USB drive bootable with Rufus Software

Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc.




It can be especially useful for cases where:

• you need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.)
• you need to work on a system that doesn't have an OS installed
• you need to flash a BIOS or other firmware from DOS
• you want to run a low-level utility

Rufus Software Download  Click Here

How to Create a Bootable USB Drive

To create a bootable USB drive manually, we will use the Command Prompt as a Windows default program. Here are step by step to create a bootable USB drive as the Windows installation media. To create a bootable USB drive as a Windows installation media, we require at least 4 GB for minimum capacity. Larger capacity is better. At this moment, I use the USB flash drive with 2 GB of capacity as just an example. It's due to some reasons that my 4 GB flash drive encountered an unusual problem that i have to fix later. :D

Step 1: Using DISKPART command

1. Insert your USB flash drive to your running computer. As the first step, we need to run Command Prompt as administrator. To do this, we need to find cmd by typing 'cmd' in the search box on Windows Start Menu. After search result for 'cmd' appears, right click on it and select "Run as administrator".
2. Type 'diskpart' on Command Prompt (without quotes) and hit Enter. Wait for a while until the DISKPART program run.
3. Type 'list disk' to view active disks on your computer and hit Enter. There would be seen that the active disks shown as Disk 0 for hard drive and Disk 1 for your USB flashdrive with its total capacity.
4. Type 'select disk 1' to determine that disk 1 would be processed in the next step then hit Enter.
5. Type 'clean' and hit Enter to remove all of data in the drive.
6. Type 'create partition primary' and hit Enter. Creating a primary partition and further recognized by Windows as 'partition 1'.
7. Type 'select partition 1' an hit Enter. Choosing the 'partition 1' for setting up it as an active partition.
8. Type 'active' and hit Enter. Activating current partition.
9. Type 'format fs=ntfs quick' and hit Enter. Formatting current partition as NTFS file system quickly.
10. Type 'exit' and hit Enter. Leaving DISKPART program but don't close the Command Prompt instead. We would still need it for next process.

Pendrive bootable by command prompt

 Step 1:
Open your PC's PowerShell or Command Promt with administrative rights.

Step 2:
After inserting your USB pendrive, run DISKPART from the PowerShell.

Step 3:
Type the command LIST DISK. The result will be as shown below:

Here DISK 0 is the hard disk and DISK 1 is the pendrive I have used.

Step 4:
In my case, the USB drive is DISK 1. So in this step, I enter the following command:
SELECT DISK 1. According to your disk number, the "1" in the command will change.

Step 5:
After the USB drive is selected from DISKPART, enter the following commands one by one:

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK

ASSIGN

And at last, enter EXIT command

Step 6:
Exit PowerShell and insert your Windows 7 installation disk. Now open 'My Computer'.

Note the drive letters of both - Your pendrive and Windows 7 installation disk. In my case, they are G: and H: respectively.

Step 7:

Again start PowerShell and enter following commands one by one:

H:

CD BOOT

BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 G:

Note the drive letters I used here are H: and G: according to my drives and these letters may be different for you.

Now your pendride has become a bootable one.