Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10  

sportsfan148 said:

I could simply mount the ISO and copy the files onto the flash drive.

You cannot copy "install.wim" larger than 4 GB because the format is FAT32.

Matthew Wai said:

You cannot copy "install.wim" larger than 4 GB because the format is FAT32.

The Media Creation Tool ISO is ESD. As far as I know there has never been any problem with it being larger than 4GB. If you were to use the Media Creation Tool method it will automatically format FAT32 anyway when you allow the MCT to do the whole process and create the media on a USB flash drive

sportsfan148 said:

Is it sufficient to just wipe this flash drive by performing a FAT32 format on it using file explorer so that the drive is empty rather than going through all the Diskpart commands again to prepare the drive? If so, after formatting the flash drive I could simply mount the ISO and copy the files onto the flash drive.
I am just wondering if the Media Creation Tool having created bootable media on the drive before could have done something to the USB flash drive at that time meaning that it has to be cleaned and prepared with Diskpart again?

@sportsfan148,

The very simple answer to your question is that yes, it is completely sufficient to do a FAT32 format on it using file explorer and mounting the ISO file and copying the files and folders from the mounted ISO file to the flash drive. It really is that simple.

NavyLCDR said:

@sportsfan148,

The very simple answer to your question is that yes, it is completely sufficient to do a FAT32 format on it using file explorer and mounting the ISO file and copying the files and folders from the mounted ISO file to the flash drive. It really is that simple.

Thanks very much for your quick reply and for clearing that up for me. I was advised by Cerberus and Chappie on here a couple of years ago that it really is that simple on a UEFI boot PC. The exact instructions given to me then were :-

1) format flash drive as fat32
2) mount iso file as a drive
3) copy all files from iso to USB flash drive using file explorer
and that's it...done!!
...I just wanted to verify that these instructions still applied even though the USB flash drive had recently been used by the Media Creation Tool to create a Windows 10 bootable flash drive

sportsfan148 said:

Thanks very much for your quick reply and for clearing that up for me. I was advised by Cerberus and Chappie on here a couple of years ago that it really is that simple on a UEFI boot PC. The exact instructions given to me then were :-

1) format flash drive as fat32
2) mount iso file as a drive
3) copy all files from iso to USB flash drive using file explorer
and that's it...done!!
...I just wanted to verify that these instructions still applied even though the USB flash drive had recently been used by the Media Creation Tool to create a Windows 10 bootable flash drive

And there is only one step more to make it bootable in legacy BIOS: make sure the partition on the flash drive is marked as active.

A lot of members want to make this way more complicated than it needs to be.

NavyLCDR said:

And there is only one step more to make it bootable in legacy BIOS: make sure the partition on the flash drive is marked as active.

A lot of members want to make this way more complicated than it needs to be.

If memory serves me right Navy (sorry I don't know your real name) it was you who put together Option 4 for the tutorial. Many Thanks for that...it was much appreciated

sportsfan148 said:

Navy (sorry I don't know your real name) it was you who put together Option 4 for the tutorial.

Under option 4, the first line says the following:

Reference: Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive | Microsoft Docs

Hi,
I'm also a long time Rufus user but, a few days ago, I discovered an amazing piece of (portable) software: Ventoy.
Very easy to use, it works really well (the development started early April this year and now it has his first final version).
Big advantage: you can store (a lot of) different ISOs on the same USB Flash Drive (depending on it's capacity) as there is no need to unpack them; I even added a MacriumRescue.iso (as well as Win10 2004 - 20H1 ISOs) ...

It's definitely worth a look (and maybe @Brink could add it to this tutorial; just a suggestion ... ).
All infos and documentation can be found here .

I just wanted to share this, so thanks for reading !

throkr said:

Hi,
I'm also a long time Rufus user but, a few days ago, I discovered an amazing piece of (portable) software: Ventoy.
Very easy to use, it works really well (the development started early April this year and now it has his first final version).
Big advantage: you can store (a lot of) different ISO's on the same USB Flash Drive (depending on it's capacity) as there is no need to unpack them; I even added a MacriumRescue.iso ...

It's definitely worth a look (and maybe @Brink could add it to this tutorial; just a suggestion ... ).
All infos and documentation can be found here .

I just wanted to share this, so thanks for reading !

Hi there
Thanks for the info but there's some fixing that the software needs to do --- some iso's save a HYBRID type of boot (for both MBR and UEFI) which needs specific versions of isolinux to be downloaded -- this is why for some iso's when using RUFUS you get a prompt before creating a bootable USB drive as to whether the isolinux version for the particular iso being imaged should be loaded -- for example try and create a bootable iso of a FEDORA live distro using RUFUS.

For 100% pure Windows / Windows PE / Macrium type of things it's fine -- but as always with software note the limitations.

One method that always works - at least for single images is to use DD if=<input iso file> of=/dev/sdxx bs=64M status=progress.

For Multi isos

If you already have created partitions on the USB device then simply DD the relevent iso file to the appropriate partition.

Cheers
jimbo