Windows 10: Creating a bootable USB when you only have the contents of the ISO

Hi there

It's possible you might have the contents of the ISO but not the actual ISO image itself on HDD.

It's still possible to create a bootable USB using purely MANUAL commands

for this example assume Disk nr is 7 and the USB stick is on drive H. The files from the ISO are in say folder WINDVD on drive E

here's what to do.

1) open CMD as administrator
2) DISKPART
3) LIST DISK
4) SELECT DISK 7 (remember our example above)
5) CLEAN
6) CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
7) ACTIVE
8) FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
9) EXIT (don't close the cmd prompt though)

10) CD E:\WINDVD\BOOT (again from example contents of ISO are on drive E)
11) BOOTSECT /NT60 H:

12) After 11) finishes - takes 1 sec approx. copy the entire contents of directory WINDVD to the USB stick as is - copy contents in same folder layout as on the disk - don't have WINDVD as the high level - copy CONTENTS so ist folder on USB stick will be BOOT.

13) now you've got a bootable USB.

I know things like RUFUS make this automatically but if you've only got the extracted contents and don't want to download the whole iso again this should help.


Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

How to Reinstall Windows 10 Upgrade?

You can download the ISO image to your PC and then use other tools to create a bootable USB flash drive.

I had to use Diskpart to create a bootable USB flash drive, then copy the contents of the ISO to the drive. (it needs to be at least 4GB)How to Create a Bootable USB Drive Without Using Any Software

 

Back up disk of windows 10

Hi Joe,



You can use the ISO file to create bootable media for installation or recovery. You can also install Windows on your current device by opening the ISO file, selecting the Setup and following the instructions.

To create bootable media such as a bootable USB drive or DVD, you will need an ISO burning or mounting software. We recommend always using a blank USB or blank DVD because contents may be deleted when creating a bootable image.

For more information: Download Windows 10

Get back to us if you have any other queries.

 

You don't need this step.

This is a better command:

format fs=fat32 quick

Because then you have a UEFI Boot Mode AND Legacy BIOS Boot Mode compatible Windows 8/10 64-bit USB flash drive.

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