How-To

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
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Gouri Shankar is Tech Geek and Java, PHP and Wordpress developer from India.
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