Bootable USB drive using NTFS without relying on third party software?

Question

I have edited a Windows 11 23H2 to install on my clients' computers, but I'm having the issue of a having a bit of a large install.wim file (~6GB) which doesn't fit in a FAT32 formatted USB drive, I tried preparing so I tried my USB using diskpart using NTFS

list disk

sel disk 1

clean

convert gpt

create part pri

format fs=ntfs quick

But it didn't boot so I tried "burning" the iso image using rufus, rufus used NTFS for my USB drive, and it boots normally but I want to make a bootable USB using the NTFS file system manually without having to rely on Rufus or other third party software that isn't Microsoft's, how do I do it?

Answer 1

Hello   infgrs，

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community forum.

To create a bootable USB drive using NTFS without relying on third-party software, you can use the built-in Windows Command Prompt utility called "bootsect.exe". Here are the steps:

1. Insert your USB drive into your computer.
2. Open Command Prompt as an administrator.
3. Type "diskpart" and press Enter.
4. Type "list disk" and press Enter to see the list of disks connected to your computer.
5. Identify the disk number of your USB drive and type "select disk X" (replace X with the disk number of your USB drive) and press Enter.
6. Type "clean" and press Enter to wipe the USB drive.
7. Type "create partition primary" and press Enter to create a new primary partition on the USB drive.
8. Type "format fs=ntfs quick" and press Enter to format the USB drive with the NTFS file system.
9. Type "assign" and press Enter to assign a drive letter to the USB drive.
10. Type "exit" and press Enter to exit the DiskPart utility.
11. Navigate to the Windows 11 23H2 ISO file location in Command Prompt.
12. Type "cd boot" and press Enter to navigate to the boot folder.
13. Type "bootsect /nt60 X:" (replace X with the drive letter assigned to your USB drive) and press Enter to make the USB drive bootable.
14. Copy all the files from the Windows 11 23H2 ISO file to the USB drive.
15. Eject the USB drive and it should now be bootable with the NTFS file system.

I hope the information above is helpful.

If you have any question or concern, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,

Haijian Shan