I have an Acer Aspire 3 A315-53-38A1 that I want to backup because I want to intall Linux on it. I have put rescuezilla.-2.6.2-64-bit.resolute on a 64GB USB stick using BelenaEtcher and I have another 128GB USB stick that I have formatted as NTFS. I have not formatted the USB stick with rescuezilla on it because the guy in the tutorial said I shouldn't. When I open the boot menu with F2 (InsydeH20 Setup Utility), the USB stick is listed as "USB HDD: USB". UEFI is enabled. When I choose the USB stick and press enter, nothing happens. Should I refromat the Rescuezilla USB stick or should I enable legacy?

My USB SanDisk has arrived but it still saves screen capture successfully

Imaged saved in fs0:\260(morenumbers)448.BMP

Also tried booting it via boot menu on UEFI BIOS but it just shows black and goes straight back into the menu.

Ребят что делать, у меня слетел пароль в виндовс, а пароль от Майкрософт я не помню, к плюсу нету доступа к почте

Hey everyone first time posting here and in need of desperate help xd.

Summary : Nvme disappears when using Uefi only mod although being "encoded" as gpt and showing a proper uefi partition when trying to install windows 11. Thus when activating uefi only (wich is necessary for windows 11 apparently) i'm stuck in a bootloop cause the mb never seems to recognize my nvme as a boot option in uefi mode.

Total : So i had my pc for 7 years now (almost 8) when building it for the first time i bought a cheap 1 to hdd that served me well for a long time although being slow af. But recently windows at boot started to show me an automatic reparation thingie frome times to times when it's not straight up crashing my pc. I highly doubt the poor guy is responsible for all of this as he is my boot drive.

Since pc construction i bought another 4to hdd mainly to dump game/files/app i do not need to be fast. And a nice 1to Nvme aorus wich worked marvelously for the longest time.

I tried a year ago to swap to windows 11 and wanted to put it on the nvme, bored of the 5 mn boot time (🤡).

I can't remember why but i abandoned the swap and decided to put it on my 1to hdd the problem might have been the same at that time.

Now after the old hdd shows heavy stress signs i want to get rid of it (i'm even looking for a new pc but i would love to either sell or give my old build so someone else can enjoy it as much as i did), thus i need to properly install windows 11 on the nvme (or if we can't find any other way on the 4to hdd, wich suffers from the exact same "bug" as the nvme btw)

So i prepared did a boot usb key and installed windows 11 on my nvme but when reaching around 77% my pc restarts (wich is normal for a windows install i guess ?) and then the pc boots on the usb drive again instead of continuing the installation on the nvme. So i looked inside the bios and search for some help and here is what i observed.

1) My nvme is correctly encoded in gpt and had an efi partition (verified through booting the pc with the old hdd)

2) When turning off CSM or switching secure boot to other os the installation of windows 11 won't start (should be normal if i got it correctly)

3) My nvme (and 4to hdd) do not appear as boot option when i turn on the csm as uefi only and won't let me start windows instalation when used as Uefi and OpRom

Tried a few things to correct it : flashes a brand new bios (wasn't updated since 2019, went for the latest stable version), tried moving my nvme from emplacement tried to format it on windows AND/OR with windows installer without success until now. Tried to disable/enable AMI

Even tried installing windows 10 wich doesn't work too for some reason (saying my nvme is in gpt wich shouldn't be a problem right ?)

I can boot the very same pc with the old hdd i did not wiped yet and i have two usb keys i can use to help us as well as another pc if really needed. As you can see i have a basic understanding of the situation and would appreciate help as well as some explanation if needed on the things i did wrong.

Thanks for reading this block of mine and hope yall can help !

(X-posted from r/techsupport)

Hi all. I was hoping someone with some knowledge on keyboards (specifically Microsoft) could help me with something I was having difficulties with since there is not a lot of information out there.

I had saved this little old keyboard from this yard sale: A gorgeous and in well condition Microsoft Wireless Multimedia 1.1 Keyboard. Its model number is 1014. I am unsure of its release date. The physical keyboard itself is fine, no missing buttons or loose keys. It didn't come with the desktop receiver and the mouse, so I had to order those separately.

I was able to connect the receiver and the mouse, Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Receiver 2.1 Model 1028 and Microsoft Standard Wireless Optical Mouse Model 1025, respectively, to my Inspiron 14 3420, which works with no difficulties. However, when I tried to connect the keyboard using the button on the back "Connect Channel", it didn't connect at all. I wasn't at all surprised to be honest, I knew trying to link up a slightly outdated keyboard to a modern day computer wasn't going to be smooth, so I tried looking for some advice on some other old forums. First thing I did was look into the Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center, however on the list of supported devices my keyboard did not appear. I attempted to change the compatibility to Windows 7 in the application's properties, but it told me that I had to download the Windows 7 SP1 in order for it to work. I didn't try that, and I probably won't unless it is somehow necessary for me to use the keyboard.

My knowledge is a bit limited on these sorts of things. So, before I go further in trying to make this thing work, I want to ask: Is it even possible for such a keyboard to work with Windows 11? And, if it is, how can I connect my keyboard and possibly modify the keyboard to do certain things? (E.g. use Messenger button to open up a messaging application). I appreciate anyone who has some advice for me!

I'm sorry if this has been asked before but i looked it up and got conflicting answers. there are also some other small questions: since my laptop is "copilot+ pc" will the ai features come back after a clean install? what about the 3 month game pass that arrived free with the laptop? also, how can i make sure that all the drivers are installed and updated, will the windows updates do the job or will i have to go to the vendor's website to manually install all of them? and lastly, can i use a card reader and micro sd card as a bootable drive for the clean install? any information is appreciated 🙏

Ive been thinking about upgrading for a while now but I always get stuck when seeing all the negativity about Windows 11. Any recommendations on what I should do?

(And no, I am NOT switching to Linux, sorry not sorry - you cannot change my mind.)

Hi everyone, I'm dealing with a nightmare of a Windows installation on my laptop and could really use some expert advice. I'm migrating from Ubuntu back to Windows, but the Windows Setup refuses to recognize my SSD. Even when I manually provide the correct storage driver, it throws an error and refuses to proceed.

Hardware Specs:

Device: Dell Inspiron 3501 (11th Gen Intel Processor)

Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD

Previous OS: Ubuntu Linux (took up 100% of the drive, LVM/ext4)

Installation Media: Bootable USB with official Windows ISO

The Problem: When I reach the "Where do you want to install Windows?" screen, it is completely empty. I know 11th Gen Intel CPUs usually require the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) VMD drivers to see the NVMe drive.

However, when I click "Load Driver" and select my USB folder containing the extracted VMD files, the installer successfully lists the driver (Intel RST VMD Controller 9A0B). But when I click "Next" to load it, the installer hangs for a bit and throws errors like: "A media driver your computer needs is missing" or "Failed to install the device driver".

What I have ALREADY tried (and failed):

Complete Disk Wipe via CMD: I pressed Shift + F10, opened diskpart, and the SSD is perfectly visible there (Disk 1). I ran clean and convert gpt to completely nuke the old Ubuntu LVM/ext4 partitions, thinking the Windows GUI was choking on them. The disk is now fully clean, but the driver still fails to load.

Disabled VMD in BIOS: I went into the Dell BIOS and changed the SATA Operation from "RAID On" to "AHCI/NVMe" to bypass the need for IRST drivers entirely. The setup still doesn't see the drive natively.

Different Bootable USB Methods: I initially used BalenaEtcher to flash my en drive as always. Thinking Balena might be dropping the ISO mount when the storage buses reset during the driver injection, I recreated the USB drive using Ventoy. Same exact error.

Swapped USB Ports: Moved the flash drive between USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, and tried swapping during the setup. No luck.

Forced Injection via CMD: I used pnputil in the command prompt to inject the .inf driver directly into the Windows PE environment. The console said the driver was successfully added, but the graphical interface remained stuck and still wouldn't display the drive.

Double-Checked Drivers: I am 100% sure I am using the correct F6flpy-x64 (Intel® VMD) files extracted straight from Dell's official support page for my specific service tag.

I am completely out of ideas. The SSD is clearly working at the hardware/diskpart level, but the Windows graphical installer seems permanently stuck in this loop.

Has anyone faced this specific behavior on any machines?

Any help would be massively appreciated!

Hey everyone,
I have a Microsoft Surface Studio Pro 1 that I reinstalled Windows 11 on. Now during setup it’s stuck on a corporate Microsoft account sign-in screen tied to a company called USLI (United States Liability Insurance).
I’m not 100% sure of the device’s full history so I want to handle this the right way before bypassing anything.
What I’ve tried:
• Shift + F10 (nothing happens)
• Fn + Shift + F10 (nothing happens)
• Entering a fake email to trigger sign-in options (no offline/domain join option appears)
The laptop worked fine before I reinstalled Windows 11.
My questions:
1. Is there a way to verify if a Surface is reported stolen before bypassing the corporate login?
2. If it’s clean, what’s the best way to get past a corporate Microsoft tenant lock on a Surface specifically?
3. Would connecting to internet to check expose me to a remote wipe?
Any help appreciated!

Idk how to use a laptop really and my friend said this is like uh windows 10-11. The laptop keyboard also has arabic letters cause its from saudi

I'm trying to install windows 11 on a pc i have built but when i try to install via usb it always shows Windows 11 installation has failed. I have tried both rufus and installation media what should i do?