Re: Tutorial: How to DIRECTLY download the full 5.7GB Windows 10 Offline ISO (bypassing Media Creation Tool)

Marian wrote:
> The lesson here is, if you care about something, then never install it in
> the hierarchies that Windows (or external programs) expects it to be in.

SUMMARY OF LESSONS LEARNED:

Having installed/repaired Windows 10 many times from a DVD ISO, I was
surprised I still was able to learn about new quirks in Windows 10 repair.

One tidbit I accidentally learned in this effort was that it is now harder,
not easier, to repair with a Windows DVD iso than it is with a USB stick.

It used to be every PC had a CD/DVD drive, but this PC lacks that drive.
So I had to use an old Pioneer USB DVD 

Of course, like everyone here, I have an archival CD/DVD cake box with
various Windows 10 4.7GB ISO's on the spindle, which I dug up when I found
out that the latest Windows 10 ISO no longer fits on single-layer DVDs.

Since I didn't have a dual-layer DVD handy, I dug out my first DL drive,
which is a Pioneer DVD-R/RW CD-R/RW Writer Model Pioneer DVR-107D case with
an internal Pioneer DVR-S706/DVR-107D unit encased in the heavy casing.

Looking it up today, the DVR-S706 is what it says, but I wrote on the
outside that it's really a DVR-107D, which Google says is consistent.
 DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW (remember that terminology?)

The label says "MFR April 2004" which is when I bought it because it was
(as I recall) the first external CD/DVD-R burner ever sold at Fry's.
  DRW2220-A = the external 12V/5V USB enclosure kit UPC 012662-705750
  DVR-S706 = the tray-loading optical drive itself (dated April 2004)
Although in my handwriting is DVR-107D on the outside, so I likely opened
the case up decades ago to look inside and I must've seen that somewhere.

I think it's telling I bought one of Silicon Valley's first USB 2.0 premium
external DVD writers which has been working for over two full decades!

Apparently most people today have never even seen one because Fry's in the
Silicon Valley was one of the only chains in the U.S. that carried it.

Back to the error message with the circa 2019 Windows 10 ISO in the USB 2.0
DVD drive plugged into the PC SS (super speed) USB port, what happened was
 "A media driver your computer needs is missing"
But Microsoft doesn't say which driver, and, as it turns out, it's not a
driver but that the first part of the reading-from-DVD process loaded fine
but the second part of that DVD-reading process wasn't fast enough.
 a. Installer loads the first stage (the GUI)
 b. Then fails when reading the next chunk of data
 c. Windows Setup interprets the read failure as "missing driver"
Yet it's about reading the media; it's not about missing a driver.
As apparently, this message almost never means a driver missing.
 <https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/-a-media-driver-your-computer-needs-is-missing-or-a-required-cd-dvd-drive-device-driver-is-missing-error-message-when-you-install-windows-ad4bec88-167e-eeeb-15ab-ccd6982bd859>

That's two strikes (I didn't have dual-layer DVD blanks and the venerable
first dual layer DVD writer failed to be reliably read on a UEFI computer).
 1. Strike 1 => no DVD reader in the PC so I used an external DVD reader
 2. Strike 2 => PC wouldn't reliably read the single-layer Windows 10 ISO
 3. Third pitch => home run!

The third pitch worked!
 a. Download the latest Windows 10 ISO (1st strike was <8GB in C: failed)
 b. Download & run Rufus to populate an old 64GB USB stick (used 8GB only)
 c. Install/Repair Windows 10 by setting the UEFI/BIOS to boot off the USB

Voila!
Success at last.

I wonder if I hadn't had decades of Windows troubleshooting if we wouldn't
have been successful as the kid just wants a new PC that can run his games.
 A. Cyberpunk 2077 Needs for 1080p, 60 FPS
 B. Baldur¡¦s Gate 3: 90¡V120 FPS at Ultra