Making a Thumb Drive Bootable: A Simple Tutorial

Why Create a Win10 Bootable USB?

If something goes wrong with your Windows computer and it slows down or stops working altogether, you will probably first look online for a fix. There may be a good way to fix this issue. The last thing you should do if that doesn't work is to load the OS again from the DVD or CD. Maybe your PC's hard drive doesn't work or you can't find the startup DVD.

This is a great time to use a Win OS bootable USB, which lets you restart making a thumb drive bootable. You can take the USB stick with you anywhere, and it works with almost all laptops and desktops. In the end, there is a USB port on every PC. Also, putting in OS from a USB drive is faster than a DVD or CD. This is why more and more people like to carry around a bootable USB driver.

Make bootable USB with MediaCreationTool

How do I make a thumb drive bootable. To make a Win bootable USB that can activate Windows, follow these steps. They are simple and don't require a lot of technical know-how. Just do these easy things.  Based on the fact that most people use MediaCreationTool, we will also show you how to use it to make a Win10 bootable USB.

Step 1. Download MediaCreationTool and run it as an administrator.

Step 2. Select ”Accept” in the license terms screen.

Step 3. Select “Create installation media for another PC”, and then select Next.

Step 4. Choose the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10.

Step 5. Choose ”USB flash drive” and click “Next”.

Step 6. Choose your prepared USB drive from the list, then ”Next”.

Step 7. Once done, the tool will start to download the latest Windows installation files to your device. When it is over, this data is written to your flash drive and the USB is made bootable with the newest Windows 10 setup.

Create Win10 bootable USB to run the system from it

You can run Windows 10 directly from a bootable USB drive if you do that to run Windows 10 on a computer that has an older operating system. AOMEI Partition Assistant is a free partition manager that you can use for this. It works with all versions of Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 It lets you use ISO files to make a Windows bootable USB drive. Here are the full instructions:

AOMEI Partition Assistant

The Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

Step 1. Download the freeware, install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant.

Step 2. Click “Tools” > “Windows To Go Creator” on the main interface.

Step 3. Tick “Create Windows ToGo for personal computer”, and then click “Next”.

Step 4. Choose “Create Windows To Go with system disc/ISO” and select the prepared ISO file. Click “Next”.

Step 5. Select the USB drive you have prepared and click “Proceed”.

After it is done, you can insert the bootable USB to the target computer, change boot order in BIOS and boot PC from it. If you want to create bootable USB drive with current operating system installed on your computer, you can upgrade to Professional. That also enables you to run Windows from USB on Mac.

Summary

This article showed you two ways to make a bootable USB in Windows 10 that can be used as an installer. It also showed you a third way to make a portable boot USB that can be used to run the OS on any other computer. Which one should you choose? That depends on your needs. The AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can also help you a lot if you want to make a bootable USB to fix boot problems caused by a damaged MBR or a disk error.

FAQs

1. Why Create a Win10 Bootable USB? A Win10 bootable USB helps when your computer runs into problems. It's faster and more convenient than using a DVD or CD to reinstall Windows. Plus, you can use it with almost any PC.

2. How to Make a Bootable USB with MediaCreationTool? Just download and run MediaCreationTool, accept the terms, select "Create installation media for another PC," choose your settings, pick your USB drive, and let the tool do its work.

3. How to Create Bootable USB to Run Win 10 from Flash Drive? Use AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Download, install, and run it. Then, follow the steps to create a bootable USB with Windows 10.

4. Which Method Should I Choose? If you need an installer USB, use MediaCreationTool. For running Windows 10 from a USB, go with AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

5. Further Assistance? If you have boot problems, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can help. It's useful for fixing issues like damaged MBR or disk errors.