Help! cannot find info here on creating a WinPE rescue USB thumb drive

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Unable to find info here [Framework] about above.. I got my o.g. F 12” working again, cuz the F 16” I bought a year ago was killed by BSOD less than 24 hrs ago..

Win10 on the twelve, Win11 on the 16. I think both are Pro.. I saw info here, a year ago, about WinPE, but cant find it now.. any response will be appreciated.

regards..

David

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Are you perhaps looking for this? It has the basic steps to create a WinPE thumb drive to update the bios with links to the Microsoft documentation for creating and customizing a WinPE thumb drive.

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Thx, so much..

I couldnt get Rufus to work, but I am not a techie, programmer, or coder, and I am a few years behind on the current tech. BSOD crippled my F 16" yesterday. it boots, I log in to Windows 11, and cant do anything, 'cuz Win is blind!! I cant see anything, or fix it, 'cuz Win cant see anything. attempts to repair and/or restore and/or recover have failed. but, my attempts have convinced me only thing that has been lost is ‘the map’. The integrity of the drive, Win11, and a year of my internet data, I believe it is all still good. I believe a WinPE USB rescue thumbdrive may enable Win11 to find the map it needs to find again to restore full functioning. It might work, and that is what I want to try, first!

It seems BartPE is obsolete 20+ yrs, I cant yet get Rufus to work.. Bart, and others, had a WinPE plus diagnostics and tools to Fix things, and that is what I want to find. I will NOT do a RESET and reinstall WIN, losing all of it and having to rebuild, until I make a coupla attempts to Fix it first, rather than destroy and rebuild from nothing.
I dont believe a virus or malware is responsible. i dont believe the BIOS got corrupted or compromised. I believe that Win and the drive and my data [my precious!] are intact.

Imagine you go into a library to find a book on a certain topic, in order to do research. But you cant actually get inside until you use the card catalog to find, and tell the librarian, the book you are seeking. The problem is that I know what I want, and tell the librarian, and she [sorry] cant find it! Ya wanna know why?
'cuz someone stole the card catalog!!

that is what BSOD did to my Win11 drive. yesterday! I know what I am seeking and tell the librarian, and she [not sorry, no] cant help me cuz someone stole the card catalog, so she [Win] turns me away.. but, the library is there, the books are there, the book that i want is there. but they [Win] wont let me inside to find the book on my own! a WinPE usb boot thumbdrive may enable me to recover/restore the card catalog [ Win ‘map’, or directory structure] so that when I tell the librarian what I am seeking, she [shaddup] will be able find it in the restored card catalog, and let me in to get that book, and find other books, and other people seeking other books and purposes and everything else wondreful about houses of books!

sorry if you did not enjoy reading my tale. but, I enjoyed telling it, and for that, I am glad! [Not sorry]

again, thx for your response. regards..

David

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No worries, attempting to repair and recover is of course the natural first step to try however you shouldn’t need a WinPE for this.

The regular installation media created by using the Windows Media Creation tool allows you to access the Windows Repair Environment (WinRE) for repair and recovery actions. You can find instructions for this here under “Using the installation media”. Read the instructions carefully.

If this fails you can then try to connect your drive to another computer and extract your files from the drive that you wish to save and recover before you reinstall Windows then move them over from the other computer to your new Windows installation.

If you have problems with Rufus you can try Etcher instead, it’s quite a lot simpler and easier to use.

The general troubleshooting steps for BSOD issues can be found here in the Microsoft documentation.

Good luck :four_leaf_clover:

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wow! thx. i think i tried WinRE without success, but I will try it, mebe for second time..

but I must sleep now. after, I will take a look at Etcher, which I have not heard of before, and for which I say again, thank you. [shamrock, ‘cuz I dont do emoji’s]

regards..

David

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You’re welcome, good luck and good night!

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so, V-R, Vic?

looks like Etcher wont work until I can give it an ISO file? mebe that is why my attempt with Rufus failed. So I told Etcher to ‘clone drive’, which was hidden.. i selected and chose it, as either system or source drive? i am not sure which or if it even matters.. now it wants me to send it to a target! I want to send it to my thumbdrive, but my USB A expansion is currently down. Can I send it to file on my HD instead, until I can get it onto a thumbdrive?

Can I plug in a second USB C expansion port into my computer, of course first C port is for power, and a plug a dongle into port 2 to push it onto my UAB A thumbdrive? whadya think?

regards..

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heya Vic. I plugged in a USB A thumbdrive into a second USB C expansion port through a dongle {A to C], and it worked! working on it now. gonna format the thumbdrive and Etch it!

you helped me to get here. regards..

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You’re welcome!

Yes that is correct, you need an ISO to write to the USB, which is the disk image of which you will later boot from. So if you did not have an ISO that would be a reason it did not work for you.

If you choose to clone your drive you must use a target that has the same size or larger than the HDD/SSD you have inside your laptop with the Windows installation otherwise it will fail.

Clone drive does exactly what the name implies, it writes the entire contents of one drive onto another drive, completely, so using a thumb drive for this is not recommended because it will not have enough space.

You can do this onto another HDD/SSD to recover your files however please make sure to check the content on the cloned drive before you reinstall Windows on your original drive. If something went wrong and the contents are not accessible you will loose your files, so be careful and go one step at a time.

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so, i realize i dont want to clone my HD.. duh. so, how do i get an iso of Win10 or 11 and put it onto a bootable thumbdrive?

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Before you try to fix your Windows installation or reinstall Windows, I would recommend that you boot up your Windows computer with Linux Mint installed on a USB flash drive. This won’t make any changes to any files on your Windows drive but it will allow you to copy any important files from your Windows drive off onto an external USB flash drive or an external USB hard drive. If you do that you will have a backup copy of your Windows files in case anything goes wrong during your attempts to fix your Windows drive.

Complete detailed instructions are found here and include the ways of creating a bootable USB flash drive with Linux Mint installed on it using a Windows PC, Linux PC, or Mac computer to create the bootable Linux USB flash drive:

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Here are instructions for how to copy files from your Windows hard drive off onto a USB flash drive or external USB drive:

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=154781

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You get one from Microsoft’s download page, here’s another topic where I’ve put the basic instructions for installing Windows 11 with a link to the Microsoft download page.

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hey all,

I have computer skills and experience, hardware and software, systems, networks and the internet, but i am not a programmer and I know nothing about coding. I toyed with BASIC in the late 80’s but wrote only a coupla short programs. I went to college for less than a year, and never learned any computer language. I became capable in MS-DOS and i loved ver. 6.22. I went to trade school, Hickok Tech in Cleveland, OHio. and became a C.E.T., which once meant something, a Certified Electronics Technician, in ‘87.

back then it was MS-DOS, and then Windows came on the scene, and both evolved, but Win95, in 1995, forecast the end of DOS. yeah, DOS is still out there, but is a dead language, like Latin. so, anyway, I installed a version of linux in the 90’s, and used it as main OS for a year or so, but used it through the Win feel KDE visual interface, rather then text based, type commands at the c prompt. move the mouse, point and click. that is how windows works for the user, tell me if I am wrong!! and has done it well, since the beginning, and ever and always getting better at it. move the mouse, point and click. and it works well, Very well!

so, to close, I have become an avid (maybe enslaved?) Win user, and if I need to accomplish something I want to do it with the fewest strokes on the keyboard. if I can copy and paste, that is Great!! as Tony the Tiger used to say. If I could create and use a WinPE recovery usb drive, with only the mouse, point and click, move, point and click, with only a handful or so of copy and paste, but no command line where ya gotta read and type in a string of 50 chars and more, and again, and again.. ya get what i am saying. which PE builder is least on the strokes on the keyboard, and the mostest with the mouse, point and click, move, point and click. I am able and willing to work, but it would be nice to be able to tell someone I got it done, and didnt even have to lift a finger! ( yeh, you are right. sorry!)

yeh, i know! i know it was a bad joke. i sed i’m sorry, and i am, rilly. now would you let me go? Ow!

so what is the lazy man’s WinPE builder, eh? (ow! lemme go!! i was jus funnin’ with ya, but you dont let go, you already got me mad.. [fade to black] )

if you didnt enjoy hearing my story, I enjoyed telling it, and for that I am Not sorry! (who’s crying Now?! ya punk! )

which PE builder, eh? gotta go now. regards..

David

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Hiren’s BootCD PE: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/

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tried it earlier, trying again. haven’t gotten a cmd prompt yet!

David

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this is same David. i was able to rcvr my other Framework account..

same me, same problem..

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hirens and rufus got me the thumbdrive, Moe. I booted Vic with Moe. i cant tell if is the PE that got me here. looks like normal boot of Vic. [from c: not usb?]

guess its time to boot ‘baby’ with Moe.. will let you know..

afn..

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If a Windows 11 USB is created and booted from; upon starting there is an option to “Repair your computer”
From there go to Advanced and one of the options is a Command Prompt. That should give access to at least the internal SSD and files can be copied to another external drive.

If the Framework Laptop 16 is loading Windows it probably is not a missing the FAT/MFT tables (maybe they are called something different now). Something in the registry or drivers is possibly corrupt and causing the video to not work. If there was a recent Restore Point saved rolling back to it may fix it. Getting to the command prompt would at least allow copying of important files. A fresh install might be a good way to go to hopefully prevent it from happening again.

This part is off topic but might be useful to someone else:

Noticed this last night when I was building a new workstation that would not boot properly from the front USB or the high speed ports on the mainboard (ASUS B850 chipset).

Only a few specific ports low speed ports in the back of the motherboard would allow the Windows USB to recognize the drive and allow installation. Apparently this is a known problem with Windows 11 24H2 that does not exist in 23H2 installation according to some of the reading I was doing.

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thx.. will post what happens..