How to Boot With USB Using Rufus & Command Prompt

The years of CD/DVD drive are close to extinction and now, new computers and laptops are manufactured without them.

A USB drive is the new way to boot your OS on your computer.

Before now, when you are trying to reset your computer or install a new operating system on your hard drive, all you needed was a bootable Windows CD to get the job done.

But now, you must get a flash drive and convert it to a bootable device with the right operating system on it before you are able to install an OS on your Windows 10 computer.

Advantages of Booting With a USB

Here’s the advantages of having a bootable USB

1. Reusable

This is one of the cool things for having a bootable USB drive at your disposal. A CD/DVD can scratch and damage over time but a USB flash drive can stay longer.

With your operating system installed on your USB flash, you can easily use it on another computer without worrying about the problem a CD/DVD can cost you.

2. Faster read write 

The read/write speed of USB flash drives are much faster than CD/DVD. This means when you boot with USB and try installing an OS on your computer, the installation process will be a lot quicker compare to a CD.

Booting with USB makes your computer recognize your USB drive extremely fast and when installing an operating system on your computer, the process is quicker.

3. Portability

Surely you know how small a USB flash drive is. It’s small, light, and convenient to carry around. You won’t need to bother about having too much on you when you consider booting with a USB.

Here are the downsides below.

Disadvantages of Booting With a USB

Here’s the disadvantages of having a bootable USB

1. Hardware Dependent

Booting from a USB flash drive really depends a lot on your BIOS, motherboard and the type of flash drive you are using.

Although, there are only few cases when a bootable USB will work with one computer but refuses to work with another computer. This problem is rare and not common.

 2. Support

Not all bootable Operating system or tools support booting with USB. CD/DVD have a wider support.

Now let’s get in to how you can boot from a USB flash drive.

Your computer can only recognize your USB if it is bootable.

Here’s how you can make your USB bootable

Create a Bootable USB Using Rufus

Rufus can create a bootable USB flash drive for windows 10, 8, and 7. Here’s how:

1. Get your operating system ISO file ready. If you don’t have an operating system, you can download from Microsoft
2. Save your iso file to a folder
3. Go to Rufus website and download Rufus
4. Insert your USB flash drive you want to make bootable
5. Run or open Rufus
6. Make sure the device section is displaying your USB flash drive
7. Boot selection should be set to DIsk or ISO image
8. Click on Select beside the Disk or ISO image
9. Locate your Operating System ISO file and select it
10. Now click on start. Not that the process will wipe your USB flash
11. Wait for Rufus to finish converting your USB flash drive to bootable
12. When it is done, your USB flash drive has now successfully converted to a bootable USB drive.

If you have troubles with Rufus, i will also show you how to create a bootable usb using command prompt

Create a Bootable USB Using Command Prompt

With windows diskpart, you can create a bootable USB flash drive

1. Start by navigating to your windows logo and click on search
2. Type in Command Prompt
3. Right-click on Command Prompt and then select Run as Administrator
4. Once Command Prompt window opens, copy and paste the following >> diskpart <<. Then hit the Enter key.
5. Type >>list disk<<, and then click ENTER. This will list all the disks on your computer.
6. Note the drive number or letter of your USB flash drive.
7. At the command prompt, type your select disk number or alphabet then click ENTER.
8. Type >>clean<<, and the click ENTER. This command deletes all data from the USB flash drive.
9. Now type >>create part pri<< to create a partition and then click ENTER.
10. Type >>select part 1<< to select the partition that you just created
11. Type >>format fs=ntfs quick<<, and then click ENTER. This will format your USB flash drive.
12. To format the partition as FAT32, type >>format fs=fat32 quick<<, then press ENTER or return key.
13. Type >>active<<, and then click ENTER.
14. Type >>exit<<, and then click ENTER.
15. Your USB flash drive is now a bootable drive

Simply copy windows file into the flash drive and then you should be able to boot from your USB. Make sure you have extracted the ISO file into the USB