Query for others who use Rufus to create a bootable Win10 flash drive

Word Man said:

Each time you create a NEW bootable flash drive, the diskpart method would be advisable (unless you know the drive is already FAT32 and active, as applicable). However, doing it over again to that same flash drive would perhaps be overkill.

Note, you aren't downloading the ISO directly to the flash drive but mounting it and then copying and pasting all of the files shown in the mounted ISO to the flash drive.

It should suffice to simply delete all files on the flash drive and then copy the new mounted ISO contents to the (already prepped but now empty) flash drive.

With something as critical as a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive I would always worry that just deleting all the files on the drive may leave something behind, or some small corruption (however small) that might interfere with the newly downloaded ISO that I would be copying over to the flash drive. It might be my paranoia lol...but if I'm wiping out a flash drive, Ive always quick formatted the drive rather than just deleting the files from the drive. Is that totally unnecessary?
And in this case would a quick format to remove all files from the drive make the previously Diskpart prepped method flash drive to become not bootable and cause problems when performing the Windows 10 Installation from the USB flash drive?

cereberus said:

@Kari made a significant point in one of his posts ie the install.wim file is now getting close to the maximum file size limit of 4GB for fat32 formatted drives.

IIRC, Rufus can handle larger install.wims by creating two partitions ie a small boot fat32 partition and a larger ntfs partition.

Doing this in diskpart or disk management might be possible, but iirc, Rufus can handle this more elegantly. @Kari can probably elaborate better than I can.

Ive wondered about that before as well. The current Windows 10 ISO is approximately 3.5 gb so the install.wim is only slightly under that. What will happen when it reaches 4gb. UEFI systems only work with a FAT32 formatted flash drive and not NTFS. Does that mean we are all going to have to use Rufus anyway or we wont be able to create a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive?

sportsfan148 said:

Ive wondered about that before as well. The current Windows 10 ISO is approximately 3.5 gb so the install.wim is only slightly under that. What will happen when it reaches 4gb. UEFI systems only work with a FAT32 formatted flash drive and not NTFS. Does that mean we are all going to have to use Rufus anyway or we wont be able to create a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive?

You can use winsetupfromusb to split ISOs larger than 4GB, it worked for me when I converted an .esd (< 4GB) to .wim (> 4Gb) and created an bootable USB stick.

It is, by far, the most reliable and universal way to create the flash drive from an ISO.

NavyLCDR said:

It is, by far, the most reliable and universal way to create the flash drive from an ISO.

Yes, if you want to boot from your USB flash drive in UEFI or Legacy BIOS mode.

But this is the easiest way if you want to boot from your USB flash drive in UEFI mode.

1. Open File Explorer and format USB flash drive to FAT32 file system.
2. Copy all files and folders from the mounted Windows 10 ISO image file to USB flash drive.

AddRAM said:

Sportsfan, just get the word volume out your head, it`s not something you`ll ever need to use or worry about.

Just stick with the words disk and partition and you`ll be fine. :)

Thanks for the advice pal. I'll certainly keep that in mind in future

Word Man said:

It's not totally unnecessary if it puts you more at ease. No problem reformatting - it would still boot once you re-copied the files. I'll grant that one person's "overkill" can easily be another person's "necessary". :)

Would you mind explaining a little more if you don't mind? If you do a FAT32 format using Windows File Explorer you have told me it still remains bootable. So doesn't it touch any of the UEFI boot files or aren't there any UEFI boot files present on the USB flash drive until you transfer the WIndows 10 ISO files onto the USB? As you can tell I have no knowledge of how UEFI boot up actually works or where the UEFI boot files are located? I like to try and learn as I go along if I can. You guys on here have so much knowledge about the internal workings of a PC and Windows 10. I always wonder if you work in Technology or whether youre all just self taught. Without you guys on here I'd be lost..so Thanks to you all