Create Your Win 10 Startup Disk Easily

Creating a Windows 10 startup disk involves creating a bootable USB drive or DVD that contains the Windows 10 installation files. This allows you to reinstall Windows, repair a corrupted system, or install Windows on a new computer. There are several methods, depending on what you already have available.

Method 1: Using the Media Creation Tool (Recommended)

This is the easiest and officially supported method. It downloads the latest version of Windows 10 and creates the installation media for you.

1. Download the Media Creation Tool: Go to the official Microsoft website. Search for "Windows 10 download" and you should find the download link for the Media Creation Tool. Download and run the tool. You'll need an active internet connection for this.

2. Accept the License Terms: Read and accept the license terms.

3. Choose "Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC": This option is crucial if you want to create a bootable drive for another computer. If you're reinstalling Windows on your current machine, this is still the preferred method.

4. Select Language, Edition, and Architecture: Choose the language, edition (e.g., Home, Pro), and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) that matches the Windows 10 you want to install. If you're unsure, check the system properties of the computer you'll be installing Windows on (usually found by right-clicking "This PC" and selecting "Properties"). 64-bit is generally recommended unless you have a very old computer.

5. Select USB flash drive or ISO file: Choose "USB flash drive" if you have a USB drive (at least 8GB) plugged in. The tool will format the drive, so back up any important data on it first. Choose "ISO file" if you want to create an ISO image that you can burn to a DVD later using a burning program like ImgBurn or the built-in Windows burning tool.

6. Wait for the process to complete: This can take some time depending on your internet connection speed and the size of the Windows 10 installation files.

7. Use the USB drive or DVD to boot your computer: Once the process is complete, you can use the created USB drive or DVD to boot your computer. You'll usually need to enter the BIOS/UEFI settings (often by pressing Delete, F2, F10, F12, or Esc during startup – the key varies by motherboard manufacturer) and change the boot order to boot from the USB drive or DVD. Consult your motherboard's manual for instructions.

Method 2: Using an ISO file (Advanced)

If you already have a Windows 10 ISO file, you can use it to create a bootable USB drive. You'll need a third-party tool like AOMEI Partition Assistant (recommended for its simplicity and reliability) or other similar tools.

Download AOMEI Partition Assistant Edition: Download it from the official AOMEI website. Install and run the program.

Insert your USB drive: Insert a USB drive (at least 8GB) into your computer. Crucially, back up any data on the drive, as it will be completely erased.

Prepare the USB drive: AOMEI Partition Assistant doesn't directly create bootable media from an ISO in a single step. You first need to create a bootable partition on the USB drive. Here's how:

• In AOMEI Partition Assistant, right-click on your USB drive and select "Wipe Disk". This will completely erase the drive. Proceed with caution!
• After wiping, right-click the unallocated space on the USB drive and select "Create Partition".
• Choose a size that matches your USB drive's capacity.
• Select the file system as "FAT32" (generally recommended for better compatibility). You can choose NTFS, but FAT32 is usually safer for bootable USB drives.
• Assign a drive letter.
• Click "OK" to create the partition.

Copy the ISO files: Now you need to copy the contents of your Windows 10 ISO file onto the newly created partition on the USB drive. Simply open Windows Explorer, locate the ISO file, right-click it, and select "Extract All". Choose to extract the contents to the drive letter you assigned to your USB drive's partition in the previous step.

Make the USB drive bootable (This is the crucial step that differs from Rufus): AOMEI Partition Assistant doesn't have a direct "make bootable" function from an ISO like Rufus. The process of making the USB drive bootable after copying the ISO contents is often system-specific and can be complex. You might need to use another tool or manually edit the boot sector, which is advanced and prone to errors. There is no guaranteed straightforward solution within AOMEI itself for this.

Use the USB drive to boot your computer: If you successfully made the drive bootable (Step 5), you can now use the created USB drive to boot your computer as described in Method 1 (changing the boot order in the BIOS/UEFI settings).

After installing the system, you may need to manage the disk. AOMEI Partition Assistant is an easy and safe partition software, and hard disk manager that taps into the disk potential and manages partitions efficiently. It's a function of disk speed test and disk surface test allows you to quickly learn about your disk performance. Its partitioning functions, such as "create a partition, split partition, allocate free space from one to another", can also optimize your disk utilization.

What to do if you encounter "Please Install an Operating System on Your Hard Disk"

For Windows 11 users, you must boot from UEFI, as Microsoft requires Windows 11 to be booted from UEFI boot mode. So, if your system disk is MBR partition style, you have to convert it to GPT, and then change the Legacy boot mode to UEFI. If you are using the old MBR, you need to use Legacy BIOS. You can read this: How to Check If It’s UEFI or BIOS on Your PC? to know your boot mode.

If you plan to boot your PC via UEFI, then you need to check if your system disk is a GPT disk. If not, you should convert MBR to GPT.

To convert MBR to GPT quickly and easily, I recommend you to use AOMEI Partition Assistant. This is a powerful MBR to GPT converter in Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7, it supports converting both data disk and system disk from MBR to GPT without data loss.

AOMEI Partition Assistant

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Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. In the main Tab, click the target disk and then select Convert to GPT on the right pane.

Tip: If your disk is originally initialized as GPT, you can choose Convert to MBR Disk without losing data.

Step 2. Click OK and Yes to confirm your operation.

Step 3. You’ll get back to the main interface. Click Apply and Proceed to commit the operation.

After convert system disk from MBR to GPT, your computer will restart. The PC will not boot without changing the boot mode from Legacy BIOS to UEFI.

1. Press the prompt key at the bottom of the screen continuously to enter the BIOS setup menu when powering on.

2. In the BIOS Setup Utility, navigate to the Boot tab on the top menu bar.

3. The boot menu screen appears. Select the UEFI/BIOS Boot Mode field and use the "+/-" keys to change the setting to UEFI.

4. Save and exit. Reboot again and your computer will boot from UEFI.

Conclusion

If you want to restore Windows, fix Windows, or put Windows on a new computer, you need to make a bootable Windows 10 installation drive. Using Microsoft's Media Creation Tool is the best and fastest way to do it. It makes the process easier and makes sure you have the most up-to-date Windows 10 files. Tools like AOMEI Partition Assistant can be used by people who already have an ISO file.

No matter which way you choose, make sure you have a backup of your data before you start because the process will format the target drive. To properly boot from the created installation media, you also need to know how to change your computer's BIOS or UEFI settings. If you get boot errors like "Please Install an Operating System on Your Hard Disk," make sure that the partition style (MBR or GPT) of your system disk fits the boot mode (Legacy or UEFI). AOMEI Partition Assistant can help you move from MBR to GPT, but you should always be careful when doing so.

FAQs

1. What do I need to create a Windows 10 startup disk?

   • You will need a blank USB drive with at least 8GB of space, a computer with an internet connection, and the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. If you prefer to create a DVD, you will also need a blank DVD and a DVD burning tool like AOMEI Partition Assistant.

2. Can I use a DVD instead of a USB drive?

   • Yes, you can create a bootable DVD by downloading the Windows 10 ISO file using the Media Creation Tool and then burning the ISO file to a DVD using AOMEI Partition Assistant or another DVD burning software.

3. How do I boot from the startup disk?

   • To boot from the startup disk, you'll need to enter the BIOS/UEFI settings during startup (usually by pressing a key like Delete, F2, F10, F12, or Esc). Change the boot order to boot from the USB drive or DVD.

4. What if I encounter the error "Please Install an Operating System on Your Hard Disk"?

   • This error often occurs if your system disk is in MBR partition style and you are trying to boot in UEFI mode. You may need to convert the disk from MBR to GPT using AOMEI Partition Assistant and then change the boot mode from Legacy BIOS to UEFI.

5. Can I use AOMEI Partition Assistant to create a bootable USB drive directly from an ISO file?

   • AOMEI Partition Assistant provides a direct function to create a bootable USB drive from an ISO file.