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What does "Installable" mean within Diskpart Detail Volume properties?

Posted on 2016-09-22

2 solutions

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Last Modified: 2016-09-30

I have been trying to understand why my bootable flash drive no longer works. I have researched a ton and the only thing that seems odd is when I select the volume and then type "detail volume" all of the properties are listed as "No" included "installable". Is there something that could have caused this option to change? Is there a way to make it changed back to "yes"?

I have checked to make sure the flash drive is recognized, the computer is set on legacy boot and Flash drive is the first option. On the flash drive is everything including MBR, imagex to run my ISO etc. I have used this flash drive in the past numerous times and it all of a sudden stopped working.

After doing all my research I can't find anywhere an explanation of what "installable" even means when looking at the "detail volume" properties. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Question by:Sean Scissors

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12 Comments

LVL 14

Expert Comment

by:Schnell Solutions

ID: 418111082016-09-22

A volume is specified as installable when DiskPart understands that the Windows Operating System can be installed on it.

If you try to install windows on a volume that is not installable, setup might display an error telling that the partition is not recognized and that you cannot install the OS on it.

LVL 14

Accepted Solution

by:Schnell Solutions

Schnell Solutions earned 250 total points

ID: 418111262016-09-22

There are many requirements for allowing an USB to boot the system, mainly the location (sectors) where are the boot files located, the files themselve and the file system type used. If any of these things change by corruption, modification or data movement the disk can stop its ability to start the system.

Have you tried to prepare your USB with one of these tools that makes the process completely and avoid the manual tasks (partitioning, formatting, etc).

Microsoft has a very simple util called Windows USB/DVD Download Tool
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

Basically it just asks you for an USB device, an ISO/CD/DVD boot media and then it makes the rest of the process. Even if the tool was designed for Windows 7, it works in the same way from Windows Vista until Windows 10 (WS 2008 to WS 2016) as far as all of them share the same boot process.

LVL 8

Author Comment

by:Sean Scissors

ID: 418111832016-09-22

So I formatted the flash drive manually and before putting anything on it I noticed it was registered as "installable: no". So I used the Windows USB/DVD download tool and tried that way and it said "installabled:no" but all that is on there is an ISO and that worked. What I previously would do is boot up from the flash drive and run imagex to run our .wim file. So while I can now install Win7 using my flash drive I still have issues installing our modified image.

LVL 14

Expert Comment

by:Schnell Solutions

ID: 418111972016-09-22

Good. When the USB starts the installation, it is a miniOS that is booting with very special conditions. Installable refers more to the installation of a complete Windows OS on it, like you can make it on a hard drive. For the case you can ignore that parameter, that is only the meaning of installable. It is also old, from the times of Windows 2000/XP when the boot methods were different.

LVL 8

Author Comment

by:Sean Scissors

ID: 418112092016-09-22

Scratch that. It booted into the flash drive and got to the Windows Install but it gave an error about required drivers are missing. I know for a fact the ISO I put on there works because when put on a disc it works properly. The reason for using a flash drive is because we have a modified image its entirely too large to place on even a DVD.

In other words, it half worked but didn't let us actually install windows.

LVL 14

Expert Comment

by:Schnell Solutions

ID: 418112162016-09-22

Hum, if it does not detect your hard drives and it says that drivers are missing it sounds like if the installer cannot find correct disk/storage drivers to recognize the disks. Is it a server? or a computer with a non common disk controller? or a virtual machine with non digitalized drivers from the HyperVisor? Where are you trying to make the installation?

You are telling that the ISO installer was modified, do you know if the drivers of the BootImage where modified?

Usually if it is just a driver issue you can test loading the drivers at that step of the setup (if it shows you a prompt to add more drivers and detect the hardware). If it works you can then inject these drivers into your boot image.

LVL 8

Author Comment

by:Sean Scissors

ID: 418112512016-09-22

What we did was put the ISO on a DVD and booted from that and installed Windows 10. For whatever reason our Flash drives wouldn't work as they used to.

My original question was if the Flash drive is considered "installable:no" is there any way to change that setting?

LVL 82

Expert Comment

by:David Johnson, CD, MVP

ID: 418112672016-09-22

What you need is a winpe disk that has the drivers for your mass storage device. The drivers have to be added to the boot.wim
or if you want to continue to use setup rename your custom.wim to install.wim

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.14926.1000

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: DJOHNSON-W10

DISKPART> list vol

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     K   My DVD       UDF    DVD-ROM     1460 MB  Healthy
  Volume 1     C   Windows 10   NTFS   Partition    361 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 2     Z   Server 2016  NTFS   Partition    114 GB  Healthy
  Volume 3         Recovery     NTFS   Partition    450 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 4                      FAT32  Partition     99 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 5                      NTFS   Partition    454 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 6     D   Storage      NTFS   Partition     14 TB  Healthy

DISKPART> sel vol 6

Volume 6 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> detail vol

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
* Disk 8    Online           14 TB      0 B        *

Read-only              : No
Hidden                 : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy            : No
Offline                : No
BitLocker Encrypted    : No
Installable            : Yes

Volume Capacity        :   14 TB
Volume Free Space      : 2847 GB

DISKPART> sel vol 0

Volume 0 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> det vol

There are no disks attached to this volume.

Read-only              : No
Hidden                 : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy            : No
Offline                : No
BitLocker Encrypted    : No
Installable            : No

Volume Capacity        : 1460 MB
Volume Free Space      :     0 B

DISKPART> sel vol 1

Volume 1 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> det vol

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
* Disk 5    Online          476 GB  1024 KB        *

Read-only              : No
Hidden                 : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy            : No
Offline                : No
BitLocker Encrypted    : No
Installable            : Yes

Volume Capacity        :  361 GB
Volume Free Space      :   77 GB

DISKPART>

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LVL 14

Expert Comment

by:Schnell Solutions

ID: 418112802016-09-22

With DiskPart you can just set the attributes HIDDEN, READONLY, NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER, SHADOWCOPY and NOERR. Not the Installable attribute, it depends from the volume properties.

LVL 47

Assisted Solution

by:noxcho

noxcho earned 250 total points

ID: 418120052016-09-23

My original question was if the Flash drive is considered "installable:no" is there any way to change that setting?

No. The Flash drive is not a local fixed drive. Fixed means it is connected directly via SATA cable. Only internal drives can be "installable".
There are tools which can remove this "removable" bit from USB drive and cheat the system think that USB drive is a normal internal drive. But BIOS will detect it again as USB drive though Windows would see it as internal.
People remove/flip this bit to be able to create more than one partition on USB flash drive.
Look here how: http://superuser.com/questions/391176/flipping-the-removable-media-bit-alternatives-to-bootit
But it will not resolve your problem. I have had exactly the same problem with USB Flash drive when trying to create a multi-installation USB Media which would allow me installing any of 4 OS versions I put onto this drive. The same problem with "missing drivers". Whatever drivers I tried - failed. And from DVD - it worked perfectly.

LVL 10

Expert Comment

by:Scott Silva

ID: 418132622016-09-23

I don't think you can just put the ISO on a flash drive and expect it to work... You need to use a utility to basically make the usb bootable and EXTRACT the files from the dvd onto it.

LVL 6

Expert Comment

by:huacat

ID: 418232212016-09-30

Hmm, when you use USB install windows and get error about device drive missing, try below(this solution provider by TomNeild: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/a-required-cddvd-device-driver-is-missing-usb/61eda679-66cc-4512-b175-d02871394461?auth=1), and many people said it works:
--------
I assume all of you is using USB drive to install.

When Windows is asking for driver, just click Cancel. You will be brought back to the welcome screen. At the welcome screen, remove your USB drive, insert it back to DIFFERENT USB PORT. Click Install Now again. The installation process will be like usual.

This problem happened to all new version of updated Windows 7 installer. I think, it is due to failure of Windows installer to remain its detection to the USB drive. It lost the connection, and became confused, don't know where to find the USB drive it used to read before.

When we re-insert the USB drive, Windows installer will detect the USB drive back, and continue like usual.

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