Windows Won’t Load: Fixing Windows Boot Errors with Only a Phone, SD Card, SD Card Reader, and OTG Cable

Windows Boot Errors can be quite disappointing, especially when you have only the one laptop or pc and it’s what you use for work. A few days back, my laptop shut down and couldn’t start. It took me nearly a week to get it to load and through that jarring experience, here’s what I learnt.

How It Started

What started my blue-screen of death error was probably my HP laptop overheating. For a while now, the laptop has been showing a fan error telling me that my fan is not working as expected. I have largely ignored that error, but little did I know it would come to haunt me.

My laptop would work normally despite the error with the fan. I am an intense user of the laptop, mostly for writing, research, photo browsing, internet use and so on and therefore, it could get hot but I didn’t think too much of it.

How Moving from Chrome to Firefox Brought Down My Laptop

Things started going south when I decided to shift from using Google Chrome Browser to Firefox. I hated how the Chrome browser (and even Chrome Canary) would always latch on to my site’s cache when I am trying to make backend changes and monitor them on the frontend.

As a result, I was always switching tabs between Chrome, Canary and Brave web browser after making a change to go and see how that change has turned out.

An Old HP Laptop

This probably weighed heavily on my laptop, which I have had for about 5 to 6 years now. Saying that, it sounds like I have had the laptop forever but yes. It is an HP Folio 9470m that I got at a good price in 2018, even though it was a refurb. Refurbished laptops are the laptops that users send back to the manufacturer – shortly after buying mostly – due to problems with the hardware, etc.

As such, the manufacturer repairs these laptops and resells them as refurb. They are mostly user-returns or can sometimes be laptops that the manufacturer finds are defective off the production line; or factory ‘rejects’ for lack of a better word.

But once a laptop gets out of the line and it does not work as expected, or a customer returns it, these laptops go into repair and are resold as refurbished or refurb laptops. Mine is one of those.

So, on uninstalling Chrome and Canary and getting started with Firefox installation, I was happy that I was finally moving away from all the tracking and bs, and I thought this was it. I went on to use Firefox for a few days before sh started hitting the fan.

Overheating

In came the overheating issues, I tried going into Firefox settings to check what is wrong and even allowed Virtualization Technology (VTx) in my BIOS settings as a way to help take off the processing load. I do not have over 20 browser tabs open most of the time and what I am usually using the laptop a lot for is work, web development, and entertainment, which is mostly listening to music in VLC.

My song collection had gotten to 100GB and I later discovered that VLC would index all these songs each time I opened the folder on the app, a setting that I later tweaked and turned off.

But the problem persisted, the laptop would overheat like crazy and I eventually went into the BIOS settings to try and see what the problem was. But that was the start of my laptop’s undoing.

Updating BIOS Version

On going into the BIOS and failing to see anything that would be messing with my laptop’s functionality, I decided to update to the latest BIOS version. I did not know it at the time but the latest BIOS for my laptop was an UEFI type, which is like a more modern version of the MBR my laptop initially came with.

I went into HP’s website and downloaded the latest BIOS version and made another mistake when installing it.

When installing the BIOS, I did it with other windows open on my laptop, something you should NEVER do; I later came to learn. It showed that it had flashed the BIOS okay, but really, something was amiss. You should always only flash the BIOS or update it when there are no other windows open and generally, when the laptop is not undertaking any background tasks, such as updating Windows.

I messed up because my laptop was doing both when I flashed the BIOS. The BIOS showed that it had flashed okay and the Windows 10 updates also completed successfully and I gullibly went on to restart my laptop. It went on to update the Windows 10, and on getting back in, it showed “disk errors”. Precisely, Windows Defender was indicating that there were disk errors on my HDD and that I should restart my laptop.

Check out this video to diagnose the BIOS update issue before you start tinkering. Courtesy of Electronics Repair School.

Windows Defender Hard Disk Corrupted Error

I quickly went online to find solutions and used ‘chkdsk’ to try and solve the corrupt sectors in my hard disk. I am not sure why the disk got corrupted but it could be anything from the bad BIOS flash, or the overheating, or even the Windows 10 updates I downloaded… or even the fact that I was doing all this at the same time.

The laptop showed an error, and booted into “diagnosing your pc” and on trying to fix the disk a couple times, the error by Windows Defender was still showing, prompting me to restart and go into BIOS to try and see again what was causing all the mess. The laptop never restarted.

How to Use CHKDSK to Look For and Repair Disk Errors on Windows

Here’s a step-by-step guide to run chkdsk for both error-checking and repair.

Step 1: Open Command Prompt as Administrator

1. Press Win + S to open Windows Search.
2. Type “Command Prompt” or “cmd”.
3. Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. This will open an elevated Command Prompt with the necessary permissions to run chkdsk.

Step 2: Run CHKDSK with Initial Scan Parameters

You’ll typically start by running chkdsk without repair parameters to see if there are errors.

1. In the Command Prompt window, type:
   chkdsk C:

   Replace C: with the letter of the drive you want to check.

2.  Press Enter.
3. This will scan the drive for errors without making changes. Look at the output to see if any errors are detected.

Step 3: Run CHKDSK with Repair Options

If errors are found, you can instruct chkdsk to fix them. Use the following command with specific flags:

1. In the Command Prompt, type:

chkdsk C: /f /r

• /f: Fixes errors on the disk.
• /r: Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information.

3. Press Enter. You’ll likely see a message that the drive is in use, especially if it’s the system drive (C:).

This mini-guide has been written with the help of A.I.

Windows Boot Error: Fixing the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)

A huge mistake that I did when I went into BIOS settings was to mess with the “boot options” and “device options”.

Specifically, I changed the boot mode from MBR to UEFI (with CSM) which essentially wiped out my BCD (boot configuration data) file.

Without this, the laptop simply couldn’t boot. It didn’t know how to, since the BCD file was missing. I also went and messed with the SATA mode which is the drive’s settings for BIOS that indicate how the hard disk (HDD in my case) would be treated. I changed it a couple of times between IDE (for older versions), AHCI (flexible for both older and modern hardware), and RAID (for interconnected drives in a network i.e., mostly for corporate systems).

The result, a Windows Blue Screen of Death or BSOD, saying that my laptop needs to be repaired. It offered an option to go into the recovery settings but it couldn’t even do that.

I had messed so much with the BIOS settings that I had completely wiped out even the Windows Recovery screen files. And there started my dilemma, how do I solve this? And how do I get my laptop back up and running?

Getting Professional Help

I decided not to get professional help for my issue and to try and solve it myself, so that I could learn more about how Windows and laptops in general work, as a challenge to myself.

I am a freelancer so I could afford the time away from work, and I am always up for a challenge I can learn from…and boy did I learn.

Lack of USB Storage Media: Trying to Use Bootable Media to Fix Windows Boot Errors with Only a Phone and SD Card

Now, I also didn’t have the tools to boot from a bootable media, and I couldn’t conventionally create one because I did not have access to another PC. Yes, I could have easily gone to a repair shop and paid to have a bootable flash drive with Windows 10 installed but remember this was a challenge and I needed to fix the issue myself.

So, I only had my Android phone and even didn’t have a flash drive. What I had was my phone, a 16GB SD Card (memory card) and an OTG (on the go) cable.

I used to have a small print shop and I was selling these so I had a new OTG cable and the SD Card was one I had bought for my Canon 4000D camera a while back. I didn’t trust the card, however, and it had had issues with the camera, so I didn’t know if it would be good enough.

Luckily, I also had an SD Card Reader, the ones that look like flash drives; so I’d call it a USB SD Card reader.

Using an Android Phone, OTG, USB Card Reader, and an SD Card to Fix Windows Boot Errors

So on I went. I couldn’t create a bootable Windows since I did not have access to another PC and therefore, I downloaded the Windows 10 ISO to my phone (thank God I have unlimited Wi-Fi) and went on to find something that would make my sd card (via USB on OTG) bootable so that I could repair my Windows 10 boot errors.

Android Apps to Create Bootable USB via OTG (Bootable Media for Windows Installation)

The search was on for an Android app that would create a bootable USB via OTG and essentially, a bootable media for Windows installation. I searched and searched all over online, only to get help from reddit threads of people who’d been in the same situation: trying to create bootable media or a bootable USB with a phone only.

Few apps came up and one that stood out was ISO2USB. I downloaded the app, which requires that you watch an ad to get a coin; with 2 coins being required to copy an ISO file to the USB. The ads load forever and are “rewarded ads” that you have to wait 60seconds to load and on loading, have to watch for either 5, 15, or 30 seconds to get a reward i.e., 1 coin in this case to be able to accumulate the two required to copy your ISO to the USB with the app. Boy did I watch ads… very annoying.

Does ISO2USB App Work?

The most annoying thing was that the app didn’t work for me and after numerous tries, I went back to looking for another solution.

I even tried to find old ISO files and even smaller ones, such as Tiny10 and Tiny11, which are smaller ISO versions of stripped-down Windows. These didn’t work for some reason.

I then thought that maybe the sdcard was formatted wrong and realized that I should have it formatted to FAT32, as required by my laptop’s manufacturer and since it’s an older laptop, HP recommends formatting bootable media into FAT32 and I think also generally bootable USBs should be in that format.

The problem with ISO2USB is that if an ISO file is larger than 4GB, then it cannot format the USB to FAT32 and will instead format it to NTFS, without giving you the option to change it.

FAT32 requires and only works for ISOs or files that are less than 4GB.

So, I had to find a way to first format my USB to FAT32, and to also find an ISO that is less than 4GB in size. Remember I had no access to another PC to do the formatting with, and I would still have to do it with my Android phone.

Android Apps to Format USB/SD Card to FAT32

I went on another search to find an app for my android phone that would format the SD Card which is in an USB Card Reader, and thus my ‘USB’ on my phone.

After downloading a bunch of File Manager Apps, I then found the ‘USB TOOLS’ android app by the same company that created ISO2USB, ‘MixApplications’. And lo and behold, like ISO2USB, ‘USB TOOLS’ had the same ads in the same format requiring a similar number of coins to format the USB/SD Card. So on I went watching ads and accumulating coins. Phew.

Does the USB TOOLS App Work?

Yes, the app works despite the grotesque ads, and I did manage to format the SDCard or USB if you may. But, when trying to copy the Windows 10 ISO to the USB with ISO2USB, it reformatted the card to NTFS, as the ISO file itself was more than 4GB.

Consequently, I had no option than to find smaller ISO files, as even the Tiny10 and Tiny11 ISO which were the 3.3 – 3.8GB in size didn’t work.

I opted to go for Linux and see if I could be able to get Linux to boot and try and to sort my disk errors and boot problems with that.

As such, I needed an Android app that could create a Linux bootable USB/media. On, the search continued.

Creating a Bootable Linux USB from your Android Phone

So, I needed an Android app that could create a bootable linux USB so that I could try and sort my boot issues with it or at least create a Linux instance and try and diagnose what was wrong with my laptop… or even go into Linux and download a Windows ISO and create a Windows Bootable USB with it.

I came across ‘Etch Droid’, an app specifically for (U)EFI based ISOs such as Linux and Apple Mac OSs.

Does Etch (Droid) App Work?

The thing with the latest version of the Etch or Etch Droid app, however, is that it only supports large or normal sized Linux ISOs. The app shows a warning that it cannot create a bootable Linux USB for smaller versions of Linux OSs, such as TinyLinux and the like.

I had downloaded a few of these including Lubuntu and Kubuntu, which are spins on the Ubuntu OS type/instance of Linux. I am very much a Linux newbie so pardon the terming. ‘Flavor’ is a more appropriate word I have learnt.

As such, I needed to go into Github, as per the warning on the app, and download an older version of the Etch Droid App.

That worked, but with caveats; Once I had created a bootable Linux USB with Etch, the phone would tell me that the USB is damaged and I couldn’t try creating a bootable file with it unless I formatted it first.

To do this formatting, my phone didn’t allow me to format the USB and so I had to use USB TOOLS app and watch the intrusive ads to do it.

Yes, there’s an option to buy the ‘coins’ needed for functionality, but why pay someone to access your own files on your own phone.

I also found online some people indicating that some phones allow you to format a USB that is connected via OTG but mine couldn’t.

Moreover, on creating the bootable Linux with Etch, the app didn’t do it right and the USB wasn’t bootable on my laptop, despite having formatted it to FAT32 and used a large or generic Linux ISO as recommended. My options were getting slimmer and I went back to trying with ISO2USB and watching.. you guessed it.. the grotesque ads.

Caveat: Android Creating Default Folders on my USB/SD Card

One error that I had with using ISO2USB was that my Android phone and operating system would create default folders such as: ‘Android, Movies, Pictures’ etc on my SD Card which I had converted into an USB with a USB card reader. I couldn’t delete these folders and I could only be able to use the USB Reader if I went to my settings and turned on ‘OTG Compatibility’. Apparently, Android does add these folders by default to SD Cards and there’s no way you can remove them without rooting your phone.

Caveat: Should You Root your Android Phone to Allow You to Create a Bootable USB?

On my part, rooting my android phone was one of the things I wasn’t willing to do in order to create a bootable USB with my phone. I have rooted a Samsung Galaxy Mini in the past. It was on Android 3.something and I had even installed an entire new OS in it, back when I was in high school.

This time though, I was not willing to root my phone. I knew it could possibly have allowed me to even convert my phone itself into a bootable USB – via a USB cable – but I didn’t want to.

I mostly thought about the security implications and I felt that that was a line I was not willing to cross. Okay, moving on…

Discovering Ventoy

So, I am now a few days in on my challenge and by now, it’s starting to dawn on me that my laptop is probably too old and ‘dead’ and trying to boot it again will probably not work. Maybe the Windows BSOD meant that my laptop does actually need ‘professional’ repairs.

It also had gotten to a point where I felt bad because I have spent a lot of time with this laptop and it’s probably the thing I spend most of my time with. So, the thought of it being ‘dead’, or worse off ‘bricked’ by the changes I made to BIOS settings was heartbreaking. 😔 😭

But then I discovered ‘Ventoy’ in a Reddit forum where a user was complaining about wanting to create a bootable USB.

What is Ventoy?

Ventoy is bootable USB software where you don’t have to break the ISO down and you can only copy the ISO file to a USB or Drive – where Ventoy is installed – and Ventoy will make it so you can boot these ISOs.

Now, the process of installing Ventoy on a USB Drive or Flash Drive requires a PC or laptop and I had no access to one. So, I needed an app to help me install Ventoy on my USB.

In the Reddit thread mentioned above, one commenter recommended another of ‘MixApplications’ app: Ventoy (Unofficial). I had ignored a similar comment on another related thread, because on looking in the app store, I saw that it was yet another app from that company or individual, and looking at the ads on their previous 2 apps, I knew there would be a catch. But things were now starting to weigh on me so I was kinda desperate and I said why not? Let me try the app.

Does Ventoy (Unofficial) App Work?

On installing the app, I immediately noticed that my fears were right. The app had the same format as ISO2USB and USB TOOLS and that meant more “rewarded ads”. Such a pity that these ads aren’t actually rewarding despite the term. But I wanted; scratch that; I needed to try.

I went on to watch the ads: waiting 60 seconds to load the ad, waiting for it to load for probably another minute, and then getting to ‘Watch Ad’ and having to watch it for however long. By this point, it even showed me ads that were more than 60 seconds long. 😩 And on watching about 4 to 6 ads, it would tell me I have reached the max ads for that day, so I kinda had to delete the app’s cache and/or its memory in settings – for it to allow me to watch more ads so that I can keep trying to solve my issue.

I eventually installed Ventoy on the USB, which creates a Ventoy partition where the software is installed, and another partition where I should copy the ISO files. Now, it was critical to choose the right option between MBR and GPT (for UEFI compatibility) and to tick ‘Secure Boot Support’ and ‘*Align Partitions with 4K’.

Secure Boot is a HP UEFI feature that locks the pc or laptop during boot – requiring a password – as a security measure.

The 4K partition recommendation, in my understanding, helps align things for Ventoy to help it work well on the USB.

There was also another option to ‘Prevent Space at the end of the disk’ which is for USB drives or SD Cards – via USB – that will claim ‘fake’ capacity, and if a drive is saying it’s 64GB while it is truly only 16GB, using the prevent space option and setting it to 48GB would ensure it works fine.

I selected the correct options (GPT, Secure Boot Support, and Align with 4K Partition) and copied the ISOs over and went to try and use the USB as bootable media. The Ventoy (Unofficial) apps requires that you install Ventoy first, and then from there you can choose to ‘copy files to USB’, and everything requires coins which you can buy or watch ads to acquire.

I later discovered that yes, I need the app to install Ventoy using my phone (since I don’t have another PC or Laptop and didn’t want access to one – as part of my ‘self-challenge’) but I could copy the ISO files over using my phone’s file manager once I used the app to install Ventoy, provided I put the ISOs on the right partition; and not on the partition where Ventoy itself is installed.

Another thing, my phone was still adding default Android folders to the USB – on opening it – but the beauty of Ventoy is that it doesn’t care as long as you do not mess with the partition where it is installed.

For the other partition, that is, you can use it to store anything you want but it is also where the ISO files should go.

So, did the app work?

Yes and no. It did install Ventoy but I was getting errors on trying to boot the ISOs from the USB. It wasn’t working. After watching all those ads and spending all those days locked out of my laptop. The damn thing wasn’t working.

At this point, I wanted to give up and just take the laptop for repair but this was a challenge and if I gave up, I wouldn’t have had such good ‘research’ for this article.

It was now not only a problem or a self-challenge, but also ‘research’ for this guide. Therefore, I had to carry on looking for a solution.

Remember also, I didn’t want to accept that my laptop was ‘dead’.. After all the work I’ve done with it, all the struggles and all the many issues in web development, ad config, etc, that I have solved with it, it was like my ‘wood carver’s axe 🪓’ and I wasn’t just going to quit and not try to fix it myself, for now anyway.

How Did I Get My Laptop to Boot? Fixing the Windows Won’t Boot Blue Screen of Death with Only a Phone, OTG Cable, SD Card, and USB Card Reader

I probably downloaded over 10 ISOs and after nearly a week of trying and watching the brutal ads on the MixApplications apps, it kinda dawned on me that I needed another way to get Ventoy on the USB.

I went on to the Official Ventoy website, read a number of guides and decided that I will download the official ISO file for Ventoy 1.0.9.9 and try and see whether it is the app installing Ventoy the wrong way.

I copied the ISO within the USB I had installed Ventoy in; essentially wanting to try to boot Ventoy within Ventoy….

I did the first try, bloop. Not working. It actually took down the Ventoy install on the USB – that the app had done – and essentially told me that I had installed a fake version of Ventoy.

After using the same app to clear it – then install it again and wait for the ISOs to copy over – I went in for my second try…

Guess what…

IT freaking WORKED!!!!

Whoaaa… I got an official Ventoy install Window and installed the official version (not updated) on the USB and selected the correct options from the menus (see above what to choose between MBR and GPT and the other options).

Though doing this wiped the USB (SD Card on a USB Reader in this case), I had gotten the official Ventoy installed on my USB and I went on to again copy the ISO files I needed over.

FIXED: Solving Windows Boot Errors and BlueScreen of Death Using Your Phone, SD Card, SD Card Reader, and OTG Cable

Yes. As the heading suggests, by installing the official Ventoy software (using the Ventoy install created with the Ventoy (Unofficial) Android App) – on my SD Card connected to my phone via a SD Card Reader, on an OTG Cable – I was able to create a bootable USB and boot into Windows 11. You should know that you need to use an SD Card or USB Drive with at least 8GB. I used one with 16GB. Also, ensure you have the right settings for Ventoy, as described above.

Points to Note: By this time, I had decided to just set the BIOS boot options from Legacy to UEFI (with CSM) and AHCI for the SATA. But this wasn’t working so after some research, I realized that CSM can lead to complications, so I set it to UEFI only and changed the ‘Boot Order’ placing the USB Hard Drive (and Generic USB if present for your case) at the top. The boot order option dictates what storage media will be booted first. I needed to set USB as the first one because I was having keyboard issues (more on this down below).

After doing this, my laptop could directly boot into the USB when I turn it on. Another option to boot into the USB was when I pressed ‘Boot Options’ at the HP logo using F9, when starting my laptop, and it would take me to a list where I could choose my USB.

Installing Windows 11 on an Incompatible Older Laptop or PC Running Windows 7/8/10

So, after changing to UEFI only and AHCI in the BIOS Settings for my HP Folio 9470M Notebook/ Laptop, I could finally use my frugal setup to boot the official Windows 11 ISO. On the Windows Site, I downloaded the official Windows 11 ISO but since I could not access a laptop to create a bootable USB, I downloaded the official ISO file that is about 5GB and didn’t pick the other options that let you use a PC to create a bootable USB. These other options can limit whether you will be able to install Win 11 (more on this below).

With the official Ventoy software now on my USB, after copying over the ISO to the correct partition on the USB, I was able to boot into it and finally start the process of installing Windows 11 on my (older) laptop, which was on Windows 10. I previously couldn’t install Windows 11 on it since it previously showed a message that my laptop was incompatible.

There were issues, however, as originally, my laptop came with Windows 7 from the manufacturer, and was previously running Windows 10. I also realized that the HDD Hard Drive on my laptop was formatted using MBR (Master Boot Record) and that was what was essentially causing it to be incompatible with Windows 11 since Win11 uses UEFI.

As such, I had to make a tough decision: convert my HDD hard disk into UEFI from MBR and have to delete everything on it. Now, everything I had was on that drive but it had developed issues earlier and reported being corrupted. Therefore, without knowing what had corrupted it; be it a virus, a bad BIOS update/flash, or general issues with my laptop such as overheating, I had to decide. I also didn’t have another drive or disk big enough to accommodate all the files.

So, after one week of trying and even trying to open my laptop and failing due to a lack of tools and 2 hellbent screws, I had little options. The same situation may not be what you are limited by, so please ensure that you backup the entire drive before attempting to convert an MBR HDD or SSD hard disk to UEFI. You will lose all the files as you will have to format the disk to convert it.

How to Convert an MBR HDD/SSD Hard Drive to UEFI

The process of converting an MBR HHD/SSD Hard Drive to UEFI isn’t that complicated. All you need to do is boot or restart your laptop into recovery mode and open command prompt. If you cannot boot into recovery mode, use a bootable USB and go into the installation screen for Windows 10/11 and press ‘SHIFT + F10’ to open command prompt. From there you can use cmd to convert the MBR disk to UEFI.

How to Convert a Hard Drive from MBR to GPT

You can easily convert your hard drive to GPT using the following steps:

Step 1: Open Command Prompt as Administrator

1. Press Win + S to open Windows Search.
2. Type “Command Prompt” or “cmd”.
3. Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator to open it with elevated permissions.

Step 2: Launch the DiskPart Utility

DiskPart is a command-line utility for disk management in Windows.

1. Type:
   diskpart
2. Press Enter to open the DiskPart tool. You’ll see the DiskPart prompt when it’s ready.

Step 3: List All Disks

To find the disk you want to convert, list all disks connected to your system.

1. Type:

list disk

2. Press Enter. DiskPart will show all connected disks, along with their sizes and information about whether they’re GPT or MBR.

• Each disk will have a number (e.g., Disk 0, Disk 1). Make note of the disk number you want to convert to GPT.

Step 4: Select the Disk

Now, select the disk you want to convert.

1. Type:

select disk X

• Replace X with the disk number you noted earlier.

2. Press Enter. DiskPart will confirm that the specified disk is selected.

Step 5: Clean the Disk (Erase All Data)

The conversion requires that the disk has no partitions or volumes on it, so you’ll need to clean it.

1. Type:

clean

2. Press Enter. DiskPart will erase all data, partitions, and volumes on the selected disk.

Warning: The clean command deletes everything on the disk, so ensure you’ve backed up any important data.

Step 6: Convert the Disk to GPT

Now that the disk is clean, you can proceed with the conversion.

1. Type:

convert gpt

2. Press Enter. DiskPart will convert the selected disk to GPT format.

Here is a video to help guide you. Courtesy of MD Tech.

This mini-guide has been written with the help of A.I.

Installing Windows 11 on an Incompatible PC or Laptop Using a Bootable USB Checklist

Once you have done the following, you can proceed to install Windows 11:

• Ensure your RAM is at least 4GB or otherwise, it won’t be plausible to install Windows 11.
• Ensure you have a big enough hard drive or hard disk to install Windows 11 in. Your Hard Disk (mSATA, HDD or SSD) should be at least 100GB in size.
• Convert your hard drive to UEFI (This process – as described above – will wipe everything on the drive so backup first and avoid creating any new partitions on it for now; convert to UEFI and just proceed to making the necessary changes below)
• Download the official Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft (If you use a PC or Microsoft’s Software to try and install Windows 11 on an incompatible device, it will probably not work. You need the ISO file and it is a single file with a .iso extension)
• Create a Bootable USB and install the official Ventoy on it (Installing Ventoy wipes everything on the USB Drive so backup first or move the files before doing this)
• Ensure you have the correct setup settings for Ventoy; it should be on GPT, SecureBoot Enabled, Aligned with 4K Partitioning, and if your USB Device declares the wrong capacity, the option to ‘Prevent Space at the End of the Disk’ set with the correct amount (See above).
• Change BIOS/UEFI Boot Settings and change ‘Boot Options’ from Legacy to UEFI only (and not UEFI (with CSM)) and Device Options for the SATA (or whatever disk is present) from IDE or RAID to AHCI.

• 

  It is best to have your laptop or PC on AC Power; it ensures the process will run uninterrupted, and also having a battery on it while on AC Power could provide a fallback if the lights decide to mess with your install)

Once you are done, you can boot into Ventoy and select the Windows 11 ISO previously downloaded.

• Pick ‘normal boot’ and Press F7 to go into text mode. This is what is recommended on the official Ventoy website, to ensure the Windows 11 install goes perfect.

Start the process once you boot into the ISO successfully;

• Select your Language
• Select ‘Unallocated Space’ as the place to install on the drive or hard disk that you converted to GPT earlier.
• Go through the install process and wait for it to install the needed files.
• Once this process is done, it should restart a few times and take you through the numerous Windows 11 software recommendation screens/OS Setup screens.
• Once you are eventually done with these, voila! Welcome to modern computing.

Isn’t Windows 11 so darn beautiful? I did experienced a few quirks, however, as explained below.

Issues After Installing Windows 11 on an Incompatible Older Laptop/PC

Keyboard Issues

Something very odd started happening with my keyboard once I had installed Windows 11. I am sure it is probably more of a hardware issue, but I do think Windows 11 has something to do with it. Remember that most Windows 11-compatible laptops and PCs are recent, and therefore, will have more advanced features, more recent hardware, and capabilities.

My laptop’s keyboard would work for a while then stop working; not completely, but I couldn’t type ‘The Quick Brown Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Dogs’ on it, a sentence that tests all the letter keys.

Probable Solution

I have tried to solve this issue by going into device manager and deleting the default ‘Standard PS/2 Keyboard’ driver and then restarting but the issue persists.

I am yet to figure out how to solve it and, for instance, I have typed a big part of this guide on Linux – that I installed on the same laptop – and also on my phone (the fingers start getting sort of icy 🙁).

Anywho, yes; there will be issues like that but mostly, if you use a laptop that is more recent and with better UEFI compatibility and support, it should work.

Also, you could use a Bluetooth or USB external keyboard, and if you do, be sure to find the ‘HID Keyboard Device’ drivers for your specific laptop or PC.

Again, as I said, this could be related to the overheating issue on my laptop. The reason I say this is because everytime I use my laptop when charging, and with the battery on, it will get quite hot and the keyboard loses functionality. For now, only charging the laptop in ‘sleep mode’ (with the battery on) seems to be minimizing the issue.

Windows 11 Updates Straining my Laptop and VTx Issues?

The beauty of Windows 11 is that it’s quite fast and also supports Virtualization Technology (VTx) seamlessly. The issue, however, is that I found that my laptop would overheat when doing a Windows Update within Windows 11, and on downloading the initial round of updates, I went ahead and paused Windows updates in the settings.

I also disabled VTx in my BIOS Settings, but I didn’t quite see a improvement. Though, I later switched it back on since I decided to do a dual-OS install with Linux on the same laptop.

Dual Booting into Windows 11 and Kubuntu/Linux Using a Ventoy Bootable USB

As I have shared above, Windows 11 is awesome but like any Windows, it’s quite bloated. I, therefore, decided to do some partitioning of the HDD and also install Kubuntu (a mod of the Ubuntu ‘spec’ of Linux) and dual boot into Windows 11 and Kubuntu on my old HP laptop.

I have never tried any version or mod of Linux before, so since I was experimenting so much of late, and since I had already downloaded several Linux ISOs, why not install Linux also?

A Note: Dual Booting a HP Laptop that is Under Warranty Could Cause Support Issues

Please note that HP says that they will only offer support on OS-related issues for only the OS that came with the laptop. As such, if your laptop is newer and still under warranty, I wouldn’t advice dual booting into Windows and Linux – if it only came with Windows, or installing Windows 11 on it if it came with Linux from HP.

However, since my laptop is old and out-of-warranty, then why not? I used my current phone, SD Card, Card Reader, and OTG Setup to copy the Kubuntu ISO to my USB and got started. The ISO was downloaded from the official site.

Installing Kubuntu/Linux Along with Windows 11

Once the Kubuntu ISO was on the USB drive with Ventoy installed, I was able to launch in ‘Normal Mode’ after Pressing F7 to go into Ventoy’s text mode and successfully got to the Kubuntu Try or Install Screen.

In the Linux (Grub) boot screen, I selected ‘Try and Install Kubuntu’ which took me to the next screen where I selected install Kubuntu.

Here, you’ll need to select a disk and add an internet connection (and write its password) before you can install Kubuntu 24.08. I had an issue with my keyboard at this point (as pointed out above) but I managed to set up a personal hotspot on my phone with no security, hence no need for a password. You could also press a button on your router to connect to your Wi-Fi.

Install Options

I got 3 choices to install Kubuntu, including a ‘Full Install’ with all snaps (or recommended apps/libraries), a ‘Normal Install‘ that would download the snaps later, and a ‘Minimal Install’ option that would install the bare minimum.

I first tried full install, but it reached 92% and took too long to download the snap packages (a known issue, I later discovered) so I ended up going for a Normal install.

Once I got into the install screen, Kubuntu took a few seconds, and allowed me to click next.

On clicking next, it prompted me to select a partition where it would install, and since I had already partitioned my HDD and set aside a partition for Linux (formatted to exFAT and not NTFS, and labeled), it was easier to just select the partition by clicking on it, and after clicking next; automatically Kubuntu reformatted it to the correct format and installed its ‘mount point or /’, ‘swap partition’, and everything else it needed on that partition.

Note that this process will wipe everything on that particular partition so please ensure you select the correct partition and confirm. You could mess up and blow up the Windows install on your HDD or SSD if you select the wrong partition.

Once you’ve selected the partition, Kubuntu will ask you to pick a username, a name for your device, and a password.. Please record these somewhere lest you forget and have to restart the entire process.

From there, it took a few minutes and Kubuntu was installed. On the install screen, you can check the error log via a small button on the bottom right, just by the progress bar, if your install fails.

Once you see the Plasma KDE ‘splash’ screen… you are in. Welcome to seamless computing.

Caveats/Issues with a Windows 11/Kubuntu(Linux) Dual Boot

Boot Options

I found that Kubuntu did put up a grub boot screen, but I have to first press F9 on my HP laptop (maybe since its so old 🙁 ) to go into ‘Boot Options’ and then select Ubuntu.

Only after doing this would I be taken to the grub boot screen. Otherwise, the laptop will just boot into Windows.

If your laptop is more recent, you could try going into BIOS Settings (Be very careful with these… as we’ve seen, you could mess up the entire dual install and you should normally avoid BIOS/UEFI settings unless necessary) and try to find ‘Ubuntu’ in the boot order.

If you do find it, you can move it up to be the first option, or place it second after USB Drive, so that without a USB – and normally – your laptop or PC will boot directly into the grub boot screen. The good thing is that in the grub boot screen, if you want you can choose to boot Linux or the ‘Windows boot manager’ option to boot into Windows.

So there is that caveat: booting into Ubuntu or whatever Linux flavor could require an additional step.

Probable Solution

There are several Windows and Linux apps to create a boot screen with options for both OSs, but I found something like EasyBCD won’t work on Windows 11 and I am yet to figure out how to install it in Linux.

Hardware Compatibility: Do You Need Drivers for Linux?

Normally, you don’t need to install drivers for Linux. You won’t also find drivers for Linux for older HP models (and any HP laptops mostly, as they are not needed). Amazingly, Linux comes pre-installed with numerous drivers for several chips and you won’t need to install drivers for Linux.

Even more, you won’t also need a Linux BIOS Update since your ‘main’, manufacturer, or base OS is Windows.

You will, however, need HP (or your manufacturer’s) drivers for the Windows 11 install. So, I first installed Windows 11, all the needed HP drivers, and then started the Kubuntu (Linux) install.

Keyboard Issues

My laptop’s keyboard still has issues, even on Kubuntu. I have seen in some forums and support message boards that it could be an issue with Ubuntu 24.08 but I can’t be so sure for my case.

For me, the keyboard will stop working if I am charging the laptop (with the battery installed obviously) and using it.

I have even tried to add a virtual keyboard and that app keeps crashing. Users have shared similar issues in this reddit thread. Some have said that after an update, specific keys are not working.

So, be aware that you could experience some quirks. I am actually even surprised that the keyboard has held up this long (most of this is written on Kubuntu and within the pre-installed Firefox browser on Docs).

Probable Solution

I did install HPLIP, a driver package for HP imaging devices and printers (that sometimes improves hardware functionality on Linux) but I am not sure that helped at all.

Is Linux or Kubuntu Good?

Linux is a dream and regardless of whichever ‘flavor’ you pick – mine was Kubuntu – I think you’ll have such a wonderful experience.

The beauty of Linux is that it is not bloated like Windows and it is also so modular and ‘flexible’. You can tweak almost anything and install ‘applets’ for additional functionality.

As far as I can tell also, it is not stressing or overheating my laptop (most or any of the time) and if I am not having too many things open, the laptop will remain relatively warm and not all-out heating up like on Windows.

Final Thoughts: I keep asking myself… did I succeed? 

Hell yeah! I did it. I fixed my old laptop’s Windows Boot Errors, Installed Windows 11 (despite the laptop being ‘incompatible’) and even spruced things up with a Kubuntu install, all while armed with only my phone, an sd card, a USB card reader, and an OTG cable.

It was not all roses, at all, especially since it took me almost a week and I did have to only format everything on my HDD (with no backups whatsoever). But I am glad because I had on there over 100GB in music videos, and in these days of YouTube and Spotify, who needs 100GB of music videos weighing them down.

I also did lose a few NFTs, but those were created ‘programmatically’, and since I have the ingredient files somewhere, I could as well create those,.. When I want to and if the NFT thing actually becomes lucrative again.

Thanks for reading and whohoooo!!! Yeah, I need to buy a new laptop ASAP. Recommendations? Share them in the comments….

Donations are also quite welcome. 😁 🤗