Avatar of Sean Scissors
Sean Scissors
Flag for United States of America asked on

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

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!DetailVolumeDiskpart.png
Microsoft DOSWindows XP

Avatar of undefined
Last Comment
huacat

8/22/2022 - Mon
Ogandos

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.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Ogandos

THIS SOLUTION ONLY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS.
View this solution by signing up for a free trial.
Members can start a 7-Day free trial and enjoy unlimited access to the platform.
See Pricing Options
Start Free Trial
GET A PERSONALIZED SOLUTION
Ask your own question & get feedback from real experts
Find out why thousands trust the EE community with their toughest problems.
Sean Scissors

ASKER
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.
Ogandos

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.
Experts Exchange is like having an extremely knowledgeable team sitting and waiting for your call. Couldn't do my job half as well as I do without it!
James Murphy
Sean Scissors

ASKER
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.
Ogandos

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.
Sean Scissors

ASKER
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?
⚡ FREE TRIAL OFFER
Try out a week of full access for free.
Find out why thousands trust the EE community with their toughest problems.
David Johnson, CD

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>

Open in new window

Ogandos

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

THIS SOLUTION ONLY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS.
View this solution by signing up for a free trial.
Members can start a 7-Day free trial and enjoy unlimited access to the platform.
See Pricing Options
Start Free Trial
⚡ FREE TRIAL OFFER
Try out a week of full access for free.
Find out why thousands trust the EE community with their toughest problems.
Scott Silva

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.
Experts Exchange has (a) saved my job multiple times, (b) saved me hours, days, and even weeks of work, and often (c) makes me look like a superhero! This place is MAGIC!
Walt Forbes
huacat

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.