Create bootable USB media from ISO for Windows 10

Hi morning all, today I would like to share with all of you on how to create bootable USB media from ISO for Windows 10.

Most of us may have reserved a copy of the free Windows 10 upgrade for our computers, there may be some who may want to go for a clean install, using a Windows 10 ISO image. In this post, we will see how to download the ISO image, burn it to a USB drive and create a bootable USB media from ISO for Windows 10 installation.

First of all, you will have to download it from its official link at Microsoft. Once you have done this, you can use it to create a bootable USB or Flash Drive. To do this, you will have to take help of some software like Windows USB/DVD Download Tool, Rufus, ABUSB, ESET SysRescue Live, WinToFlash, Windows USB Installer Maker or Windows Installation Media Creation Tool.

In this post, I am using Rufus as an example. It also offers a portable version, which I have used. After you have downloaded this freeware, insert your USB and then click on Rufus to open its main window. Do note that, you will require a 4 GB USB for the 32-bit version and an 8 GB for the 64-bit version of Windows 10.

You may give a new volume label and browse to the location of your downloaded Windows 10 ISO image. To browse to the location, under Format Options, you will see Create a bootable disk using option. Click on the small icon on the right side and browse to the folder, and select the ISO file.

The rest of the options, you may leave at their default values. When you use MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI, under Partition scheme and target system type, the bootable USB will be suitable for devices using BIOS as well as UEFI.

 

Once you have done this, simply click on Start and wait for the process to get over. Remember that when you click Start, all data preset on this USB will be deleted, so if you need to, you may back up your data first before using it.

Once the process is completed, you will have a bootable Windows 10 installation USB media in your hands, which you can use to install Windows 10. If you feel the need, you may check if the USB is bootable.

Bootable USB drive for Windows 10 manually

 

This is how you create bootable USB drive for Windows 10 manually

Maybe you don’t like having a tool automate the process for you, or maybe you just love using the command prompt. Regardless of your reasons for creating a bootable Windows 10 USB drive manually, here are the steps on how to do it.

Before you start, you’ll need the .ISO file for Windows 10 — you can get this from various unofficial sources, but there are many official ones as well (the aforementioned Windows 10 Media Creation Tool can make one for you). If your Windows 10 installation image is in a different DVD image format, convert it to an .ISO file.

Open the command prompt as the administrator (search for cmd, right-click, and choose “Run as administrator”), type “diskpart” without the quotes, and hit enter. Alternatively, open up the Start Menu, type “diskpart” without the quotes, and click yes if prompted by UAC to give the program permission.

Plug in your USB drive. Type “list disk” without the quotes and hit enter. Take a look at the Size column and figure out which disk number your USB drive is.

Ours is number 1, so we’re going to type “select disk 1” without the quotes and hit enter. Adjust your disk number accordingly.

If you haven’t done a backup of the contents on your USB drive, now is your last chance. Now wipe the drive by typing in “clean” without the quotes and hitting enter. 

Now we want to prepare the USB drive for the Windows 10 files and ensure it is bootable. Type “create partition primary” without the quotes and hit enter.

Then type “select partition 1” without the quotes and hit enter.

Next type “active” without the quotes and hit enter.

Finally, type “format fs=fat32” without quotes and hit enter. This will format your USB drive in the Fat32 format using the Quick routine. (If you choose to use NTFS instead, you’ll later have to run a different command to put boot manager compatible files onto your USB drive to make it a bootable device.) This process will take some time, depending on the size and speed of your USB drive.

When that’s done, type “assign” without the quotes and hit enter (this will assign a new drive letter to the USB flash drive, making it accessible). Your USB drive will likely automatically open (if it doesn’t, find it in My Computer or This PC). Remember the drive letter (in our case it is H).

You now have two options. You can extract the contents of the .ISO image file (open them in Windows Explorer or using your favorite extraction tool, and copy them directly to the USB drive) or you can mount the .ISO (use your favorite mounting tool) and let command prompt do the work.

We’ve been using the command prompt up to this point, so we’ll do this last step using it as well. Close diskpart and open up cmd again. Type “xcopy g:*.* /s/e/f h:” without the quotes, where “g:” is the drive letter for your mounted .iso file and “h:” is the drive letter for your USB flash drive. Don’t worry if install.wim takes a while to copy: It’s easily the biggest file on the disc.

Type “exit” without the quotes and hit enter. You’re done. You can now install Windows 10 from your USB drive, either by booting from it or from within an existing installation of Windows.