How to Create Bootable USB Drive from Windows ISO or Setup without Using Any Software

As you know, a bootable USB drive comes handy in many situations such as re-installing Windows operating system or recovering from critical errors (like refreshing your PC, etc). There are several free tools available such as A Bootable USB, Rufus and Microsoft’s official Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to create bootable USB drive to install Windows as mentioned in following article:

Ultimate Collection of Best Freeware to Create Bootable USB Drive to Install Windows

But did you know you can create bootable USB drives of Windows setup without using any extra software? Yes, you heard it right. By following a few simple steps, you can make your own bootable USB drive to install Windows OS without any 3rd party software.

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This manual method requires only 3 steps:

  • STEP 1: Format USB drive (optional)
  • STEP 2: Mount or extract Windows setup ISO file
  • STEP 3: Copy Windows setup files to USB drive

Please note that this method can be used to create bootable USB drive of Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows8/8.1 and Windows 10. This method doesn’t work for Windows XP bootable USB drive.

Related: Download Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Offline ISO Files

So without any further delay let’s start the tutorial:

STEP 1: Prepare USB Drive as Per Requirements

If you want to make Windows Vista or Windows 7 bootable USB drive, a 4GB USB drive will be sufficient. But, if you want to make a bootable drive of Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, you’ll need an 8GB USB drive.

Now format the USB drive using FAT32 or NTFS file system. We recommend formatting the USB drive using NTFS file system for better compatibility with newer Windows versions.

To format USB drive, attach the drive to your computer system, open Windows Explorer, right-click on the USB drive icon and select Format option.

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Format_USB_Drive.png

This step is optional. If you don’t want to format your USB drive, you can skip this step but make sure there is enough free disk space on your USB drive to copy Windows setup files.

STEP 2: Mount or Extract Windows Setup ISO Image File

Now you’ll need to extract all files from Windows setup ISO. You can extract the files using a file archive software such as 7-Zip, WinRAR, etc.

If you are using Windows 8 or later, you don’t need to use any file archive utility, you can direct mount the ISO file as a virtual drive in Windows Explorer. You can do this by right-clicking on ISO image file and then selecting “Mount” option.

ISO_VHD_Mount_Feature_Windows_8.png

It will immediately mount the ISO file of Windows setup as a virtual DVD drive in Windows Explorer.

STEP 3: Copy Windows Setup Files to USB Drive

Now you just need to copy all files from extracted or mounted Windows ISO to your USB drive.

Copy_Setup_Files_from_Mounted_Windows_ISO.png

That’s all. You have successfully made a bootable USB drive which can be used for all purposes as mentioned in the beginning of the tutorial.

About the author:

This is a guest post written by “Snehith A Shenoy” who is a B.Tech student at MIT India and a regular reader of AskVG.com.

Feel free to share your feedback about this tutorial and if you also have some tips-n-tricks to share, you can send us using contact page and we’ll try to feature them at AskVG.

PS: If the above mentioned method doesn’t work for you, you can try following methods to create bootable USB drive for Windows ISO:

[Tip] How to Create Bootable USB Drive for Windows 10 ISO

[Tip] Create Bootable USB Drive from Windows 10 ISO Using Official Tool

Published in: Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

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  1. i fortmatted my hp mini system reserve by mistake and after i restarted it showed BOOTMGR is missing. And i dont have a portable USB DVD Drive. What can i do

  2. Thanks for testing this method for us.
    I always wondered if it worked, but never had time to test.
    —————————————————————-
    Ideas I still have:

    1: Copy Vista > USB > Will it boot?
    2: Rufus > Bootable W7 USB > Del W7 > Copy XP to USB > Will it work?
    3: Rufus > Bootable W7 USB > Copy XP to USB, overwriting W7 setup with XP
    4: Modify 7 setup to install XP instead (stability/easier to use USB install)

    Many ideas to try…

  3. I suspect Cut and Paste method works when old boot sector code is still on the USB drive from previous use as a boot drive and the drive is set Active.

    (Tested on my two BIOS laptops after DISKPART and CLEAN ALL)

    For peace of mind, always use proper methods (eg Rufus)

  4. I used rufus to install xp , after booting from usb it says, no previous versions of windows NT found and gives option for either put any xp cd in drive or quit, how to bypass this?

  5. Copy all ISO content to USB drive is not enough, the media drive installer must be actived to boot on.

    Use diskpart to make this success:

    Cmd (as admin)
    diskpart
    list disk
    select disk (USB installer)
    select partition
    active

  6. Thank you so much for this tutorial! I was having so many issues trying to download Windows 10 onto a new hard drive after reading so many tutorials and discussion boards and being told by HP that I had to get my hard drive unlocked by a local repair shop.

  7. Thank you so much for this tutorial it didn’t work for me with windows 7 but it worked with windows 10 I copied the files of iso into pendrive using my android and other cable, thanks again!

  8. hello

    I made my micro sd-card bootable by rufus (by connecting the sdcard to pc with a memory card reader) for installing win 10 in my new laptop having DOS….

    I have formated my sd-card with file system FAT32….. WILL it cause any problem in installing???

    Is it safe to install the OS with sdcard ?

  9. All other wikis I have read say what Juan noted earlier, “A NTFS formatted usb stick won’t boot from a UEFI environment, it has to be formatted as FAT32.” I was about to reformat my NTFS thumb drive, but now I am not sure. VG, could you comment on this?

  10. ^^ Check following:

    blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askcore/2013/03/20/creating-bootable-usb-drive-for-uefi-computers/

  11. ^^ If your system doesn’t contain Windows setup, you’ll need to extract the setup ISO file to a folder.

  12. winpe का उपयोग करते हुए एक ट्रिक ये है, की
    clean install करते समय , जब आप सारे पार्टीशन नए सिरे से बनाते हैं , उस समय एक पर्तिशन आप 8 gb का बनाएं उसमे आप iso फाइल के सारे कंटेंट कॉपी पेस्ट कर दें.
    (विंडोज का वर्जन कोई भी हो सकता है , 7 , 8, 8.1 या 10) . ध्यान रहे की 8 जी बी वाला पार्टीशन मार्क as active होना चाहिए ! बस अब pc को रीस्टार्ट करें और आप विंडोज install करने को तैयार है. जब आप install कर चुके होंगे तब आप देखेंगे की बूटिंग टाइम में दो मेनू स्क्रीन पर डिस्प्ले हो रहे हैं. पहला windows ( जो भी version install किया है वो ) और दूसरा विंडोज के सेटअप का !!

    कभी विंडोज के करप्ट होने की दशा में आप फिर से सेटअप चला कर clean install कर सकते हैं. !!
    (डाटा सुरक्षित रखने के लिए हमेशा डाटा backup लीजिए और डाटा को c ड्राइव के अलावा अन्य ड्राइव में स्टोर करें )

  13. Hi,
    I am facing a big problem with my pc. It is oxcoooooo1, it shows to boot my windows. Safe boot options f8 doesn’t working and I have no choice but to reinstall windows 7. The problem is I don’t have bootable pendrive or dvd/CD. Is it OK to download iso file from Internet.

  14. After the first 10 or so comments, I laughed at you. A person takes the time to write a procedure THAT WORKS and without even trying it you blast the person. Well you are the ones that look stupid.

    If you partition the USB then its first record is the MBR which contains code and the primary partition table. You specify that there is one primary partition occupying the entire disk and you make it active. The primary partition table located in the MBR will contain one entry with the one partition’s starting location. The BIOS code will load the 1st record on the USB and execute the code. The MBR code will scan the primary partition table (located next to the code in the MBR) to find the ACTIVE PRIMARY partition, get its starting location, load the first record of that partition into memory and then execute it. This record is the PBR.

    If the USB drive is not partitioned, the first record on the USB is the PBR (so we skip the above stuff).

    The PBR is written when you format the partition. When an OS formats a partition it writes the name of the program that the PBR code is to search for and execute. Linux does it. Windows does it (so it isn’t a Microsoft conspiracy). Windows’ PBR searches in the root folder for a file called BOOTMGR, loads and executes it. It uses files in the BOOT subfolder to determine what to boot. These files will indicate that Windows PE is in file BOOT.WIM in subfolder SOURCES so it should be booted.

    If you format the USB drive, this will write a Microsoft PBR onto the first record of the USB. If you then extract the downloaded Windows ISO file and copy the files like the author said,
    you will have the file BOOTMGR in the root, the subfolder BOOT and its needed files, and the file BOOT.WIM in the SOURCES subfolder.

    So the joke is on the posters that said impossible. Don’t post if you don’t know what you are talking about. Learn how the BIOS or UEFI boot process works before polluting our reading.

    This process works. You do not need the Windows ADK unless you want to modify BOOT.WIM (e.g. to add custom drivers or maybe a GUI shell).

  15. I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY EVERYONE IS DO THIS DO THAT ,,DONT CORRUPT ARE THOUGHTS IF YOU HAVE A PROSESS THAT DONT WORK

    THE FACT REMAINS I HAVE NOT GOT AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION ,,SO UNLESS YOU CAN PRODUCE A USB THAT SOMEONE CAN USE ,,SHUT THE HELL UP

    I HAVE A USB WIN XP SETUP OEM FILES ONLY NO GRUB OR LYNIC OR RUFUS NONE OF THAT AND I CAN PROVE IT ..

    EMAIL ME AND I WILL SEND YOU ONE

    IT WILL NEED NO PRODUCT NUMBER OR ACTIVATION
    I CAN GIVE YOU A HINT BOOTMGR FILE IS NOT A OEM FILE FOR XP
    THIS IS THE NAME RUFUS GIVES THE _ _ _ _ _ FILE..YOU HAVE TO CHANGE IT BACK

  16. ONE MORE THING TO THINK ABOUT ,,IN THE NEAR FUTURE THERE WILL BE A PHASE OUT OF NEW COMPUTERS WITH ANY SORT OF DATA STORAGE .
    YOU WILL GET YOUR OS FROM THE CLOUD EVEN USB PORTS ARE GOING THE WAYSIDE ..THEY ARE GOING TO MAKE US PAY FOR DATA STORAGE AND RENT A OS ,,A WIN XP USB SETUP IS NOT BIG DEAL BUT ONE THAT NEEDS NO P RODUCT NUMBER IS IF YOUR SETUP WEATHER IT BE XP OR 10 HAS TO BE REGITERED THEN YOUR SCREWED JUST PUTTING IT OUT THERE

  17. Could you send me a copy to my e mail been trying to boot my computer and I stuck I believe it’s my iso media since I’m using my Android to download it to my usb it’s not working right if you could help me out that would be great

  18. sorry ,, just like the XP CD you can’t just copy it ,, it has to be created on the USB
    I have also got a complete XP os on a usb working on blue screen of death

  19. I dont get why people are saying the usb should be formated in FAT32. I tried FAT32 format it doesn’t work. But when I formated it as NTFS format it actually worked

  20. It’s coming people.. so to make things easyer for slow ones this is how you save your os xp to a usb in order to put it on a harddrive without changing anything….
    you will need a second hard drive with a os that runs tin the machine it’s your slave now ,, put the new master os in boot machine make hardrive changes in bios reboot.. when up and running format a usb copy all files on the slave drive to usb ..it’s that easy now if somthing goes wrong with a haerdrive put a hardrive in as a slave copy usb to the slave drve , you don’t need to format the slave just copy to take the slave a master in bios good to go the usb holds all parts of the os all oem files

  21. Remember this WINXP setup from a USB must be created and there are a lot of different versions of XP also the created version will require no activation or key
    Think out of the box people combine versions must I give you people all the answers

  22. no need any software just cmd
    this is like i do
    diskpart
    list disk
    select disk 4 (usb)
    clean
    create partition primary
    format fs=NTFS QUICK
    assign
    exit
    G: (iso img of windows mounted)
    cd G:\boot
    bootsect /nt60 H: (usb)

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