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Create a bootable Windows 10 USB stick

Good day!

To install Windows, many users are increasingly resorting to flash drives. This is understandable, because installing an OS using a USB flash drive has a number of advantages:

  • files are copied from it faster, which means that the installation will be completed in less time;
  • a USB flash drive can be put in any of the pockets and always have it at hand;
  • it can be connected to a laptop, PC, netbook - to any device with a USB port (and many modern laptops do not have a CD / DVD drive at all ...).

In this article, I will consider several relevant ways to create a bootable (it is also sometimes called installation) USB flash drives with Windows 10.

So...

Advice!

Before reinstalling Windows OS - I recommend making a backup copy of the drivers. Spend a couple of minutes on this - and save hours (and maybe days) on searching! An article on creating such a copy: //ocomp.info/sozdanie-rezervnoy-kopii-drayverov-bekap-drov-mini-instruktsiya.html

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How to create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 1o

Method 1: through a tool from Microsoft

Pros: Suitable even for those who do not have an ISO image with Windows (we will officially download it); normal Windows without hard-wired problems; you can simply update your old OS (without the classic reinstallation); official way from Microsoft.

Disadvantage: you need a fast and good Internet connection to Microsoft servers.

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It is, of course, about the instrument - Microsoft Media Creation Tool... To download this utility, you need to go to the official website of the program.

Microsoft Media Creation Tool

Site: //www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10

Screen where the link is located: watch

Short description: spec. utility from Microsoft that allows you to download an ISO image from the official. company servers and use it to create bootable media (flash drives, external drives, etc.). The tool is for Windows 10 only.

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After downloading and launching the program, you will first be asked to accept the license agreement (I do not include it here). If you accept, then you need to do the following:

  1. in the first window (see the screen below - number 1) you need to indicate what you want Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO);

    What do you want to do

  2. in the second window, specify the language, edition and architecture (32 or 64 bit) of the OS. Note that 32-bit operating systems do not "see" RAM larger than 3 GB. If you have a device with 4 GB or more of RAM, then choose a 64-bit OS. With the language of the system, I think, decide without me 😊;

    Choice of language, architecture and release

  3. in the third window you need to select:

    or immediately download and write an ISO image to the USB flash drive (ie the installation flash drive will be created automatically. All you need to do now is insert a USB flash drive (at least 4 GB) into the USB port);

    or first download the ISO image, and then start burning it in more convenient programs for this, for example, Rufus (you can choose any of the options, but I prefer to download the ISO first ...) ;

    Download ISO or prepare flash drive right away

  4. specify the location on the hard disk where you want to save the file, and wait for it to load.

    Selecting the folder where to save the ISO

In principle, there is nothing more to comment on: now you have either an ISO image with Windows 10 - and you can burn it to a DVD disc (or to a USB flash drive, I will talk about this later in the article), or you already have a bootable USB flash drive (all depends on what you chose in step 3, see description above).

In general, in my opinion, this tool from Microsoft is very convenient and effective for preparing the installation media (which was missing for so long ...).

To help!

Perhaps you will find useful an article on how to burn an ISO image to a USB flash drive - //ocomp.info/kak-zapisat-obraz-iso-na-fleshku-2-sposoba.html (there are a couple more ways there).

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Method 2: using the Rufus utility (BIOS, UEFI)

To work, the program needs an ISO image (for example, which we created in the previous step).

Utility for work - Rufus

Official website: //rufus.akeo.ie/?locale=ru_RU

One of the best utilities for writing bootable USB sticks. Despite its small size, the utility is very versatile. Most importantly: it allows you to write flash drives for both classic installation (from under the BIOS) and on new PCs with UEFI support.For "contrast", I'll consider both options.

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How to create a bootable USB flash drive in Rufus (Important! All data on the flash drive, when performing this task, will be deleted) :

  1. insert the USB flash drive into the USB port and run the program as administrator (just right-click on the utility icon and select it from the context menu);
  2. Device: specify a USB storage device (special attention - if you have several flash drives / disks connected to your PC);
  3. Partition scheme and system interface type: MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI-CSM; (if for UEFI - specify GPT for computers with UEFI interface);
  4. File system: NTFS (for UEFI - FAT 32);
  5. Cluster size: 4096/8192 bytes (default);
  6. New volume label: custom field;
  7. Quick Format - Yes;

    Create extended label and device icon - Yes;

  8. Create bootable disk - ISO image. Click the button and specify the path to the Windows 10 image (for UEFI, specify the Windows 10 64-bit image). Check the Windows Standard Installation option;
  9. The last step is pressing the button "Start" , the program will ask you again about formatting the media. We just agree and wait for the end of the operation (all setup steps are shown on the screenshots below).

Rufus - creating a USB flash drive for UEFI (GPT)

Rufus - creating a USB flash drive for BIOS (MBR)

Note!

For UEFI flash drives:

  • OS must be 64-bit;
  • during installation, disable the Secure Boot and Fast Boot features in the UEFI settings.
  • After installing Windows, turn them on again. To enter the UEFI settings - use the article: //ocomp.info/kak-voyti-v-bios.html

Method 3: using UltraISO

UltraISO

Developer site: //www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/

One of the best programs for working with ISO images: allows you to create them, burn them to flash drives and CD / DVD discs, edit them, modify them, extract files from them, etc. In general, an indispensable tool if you are familiar with working with ISO images ...

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To create an installation flash drive in UltraISO, you need to do the following (let's look at the steps).

1) First you need to download and install UltraISO (this is standard, I do not consider it), and run the program as administrator (for this, right-click on the program icon and select this option in the context menu)!

Run Ultra ISO as administrator

2) Then you need to open the ISO image - click File / open , or you can press the combination of buttons Ctrl + O .

Opening ISO Image // UltraISO

2) If the image has opened and there are no errors, then click the menu Boot / Burn hard disk image (see screenshot below).

Burn UltraISO Hard Drive Image

3) In the next step, you need to configure the basic recording settings:

  • disk drive - specify the letter of the flash drive (Carefully! If you have 2-3 flash drives connected to your PC, you can easily make a mistake. All information from the flash drive will be deleted during the recording process!);
  • write method: USB-HDD + (if the flash drive will not boot into any, try specifying the option USB-HDD without any pros / cons);
  • then press the button "Burn" .

Burn settings // Ultra ISO

4) Actually, you just have to wait until the information is written to the USB flash drive. The recording time depends on the speed of your USB port, on the ISO image (on the number and size of files on it), PC boot.

The recording has been successfully completed - the installation flash drive is ready!

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Method 4: direct recording to a USB flash drive

Required software: an archiver (the best of them were given here //ocomp.info/arhivatoryi-analog-winrar.html).

Important! Such a flash drive will work only on modern computers / laptops with UEFI support (if you created a USB flash drive based on this material, and the computer does not see it, most likely you do not have UEFI, but BIOS. Just overwrite it using the first three programs / methods: Microsoft Media Creation Tool, UltraISO, Rufus).

7-Zip

Website: //www.7-zip.org/

An excellent free archiver that supports dozens of formats: 7z, rar, zip, etc. It can extract files from an ISO image (which is what you need for this task).

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WinRar

Website: //www.win-rar.com/start.html

Probably the most famous archiver in Russia. In general, it is in no way inferior to the first, and also allows you to extract files from ISO.

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1) First you need to format the USB stick. To do this, go to "This computer" , right-click on the flash drive and select "Format" (as in the screenshot below).

This computer - format

2) Specify the file system FAT 32! It is also recommended to do quick formatting (clearing the table of contents).

Important! All data from the flash drive will be deleted during formatting.

Settings when formatting the drive

3) Next, open the ISO image in an archiver program, for example, 7-zip (which I recommended above).

Note: to do this, just right-click on the ISO image and select 7-Zip / open from the context menu (as in the screenshot below).

7-Zip - open archive

4) Then just extract all files from the image to your USB stick. For this in 7-Zip press the button "Extract" , and then select your drive. In general, everything is quite simple. Similar actions will be in the same WinRar.

Extract files to a USB flash drive

After all the files have been extracted to the USB flash drive, you can start installing Windows.

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That's all, a successful and quick installation of Windows 10.

Good Luck! 👣

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