Windows 10: Query for others who use Rufus to create a bootable Win10 flash drive

Sure but it is worth noting that disk management has undergone some changes, now,coping with multiple partitions,on standard flash drives. 1703 CU introduced ability to recognise multiple partitions,on standard flash drives, but disk management lagged behind (still only handling one) necessitating use of diskpart. However with FCU 1709, disk management can now handle multiple partitions on flash drives.
@Kari made a significant point in one of his posts ie the install.wim file is now getting close to the maximum file size limit of 4GB for fat32 formatted drives.

IIRC, Rufus can handle larger install.wims by creating two partitions ie a small boot fat32 partition and a larger ntfs partition.

Doing this in diskpart or disk management might be possible, but iirc, Rufus can handle this more elegantly. @Kari can probably elaborate better than I can.

 

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that up to this point.

This will come in useful for my 128 GB flash drive to set up the (Macrium) bootable rescue and backups storage - it's already that way with FAT32 to boot and the rest NTFS on an external USB HDD of mine but it may be more convenient (or redundant *Smile ) to set up that flash drive through Disk Management as another layer of protection - I'll give it a go and see what like I have.

 

With something as critical as a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive I would always worry that just deleting all the files on the drive may leave something behind, or some small corruption (however small) that might interfere with the newly downloaded ISO that I would be copying over to the flash drive. It might be my paranoia lol...but if I'm wiping out a flash drive, Ive always quick formatted the drive rather than just deleting the files from the drive. Is that totally unnecessary?
And in this case would a quick format to remove all files from the drive make the previously Diskpart prepped method flash drive to become not bootable and cause problems when performing the Windows 10 Installation from the USB flash drive?

 

Ive wondered about that before as well. The current Windows 10 ISO is approximately 3.5 gb so the install.wim is only slightly under that. What will happen when it reaches 4gb. UEFI systems only work with a FAT32 formatted flash drive and not NTFS. Does that mean we are all going to have to use Rufus anyway or we wont be able to create a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive?

 

It's not totally unnecessary if it puts you more at ease. No problem reformatting - it would still boot once you re-copied the files. I'll grant that one person's "overkill" can easily be another person's "necessary". *Smile

 

You can use winsetupfromusb to split ISOs larger than 4GB, it worked for me when I converted an .esd (< 4GB) to .wim (> 4Gb) and created an bootable USB stick.

 

Finally got a chance to test the flash drive I made using the above steps and it works a treat!
This is what my F12 boot menu looks like with the flash drive inserted. I have a Lenovo K450E UEFI/GPT system:

 

It is, by far, the most reliable and universal way to create the flash drive from an ISO.

 

Yes, if you want to boot from your USB flash drive in UEFI or Legacy BIOS mode.

But this is the easiest way if you want to boot from your USB flash drive in UEFI mode.

1. Open File Explorer and format USB flash drive to FAT32 file system.
2. Copy all files and folders from the mounted Windows 10 ISO image file to USB flash drive.

 

Sportsfan, just get the word volume out your head, it`s not something you`ll ever need to use or worry about.

Just stick with the words disk and partition and you`ll be fine. *Smile

 

Thanks for the advice pal. I'll certainly keep that in mind in future

 

Would you mind explaining a little more if you don't mind? If you do a FAT32 format using Windows File Explorer you have told me it still remains bootable. So doesn't it touch any of the UEFI boot files or aren't there any UEFI boot files present on the USB flash drive until you transfer the WIndows 10 ISO files onto the USB? As you can tell I have no knowledge of how UEFI boot up actually works or where the UEFI boot files are located? I like to try and learn as I go along if I can. You guys on here have so much knowledge about the internal workings of a PC and Windows 10. I always wonder if you work in Technology or whether youre all just self taught. Without you guys on here I'd be lost..so Thanks to you all

 

64-bit UEFI firmware: As long as the USB flash drive is FAT32 formatted and has \efi\boot\bootx64.efi file, it should be UEFI bootable.

EFI Files: The UEFI Boot Loader

 

If ive read and understood it correctly am I right in thinking that the \efi\boot\bootx64.efi file you mention will be included on the Windows 10 ISO and taken and used from the ISO or is it stored on the motherboard?

Also in a previous conversation we had you suggested the easiest way to create a bootable Windows 10 ISO for UEFI boot only was to format the USB with FAT32 using Windows file explorer and then just Mount the Windows 10 ISO and then just select and copy all files over to the USB flash drive.
When you've already partitioned and formatted with FAT32 the USB flash drive using Diskpart and made the drive Active then it is bootable in UEFI or Legacy BIOS mode. If you then format the drive with your suggested Format to FAT32 using windows file explorer method. How does that make it UEFI bootable only? Does the file explorer FAT32 format somehow remove the active command that was entered in Diskpart so Legacy BIOS mode is removed from the flash drive? I'm just trying to get a bit of an understanding of how things work

 

See my highlighting within my quote above. The boot files initially there would be gone after formatting, hence the need to re-copy the files from the ISO (which includes the boot files).