I bought a genuine Microsoft system installation USB drive on Xianyu, and here's how I made it Chinese-style modernized.
I Bought a Genuine Microsoft Windows Installation USB Drive on Xianyu – Here’s How I Made It “Chinese Modernization”
A couple of days ago, I spotted a Microsoft surplus Windows installation USB drive on Xianyu and snagged it for around 30 RMB.
When it arrived, it contained Windows 10 version 1709 (Japanese) – Home, Pro, and Pro Education editions, with both x86 and x64 versions. The 8GB USB drive was packed to the brim, leaving only about 70MB of free space. The packaging indicated it was manufactured in Singapore, likely in 2017. The controller is a Huike USB 2.0.
Although the USB drive isn’t large, its transfer speed is stable, with writes consistently hitting 17MB/s. Huike’s controller definitely has its merits.
First, I tested it in a virtual machine. Nothing special – just the early 2017 Japanese version of Windows 10.
Oh, and the activation key inside is invalid. But why would I need an activation key anyway?
So I decided to transform it into a tiny USB drive that can only install the latest Chinese version of Windows 10, while being compatible with both BIOS and UEFI firmware.
Partitioning Method
I directly formatted the USB drive. Considering that even the ESD solid-compressed image of the latest Windows 10 is over 4GB, a FAT32 partition simply won’t work – it can’t hold files larger than 4GB. I didn’t want to bother splitting the image into SWM files either. So, unless I resort to mass-producing the USB drive, there’s only one way out: split the USB drive into two partitions.
I first formatted the entire USB drive as a single exFAT partition in File Explorer. Then, using DiskGenius, I carved out a 50MB FAT32 partition at the very end of the drive (I’m really being stingy here).
Obviously, the exFAT partition will hold all the files from the Windows 10 ISO, while the FAT32 partition will serve as an EFI partition for UEFI boot files.
Additionally, to ensure compatibility with both BIOS and UEFI firmware, the USB drive’s partition table must be MBR. Otherwise, BIOS won’t recognize a GPT partition table.
Most importantly, this 50MB partition must be set as an active primary partition. In DiskGenius, right-click the partition and select “Set as Active Primary Partition.” Otherwise, it won’t boot under BIOS firmware.
Don’t tell me UEFI doesn’t recognize MBR partition tables – otherwise, how do you think those PE boot drives manage to boot on both BIOS and UEFI firmware?
File Writing
Writing the Windows 10 installation files to the USB drive is quite simple. Just open the Windows 10 ISO disc image, select all its contents, and copy them to the large exFAT partition.
As for the FAT32 EFI boot partition, it’s only for boot files. Just extract the boot-related files from the ISO and place them in this partition.
Specifically, the boot files in the ISO are:
bootfolderEFIfolderbootmgrbootmgr.efi
Throw these four items into the 50MB EFI partition, and you’re done.
Modifying Boot Configuration Files
If I had only created a single FAT32 partition on this USB drive, there would be no need to modify the boot configuration files. But as I mentioned earlier, the Windows 10 installation WIM file is too large – over 4GB – and I didn’t want to split it. So, two partitions it is. With two partitions, you have to modify the BCD file. Fortunately, it’s quite straightforward.
In the FAT32 EFI partition, find the file and edit it using BOOTICE in smart edit mode.
There are only two things to change: In the “Boot Disk” dropdown, select the USB drive. In the “Boot Partition” dropdown, select the 50MB EFI partition on the USB drive.
Then, click Save Current System Settings → Save Global Settings, and you can close BOOTICE.
The above only modifies the boot configuration data for UEFI firmware. If your computer uses BIOS, you’ll also need to modify the BIOS BCD file. Although my computer is pure UEFI, I still modified the BIOS BCD file for compatibility (and because I had nothing better to do).
It’s also very convenient.
Simply copy the modified \efi\Microsoft\boot\BCD file to the \boot folder, replacing the existing BCD there. Then, edit this BCD file with BOOTICE again. This time, only one change is needed: Change the last three letters of the boot file on the right from efi to exe – winload.efi becomes winload.exe. Then, save the current system settings, save global settings, and close BOOTICE.
Details determine success or failure. If you don’t save the settings in the correct order, no one can save you.
And that’s it – the USB boot drive is ready. You can now use it to install the original Windows 10 directly.
Later, I realized there was still about 2GB of free space left on the exFAT partition. Since it was just sitting there, I decided to add the WePE system as well. Now, every time I boot, I can choose between the official Microsoft installation interface or the WePE system for manual DIY. The official Microsoft PE is called boot.wim inside the Windows 10 ISO – it’s huge, nearly 700MB.
WePE is less than 300MB. I actually considered deleting Microsoft’s boot.wim and using WePE to boot this drive entirely. But then I thought, switching to WePE would lose the “original” charm, making it just like any other ordinary boot drive. So, I kept both PEs – boot.wim and WePE – and decide which to use based on my mood.
Then I noticed there was still some space left, so I copied my commonly used “System Installation Configuration Toolkit” into the USB drive as well. In fact, you can copy anything you want into it – it won’t affect system installation. As long as the USB drive has space, you can put anything in (except viruses). The system installation relies entirely on one file: \sources\install.wim.
Theoretically, we only need that file to install the system; everything else can be deleted. But since I bought this USB drive for the “original” experience, I kept the entire ISO contents. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother with the ISO at all – I’d just extract install.wim from the downloaded ISO and throw away the rest. Why waste space on useless stuff?
This article is quite casual, just a record. You can try my method yourself. In fact, any USB drive can be set up this way – it doesn’t have to be an official Microsoft USB drive. I actually suspect mine might be fake.
But it doesn’t matter – as long as it looks good. Given its performance, I probably won’t even use it regularly.
One final note: hard drives and memory are all getting more expensive now. Don’t buy them – wait until 2030 to purchase.