Fresh install, all went well, but default boot device is still missing

[Fraoch]

No, there is no way to update the WD firmware without Windows.

There are various ways you can install Windows to a (large) USB stick or expansion card.

[Guide] Updating ssd firmware using windows .vhd + ventoy

I finally went through the hassle of getting my WD drivers updated. The basic idea is I have a USB stick and want to get a working copy of windows on it just long enough to run the firmware update. Windows doesn’t like to install to USB’s, so we install to a VM first, and then boot straight off the vm disk image. Here’s how I did it: Prerequisites Have a USB stick with at least ~30GB, with decent speeds. After suffering decades of mediocre USB sticks, I purchased the Kingston Datatraveler-max …

Install Windows to USB with Ventoy

I tried out @David_Rasch’s excellent guide to installing the Windows-only Framework BIOS updater for Linux users here: And inspired by this success, I tried to run the WD Dashboard software to update the firmware in my WD SN850 SSD I have installed. Unfortunately WD Dashboard doesn’t run this way. It cannot run by command line, it needs to install to a GUI and since the Windows installer doesn’t have this type of environment, it errors out with a “this version of Windows is not supported” er…

A Guide to Installing Windows 10 Home to a Framework Storage Expansion Card

“I know it’s easy to install a Linux distribution to one of the storage expansion cards and boot into it on the fly, but what if I wanted to do that with Windows?” “Windows is more complicated.” And it is! However, it can be done, and while the process can look intimidating, all it really requires is patience to go slowly and double check each step. The end result is a full, non-restricted Windows install on one of your expansion cards that you can remove, insert, and boot into at your co…

How to install Windows 10 on an expansion card

This is how I managed to install Windows 10 on my 250gb expansion card whilst having Manjaro installed on my SSD. I can boot into Windows by inserting the expansion card into my laptop and booting it. Create a windows 10 USB bootable disk and boot from it. (You can use WoeUSB on Linux or Rufus on Windows) Once you’re in the Setup program, select your language, time and currency format and input method, and click Next. Click the Install Now button. Enter/Skip your Windows key if prompted, and r…