Install windows 10 without disk or usb?

rudy

[H]F Junkie
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Is there any way to install windows 10 over the internet or off an installed ssd? I ask because it's getting to the point where none of my usb sticks work and the same for optical drives. And I literally never use any of these things anymore so I hate to even bother buying any disks or drives. And I feel like this is becoming the norm for many people.
 
unless you want to set up a pxe boot server for network installation, you are stuck with USB for installs. Clonezilla can be a fairly quick set up, Fog is a little more involved but has a better UI.
 
nope,not without pxe as mentioned above. and also as mentioned above, buy a $5 usb.
 
Ya I know you can buy thumb drives for $5 I was just hoping for a better option. IME those $5 thumb drives don't last very long and its part of why I am asking. the one I have right now is already screwing up and not able to boot. They seem to be fine if you are just working with small files but doing something as large as a windows install seems to push them or something I really don't get why they fail so often, I get one with windows on it and by the next time I use it that version of windows is done or the thing is corrupted. I am just kind of sick of going to all this backwards old tech just to get windows installed. And the other thing is every time you decide you need it, it kinda sucks to have to run out to the store or buy one. And when I really think about it we are just getting to a point in time where all that stuff is becoming obsolete so I figured maybe MS was thinking ahead. Like wouldn't it be cool if you could just pop into UEFI and enter microsofts website into a field and it would go and automatically boot from the network and install in a similar way to how enterprise users will setup a new system.
 
Ya I know you can buy thumb drives for $5 I was just hoping for a better option.
Break out a Windows Server machine, set up Windows Deployment Services, and PXE boot to a Windows installer. More betterer.

PCs don't support any kind of internet PXE boot like Macs do.

For the record, I have USB sticks that have been through the wash, from years ago, and they still work. If you have a massive, chronic issue with every USB stick failing after a Windows install, maybe you have a bigger issue.
 
Break out a Windows Server machine, set up Windows Deployment Services, and PXE boot to a Windows installer. More betterer.

PCs don't support any kind of internet PXE boot like Macs do.

For the record, I have USB sticks that have been through the wash, from years ago, and they still work. If you have a massive, chronic issue with every USB stick failing after a Windows install, maybe you have a bigger issue.
Exactly this. I have the same usb stick I’ve installed windows from, for probably 7 or 8 years. And it was a cheap bargain bin stick.
 
IME those $5 thumb drives don't last very long and its part of why I am asking. the one I have right now is already screwing up and not able to boot. They seem to be fine if you are just working with small files but doing something as large as a windows install seems to push them or something I really don't get why they fail so often, I get one with windows on it and by the next time I use it that version of windows is done or the thing is corrupted. I am just kind of sick of going to all this backwards old tech just to get windows installed. And the other thing is every time you decide you need it, it kinda sucks to have to run out to the store or buy one.

Yeah, I'd say your experience is an outlier. USB flash drives should not fail very often, and if you are having such a bad experience, it's probably something on your end. The flash might wear-out from too many writes but even that would take a very large number of writes. Simply reading from the drive does not wear out flash. I still have a flash drive for Windows 7 that I've been using for a decade; I've probably used it to install Windows 7 on over 100 systems at this point, and it still works great. The only USB drive I've ever actually had fail was because someone brushed their leg against it while it was in a front USB port and bent the USB connector. Even my very first USB drive from like 15+ years ago, a tiny 64 Megabyte USB 1.0 drive, still works.

And when I really think about it we are just getting to a point in time where all that stuff is becoming obsolete so I figured maybe MS was thinking ahead.

I think it's a bit extreme to call a USB flash drive obsolete. USB isn't going anywhere anytime soon and USB 3.0 and 3.1 are huge improvements over previous versions. Also, I generally recommend installing Windows 10 offline anyway because you get pestered less to create an online Microsoft account.
 
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