How to Create a Bootable USB Drive (pendrive)

How to Create a Bootable USB Drive

Download Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. This is available for free from Microsoft. Despite its name, this tool works with Windows Vista ISOs as well. You can run this tool on virtually any version of Windows.

To create a bootable USB drive manually, we will use the Command Prompt as a Windows default program. Here are step by step to create a bootable USB drive as the Windows installation media. To create a bootable USB drive as a Windows installation media, we require at least 4 GB for minimum capacity. Larger capacity is better. 

Step 1: Using DISKPART command

1. Insert your USB flash drive to your running computer. As the first step, we need to run Command Prompt as administrator. To do this, we need to find cmd by typing 'cmd' in the search box on Windows Start Menu. After search result for 'cmd' appears, right click on it and select "Run as administrator".
2. Type 'diskpart' on Command Prompt
3. Type 'list disk' to view active disks on your computer and hit Enter. There would be seen that the active disks shown as Disk 0 for hard drive and Disk 1 for your USB flashdrive with its total capacity.
4. Type 'select disk 1'  and hit Enter.
5. Type 'clean'  and hit Enter.
6. Type 'create partition primary'  and hit Enter.
7. Type 'select partition 1' an hit Enter. 
8. Type 'active' and hit Enter.
9. Type 'format fs=ntfs quick' and hit Enter.
10. Type 'exit' and hit Enter. Leaving DISKPART program but don't close the Command Prompt instead.                                                                                                   
11. Copy the operating system. Once the USB drive has been made bootable, you can copy over the installation files for the operating system you want to install. You can do this by dragging and dropping using your preferred file manager/explorer. 
12. Copy over any drivers you might need during the operating system installation to make the process much smoother.