Get Windows installed

[RainTown]

Hi

I bought (in 2023) and used the following system (as described on Amazon)

NiPoGi AM06 PRO Mini PC W-11 Pro, АMD Ryzen 7 5825U (8C/16T, up to 4.5GHz), 16GB DDR4 512GB M.2 SSD Mini Desktop Computer WiFi 6, Dual LAN, DP/HDMI 2.0/Type-C 4K UHD Triple Display for Games/Office

I dual booted Windows (that came pre-installed) and Linux.

Ubuntu Linux was on external drive, Windows on the M.2 drive. I mostly used Ubuntu. The M.2 NVMe "drive" completely failed and system was rendered unbootable for a while. I ended up replacing the broken NVMe with a M.2 SATA card, and re-installed Linux onto that, copying what I needed from the previously-used external drive.

I'd now like to re-install Windows 11, but box came with no CD. The Windows 11 installers I've downloaded ands tried all fail to recognize the hardware, or say it is not sufficient to even run Windows 11 (clearly nonsense).

Is there a ISO somewhere I can download to get Win11 installed again?

Thanks,
Kevin

[dragonpoo]

Hey Kevin,

There are a few threads in this forum for drivers and downloads related to the AM06, like this one: https://minipcunion.com/viewtopic.php?t=4876

If you're having problems be be specific and explain what is happening. I personally don't have an AM06 system, but I have other models, and I'll typically use a generic Windows install image from Microsoft, then install the drivers from the downloads in the forums, if Windows Update can't find them.

Microsoft download page for Windows 11: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... /windows11

[Gabe]

Being that you've installed Linux on the internal drive rather than the external drive like you had it before, are you trying to install Windows on the external drive? And by "external", do you mean the 2.5" drive space in the unit or a drive connected to the unit via USB? If the latter, that's a bit different, as installing and running Windows from a USB connected drive can be tricky.

If it is an external drive connected via USB, you'll likely need to use installation media that you've created either with Microsoft's Media Creation Tool or Rufus, as the system available on this forum likely won't install on an external drive because of the way the installation procedure is designed.

If you want to use the system on this forum, it's going to install on the internal drive.

[RainTown]

Microsoft download page for Windows 11: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... /windows11

Hi

Thanks for answering.

That was my specific point, the official ISO from Microsoft say the hardware is not supported. That was why I was asking for a specific ISO as obviously this unit needs specific drivers integrated into the ISO image.

Thanks, RT

[RainTown]

Thanks for replying

Being that you've installed Linux on the internal drive rather than the external drive like you had it before, are you trying to install Windows on the external drive?

...

If you want to use the system on this forum, it's going to install on the internal drive.

So, to clarify. Linux was originally installed on an external USB-connected drive. Windows had the internal NVMe drive to itself. But that NVMe drive is now dead. So I replaced the internal NVMe drive with a new M.2 SATA drive, and linux is newly installed there.

$ lsblk
sda      8:0    0 476.9G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0     1G  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2   8:2    0   954M  0 part /boot
└─sda3   8:3    0   475G  0 part /

My intention was to shrink the sda3 partition, create a new NFTS partition sda4 for Windows, on the internal M.2 SATA drive, and install Windows there, allowing dual booting without any USB drives. Is that possible with the image I dowloaded from this forum in meantime - AM06PRO_WIN11HOME_23H2_20240222.zip - which I am copying it to FAT32 USB drive now. I dont want to lose my Linux installation obviously.

[dragonpoo]

Windows doesn't typically play nice with Linux, so if Linux is installed first, Windows' default action is to reclaim the entire drive.

However, since it sounds like you know what you're doing, I would suggest building the sda4 partition now, in a Linux or drive partition environment, then walk through a generic Windows installation to the new partition. Windows will probably corrupt your grub bootloader, so be prepared to recover that afterwards. This has nothing to do with your AM06; it is simply how Microsoft does things.

You could use the images provided here, although I would suggest getting the install directly from Microsoft, and once Windows is running, then install the necessary drivers for your hardware.

[RainTown]

Thanks again Dragonpoo

My problem is the official Microsoft installation media does not support seem to support the hardware. I guess this is why there are specific releases posted here. But from watching the videos posted, seems it's likely just to wipe and re-format the first disk it finds and do its install - if someone could confirm that would be good. I might even buy a new NVMe "drive", the M.2 SATA one can be a spare and I have anyways a USB enclosure for it too.

My new Linux is only a couple of weeks old - I'll backup my home directory and if it gets wiped, so be it. I'll restore my stuff back

[dragonpoo]

Even if there are specific pieces of hardware in the system, you should still be able to install Windows - it should work without an issue to detect the CPU, RAM, storage, USB, and network on the system. Graphics, unless it requires a custom driver (some of the mini PCs mentioned in these forums do), it should still work with basic graphics.

It doesn't hurt to have a spare drive, anyway! Most of us nerds do.

[carey934]

Please share a screenshot of the actual windows installation error.