A bootable flash drive allows you to start your computer from the flash drive’s file system rather than your hard drive’s. … A flash drive must have a master boot record, a volume boot record, and an operating system or a program that can be executed in order for us to boot to it.
To create a bootable USB flash drive:
- Insert a USB flash drive into a computer that is already running.
- As an administrator, open a Command Prompt window.
- Type diskpart into the search box.
- To determine the USB flash drive number or drive letter, type list disk and then press ENTER in the new command line window that appears. The list disk command displays all of the computer’s disks. Take note of the USB flash drive’s drive number or letter.
- Type select disk at the command prompt, where X is the USB flash drive’s drive number or letter, and then press ENTER.
- Click ENTER after typing clean. This command wipes the USB flash drive clean of all data.
- Type create partition primary and then press ENTER to create a new primary partition on the USB flash drive.
- Type select partition 1 and then press ENTER to select the partition you just created.
- Type format fs=ntfs quick and press ENTER to format the partition.
- Click ENTER after typing active.
- Then press ENTER after typing exit. Insert a USB flash drive into a computer that is already running.
- As an administrator, open a Command Prompt window.
- Type diskpart into the search box.
- To determine the USB flash drive number or drive letter, type list disk and then press ENTER in the new command line window that appears. The list disk command displays all of the computer’s disks. Take note of the USB flash drive’s drive number or letter.
- Type select disk at the command prompt, where X is the USB flash drive’s drive number or letter, and then press ENTER.
- Click ENTER after typing clean. This command wipes the USB flash drive clean of all data.
When you finish preparing your custom image, save it to the root of the USB flash drive.
Take note
If your server platform supports Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), you should format the USB flash drive as FAT32 rather than as NTFS. To format the partition as FAT32, type format fs=fat32 quick, and then click ENTER.