Windows 10: Can I add folders to a bootable USB drive

Thank you for the clarification.

 

I have a 64GB USB thumb drive that I want to make bootable. Since I'll have a lot of space left over, can I add folders with non-bootable portable software inside each folder? My reasoning is: When I use the drive to boot from, it will not recognize the folders I've added. Thank you............

:)

 

How can I create a bootable USB drive?

Hi,

I am Sumit, an Independent advisor and a Microsoft MVP here to help.

Please see this guide on how to create one:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2376-create...

 

How can I create a bootable USB drive?

This in the page I was directed to: Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File). The link for the "Microsoft Software Download Windows 10 page" redirects to the same page. Does the tool not exist anymore or is this a glitch? Where might
i report this?

 

I have done it and never had a problem with my bootable flash drive.

 

Of course you can.

But chances are you are going to format that drive sooner or later, especially if you use it for W10.

I have a W7 USB stick installer, with a bunch of software on it.

What do you mean "when you boot from the stick it does not recognize the folders" ?

It`s not suppose to until Windows has been installed.

Plug the usb stick into any PC with an operating system on it, can you open and use/install the programs in those folders ?

 

Hi there.

Honestly, you can do it, however there is a slight chance that it can mess with the recognition of the folders.
I would highly recommend against it and have a USB for each bootable and then just a USB that you store your data on.

-Hayden

 

Agreed, it shouldn't be a problem. Just don't change the format of the bootable USB drive or it may not work. The MCT/Media Creation Tool will reformat the USB drive as FAT32 during the process in creating it so be sure to save any data you need, that exists nowhere else. I use a 16GB drive, use the choice of Both to get 32-bit and 64-bit and add the succeeding updates as they come out, both 32-bit and 64-bit. I don't get the smaller Delta version of the updates as they assume the computer is fully up-to-date.

 

I have a 128GB thumbdrive which I made to a bootable Windows Setup Media. The rest of the drive I have filled with various files and portable apps and drivers for various hardware, I might need. No issues so far.


If your Bootable media can't find your thumbdrive and your folders, then it means only that you are missing a driver. Try booting from an USB2.0 port. USB3.0 drivers will most likely not be available until you manually add them to your bootable drive, thus making it impossible to read anything from the stick during setup sessions.

 

Take a look at our very own Kyhi's Rescue Disk right here at TenForums.



This is built around the WinPE environment which is more or less the same runtime as in the Windows Recovery (WinRE) environment. He's not only done quite a lot of this: he's also figured out how to make those programs usable within that environment so that it can assist with recovery and repair activities while booted into the rescue disk. Great stuff!
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Now, I have more questions. Please stay tuned........

 

Biggest issue is that a bootable flash drive needs to be fat32 formatted, so if any individual files are over 4GB in size, they cannot be written to the drive.

 

This isn't entirely true. You can use NTFS in MBR mode (which needs a bit of boot sector editing magic and other partition configuration magic) but in UEFI the boot partition need to be FAT32, but rest can be NTFS. All this could however be old information for Windows 10 and I haven't tested this in a while.

During a time in the past where I did heavy Linux and Windows filesystem and recovery tool experimentation I saw a good guide on how to do all this. But now I can't find it... need to look a bit more.

Maybe I have to experiment on this topic and write a tutorial. There is a lot one can do with any media when you have the right tools. Most tools are however missing from Windows and one needs to go to a Linux bash to get things done properly. At least it used to be this way. Of course if one is an Assembly GURU and remember from memory how bootsector instructions should look in hexadecimal, all this could be done in a HEX editor and DD:ed onto the thumb drive. ;-)

 

So, if I understand correctly, unless I know what to do if I want to format my flash drives as NTFS, I must keep them formatted as FAT32. So far, I don't know what to do if I wanted to format them as NTFS. If I did format them as NTFS, is there any advantage?

Also, if I make a bootable drive, my understanding now (after the previous replies), is that it's OK to add folders with portable apps inside since to bootable portion of the drive will just ignore them.

To "slicendice": I didn't understand the post #10 (just above). Would you please reword it? Thank you.

I have Kyhi's iso. Does anyone recommend any other portable apps that would be helpful as repair tools? Does anyone know if Kaspersky Internet Protection has a portable app? What I'm doing is collecting a set of flash drives on a key ring so that I can help others fix their computers. (I'm also making them for myself, of course). I get asked many time to help fix a computer and I figure these flash drive tools will be very helpful. I'd just like to make sure I have on them whatever apps you folks consider important. Thank you.

 

You want to use FAT32 when you format your flash drive.