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How to convert EMMC Hdd from removable disk to local disk to install Windows


Best Answer turdb0 , 22 May 2016 - 06:30 PM

 
How come the removable disk?
Does a update to BIOS A14 creates a fixed disk?

 

CDOB!

 

THIS IS THE ANSWER!!! I updated to A14 and it sees the EMMC as a FIXED DISK and Windows has been installed!!!! OMG took me like 3 weeks when that should have been the first thing I tried!  Wonder how people running A11 back in the days were able to install the Windows then?

 

Thanks for everybody for their assistance!

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#1 TheHive

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Posted 14 May 2016 - 07:52 AM

How to convert EMMC Hdd from removable disk to local disk to install Windows

Anyone have any ideas. The above occurred on a Dell Venue 8. Command Prompt

in the second screenshot below is Showing the partitions as Removable.

cannot load Windows because of the Removable Media (64gb EMMC). What do you think I should do?

 

Original Thread

 

 

Help me restore my Venue 8 5830 with no partitions!

The tablet currently doesn't have any partitions, because I deleted it with diskpart. Not sure if I should have done that, but before I deleted them, When I tried using the Win8.1 as well as Win10 Install Images for reinstall, neither of them detected storage when it got to the "(I)nstall" screen. I kept messing with it thinking it was the drivers not injecting into the Win Images. Then I realized that the disk had Bitlocker and I deleted the Partitions. I was going to recreate the partitions but diskpart thinks its a "removable disk" and doesn't allow me to perform certain operations. So...

67865d1463092773t-help-me-restore-my-ven

67866d1463092791t-help-me-restore-my-ven
At this time, I basically have a disk with no partitions on it, what is the best way to get the tablet back to a state where I can perform the Windows install where it would recognize the storage?

Would one option be to get the "Factory Backup Image" from somewhere and would that recreate all the partitions for me, as well as perform the Win8.1 reinstall? If so, if I were to purchase a used 5830, can I make a "Factory Backup Image" from that one and use that to restore my current one?

At this point, I don't care whether it's Win8.1 or Win10, I just want to get this working again, and then I can go from there! Thanks!

 

 

 



#2 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 14 May 2016 - 08:27 AM

It is you or are you just try to help another user on eightforums?

 

Is that thingy BIOS, UEFI only or UEFI/CSM?

 

Most probably the easiest workaround is to install cfadisk.sys, or dummydisk.sys or diskmod.sys in the PE to have the EMMC thingy be seen as "Fixed".

 

It is possible that for *some reasons* the device is seen as being "Removable" because you have booted from USB while it is seen normally as "Fixed" if it is the bootable media (but it is well possible that the good DELL guys integrated a filter driver as well). :unsure:

 

:duff:

Wonko



#3 turdb0

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Posted 14 May 2016 - 10:26 PM

Thanks, he's trying to help me out. I'm the original posted on the other forums. I appreciate the suggestions.



#4 TheHive

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Posted 15 May 2016 - 07:50 AM

 

 

Is that thingy BIOS, UEFI only or UEFI/CSM?

 

Most probably the easiest workaround is to install cfadisk.sys, or dummydisk.sys or diskmod.sys in the PE to have the EMMC thingy be seen as "Fixed".

 

:duff:

Wonko

The Dell Venue 8 Pro is only UEFI capable.



#5 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 15 May 2016 - 09:49 AM

I would have preferred a BIOS or CSM capable thingy, as we could have used grub4dos to make things (hopefully) simpler.

And it also seems that it is a UEFI 32 bit device :w00t: :ph34r:

 

@turdb

A few (random and not-so-random) questions:

Do you have a USB hub and the possibility to add a "real" keyboard? (I would try a "plain" source and not a NTlited one for tests)

Which BIOS/UEFI version do you have? (I have seen around some turmoil over revisions A03 vs. A04 and some contrasting info on the settings of "SCC eMMC 4.5 HS200 Support" and "DDR50 Support for SDCard" that may - or may not - be connectd to the issue).

Can you try booting an UBUNTU or other Linux distro following this set of instructions (or similar)?

http://askubuntu.com...fi-boot-support

http://www.linlap.com/dell_venue_8_pro

(this way we can try to create the GPT partition scheme from another OS)

 

:duff:

Wonko



#6 turdb0

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Posted 16 May 2016 - 03:31 PM

The tablet has BIOS A11, I think A14 is the latest.

 

I am going to try installing Ubuntu today via this: http://www.jfwhome.c...rmer-book-t100/

 

Just to see if it works...



#7 turdb0

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Posted 16 May 2016 - 04:02 PM

Oh, and I have been using a USB Keyboard on a USB Hub, I guess I can try a default Win8.1 ISO image.



#8 karyonix

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Posted 17 May 2016 - 04:07 PM

There are driver packs from Dell. You may have to explore them. I don't know which drivers are required.
http://www.dell.com/...rivers/advanced

#9 cdob

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Posted 17 May 2016 - 06:09 PM

@turdb0
This reminds to basic hardware. Can be the EMMC HDD.

Try using a small part, e.g. 10 gig

diskpart
select disk 0
clean
convert gpt

create partition efi size=100
format quick fs=fat32 label="EFI"
assign letter="S"

create partition primary size=10240
format fs=ntfs label="System"
As for testing, don't use quick format at second partition.

Can you format both partitons?
If it works: delete the second partiton, create a bigger one and format again.

#10 turdb0

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Posted 17 May 2016 - 11:51 PM

Here's what I discovered, I can create the first partition just fine. Whether it's EFI or Primary, MSR. The error occurs when I try to create the second partition. Doesn't matter which type of partition, it'll always display the error: The operation is not supported on a non-empty removable disk.



#11 turdb0

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Posted 17 May 2016 - 11:52 PM

67891d1463529136t-help-me-restore-my-ven



#12 cdob

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Posted 20 May 2016 - 12:26 AM

The tablet has BIOS A11, I think A14 is the latest.


The error occurs when I try to create the second partition.

 
How come the removable disk?
Does a update to BIOS A14 creates a fixed disk?

Create a second partition at gparted.
gparted-live-0.26.0-2-i686.iso contains a file /efi/boot/bootia32.efi. Should work at x86 UEFI.
http://gparted.org/download.php
Do you get a fixed disk now?

#13 turdb0

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Posted 20 May 2016 - 11:35 PM

I'm not sure how to apply the A14 Bios. But I'll try to figure it out. Also, I haven't been able to boot Gparted, not sure if its the USB hub I'm using or the USB flash drive. I find this DV8P really finicky about the USB devices I use. I've tried 4 USB flash drives and it only like 2 of them. Doesn't really like the USB3.0 Lexar ones. Also tried 5 keyboards and it only like 2 of them.



#14 TheHive

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Posted 21 May 2016 - 07:45 AM

 

I'm not sure how to apply the A14 Bios

If you can boot a Windows Pe. You should be able to flash the new bios.



#15 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 21 May 2016 - 08:45 AM

I'm not sure how to apply the A14 Bios. But I'll try to figure it out. Also, I haven't been able to boot Gparted, not sure if its the USB hub I'm using or the USB flash drive. I find this DV8P really finicky about the USB devices I use. I've tried 4 USB flash drives and it only like 2 of them. Doesn't really like the USB3.0 Lexar ones. Also tried 5 keyboards and it only like 2 of them.

Well, "it's a DELL"! :w00t: :ph34r:

I mean, once upon a time a motherboard device had - say - one, two or maybe three BIOS revisions during it's supported times (and supported times were much longer), if that thingy is already at A14 it should mean something ;).

And historically DELL is used as shorthand/synonym for USB related PITA... 

 

How exactly did you try to write the GParted to the USB stick?

I seem to remember that it is a isohybrid .iso that can simply be dd-ed to the stick :unsure:

 

 

Have you tried using the bootia32.efi (actually GRUB2) provided in the given links?

 

:duff:

Wonko



#16 cdob

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Posted 22 May 2016 - 05:26 PM

I haven't been able to boot Gparted

Did you disable secure boot at BIOS?
 

I find this DV8P really finicky about the USB devices I use.

Yes, DV8P is picky hardware.

Is there a micro sd card? Can you remove the card?

Can you insert a micro sd card? Does the BIOS detect this as a boot device?
Copy Windows 8 installation files to a FAT32 micro sd card. Try to install from this sd card



Back to the working USB flash drive:
Try a filter driver http://reboot.pro/to...-usb-hard-disk/

Example
e:\ refers the USB flash with Windows 8 install files, e.g. e:\sources\boot.wim
And diskmod_0.0.2.2.zip expanded to C:\diskmod\
Adjust the used path to your configuration
 
DISM.exe /Mount-Wim /WimFile:e:\sources\boot.wim /index:2  /MountDir:C:\ISO\mount

DISM.exe /Image:C:\ISO\mount /Add-Driver /Driver:C:\diskmod\diskmod.inf /ForceUnsigned

copy C:\diskmod\diskmod.sys C:\ISO\mount\windows\system32\drivers

bcdedit /store E:\boot\bcd /set {default} testsigning on
bcdedit /store E:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd /set {default} testsigning on

set Services=HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services
reg load HKLM\loaded_system C:\ISO\mount\windows\system32\config\system

reg.exe add "%Services%\diskmod" /f /v "Group" /d "SCSI Class"
reg.exe add "%Services%\diskmod" /f /t REG_DWORD /v "ErrorControl" /d 1
reg.exe add "%Services%\diskmod" /f /t REG_DWORD /v "Start" /d 0
reg.exe add "%Services%\diskmod" /f /t REG_DWORD /v "Type" /d 1
reg.exe add "%Services%\diskmod\Parameters" /v Paging /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f
reg.exe add "%Services%\diskmod\Parameters" /v Removable /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

reg.exe add "HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" /v LowerFilters /t Reg_Multi_SZ /d "diskmod" /f

reg.exe unload HKLM\loaded_system
Dism.exe /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\ISO\mount /commit
Dism.exe /Cleanup-Wim
Boot the USB flash.
Diskpart.exe should detect a fixed disk now.

#17 turdb0

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Posted 22 May 2016 - 06:30 PM   Best Answer

 
How come the removable disk?
Does a update to BIOS A14 creates a fixed disk?

 

CDOB!

 

THIS IS THE ANSWER!!! I updated to A14 and it sees the EMMC as a FIXED DISK and Windows has been installed!!!! OMG took me like 3 weeks when that should have been the first thing I tried!  Wonder how people running A11 back in the days were able to install the Windows then?

 

Thanks for everybody for their assistance!



#18 TheHive

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Posted 26 May 2016 - 02:03 AM

How did you install the bios update?



#19 cdob

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Posted 26 May 2016 - 05:52 PM

Wonder how people running A11 back in the days were able to install the Windows then?

I doubt a general A11 behaviour, should be public knowledge now.
The A12, A13, A14 BIOS readme dosn't indicate a removable disk fix.
I guess, there was a hidden BIOS setting enabling the removable disk.
The previous owner may have enabled this without purpose.

Did Flashing A14 reset to BIOS default settings too?
If a removable disk encounters in future again, try restore BIOS default settings.




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