My situation is that I just unboxed and plugged in my new Framework Laptop DIY Edition (12th Gen Intel® Core™). Unboxing was great, but now to install Windows it says I need a Windows machine and an 8GB USB key.
Well the reason that I bought this in the first place is that my Windows machine is broken. I can probably use my son’s fancy tower gaming machine, though, if I ask nice.
I don’t have any USB keys lying around (do most people??). I guess I could go out and buy one.
Does this really mean just “a USB storage device with at least 8GB of free space”? Because I do have both the HDD and SSD from my broken Windows machine in USB external containers, and they have free space. Can I just use one of those? Or does the process destroy existing stuff on the USB device, and I should just (sigh) drive to Best Buy or something?
You would need to create a bootable USB device with Windows iso (most likely with Rufus or any other software like that. You could use an external HDD/SSD but yould most likely have to wipe it clean during the process of making a bootable drive. I higly suggest keeping just one USB3 USB key just for flashing OS wheter Windows or Linux. there might be other ways but i’m not familiar with them
If you had needed it, the Windows Media Creation Tool would have wiped whatever was on the USB flash drive used to create your bootstrap to install Windows.
I can probably use my son’s fancy tower gaming machine, though, if I ask nice.