Solved Creating an Installation/Repair Thumb Drive on an Intel Machine for an ARM Machine

bob17821 · Jan 19, 2025

My Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 laptop (Snapdragon X Elite) is in a bootup loop. It's been to Lenovo Repair but they say they can't (or won't) fix it without destroying the SSD. So I told them to return it after learning that I can create a repair or installation thumb drive on my Lenovo Legion Intel desktop for a different computer. But now that I am in the belly of the beast I realize that it doesn't appear certain or explicit that I can create the repair/installation thumb drive on the Intel machine for the ARM machine. And in the documentation that I have been wading through it is not always clear when the reference to a machine type (i.e. ARM or Intel) is referring to the machine on which the thumb drive is being created or the machine on which it will be used.

I have so far fumbled my way to this point (please see attached file) at which point I am stumped. If I try to run the exe file I get a pop-up saying it won't run because this is not an ARM machine.

I'll greatly appreciate any guidance anyone can offer.

Thanks, Bob

Megahertz · Jan 19, 2025

Could you tell us how did the computer ended with this boot loop? Was it after an update?
Did you try to boot from a Win 11 installation drive or from the CCOMA you posted?

I will assume you can
Boot from a Win 11 installation drive or from the CCOMA DVD and at the Windows Setup screen, press Shift+F10 simultaneously to open a command line prompt and type:
diskpart
sel disk 0
list part

Take a photo with a cell phone and paste it here. I want to see the structure of your drive.

garlin · Jan 19, 2025

This an ARM64 ISO, based on the volume label "CCCOMA_A64FRE_EN-US_DV9". You can't execute it from an Intel PC.

Assuming you followed their instructions, it should boot on the Snapdragon PC.

bob17821 · Jan 20, 2025

Megahertz said:
Could you tell us how did the computer ended with this boot loop? Was it after an update?
Did you try to boot from a Win 11 installation drive or from the CCOMA you posted?

I will assume you can
Boot from a Win 11 installation drive or from the CCOMA DVD and at the Windows Setup screen, press Shift+F10 simultaneously to open a command line prompt and type:
diskpart
sel disk 0
list part

Take a photo with a cell phone and paste it here. I want to see the structure of your drive.

Thanks for your interest Megahertz. The Yoga died following an update. Following the update if failed on the next attempt to boot it up. There were options I could select but no matter which option I selected it would fail to boot up. The Yoga does not have a DVD drive. I think it would boot from a USB thumb drive but, if my understanding is correct, the thumb drive would have to contain the ARM version of Windows 11. And, again if my understanding is correct, I cannot create a thumb drive containing the ARM version of Windows on my Intel Lenovo Legion desktop.

I don't know if it has any relevance but I have attached a photo of the "Start Menu" (with some things which I thought might be sensitive obliterated).

Thanks again for your interest.

Bob

bob17821 · Jan 20, 2025

garlin said:
This an ARM64 ISO, based on the volume label "CCCOMA_A64FRE_EN-US_DV9". You can't execute it from an Intel PC.

Assuming you followed their instructions, it should boot on the Snapdragon PC.

Thank you for weighing in garlin. What could I do with the ARM64 ISO? I have never created a bootable DVD and if I had one I am not sure if the Yoga can be told to boot from a DVD drive. But I will look into it.

Thanks, Bob

bob17821 · Jan 20, 2025

The "Start Menu" which I forgot to attach ...

han jansen · Jan 20, 2025

Hi,
Sorry I can not help, but interesting problem.
Hope you get it sorted out.

Ciao, Han

SIW2 · Jan 20, 2025

Does the button in a hole do anything

User Guide

Have you tried copying the contents of the arm iso onto a fat32 formatted usb stick and see if that boots on the lenovo

hsehestedt · Jan 20, 2025

Can't you simply download the ISO image and create your installation media?

Since this is just a standard ISO image, you can use it to make your installation on any platform Including Intel, Mac, Linux, etc.

Just go to the Windows 11 download page below.

Download Windows 11 Arm64

Bree · Jan 20, 2025

bob17821 said:
I realize that it doesn't appear certain or explicit that I can create the repair/installation thumb drive on the Intel machine for the ARM machine.

By far the best way is to get the official Lenovo recovery media for your device. It is free to download. This will contain all the appropriate drivers, specific to your machine.

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/lenovorecovery?linkTrack=Body:Box:RecoveryMedia

SIW2 · Jan 20, 2025

hsehestedt said:
Can't you simply download the ISO image and create your installation media?

Since this is just a standard ISO image, you can use it to make your installation on any platform Including Intel, Mac, Linux, etc.

Just go to the Windows 11 download page below.

Download Windows 11 Arm64

View attachment 122691

Looks like the OP already has the arm iso . He posted a picture of the contents. He doesnt know what to do with it.

bob17821 · Jan 20, 2025

SIW2 said:
Does the button in a hole do anything

User Guide

Have you tried copying the contents of the arm iso onto a fat32 formatted usb stick and see if that boots on the lenovo

Thanks SIW2 but I can't find a paperclip size hole anywhere. I also could not find it in the user manual. No I have not tried formatting the USB stick. I am thing to study this thing to death so that I have a complete process which I am sure is not going to destroy any of my data on the SSD. I think that is possible but I don't know what it is yet.

bob17821 · Jan 20, 2025

Bree said:
By far the best way is to get the official Lenovo recovery media for your device. It is free to download. This will contain all the appropriate drivers, specific to your machine.

View attachment 122692

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/lenovorecovery?linkTrack=Body:Box:RecoveryMedia

Thanks Bree. This looked very helpful and may very well turn out to be the answer. But when I ran USBRecoveryCreate.exe I ended up with this popup:

and when I went to "eSupport" I could not find anything which looked like it applied to my situation. But this will be one of the several options I am pursuing. Thanks again, Bob

Bree · Jan 20, 2025

bob17821 said:
I also could not find it in the user manual.....

Here you are....

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/yoga-series/yoga-slim-7-14q8x9/document-userguide

bob17821 · Jan 20, 2025

Bree said:
Here you are....

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/yoga-series/yoga-slim-7-14q8x9/document-userguide

Yes. Thank you. I have now found it. But now I am wondering how it is supposed to be helpful in my situation. I am reluctant to poke a paperclip in there without knowing why I am doing it.

bob17821 · Jan 20, 2025

For anyone anyone who might be interested ... I stumbled upon this interesting post on GitHub: How to reinstall Windows 11 Home on a Snapdragon X Elite device

This note gives me pause: "As of June 2024, Snapdragon X Elite devices are still very new and support for installations of Windows on ARM by the consumers is not (yet) as straight forward as "burning" an ISO file supplied by Microsoft onto a USB drive like for their x86 counterparts. Currently, the only way to get a USB device to boot is to use an EFI partition created with diskpart or a WinPE boot drive."

I used to know something about disk partitioning but in an earlier lifetime.

Megahertz · Jan 20, 2025

bob17821 said:
The "Start Menu" which I forgot to attach ...

That isn't the windows start menu. That is the computer BIOS. Don't change anything.

To make a Win 11 USB boot able drive using the iso file:

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary
select part 1
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit (to exit diskpart)

On Win 10 or Win 11, mount the iso file and copy all files and folders to the USB drive.

This will only work if the \sources\install.wim or install.esd is smaller than 4G
If \sources\install.wim is bigger you will have to split it into smaller Install.swm (I will give you the instructions to do it)

Once you have the win 11 USB installation drive, boot from it and follow the instructions on post # 2

bob17821 · Jan 22, 2025

Megahertz said:
That isn't the windows start menu. That is the computer BIOS. Don't change anything.

To make a Win 11 USB boot able drive using the iso file:

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary
select part 1
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit (to exit diskpart)

On Win 10 or Win 11, mount the iso file and copy all files and folders to the USB drive.

This will only work if the \sources\install.wim or install.esd is smaller than 4G
If \sources\install.wim is bigger you will have to split it into smaller Install.swm (I will give you the instructions to do it)

Once you have the win 11 USB installation drive, boot from it and follow the instructions on post # 2

Thank you very much for the very explicit instructions Megahertz. But I didn't see this post until I was headed down the path which Bree suggested and assisted me with. And that seemed to be going well so I stuck with it. Right now the Yoga is booting up from the USB thumb drive created by the Lenovo process. I'll have more to say about that shortly.

Megahertz · Jan 22, 2025

bob17821 said:
Thank you very much for the very explicit instructions Megahertz. But I didn't see this post until I was headed down the path which Bree suggested and assisted me with. And that seemed to be going well so I stuck with it. Right now the Yoga is booting up from the USB thumb drive created by the Lenovo process. I'll have more to say about that shortly.

That's very good news.

bob17821 · Jan 24, 2025

I now have the Lenovo Yoga up and running - thanks to Bree who suggested the right approach and helped me through it. I don't know if there is an MS way to do it or not, but Lenovo has a tool which made a USB thumb drive for the broken (ARM) Yoga on a Win 11 machine. Some of the Lenovo dialogs and instructions were to too clear. And the re-installation of Win 11 on the Yoga took awhile but completed without any problem.

So thanks very much Bree, but thanks too to everyone who responded!! What a great group this is!

Bob

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