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How to Make Botoable USB Flash Drive from OS Install ISO on Desktop?

Anonymous
2020-10-25T20:50:12+00:00

I give up. I'm been trying for nearly two days now to make a booable USB flash drive with the Win 10 install ISO on my desktop for the latest Win 10 Upgrade, to the October 2020 version.

Until this version, I was alwasy able to burn a bootable DVD, used Nero. But this version is too big to fit on a DVD, so I have to use a USB flash drive.

In two days of research and effort and trials, I have not been able to get it done. Oh, the ISO is perfectly fine, I used it to do the upgrade.

Oh, I do have the Media Creation Tool, but the stupid thing will not make the USB flash drive from an ISO on my desktop -- why ever would they leave that little function out!? It requires I download the ISO all over again, and it makes the bootable drive from that. It takes me 4+ hours to download that huge file! I do not want to have to do that twice, I already did it once.

This should be a simple thing, easy. In fact, Windows should already have a function in it to do this very thing -- but it does not. I have found various instructiorns with step by step, but they all fail. I know there are various referrals to a few apps to do it, mostly to Rufus, but I dare not touch any such an app I have never heard of and end up very sorry that I loaded some very dangerous malware onto my computer. Why does WIndows 10 not already include such an app!?

Well, I finally did just find what was suppsoed to be a Microsoft app to do it, the poster in a thread here said it would be bootable. It is called Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool, and despite its name, it is suppsoed to be good for Win 7, 8 and 10. And it is supposed to make a bootable USB drive from an ISO file on your desktop.

I downloaded it, and just ran it. It starts by formatting the drive, and you pick the ISO file you want to use, and the destination drive. That's it, the app does the rest.

It took a while and it finished. I saw the files were on the USB flash drive. I rebooted. It doesn't boot! I tested vit arious ways, but it does not boot. Even though the assurance was that tool would make a bootbale drive, it seems it is not bootable. It seems it merely copied the files from the ISO, did nothing else that is needed to make it bootable.

How can I get this done. Is there not some Windows tool like that one that actually makes a bootable USB drive? But please, I don't want any more pile of steps to do and things to figure out that dont even work. Please, only something simple to get this done.

And shame on Microsoft to not already have that in the OS.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. DaveM121 880.8K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2020-10-25T21:02:01+00:00

    Hi me1004

    I am Dave, an Independent Advisor, I will help you with this . . .

    1

    That 'Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool' will create a bootable USB, but only for a system that boots in Legacy BIOS and not a modern PC with UEFI BIOS

    2

    The Media Creation Tool cannot be used to create a bootable USB from an ISO, it can only be used to download the required files and create a bootable USB from those

    2

    Rufus is absolutely safe to use and will create a bootable USB for use on a modern UEFI based PC

    Official Download page:

    https://rufus.ie/

    ________________________________________________________

    Standard Disclaimer: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

    .

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-10-26T01:41:13+00:00

    OK, the report:

    I finally got a bootbale USB flash drive made -- the hard way. I had to use the Media Creation Tool and so download that huge file all over again. Some hours later, it just finished. I tested, it does not boot in UEFI, I have to change tor Legacy, and then it boots. So, it does boot, and I do have to change to Legacy.

    I got that done. I have no idea what that did that the other Microsoft tool did not do.

    Is there some reasonable way, other than some third party app like Rufus, which I have never heard of before, to do this from an ISO on the desktop? Surely there must be a set of line commands to do it (I tried some I found in a sarch, but they failed), not a hunded lines, a reasonable amount. Do I first need to do something to make it an MBR disk, or EFI disk?

    Why doesn't Microsoft include a function to do this in the OS?! The lack of that really is a bad mark for Microsoft, after all, this is an important thing to be able to make.

    Oh, and I note, the USB disk is formatted as FAT32! Gee, I thought for sure it needed to be NTFS.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-10-25T23:04:22+00:00

    Oh, OK, so that's was it. Good to know. But it would not have been bootable anyway.

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  4. DaveM121 880.8K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2020-10-25T22:28:38+00:00

    Hi me1004

    Yes, that is true, you cannot drag the ISO onto a USB, because that just copies the ISO to the USB and does not create a boot sector . . .

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-10-25T21:17:51+00:00

    I thought it might be Legacy only -- so I tested after changing bios to Legacy. It did not boot.

    I have to boot bootable DVDs in Legacy too, so I'm very well experienced in booting that way. But again, it didn't work. So I have to take it to mean it only copied over the files, did not make it bootable. I have my internal hard drive last in the list to boot, with DVD drive first, and all USB drives after that. But whether bios are set for UEFI or Legacy, it is booting the internal hard drive.

    I figure if Microsoft says Rufus is fine and safe (mind you, some of the worst stuff is the stuff you don't know is going on, quietly behind the scenes your files and info are being stolen -- so such software really needs to be checked, not just install it and see that your computer still works fine), then that should meanits OK. I'm glad to have you seal of approval for it, although official Microsoft would be best.

    Well, actually, best would be that they include such a small app in the OS in the first place. Its 2020, they included burning software to do it, but not the software to do it via USB.

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