Create Bootable Windows 10 USB Drives: A Step-by-Step Guide

What a Windows 10 bootable USB can do for you?

A lot of Windows users want to make a bootable Windows 10 USB. Well, what the USB can exactly do for you? Here we list some advantages of bootable USB drive, with a bootable USB stick, you can do the following things:

1. Install or upgrade Windows;

2. Test out the desktop experience without touching your PC configuration;

3. Boot into Windows on a borrowed machine or from an internet cafe;

4. To fix or repair a broken configuration, use the tools that came with the USB stick.

Because of this, you need to make a bootable USB drive in a certain way. This is the question: how do I make a USB drive that can start up computer systems? Is there any bootable USB maker?

Choose a reliable bootable USB creator

There are a lot of Windows users who want to make a bootable Windows USB drive so they can use it to start their custom OS on any computer. Microsoft makes "Windows To Go" for Windows 10 Education/Enterprise/Pro and Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise users in response to this need. When you use those opearting systems, you can try to burn ISO to USB drive and make the USB bootable.

But for this feature to work, you also need a USB drive that is bigger than 32GB and approved by Microsoft. If you don't have one of these, you won't be able to make a bootable USB from ISO. To make a bootable USB that is more flexible, you might want to use a more powerful tool. We suggest that you use AOMEI Partition Assistant here.

AOMEI Partition Assistant

The Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer

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Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

This is better than Microsoft's "Windows To Go" because it lets you make a bootable USB drive for all versions of Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 (32 bit and 64 bit). Besides, it not need a required USB drive bigger than 32GB. It even allows you to make a bootable USB drive from an ISO or system disc and a bootable Windows USB drive with the current system.

In the last section, we have mentioned that AOMEI Partition Assistant provides two methods to make a bootable USB drive. Here we will take how to make a bootable USB from ISO as an example.

Preparation work:

① Prepare an empty USB drive. To speed up the process, a USB 3.0 drive and computer with a USB3.0 port are recommended.

② Download the Windows 10 ISO files from the Microsoft official site.

③ Download the AOMEI Partition Assistant first.

Step 1. Plug the prepared USB drive in your Windows 10 computer and verify it is detected successfully. Run AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Click “Tools” in the top toolbar, and choose “Windows To Go Creator”.

Step 2. Here we choose the first option "Create Windows ToGo for personal computer".

Step 3. Choose "Create Windows ToGo with system disc/ISO" and select the prepared ISO files, then hit on "Next".

Step 4. In the subsequent window, choose the USB you plan to use. Then click the "Proceed" option to start making a bootable USB from ISO.

If you have don’t have prepared Windows ISO files, you can choose the second method in "Step 3" to create Windows bootable USB with current system.

If your OS won't start up normally, you can use "Make Bootable Media" function to make a bootable USB drive on a computer that is already up and running.

Then you boot your computer with a boot failure from the bootable drive, To repair the startup problems, you can try to rebuild MBR on the system drive, or check bad sectors on the main hard drive.

Conclusion

Creating a bootable Windows 10 USB has many benefits including installing or upgrading Windows, testing desktop environments without changing computers, starting from various devices to Windows, and repairing system configurations. Therefore, choosing a reliable bootable USB generator is crucial.

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a powerful tool that is compatible with multiple versions of Windows without using a USB drive larger than 32GB. With AOMEI Partition assistant, users can easily create USB drives that can be run from ISO files or system disks, so that the management system is flexible and comfortable.

FAQs

1. What can a Windows 10 bootable USB do for me? A Windows 10 bootable USB enables you to install or upgrade Windows, test desktop environments, boot into Windows from different machines, and repair system configurations.

2. How do I choose a reliable bootable USB creator? Look for a tool like AOMEI Partition Assistant, which offers compatibility with various Windows versions and eliminates the need for USB drives larger than 32GB.

3. Why choose AOMEI Partition Assistant over Microsoft's "Windows To Go"? AOMEI Partition Assistant supports all versions of Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) and does not require a USB drive larger than 32GB, providing more flexibility.

4. What preparation work is needed to create a bootable USB with AOMEI Partition Assistant? Prepare an empty USB drive, download the Windows 10 ISO files from the Microsoft official site, and download AOMEI Partition Assistant.

5. How do I create a bootable USB from ISO using AOMEI Partition Assistant? Plug the USB drive into your Windows 10 computer, run AOMEI Partition Assistant, select "Tools" > "Windows To Go Creator," choose the option to create with a system disc/ISO, select the ISO files, choose the USB drive, and proceed with the creation process.