How to Create Bootable USB Drive for Windows 10 Using CMD

Nowadays the Pen drives are the most commonly used secondary storage device for storing and accessing various files because of it's size and portability as compared to the DVD ROM. So, having bootable USB can be very handy when it comes to the installation of windows OS.

Also Read : How to Fix Corrupted Files on Pen drive or SD Card ?

How to Create Bootable USB for Windows 10 Using CMD ?

To create bootable USB using CMD, first you must format the device using diskpart. To do this follow the steps below.

Step 1: Insert USB drive into your computer.

Step 2: Open command prompt from start menu with as an Administrator.

Step 3: On the command window, type diskpart and hit enter. Wait until diskpart command starts running.

Step 4: Now type list disk and hit enter. This will display all the active disks on your computer.

Step 5: Now here you will see two disks,

Disk 0 is for hard drive.

Disk 1 is for USB flash drive.

Step 6: Since we are working on USB drive so we need to choose Disk 1.

So type select disk 1 and hit enter. You will see the message 'Disk 1 is now the selected device'. Means, every further operations you perform will directly take effect on disk 1.

Step 7: Type clean and hit enter. This will format the drive and clears space. You get the message like 'Diskpart succeeded in cleaning disk'.

Step 8: Now type create partition primary and hit enter. Now you will see the message like 'Diskpart succeeded in creating the specified partition'.

Step 9: Now type select partition 1 and hit enter. This allows it to choose partition 1 as active partition.

Step 10: Type active and hit enter. This will activate the current partition of a USB drive.

Step 11: Now you need to format your current partition as NTFS file system. To do this, type format fs=ntfs quick and hit Enter. Now your USB drive is a NTFS file format.

Step 12: Now type exit. You will get a message 'Leaving Diskpart..' This will end the diskpart program but not the CMD.


Copy ISO Image Files from PC/DVD to Bootable USB Drive Manually

Now just right click on windows files and copy the ISO image or windows files from PC/DVD to bootable USB drive. But wait, just copy pasting will not works as bootable USB. You need to create boot sector on USB drive in order to work correctly.


Copy Files From PC/DVD to Bootable USB Using CMD

Here you must use command prompt to copy files to your USB drive. let's see how to do it.

Now let's assume your USB drive letter as 'F', and the disk drive or any other drive containing windows ISO files as 'E'.

The default location of command prompt's active directory for Admin permission is C:\Windows\System32>. We can be navigated to any drive by simply typing the drive alphabet with colon:

Step 1: Now type 'E:' and hit enter. The active directory will be changed to E. (drive with Windows OS files)

Step 2: Type cd boot and hit enter. Now the active directory will be changed to E:\boot>

Step 3: Type bootsect /nt60 f: and hit enter. This will create the boot sector on F: drive (USB drive).

Ok. Till now we have created bootable USB on USB drive F. Which means this USB drive when plugged in, will be detected and ready to use as boot media when you start your computer.

But to install windows OS from bootable USB drive, it is required to copy all the installation files from E: drive to USB drive F:.

Step 4: So type xcopy e:\*.* /s/e/f f: and hit enter. just wait until all the installation files are copied from DVD drive to USB drive. here e is your DVD drive letter with windows files, and last letter f is USB drive.

Step 5: Type exit to close the command prompt.

This copies the Windows installation files onto the USB flash drive, it may take several minutes.

xcopy switches are as follows:

/s - Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones.
/h - Copies hidden and system files.
/f - Displays full source and destination filenames while copying.

To display the full list of switches, type xcopy /? <enter>

That's it!

Now you have successfully created a Bootable USB drive for installing windows 10 and that's how you do it.