Netinstall and windows 10 or 11

RouterOS General
1

Yesterday I had a bad day…
I upgraded one of my 3011 to the version 6.49.7
It was in the field, I upgraded because of security issues with the firmware it has installed.

It never came back online so I did a truckroll to the tower with 50+ customers down. And about 40C temperature outside. Not great.

The router was rebooting in a loop. As many times before this happens when you upgrade a Mikrotik the flash gets all yucky.
So I grabbed another 3011 which was working perfectly fine but replaced by another router some time ago.
Upgraded that to the same newer version (6.49.7)
And voila! BRICKED TOO! These moments I can strangle someone at Mikrotik…

So finally I ended up installing a new CCR2004 I had laying around.

Before replacing I tried at the site to do netinstall.
Which should recover the 3011’s without any issue cuz they just bricked after upgrading them.

However netinstall won’t work on windows 11, neither on windows 10 I tried on 3 different pcs.
Do I really have to install Linux, or windows XP or so to make this work? I read articules here that many people have issues with windows & netinstall… I have recovered in the past a few routers with this..

I also have a few ccr1036’s that need netinstalling…

2

When using Windows, make sure all your other network interfaces are disabled. ONLY ethernet port should be active.
Sometimes it can help to put a dumb switch in between.

To be honest, personally I quit trying with Windows. More miss then hit. A LOT more miss.
At home I have a Linux laptop (old Dell from 2008) with almost 100% success rate for netinstall.
Another option presented recently (haven’t toyed with it yet): netinstall via Mikrotik device able to run container.

3

Having recently done a windows10 netinstall.
a. YES, disable the wifi network interface
b. YES, close any AV or FW if you can