without using a USB, or am I basically out of options? Also, I'm switching from an Intel to an AMD motherboard, so I'd like to avoid cloning if possible. Just looking for the cleanest and easiest method here.
6 Answers
If it will boot at all, you might just run a reset on your current system and choose to keep nothing. That way, it’ll wipe everything and prepare the drive fresh.
I get it—it's funny how people want to avoid spending $5 on a USB stick when they're investing in all these other components for their PC. It’s like avoiding the modern equivalent of needing a CD to install an OS. Just get that USB!
I went to Walmart and picked up a 16GB USB drive for just $4. I used the Media Creation Tool to create a bootable installation drive with it, and now I can install Windows on multiple builds!
You could check out this video; it might help you out: [YouTube Link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amx_2beSaqg). There are also other guides that might provide the info you need on installing Windows without a USB.
It is correct that you can't install Windows on the HDD without a bootable drive. The easiest and cleanest method is just to grab the cheapest USB flash drive you can find and make it into an installation boot drive. If you put the SSD in the new system, it might try to boot from it, but you'll still need to install the right drivers and clean up the image using tools like sfc.exe and dism.exe after the switch.
You could technically mess around with formatting and booting from the other drive, but really, it's far easier to just buy a USB flash drive. They’re super cheap and will save you a ton of hassle.
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