How to Create a Windows 10 Bootable USB

You can run into problems from time to time if you own a Windows PC. To save yourself the headache associated with such problems, you should be able to create a bootable Windows 10 USB drive effortlessly to install or repair the operating system on another computer on your own.

You can easily download Windows 10 directly from the official source with Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool and then use the files to create a bootable Windows 10 USB.

This will help to connect your bootable USB flash drive to your Windows 10 PC and reboot it whenever you want to install or reinstall Windows.

Before you start creating a Windows 10 bootable USB, you should have the following tools:

• Stable internet connection
• USB drive with 8 GB of free space and above
• 25-character product key (for non-digital purchases)
• Windows 10 PC
• Windows Media Creation Tool

Download Windows Media Creation Tool.

After the download, double-click MediaCreationToolxxxx to run it.

The file should be in your Downloads folder. The last four digits xxxx on the file name indicates the version number of Windows 10. The current filename is MediaCreationTool21H1.

The program opens.

Accept Microsoft’s Terms and Conditions.

Select Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD or ISO file) for another PC.

           Click Next.

Select language, architecture, and edition. By default, the tool you are using will automatically select the best options for your PC depending on the configurations.

Check the Use the recommended options for this PC box to use the current language, architecture and edition of your PC.

Change your language from the Language drop-down menu if you don’t want the default U.S. English.

Select Both from the Architecture drop-down menu if you don’t know whether you need a 64-bit or a 32-bit architecture.

Click Next.

• Choose which media to use. If you want to install Windows 10 on another partition, you need to create and then run the media to install it. You can choose from the two options available. The first option is a USB flash drive which needs to be at least 8 GB. The second one is ISO which requires you to burn the ISO file to a DVD later.
• Choose a USB flash drive. Usually, this is automatically selected.
• Plug your USB in your PC.
• Click Next.

• Select a USB flash drive. The files on your USB drive will be deleted. To keep these files, back them up now to another save location before you proceed.
• Disconnect extra drives on your computer if you are unsure which one to select. Otherwise, you will lose all the files of the affected drive.
• Click Next once you have selected the right drive.

• Sit back and relax. At this stage, you will see an onscreen message, “Downloading Windows 10” and a progress report. Allow your PC some time, about 30 minutes depending on your internet speed, to complete the process which is usually automatic.
• Click Finish when it is done.
• To confirm that you have successfully created a bootable Windows 10 USB, go to File Explorer and check your drives in This PC. You should see your drive renamed like USB-ESD which stands for Electronic Software Delivery. You will see boot files and a setup.exe file in the drive when you open it.

If you want to install or reinstall Windows, you can connect the drive to your PC and reboot it. You should be able to see the option to install Windows. Otherwise, start the installation by double-clicking the setup.exe in the drive.

If you follow the above steps carefully, your PC should be able to boot to the drive automatically so you can have the option to install Windows.

But if your computer does not boot automatically, then there is no cause for alarm. All you need to do is reboot it into BIOS.

BIOS stands for basic input/output system. It is low-level software that is located in the motherboard and used for controlling the devices attached to a computer. Although you can find many configuration options directly within the operating system of Windows 10, you can only change some settings in the BIOS. The BIOS controls the boot order of drives, pre-boot security options and the activation of function keys. The BIOS is a pre-boot environment and cannot be directly accessed from within Windows.

To enter the BIOS on Windows 10, follow the steps below:

Go to Settings by clicking the gear icon on the Start menu.

Select Update & Security.

Select Recovery from the left menu.

Click Restart Now. You can find it under Advanced startup. Your PC reboots a special menu.

Click Troubleshoot.

Click Advanced options.

Select UEFI Firmware Settings or press Startup Settings if you don’t see the option. Your PC restarts.

Tap F1 or F2 to access the BIOS.

Click Restart. Your PC restarts and takes you to the BIOS.

There are some reasons why you want to create a bootable Windows 10 USB. They include the following:

Installing Windows 10

Creating a bootable Windows 10 USB is especially useful if you want to perform a clean install on your PC or install Windows 10 on another computer.

Repairing Existing Windows 10 Installation

You can use a bootable Windows 10 USB to repair an existing installation of Windows 10. This will help you run repair and diagnostic tools on your computer without the need to boot into the native installation of Windows 10, especially when your Windows 10 PC doesn’t work well or boot at all.

Running Windows 10 from the USB Drive

A bootable Windows 10 USB drive is also used to run Windows 10. Just plug the drive into a compatible PC of your choice and run your own copy of Windows if you don’t want to use the operating system on your computer.

This process looks complicated but it is very easy and straightforward once you get started and follow the above steps.

Although it is possible to create a Windows 10 boot drive on a Mac, it is a long and complicated process for the average user and should be avoided. The process is pretty much easy and straightforward with a Windows 10 PC.