UNABLE TO IMAGE OFF USB DEVICE

[smittywes38]

I have an HP Probook 440 G3 and I am attempting to image the machine with a Windows 7 image off my USB device.
The Probook has Windows 10 on it. I figure the bios holds the secret but after changing several things I cannot get the laptop to boot from the USB device.
Any suggestions as to how to get this machine to boot to the USB device and start the image?

Thanks,

smittywes38

 

[goombawaho]

You aren't explaining what you're trying to do in enough detail, but the USB device, if it contains the image file, is usually NOT bootable. It is the storage device for the image ONLY. What software are you using? Explain source drive/destination drive.

Usually, you have to boot to the rescue media of something like Acronis or Macrium Reflect. You can boot from either a USB memory stick or a CD with a version of Windows PE on it + the program. Then you can point the software to the external USB drive or other storage media that contains an image file. Then you point to the hard drive where you want to PUT the image.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[rclarke250]

You can have an windows image on a usb stick, that is bootable. Microsoft even makes a tool for it in the case of Windows 7. The Windows USB DVD download tool. I have bootable USB sticks with Windows 7 and Windows 10 that work as upgrades or clean install, depending on if I boot from the thumb stick or put it in on a system booted into windows already. There are other tools that will let you accomplish this also. But simply downloading an image and copying it onto a thumb drive will not let you boot from nor install from the image file.

Now what I have found strange is sometimes depending on the unit you are trying to boot from, if it has UEFI, the USB device may show up as a hard drive, and in that case you need to go to boot order of hard drives, and put the USB device before the installed hard drive. Also if the system allows for a "one time boot selection" like press F11 to select boot device, It won't boot from the device if it is labeled as UEFI:USB <blah blah blah>, but if there is an option to boot legacy USB devices in EUFI, have that enabled, and then there will be something like USB: Sandisk xxxxxxxx, choosing this will allow it to boot from the thumb drive. Sandisk used as an example only.

 

[smittywes38]

Thanks Fellas,

The USB device is bootable and has on it the Windows 7 image. When I F11 I do see the device and in choosing it I see the system attempts to boot on it but bypasses it eventually and boots to windows 10.

 

[goombawaho]

Ok, I was thinking third party imaging tools!!!

If it attempts to boot from the USB stick, then the BIOS is set correctly but there is something wrong with the boot files on the USB stick. You may need to recreate the bootable usb device.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[rclarke250]

Yep, I concur.