How to Make USB flash drive bootable with Win 10 - Aspire TC-885-UA91

My PC is Aspire TC-885-UA91.

I have purchased some Win 10 licenses, tried to use the first one for a 32-bit Win 10 Pro and boot from a USB flash drive for my old programs/games.

As I use the MediaCreationTool20H2 (downloaded from Microsoft web site) and chose “Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC” option, the program did created something on the flash drive and the volume label changed to ESD-USB. The Architecture selected was 32-Bit (X86), I believe this is for software architecture, not hardware. Download was fine, and I clicked "Finish".

Shutdown the PC, start up and reached the boot menu. I was able to see the flash drive as a bootable device. Selected to boot from flash drive, but it won’t boot, and returned with a message that “Some files are missing”. So, I don’t even have the chance to enter Windows Product Key for Activation.

I have tried different flash drives, almost same results, so not a bad drive problem.

I have also tried the newer MediaCreationTool21H1, this time the flash drive even will not appear on the Boot Menu as if this flash drive is not a bootable device ( changed the Boot Order in BIOS, same result).

What I have done wrong? Or there are other steps or programs to run making Win10 bootable from the flash drive? I think once the MediaCreationTool20H2 has finished, I can just use the flash drive to boot Win 10 Pro 32-bit, but that's not the case.

Rufus explicitly indicated cannot be used for a UEFI machine for 32-Bit Win 10.

I know if I use DVD to burn ISO and install 32-Bit Win 10 Pro on a separate SSD, it may work, but at boot up I probably will end up with two Windows Boot Manager that may cause confusion to my PC ( or maybe myself too).

Thanks in advance.

//Edited the content to add model name.

Accepted answers

billsey

I believe there are no drivers for the chipset and 32bit, so you have to run 64bit. You might be able to get around that with a virtual machine for your 32 bit needs...

ttttt

@Billsey,

I have tried to install 32-bit Win 10 Pro to the TC-885-UA91 by trying to match BIOS settings of the AUSU motherboard PC. Also tried change the BIOS to CSM, the BIOS seemed changed to Legacy mode, but it is the same result. I have tried so many other things and the results are either the BIOS did not see the 32-bit bootable USB flash drive as a bootable device, or it returned with a message saying "some files are missing" ( probably the 32-bit driver files). No wonder from day one that I got my TC-885, the BIOS gave me error message "some files are missing" whenever an installation DVD contained 32-bit Win 10 was never able to boot successfully.
So, I think you are right, there are no 32-bit drivers for the B360 chipset.

I just finished building my new i5-11500 PC a few days ago with ASUS Prime B560-Plus motherboard, and I could not wait to try it out with the 32-bit Win 10 installation, hoping that this time the B560 chipset can handle it.

The result..., just the same as the TC-885 with the B360 chipset, saying some files are missing. It all happened so fast, I did not have a chance to jolt down which file(s) is/are missing.

However, I am not giving up yet. Since the OS installed for this new i5-11500 machine is a Win 10 Pro, I may be able to use Hyper-V to get around the problem in the future. That may take some time and plenty of learning to achieve that.

Just another interesting project!

Once again, thank you for pointing out what is wrong , and all the time reading my long messages.

All comments

StevenGen

ttttt said:

My PC is Aspire TC-885-UA91.

I have purchased some Win 10 licenses, tried to use the first one for a 32-bit Win 10 Pro and boot from a USB flash drive for my old programs/games.
As I use the MediaCreationTool20H2 (downloaded from Microsoft web site) and chose “Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC” option, the program did created something on the flash drive and the volume label changed to ESD-USB. The Architecture selected was 32-Bit (X86), I believe this is for software architecture, not hardware. Download was fine, and I clicked "Finish".

Shutdown the PC, start up and reached the boot menu. I was able to see the flash drive as a bootable device. Selected to boot from flash drive, but it won’t boot, and returned with a message that “Some files are missing”. So, I don’t even have the chance to enter Windows Product Key for Activation.

I have tried different flash drives, almost same results, so not a bad drive problem.
I have also tried the newer MediaCreationTool21H1, this time the flash drive even will not appear on the Boot Menu as if this flash drive is not a bootable device ( changed the Boot Order in BIOS, same result).

What I have done wrong? Or there are other steps or programs to run making Win10 bootable from the flash drive? I think once the MediaCreationTool20H2 has finished, I can just use the flash drive to boot Win 10 Pro 32-bit, but that's not the case.
Rufus explicitly indicated cannot be used for a UEFI machine for 32-Bit Win 10.

I know if I use DVD to burn ISO and install 32-Bit Win 10 Pro on a separate SSD, it may work, but at boot up I probably will end up with two Windows Boot Manager that may cause confusion to my PC ( or maybe myself too).

Thanks in advance.

Have a look at this guide it explains it very well "How to Create a Bootable Windows 10 USB Install Medium (Legacy or UEFI)" its a simple process.

ttttt

@StevenGen
Thanks for the info. The link covered both the MediaCreationTool method and the Rufus methods. I chose the MediaCreationTool ( version 21H1)method and is confident that nothing have done wrong with those simple selections.

One thing that I can think of is the PC I am using to run the Media Creation Tool is a Win 10 Home Edition, will it potentially create problems for Win 10 Pro on the flash drive later? So far it is still a mystery.

Larryodie

Maybe try FN + F12 at boot up or just F12 to recognize your USB

StevenGen

ttttt said:

@StevenGen
Thanks for the info. The link covered both the MediaCreationTool method and the Rufus methods. I chose the MediaCreationTool ( version 21H1)method and is confident that nothing have done wrong with those simple selections.

One thing that I can think of is the PC I am using to run the Media Creation Tool is a Win 10 Home Edition, will it potentially create problems for Win 10 Pro on the flash drive later? So far it is still a mystery.

No the Win=10 pro is the same installation but different activation from Microsoft, as the MediaCreationTool .ISO that you have on the USB is the complete version of Won-10 20H2 and it activates according to what you have registered with Microsoft of either Home or Pro or whatever key you put inn of the versions that you have. Also. every laptop registers with Microsoft through BIOS to what OS it had/has OEM and unless you have a specific Pro key you cant change the digital licence from Home to Pro with just the laptops details, you have to have a specific key for Pro. I think that your laptop is registered for Win-10 Home and that is why you are not getting a Pro digital licence.

Look here for how to andall the details for "Activate Windows 10"

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/mp/4rihe17g8b4d.jpg

This is the latest Win-10 Pro specs

ttttt

@StevenGen
I am not trying to change from the Home to Pro version, don't even have a chance to specify Home or Pro yet.

All my PCs SHOULD( currently except this TC-885-UA91 desktop) have a 32-Bit and a 64 Bit Win 10 and multiple versions of Linux.
Two PCs are using the 32-Bit drives as the default, as during daily usages it is just hard to tell any difference as long as I do not open twenty tabs in the bowser or doing a lot of things in just one session. There are still some old programs/games that we will run everyday.

Hey, I am making some good progress!

Earlier today I used another PC ( ASUS motherboard, AMI BIOS, 32-Bit Win 10 PRO), using Gparted of Linuxmint to format another flash drive with MBR partition and FAT32 format. Then ran the Media Creation Tool ( version 20H2) to create bootable flash drive on it. Later on, I disconnected all drives other than this freshly created flash drive. This time the flash drive booted O.K.. Seemed like Windows 10 is ready for Activation. I stopped at that first page as I intended to use bootable flash drive (this flash drive is too slow, just for testing purpose only at that time) for TC-885-UA91 desktop, not on this PC already has a running copy of Win 10 Pro.

So, this proved I haven't done anything wrong during the process of Media Creation.

Tomorrow, I'll concentrate on different BIOS settings between the ASUS motherboard and the Acer TC-885 motherboard.

Note: Last year I purchased 5 Windows licenses (one product key good for 5 licenses), with that I could choose 32 or 64 bit , either Home or Pro version.

billsey

I believe there are no drivers for the chipset and 32bit, so you have to run 64bit. You might be able to get around that with a virtual machine for your 32 bit needs...

ttttt

@billsey

Oh, the B360 chipset on the motherboard won't support 32-bit ? Maybe I'll test with some 32-bit Linux later.

You brought some lights to my issue, so I tried the virtual machine route and do some research. Hyper-V seemed to be the right one for virtual machine, but it is not for Win 10 Home version( my TC-885-UA91's OS), so this avenue is closed.

I have tried to load Optimized Defaults in the BIOS, no luck.

Eventually I may end up trying to install the 32-bit W10 Pro to a 2.5" SATA3 SSD or need to compress my existing M.2 NVMe SSD for space and create another partition for this 32-bit and do dual-boot, just like in my Dell laptop.

Anyway, still working on it.

ttttt

@Billsey,

I have tried to install 32-bit Win 10 Pro to the TC-885-UA91 by trying to match BIOS settings of the AUSU motherboard PC. Also tried change the BIOS to CSM, the BIOS seemed changed to Legacy mode, but it is the same result. I have tried so many other things and the results are either the BIOS did not see the 32-bit bootable USB flash drive as a bootable device, or it returned with a message saying "some files are missing" ( probably the 32-bit driver files). No wonder from day one that I got my TC-885, the BIOS gave me error message "some files are missing" whenever an installation DVD contained 32-bit Win 10 was never able to boot successfully.
So, I think you are right, there are no 32-bit drivers for the B360 chipset.

I just finished building my new i5-11500 PC a few days ago with ASUS Prime B560-Plus motherboard, and I could not wait to try it out with the 32-bit Win 10 installation, hoping that this time the B560 chipset can handle it.

The result..., just the same as the TC-885 with the B360 chipset, saying some files are missing. It all happened so fast, I did not have a chance to jolt down which file(s) is/are missing.

However, I am not giving up yet. Since the OS installed for this new i5-11500 machine is a Win 10 Pro, I may be able to use Hyper-V to get around the problem in the future. That may take some time and plenty of learning to achieve that.

Just another interesting project!

Once again, thank you for pointing out what is wrong , and all the time reading my long messages.