Getting HVM to recognize a Windows 10 "Installation Media" bootable USB for installation

[bryce.pa...@gmail.com]

Hi, I recently created a USB bootable installation media from my previous Windows 10 installation using a Microsoft media creation tool. In addition to the installation media, it contains info about my product key somehow. I've done this before moving from HDD to SSD.

[dom0] mount /dev/sdd1 /mnt
[dom0] ls /mnt
Here's the file contents of the base directory of the only partition of the usb:

autorun.inf
bootmgr
bootmgf.efi
boot
efi
MediaMeta.xml
setup.exe
sources
support

Fdisk -l tell me that the first and only usb partition (/dev/sdd1) is marked as bootable. The partition type is W95 FAT32 (LBA).

My bios also successfully boots into the device.

Here's what I've tried so far:

[dom0] qvm-create win10 --hvm --label green
[dom0] qvm-start --cdrom /dev/sdd win10
[win10] Booting from CD-Rom...
7663MB medium detected
CDROM boot failure code : 0005
Boot from CD-Rom failed: could not read the boot disk
[dom0] qvm-start --cdrom /dev/sdd1
Same output
[dom0] qvm-start --hd /dev/sdd
CDROM boot failure code : 0002
..
Boot from Hard Disk failed: not a bootable disk
[dom0] qvm-start --hd /dev/sdd1
Same output
[dom0] dd if=/dev/sdd of=/windows.img
(all the enumerations of trying windows.img)
[dom0] dd if=/dev/sdd1 of=/windows_sdd1.img
(all the enumerations of trying this image)

I've run out of things to try. I cannot boot into the old Windows install to get the product key since I cloned it to a new drive, so I can't go the iso route easily.

I'm running Qubes 3.2 with the latest dom0 updates.

Can anyone help me get this USB to boot into an HVM?

[bryce.pa...@gmail.com]

Some additional information:

vt-x is available and enabled in the BIOS
vt-d is not available

[Grzesiek Chodzicki]

Are You sure You used the correct syntax? it's supposed to be --drive=/dev/sdd (equals sign not a space)

[bryce.pa...@gmail.com]

Grezesiek,

Thanks for responding. I did use spaces. I just tried all the same commands(--cdrom and --hd and --hddisk) with the '=' sign separator as you suggested with the same results unfortunately. I also tried the --drive command with each prefix e.g. 'qvm-start --drive=hd:/dev/sdd win10' with the same results.

I'm wondering if I need a custom xen config for this usb to boot.

[bryce.pa...@gmail.com]

Just to give an update for anyone who find this, I was never able to get the HVM to boot the USB.

I booted the HVM with a bootable iso with grub on it and then tried to attach the usb as a device and boot from there, but all the bootable isos I tried would not recognize the Qubes attached virtual device.

I ended up installing Windows 10 on a secondary hard drive. Unfortunately when things don't work and they need to work, the only option is to sacrifice some security.