Create Windows Install USB Drive

May 8, 2024 Alice AUSTIN

In this video, we will cover the steps to create a bootable Windows USB device that will boot into either a UEFI or BIOS-based system, including those with Secure Boot enabled. This process uses native Windows tools; no third-party tools or applications are necessary.

Applies to:

Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2025

Glossary:

BIOS = Basic Input/Output System
DISM = Deployment Image Servicing and Management
FAT32 = File Allocation Table 32-bit
ISO = International Organization for Standardization
NTFS = New Technology File System
UEFI = Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
USB = Universal Serial Bus
WIM = Windows Imaging Format

Commands:

Dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:[source]sourcesinstall.wim /SWMFile:[destination]sourcesinstall.swm /FileSize:3800

Get-Disk
Get-Disk -Number [n] | Clear-Disk -RemoveData
Get-Disk -Number [n] | Initialize-Disk -PartitionStyle MBR
Get-Disk -Number [n] | New-Partition -Size 16GB
Get-Partition -DiskNumber [n] -PartitionNumber 1 | Format-Volume -FileSystem FAT32
Set-Partition -DiskNumber [n] -PartitionNumber 1 -IsActive $true
Set-Partition -DiskNumber [n] -PartitionNumber 1 -NewDriveLetter N
Robocopy.exe [source path] [destination path] * /e

Chapters

0:00 Introduction
1:10 Obtain Windows Media
1:59 Extract ISO Contents
3:24 Prepare USB Drive
4:42 Reclaim Unallocated Space
5:34 Thank You for watching

Links:
• https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter
• https://my.visualstudio.com/Downloads?q=Windows%2011
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsinsider/
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/split-a-windows-image–wim–file-to-span-across-multiple-dvds?view=windows-11
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/oscdimg-command-line-options?view=windows-11
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/what-is-dism?view=windows-11
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/filesystem-functionality-comparison

source

windows server