Install Windows from USB Drive

Until a few years ago, we all used CD/DVD for installing Windows in a PC. Then motherboards that support USB boot came on the market and made our life a lot easier. Installing window from a USB drive is much more easy and faster than installing from a CD/DVD. But to do so, you need to make your USB drive bootable. But many people including most of my family and friends (arrgh!) don’t know how to make a bootable Windows installation USB drive. Also, people with netbooks don’t have the option to install Windows using CD/DVD. So, often I hear the question,

“I have a Windows installation disk and I’ve heard about bootable USB Windows installation drive. But, how to make one?”

Let’s answer the question. There are few methods to make a bootable USB windows installation drive and in this post I’m going to show you how I do it.

For creating a bootable USB windows installation drive I use a software called WinToFlash by Novicorp. It’s my favorite because it has a user-friendly interface. By the time you reach the end of this post, you will be able to make your own bootable USB windows installation drive in a few easy steps.

First, download WinToFlash. It’s free for non-commercial use.

1. Open WinToFlash and click the Windows setup transfer wizard.

2. A new windows will pop up. Click next.

3. On the next step select the path where your Windows installation disk is. If you have a CD/DVD, then select your CD/DVD drive. I selected D:\ which is my DVD drive. Below that I selected E:\ which is the USB drive I want to make bootable. Click next.

4. Accept the license agreement. Continue.

5. You’ll get a warning. Click continue. Then WinToFlash will start the process. It’ll take more or less 10 minutes to complete the process.

6. When the process is 100% done click next and then exit.

That’s it! Your bootable USB Windows installation drive is now ready. You’ll find all the windows installation files on your USB drive. All you have to do is boot your machine from USB.

Here in this post, I’ve shown you the process using the Wizard mode. You can also use the ‘Advanced mode’ if you are an advanced user. Even if you use the advanced mode, I suggest to leave most settings on default as the settings are already pre-selected properly.

Ever tried WinToFlash before? Or going to try? Drop a comment or share this article to your friends if you find it helpful.