Windows installation is usually performed using a DVD. However, there are occasions where you may be compelled to use a bootable USB flash drive to install Windows on your PC. This especially happens when your hard disk drive is corrupted or you cannot get your hands on a DVD. In that case, you’ll have to boot your PC using a USB disk. In our earlier article, we have explained how to create bootable USB drive on Windows 8 and in this article let us explain how to create a bootable ISO USB disk for Windows 10.
In order to create the bootable Windows 10 USB drive, you also need a Windows PC and an archiving tool like 7-Zip or WinRAR if you do not yet have one installed. And, in order to actually get the. Steps to Create Bootable Windows 10 USB Drive. Follow the steps below to Create a Bootable Windows 10 USB Drive. Open Chrome or any other web browser on your computer and visit Microsoft’s ISO download site. Once you are on download site, scroll down and click on Download tool now button under Create Windows 10 Installation media section. Creating a bootable USB drive is also pretty easy – here’s how to do it: Download Rufus from here. Click and Open rufus.exe. Once the user interface of the software opens up, plug-in your USB. After that, look for the 'Create a bootable USB drive option' and from the drop-down.
Create Bootable USB from Windows 10 ISO Image File
The following topics are covered in this article:
1. What is ISO Image File?
ISO 9660 file system is shortly referred as ISO files and have an extension of “.iso”. ISO files are also called as disk image files, generally created from a CD or DVD using disk imaging applications. For example, you can use 7-Zip software to create ISO image file and also extract the content from the archived ISO file. In Windows context, an ISO image is a collection of Windows installation files from the installation CD or DVD.
In case if you don’t have the original installation CD or DVD, you can use the Windows 10 ISO disk image file to create bootable USB flash drive. This bootable USB then helps to start Windows 10 on your PC.
2. Make Things Ready Before Creating Bootable Disk
Ensure to have the followings before you try to create a bootable USB drive.
3. How to Download ISO Image File for Windows 10?
With Windows 10, you don’t need to use third party software for creating ISO disk image files. Microsoft provides free ISO disk image file for Windows 10 which you can use as a starting point. Go to Windows 10 download page and download the Windows media creation tool.
This is an independent executable file doesn’t need installation, you can simply run the tool and create the ISO image. Double click on the .exe file and follow the below steps.
Creating Installation USB
You can directly choose the USB flash drive and create a bootable USB drive. Otherwise choose “ISO file” option to download the ISO file to your local computer. In this article, we explain by choosing “ISO file” option and click on the “Next” button.
Choose the folder to download the ISO file. It will take long time for the generation of ISO file and you can see the progress anytime.
Viewing ISO File Download Progress
After completion of the process, you will see an option to burn a DVD from the downloaded ISO file. But you don’t need a DVD for creating bootable USB drive, hence click on “Finish” to close the window.
4. Formatting a Flash Drive
It’s essential to remember you must format your flash drive before you make it bootable. Ensure to copy if you have any content and format the drive.
5. Creating Bootable USB Flash Drive
Finally, your USB drive and the ISO image file are ready. You’ll need to make your Flash drive bootable using third-party software. There are several online tools at your disposal to make your flash drive bootable. Examples of popular tools include:
In this example we’ll use Rufus tool. Rufus can be downloaded from the official site. Similar to Windows media creation tool, Rufus is also an independent utility that doesn’t need any installation. After downloading, double click on the executable file to run the application.
The Rufus pop-up below will be displayed. The first section represents the volume name and it’s capacity. In this case, our flash drive has a capacity of 8 GB. Select “ISO Image” option from the dropdown against “Create a bootable disk using” checkbox. To navigate to the Windows 10 ISO file, click on the small icon located at right side. Browse to the folder containing the ISO file and select the Windows 10 ISO file.
Make Bootable Usb Windows 10 On Mac
Rufus – Creating Bootable USB
As for the other options, leave them in their default state to avoid any complications. Click “Start” and wait for few minutes to complete the process.
6. Booting Windows 10 from USB
Upon completion, your USB drive will be ready for booting. Follow the below steps to verify whether you can boot from the USB drive.
Finally, you’ll then be presented with a Windows 10 installer window on start up.
Conclusion
You can create a bootable USB flash drive directly from the Windows 10 download page using Windows media creation tool. If that doesn’t work for any reason, download the ISO image file to local computer and use Rufus tool to create a bootable USB as explained above. Remember to check whether it is working so that you can use it for emergency purposes. Unless you need a bootable external drive, Also Windows 10 allows you to mount the ISO file and launch the installer without the need of creating separate USB drive.
Brief: This tutorial shows you how to create a bootable Windows 10 USB in Linux with and without a GUI tool called WoeUSB.
I have talked a lot about creating bootable USB of Linux in Windows. How about the other way round? How about creating a bootable Windows 10 USB in Linux?
If you are uninstalling Linux from dual boot or if you want to reinstall Windows completely or you simply want to have a Windows installation disk ready, you’ll need a bootable Windows 10 USB or DVD.
In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to create a Windows 10 bootable USB in Linux. I am using Ubuntu for this tutorial but the steps should be valid for other Linux distributions as well.
If you want to use WoeUSB graphical tool for creating Windows bootable USB, you can jump to that section directly. Personally, I don’t recommend WoeUSB.
Creating a Bootable Windows 10 USB in Linux![]() Prerequisite: Get Microsoft Windows 10 ISO and a USB of at least 8 GB in size
You can download Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft’s website. You have to specify the Windows 10 version, language and then you should see the link to download Windows 10.
Note that the Windows 10 ISO download link is valid for 24 hours only. So use a download manager in Linux to download the ~5.6 GB file and finish it within 24 hours only.
Since the ISO and its content are more than 4 GB in size, I recommend a USB of at least 8 GB in size.
I have also made a video of this tutorial so that you can see the steps in action.
Step 2: Properly format the USB for creating bootable Windows USB
Insert your USB. You have to format it so make sure that you don’t have important data on the USB key.
In Ubuntu, press Super key (Windows key) and search for ‘Disks’. You have to use this tool to format the USB key.
In the Disks tool, make sure to select your USB drive and hit format.
It will ask to choose a partitioning scheme. It could be either MBR or GPT. Select one of them and hit Format.
It will show you a warning that you data will be erased.
Make Bootable Usb Windows 10 Using Rufus
The formatting of USB is not over yet. Now, you need to create a partition on the newly formatted USB.
Windows 10 Boot Disk
Select the entire USB disk as the partition size.
Give a name to your USB and hit Create button.
Once done, your USB should be automatically mounted. It is now ready for creating bootable Windows 10 USB disk.
Step 3: Copy the content of the ISO to USB
Now it’s time to copy the content of the Windows 10 ISO to the newly formatted USB.
You may ask, Abhishek, there is only one file and that is the ISO file itself. What are you talking about?
ISO is basically an archive format and you can see it’s content like any zip file in Linux. But to do that, you need to use ‘Disk Image Mounter’ tool that is installed by default in Ubuntu.
Go to your Windows 10 ISO, select it and right click on it. Now select ‘Open with other application’.
Make Bootable Usb Windows 10 Rufus
In the applications list, select Disk Image Mounter:
The ISO will be mounted. You may not see it in the left sidebar but if you click on the Other Locations, you should see it. Click on it to enter this mounted ISO folder.
You’ll see its content. All you need to do is to select all the files (Ctrl+A), copy it (Ctrl+C) and paste it in the USB drive (Ctrl+V).
Wait for the copying process to finish as it may take some time in copying 4-5 GB of data. Once it’s done, you have a bootable Windows 10 USB in your hand. Take out the USB and use it to any system you want, restart the system and change the boot settings to boot from the USB.
Alternate Method: Creating Windows 10 bootable USB in Linux using WoeUSB
You can also use a Graphical tool called WoeUSB for creating a bootable Windows USB in Linux. However, this tool might not work perfectly all the time. This is why I prefer the first method of mounting the Windows 10 ISO and copying its content to the USB.
If you are interesting in using WoeUSB, you can click on the next section to expand it and follow the steps.
You can also watch a video of creating Windows 10 bootable USB. Do subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Linux videos:
Let’s see how to create a bootable Windows 10 USB in Ubuntu and other Linux distribution.
Step 1: Install WoeUSB application
WoeUSB is a free and open source application for creating Windows 10 bootable USB. It is actually a fork of WinUSB tool that has been discontinued now.
Ubuntu and other Ubuntu-based Linux distributions such as Linux Mint, elementary OS etc have a PPA available. You can use the command below to install WoeUSB:
For other Linux distributions, you can check out the source code from the GitHub repository:
Step 2: Format USB drive
Now, plug in your USB key. You’ll have to format it first. I presume you know how to format a USB key in your Linux distribution.
Ubuntu users can simply right click on the USB and click format.
The important part here is that you should format it in NTFS:
Note: If you use Fat 32 file system for formatting, you may encounter the error below later on:
Step 3: Using WoeUSB to create bootable Windows 10
We have everything ready for us now. Start WoeUSB program.
Browse to the downloaded Windows 10 ISO file and select the USB drive on which you want to install it. Just click on Install to begin the process.
Note that it may take up to 15 minutes in creating the Windows 10 USB. Don’t get fooled by the ‘done’ on the screen.
That’s it. You should see a success message.
Step 4: Using Windows 10 bootable USB
Once the bootable USB is ready, restart your system. At boot time, press F2 or F10 or F12 repeatedly to go to the boot settings. In here, select to boot from USB.
You’ll see that Windows 10 is being booted and it gives you the option to install or repair your system. You know what to do now from here.
I hope you find this tutorial useful for creating bootable USB of Windows 10 in Linux. If you have questions or suggestions, please feel free leave a comment.
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