Guide_ How to Install Windows 10 From a USB Drive

2/20/2015 Guide:HowtoinstallWindows10fromaUSBdrive

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Guide: How to install Windows 10 from aUSB driveBy Andrew Stevenson Oct 2, 2014 HOT!

If, like us, you have downloaded the Technical Preview for Windows 10, youll be itching totry it. But how do you install it from the ISO youve just downloaded? Well, read on andfind out.

Historically, whether you copied Windows 98 to a directory on your C: drive from DOScalled win98.src and installed from there, or created a USB boot of Windows 8 direct fromthe medias installer, its possible to install the Windows OS from a number of mediums.

So today, what were going to do is show you how to take an 8GB USB disk (4GB can beused for the 32bit edition), prep it for installing Windows 10, transferring the files to it andbooting from it. While not a new process, well try to cover as much as possible, just togive you a bit of flexibility when going through this process.

First, lets prep the USB pen. For this, weve used a generic USB2 disk and are currentlydoing this on a Windows 8.1 Pro client. We're using the 64bit Technical Preview. Plug it into your desktop/laptop and lets get started! Oh, and be prepared to lose any data on theUSB disk, so back it up first if necessary.

1. Open a command prompt window as an administratora. Click/press Start, type CMD, right click on the (likely) first result and choose Run

as administrator

2. In the command prompt window, type diskpart and press enter

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3.

4. Once at the diskpart command prompt, type list disk and press enter

a. You will see a DOS format table listing your available disks.b. Make sure you know what disk is the USB. We know due to the size (7633MB)

and that its not highlighted as a Gpt disk/partition.

5. At the diskpart command prompt, type select disk 2 and press enter



a. Replace our disk number with yours.

6. At the diskpart command prompt, type clean and press enter.

7. At the diskpart command prompt, type create partition primary and press enter.

8. At the diskpart command prompt, type format fs=ntfs quick and press enter.



9. At the diskpart command prompt, type active and press enter.

10. At the diskpart command prompt, type assign and press enter.



a. This assigns the next/first available drive letter for the USB disk.

11. At the diskpart command prompt, type list volume and press enter.

a. This is how you can confirm the drive letter assigned to the USB disk, in ourcase F

12. At the diskpart command prompt, type exit and press enter, but dont exit thecommand prompt

At this point weve prepped the USB disk for the Windows 10 files and folders. But we



need to copy the files to the USB disk. Depending on what OS youre performing this on(XP, Vista, 7 or 8/8.1) the process will differ slightly. As were on Windows 8.1, well detailthat process, with additional info thrown in for good measure.

1. Download the Windows 10 Tech Preview if you havent alreadya. 32bit is hereb. 64bit is here

2. Browse to the downloaded ISO in Windows Explorer, right click the file and chooseMount

a. Once mounted, it should open in Explorer automatically (D drive in our case)b. If not, just browse, using Explorer, to your USB disk (again ours is F)

3. Select all files/folders using the mouse or CTRL+A , right click on the highlighted areaand choose Copy (or CTRL+C)

a. You can also choose Send to and then your Removable Disk



i. If you chose to send to the USB disk, skip to step 5

4. Open you (empty) USB disk in Explorer and right click the white space and choosePaste (or CTRL+V)

5. Wait for the process to finish and close all Explorer windows once done (youre at themercy of the speed rating on the USB disk were afraid).

If you dont have Windows 8/8.1 to mount an ISO, WinRAR will extract contents of an ISOto any location, or you could use a third party tool to mount the ISO(s) like Daemon Tools.Whatever way you can, or know how to, take the ISO contents and place it on your USBdisk will be fine.

The next thing for you to do is to modify the USB disk for booting. Up until now, its stillonly a non-bootable USB Windows 10 installer.

1. Go back to the command prompt window you shouldnt have closed2. Type the following command - d:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 f: and press return



a. Ensure you replace the d: and f: drive letters with your mounted ISO media andUSB disk respectively

3. Type exit to close the command prompt window

All that you need to do now is remove the USB media from your computer, plug it into thedevice you wish to test Windows 10 on, and boot from it. With a bit of luck, youll seesomething like the image below on screen!



The above processes will work to create any Windows USB install media, from Vista rightup to Windows 10. So if youre still clinging onto Windows 7 SP1, use this guide to createyour USB media.

Hopefully the longest process will have been the downloading and/or the copying of theISO and its files to the media. While we know how to run through the process quitequickly, prepping the media from the command line should take no more than 5 minutes.

One final thing to note is that if you want to remove Windows 10 from the media and putWindows 7 or 8.1 on there, plug the USB media into the computer where you have 7 or8.1 media (DVD, ISO, etc), delete all the files/folders from said USB media using WindowsExplorer, and copy the 7 or 8.1 files/folders from the ISO or DVD to the USB disk. Simple!

As always folks, feedback is much appreciated.



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Guide_ How to Install Windows 10 From a USB Drive