How to Create Bootable USB from Command Prompt

Boot­able USB is essen­tial espe­cially if you have net­book which does­n’t come with optic­al drive. We are going to dis­cuss how to make one with only few com­mands from com­mand prompt on win­dows vista/​win­dows 7.

To make boot­able USB, we are going to use DISKPART com­mand avail­able in win­dows vista/​7

• Open com­mand prompt by run­ning CMD in run windows
• Run diskpart

DISKPART

• At the DISKPART> com­mand prompt, enter LIST DISK to find the USB device’s disk number.

LIST DISK

• Select the USB as act­ive by enter­ing SELECT DISK and its disk num­ber (for example, if the USB drive is lis­ted as disk 3, enter SELECT DISK 3 )

SELECT DISK 3

• delete all the exist­ing files from the USB by enter­ing CLEAN (This com­mand will wipe the HDD quickly)

CLEAN

• Cre­ate a new par­ti­tion : CRE­ATE PAR­TI­TION PRIMARY

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

• Select the par­ti­tion of USB drive by giv­ing SELECT PAR­TI­TION com­mand

  SELECT PARTITION 1

• Set the par­ti­tion as act­ive by enter­ing ACTIVE

ACTIVE

• Quick-format the par­ti­tion as boot­able NTFS: FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
  as boot­able FAT: FORMAT FS=FAT32

FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK

FORMAT FS=FAT32 QUICK

• Assign the drive let­ter to USB using ASSIGN command

ASSIGN

• Leave DISKPART by typ­ing in EXIT

EXIT

At this point the USB become boot­able but if you want to make Win­dows vista/​7 boot­able then you may need anoth­er step to make it.

• goto win­dows vista/​7 DVD. Example E: is your DVD drive(real/virtual) give the com­mand E: then change to boot folder 

        E:
        CD BOOT
        

• Now give the com­mand BOOT­SECT (Where “F” is your USB drive letter)

BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 F:

• copy the remain win­dows files to make it win­dows boot­able USB