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I created Windows 10 installation USB drive using media creation tool provided by MS. (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10/)

At first I thought it was USB bootable and also supports installation, but it was not. It was not bootable. Can I create a USB drive which is bootable and also I can install Windows 10 from it?

A couple of webpage say that this media creation tool makes bootable and installable USB drive.

1) http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/04/how-to-create-a-bootable-windows-10-usb-flash-drive-2/ 2) http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-create-bootable-windows-10-usb-flash-drive-guide/

But for me, it was NOT bootable. I checked if it was bootable using this tool. http://www.thewindowsclub.com/check-if-usb-is-bootable-windows

The computer I tested surely supports USB booting (I tested it with another Windows 7 bootable external HDD)

What's wrong with my Win 10 USB drive?

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  • The tool you used indicates the drive wasn't bootable because the Virtual Machine the tool uses does not support EFI drives
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jul 20, 2016 at 2:11
  • @Ramhound I really don't understand your comment. I searched about EFI but still don't understand how EFI is related to it. Two websites I linked indicate that the media creation tool creates bootable media, and EFI was not mentioned anywhere in those webpages I linked..
    – user67275
    Commented Jul 20, 2016 at 12:55
  • MobaLiveCD hypervisor is QEMU, which has a BIOS, and cannot support EFI bootable media. The tools you are using are creating EFI bootable media by default. You want EFI bootable media. Your actual system supports EFI bootable media. If it isn't bootable then something very simple is going on, we just have to identify it, but I suspect I know what that something is.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jul 20, 2016 at 14:08
  • @Ramhound It seems that the media creation tool (provided by MS) actually did make bootable media but MobaLiveCD couldn't identify it. Is this correct?
    – user67275
    Commented Jul 21, 2016 at 4:57
  • @Ramhound But it was really not bootable. (not only tested by MobaLiveCD, but tested by real booting on laptop)
    – user67275
    Commented Jul 21, 2016 at 4:58

2 Answers 2

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You can create bootable USB for Windows 10 using Command Prompt on Windows. Here's the YouTube video on - How to create bootable USB for Windows using Command Prompt

In summary you'll have to follow these steps

  1. Open Command Prompt as an Administrator
  2. On Command Prompt window type diskpart and then click ENTER
  3. Inside disk part, now type command list disk and click ENTER, make sure you have inserted your USB drive, and note the disk number of the USB Drive.
  4. Type select disk <x> where x being your disk number of USB Drive.
  5. Type clean
  6. To create a new primary partition on the USB flash drive, type create part pri, and then click ENTER.
  7. To select the partition that you just created, type select part 1, and then click ENTER.
  8. To format the partition, type format fs=ntfs quick, and then click ENTER.
  9. Type active, and then click ENTER.
  10. Type exit, and then click ENTER.
  11. When you finish preparing your custom image, save it to the root of the USB flash drive.
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The Windows 10 Media Creation Tool can create Windows 10 bootable/installation USB drives. If the USB drive you created is not bootable, chances are that you did not set your computer's boot order correctly. Reformatting the USB drive as FAT32 will make sure it is bootable on Legacy BIOS or UEFI computers. Of course, it does not rule out that the Media Creation Tool fails to work on your computer for some reason.

You can also create a Windows 10 bootable/installation USB drive from an iSO image file.

First, you need to download the official Windows 10 ISO file from the Microsoft website.

Then, you can use the Rufus tool to create a Windows 10 installation USB drive from the ISO.

Or, if you are familiar with Windows commands, you can also use the Command Prompt to create a Windows 10 bootable USB drive from the ISO.

Here are the detailed steps: https://www.isumsoft.com/windows-10/create-windows-10-bootable-usb-from-iso.html

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