3 Methods to Create Bootable USB Windows 10 [Full Guide]

Here, we collect three different methods to help you create bootable USB in Windows 10 easily and effectively.

By Emily / Last Updated June 10, 2020

Why create a bootable USB in Windows 10?

In most cases, when the Windows 10 operating system goes wrong and the PC starts to run slowly or even stop working properly, your first move will be searching online for a solution. If lucky, you can get an effective solution to fix this issue. If not, the last resort should be reinstalling the operating system from the DVD or CD. What if your PC does not have an optical drive, or the original installation DVD is not available any longer?

In this situation, a bootable USB installer is a great alternative, which allows you to reinstall Windows 10 from a USB drive. Briefly, the USB stick is portable and compatible with nearly all desktops or laptops. After all, a USB port can be found on every PC. Besides, installing OS from USB drive is also quicker than from DVD or CD. Therefore, more and more users like to make a bootable USB installer to keep handy.

3 Methods to make a bootable USB drive for Window 10

In this part, we would like to share 3 different methods with you to make a bootable USB flash drive so that you can install OS more flexibly. Without any further ado, let’s get started.

Note: no matter which method you will choose finally, please ensure you have a copy of the required files stored in USB stick because it will be erased in the process. Free AOMEI Backupper is recommended for this backup task.

1. Create bootable USB Windows 10 via CMD

First of all, we will demonstrate how to make a bootable USB using Command Prompt. Download the Windows 10 ISO files from the official site and make sure the USB flash drive has at least 5GB free space.

Step 1. Press “Win+R” at the same time to open “Run” dialogue. Input “cmd” and hit on “Enter” key.

Step 2. When the Command Prompt window opens, type “diskpart” and press “Enter” to launch DiskPart.exe tool. Then execute the following command in sequence.

в–ёlist disk
в–ёselect disk #
в–ёclean
в–ёcreate partition primary
в–ёselect partition 1
▸format fs=ntfs quick (To create UEFI bootable USB, format it as FAT32 with command “format fs=fat32 quick” instead)
в–ёactive

After you format the USB flash drive and set the primary partition as active, type “Exit” to close the diskpart.exe. Then use File Explorer to copy and paste the entire contents of the Windows ISO to the USB flash drive.

What if file copy fails?
If the Windows image file is over than 4GB, surpassing the file size limit of FAT32 file system, you will fail to copy files onto the USB flash drive. Once it happens, do as below:
1. Copy everything except the Windows image file (sources\install.wim) to the USB drive (either drag and drop, or use the following command, where D: is the mounted ISO and F: is the USB flash drive.)
robocopy D: F: /s /max:3800000000
2. Split the Windows image file into smaller files, and copy them onto the USB drive:
Dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:D:\sources\install.wim /SWMFile:F:\sources\install.swm /FileSize:3800

2. Make bootable Win 10 USB via Windows USB/DVD Download Tool

Secondly, you can make use of the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool. It can create a copy of ISO files onto USB flash drive as an installer.

Step 2. Run it. In the Source box, type the name and path of your Windows ISO file, or click BROWSE and select the file from the OPEN dialog box. Click “Next”.

Step 3. Select USB DEVICE to create a copy on a USB flash drive.

Step 4. Choose your USB drive and click “Begin copying”.

After it is finished, install Windows by moving to the root folder of your USB drive, and then double-click Setup.exe.

3. Make bootable USB via MediaCreationTool

Considering that most users tend to use MediaCreationTool, so here we also illustrate how to use this tool to create bootable USB in Windows 10.

Step 1. Download MediaCreationTool and run it as an administrator.

Step 2. Select ”Accept” in the license terms screen.

Step 3. Select “Create installation media for another PC”, and then select Next.

Step 4. Choose the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10.

Step 5. Choose ”USB flash drive” and click “Next”.

Step 6. Choose your prepared USB drive from the list, then ”Next”.

Step 7. Once done, the tool will start to download the latest Windows 10 installation files to your device.

When it is over, this data is written to your flash drive and the USB is made bootable with the newest Windows 10 setup.

Further study: create bootable USB to run Win 10 from flash drive

Above content is all about how to make a bootable USB stick to install OS. If you do that for running Windows 10 operating system on another computer with an older operating system, you can run Windows 10 directly through a bootable USB drive. For this purpose, you can turn to the free partition manager: AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. It is compatible with all editions of Windows 10/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista. With it, you can create Windows bootable USB drive with ISO files. Below is the detailed instruction:

Step 1. Download the freeware, install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

Step 2. Click “All Tools” > “Windows To Go Creator” on the left side.

Step 3. Tick “Create Windows ToGo for personal computer”, and then click “Next”.

Step 4. Choose “Create Windows To Go with system disc/ISO” and select the prepared ISO file. Click “Next”.

Step 5. Select the USB drive you have prepared and click “Proceed”.

After it is done, you can insert the bootable USB to the target computer, change boot order in BIOS and boot PC from it.

If you want to create bootable USB drive with current operating system installed on your computer, you can upgrade to Professional. That also enables you to run Windows from USB on Mac.

Summary

In this article, we shared 3 different ways to create bootable USB in Windows 10 as an installer, plus an additional way to make a portable boot USB to run OS on any other computers. Choose one according to your specific requirements. If you plan to create a bootable USB to repair boot issues caused by damaged MBR or disk errors, the AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can also help you a lot.

Make windows bootable dvd

How to make a bootable DVD?

Bootable DVD Maker: What is the Bootable DVD? A bootable DVD should be called Emergency Startup Disk which is mainly for re-booting your computer when your system has been compromised, or has experienced technical difficulties.

Making a bootable DVD is not difficult any longer. WinISO is an integrated tool to make bootable DVDs. It has the ability to extract & set boot information, and generate the bootable ISO file as well.

Note: Not all ISO files have boot information. Running WinISO, you will find out whether the ISO image files have bootable information or not on the left of WinISO.

Here we will show you how to make a bootable DVD with ease.
Let’s put the “Non-bootable” ISO file as an example.

Firstly, Free Download WinISO, and then install it.

Step 1: Install and run the software

After the installation, run the software. You can see the main interface as below.

Step 2: Make bootable ISO file

Open an ISO file which is non-bootable ISO. Then set the boot image file.
Tips: There are 2 ways to set the boot information with WinISO.

Usage 1:

Click «bootable» on the toolbar; choose the “Set Boot Image”, a “select a boot image file” dialogue will appear on your screen. Afterwards, choose the boot image file. Then click “open”, you will see the bootable image file on your screen.

Usage 2: You can also load boot information from CD/DVD/BD Driver or CD/DVD/BD image file

Click «bootable» on the toolbar; then click the «Import From..», There are two options. If you have the boot information in your CD/DVD/BD, just choose the “CD/DVD/BD Driver”, then you will get a message, including the importing succeeded message, the boot file size and ask you whether set into the current working image or save it to file? Click the «Set into current» button, the bootable ISO you will got right now. (We recommand you save the boot information first then set it into the non-bootable file.)

Step 3: Burn the bootable ISO file to DVD

Prepare a blank DVD, and make sure you have a DVD Driver to insert it. Then click the “Burn” on the toolbar. Choose the DVD driver you have and the bootable ISO you’ve just got. Everything is OK, Now click “Burn”. A few minutes, you will get a bootable DVD.

More things you can do

• Extract boot image: WinISO can also extract the boot information from the bootable DVD or bootable ISO files. Want to know how to extract the boot image, see here.
• Clear boot information: If you do not need boot information for your file, WinISO can help to solve the problem. Just click “Bootable” on the toolbar; the drop-down list will popup. Click the “Clear Boot Information” then you will get a Non-boot image file as the original ISO you have.

For more guides, please take closer look here:

Windows USB/DVD Download Tool

Overview

When you download Windows from Microsoft Store, you have two options: You can download a collection of compressed files, or you can download an ISO file. An ISO file combines all the Windows installation files into a single uncompressed file.

If you choose to download an ISO file so you can create a bootable file from a DVD or USB drive, copy the Windows ISO file onto your drive and then run the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool. Then simply install Windows onto your computer directly from your USB or DVD drive.

When you download the ISO file, you must copy it onto a USB or DVD. When you’re ready to install Windows, insert the USB drive or DVD with the ISO file on it and then run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive.

This allows you to install Windows onto your machine without having to first run an existing operating system. If you change the boot order of drives in your computer’s BIOS, you can run the Windows installation directly from your USB drive or DVD when you first turn on your computer. Please see the documentation for your computer for information about how to change the BIOS boot order of drives.

Making copies

To install the software, you can make one copy of the ISO file on a disc, USB flash drive, or other media.

After you’ve installed the software and accepted the license terms that accompany the software, those license terms apply to your use of the software. The license terms for Windows permit you to make one copy of the software as a back-up copy for re-installation on the licensed computer. If you do not delete your copy of the ISO file after installing the Windows software, the copy of the ISO file counts as your one back-up copy.

If you need to download the software again, you can go to your Download Purchase History in your Microsoft Store account and access the download there.

Installation

To install the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool:

2. Click Download then Run.

3. Follow the steps in the setup dialogs. You’ll have the option to specify where to install the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool.

You must be an administrator on the computer on which you are installing the Windows USB/DVD Download tool. It requires the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 or higher.

System requirements

Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)

Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300MHz is recommended)

50MB of free space on your hard drive

DVD-R drive or 4GB removable USB drive

For Windows XP users

The following applications must be installed prior to installing the tool:

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 must be installed. It can be downloaded here.

Microsoft Image Mastering API v2 must be installed. It can be downloaded here.

Using the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool

Before you run the Download Tool, make sure you have purchased the Windows ISO download from Microsoft Store and downloaded the Windows ISO file to your drive. If you have purchased Windows but have not yet downloaded the ISO file, you can download the ISO file from your Microsoft Store Account.

To make a copy of your Windows ISO file:

1. Click the Windows START button, and click WINDOWS USB/DVD DOWNLOAD TOOL in the ALL PROGRAMS list to open the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool.

2. In the SOURCE FILE box, type the name and path of your Windows ISO file, or click BROWSE and select the file from the OPEN dialog box. Click NEXT.

3. Select USB DEVICE to create a copy on a USB flash drive or select DVD disk to create a copy on a DVD disk.

4. If you are copying the file to a USB flash drive, select your USB device in the drop-down list and click BEGIN COPYING. If you are copying the file up to a DVD, click BEGIN BURNING.

When your Windows ISO file is copied to your drive, install Windows by moving to the root folder of your DVD or USB drive, and then double-click Setup.exe.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I download .NET framework 2.0?

The .NET framework can be downloaded here.

Where can I download Image Mastering API 2.0?

The Image Mastering API can be downloaded here.

What size USB drive is required?

You need a USB drive with a minimum of 4GB of free space.

Can I use my newly created USB drive to install Windows on someone else’s computer?

No. The Windows ISO file on the USB drive is only intended to be used to install Windows on the licensed user’s own computer.

Can I back up to a CD-ROM?

No. The Windows ISO file is too large to fit on a CD.

Can I back up to a Blu-ray Disc?

Yes, as long as your DVD drive can write to a Blu-ray Disc.

IfI have other files on the USB drive will the Windows USB/DVD download tool delete them?

This tool requires the USB drive to be completely blank before the Windows files are copied. This helps ensure that the device is bootable after the copying has completed.

Can I backup to an external hard drive or other device with enough free disk space?

Yes, but this is not recommended. The device must be formatted in order for the device to be bootable. A dedicated USB flash drive would be a better option.

Can I use the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool to back up other files?

No. This tool is only for use with the Windows ISO file purchased from Microsoft Store.

Does the tool support dual-layer DVD discs for burning?

No. Currently, the tool does not support dual-layer DVD discs.

Troubleshooting

The tool is asking me to install the .NET framework and Image Mastering API before I install the tool

If you’re running Windows XP, you must install the .NET Framework 2.0 and the Image Mastering API 2.0 before installing the tool. You can download .NET framework here and you can download the Image Mastering API here.

A restart may be required after installing the .NET framework and the Image Mastering API.

When creating a bootable USB device, I am getting an error about bootsect

To make the USB drive bootable, you need to run a tool named bootsect.exe. In some cases, this tool needs to be downloaded from your Microsoft Store account. This may happen if you’re trying to create a 64-bit bootable USB device from a 32-bit version of Windows. To download bootsect:

1. Login to your Microsoft Store account to view your purchase history.

2. Look for your Windows purchase.

3. Next to Windows, there is an Additional download options drop-down menu.

4. In the drop-down menu, select 32-bit ISO.

5. Right-click the link, and then save the bootsect.exe file to the location where you installed the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool (e.g. C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apps\Windows USB DVD Download Tool).

6. Once the file has been saved, go back to the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool to create your bootable USB device.

My USB drive is not in the list of available devices

If you don’t see your USB drive in the list of available devices, please make sure the drive is inserted in the USB port, and then click the Refresh button beside the list of available drives.

I inserted a blank DVD in my DVD-ROM drive, but the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool doesn’t recognize it

If there are multiple drives on the system, the tool will select the first one that is capable of burning DVDs. If you have multiple DVD-R drives, try inserting the blank DVD into another DVD-R drive. If that doesn’t help, please make sure that your disc isn’t damaged and that your DVD-R drive is operational. Contact Product Support if issues continue to arise.

I inserted a blank DVD in my DVD-ROM drive, but the tool won’t let me burn it

Make sure the disc isn’t a dual-layer DVD disc. Currently, dual-layer discs are not supported within the tool.