How to Create Windows 10 Bootable USB Drive for Free?

While most computers come with a recovery drive already on it, but many of us want a clean install using the Windows 10 ISO image.

In this post, we will see how to burn Windows 10 ISO images to a USB drive and create bootable USB media for installation purposes. First, you would need to download the Windows 10 ISO image file. Check out our guide on downloading the ISO image file from the Microsoft website. Once you have downloaded the file, we can proceed to the next stage of creating the bootable USB drive.

Create Bootable USB Media

Once you have the ISO file on your computer, you can proceed to create the bootable USB drive. There are a lot of software that can be used to create the bootable drive and some of those are ABUSB, Rufus, Media Creation Tool from Microsoft, WinToFlash, and more.

But, we will see how to use the Rufus and Media Creation Tool from Microsoft.

Let’s start with Rufus.

Using Rufus:

Rufus is a free tool that can be used to create a bootable USB stick, and it offers a portable version, so you don’t have to install it.

Just download this free utility from the official link and then insert the USB drive and open it. You have to make sure that you have a 4GB flash drive for the 32-bit Windows version and an 8GB flash drive for the 64-bit Windows version.

Now, you have to browse the location of your USB drive and then choose the MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI if not selected already. It will make sure that this USB drive is compatible with both BIOS and UEFI based systems. You can leave the rest of the options in the tool to their default value.

Then, look for the ISO image button under Format options and browse to the location of the ISO file.

Now, you are ready to create the bootable USB drive, click on the Start button, and then wait for it to get finished. You have to make sure that there is no data present on the USB drive, or it will get wiped out when you click on the start button. So, if there was any data present on the USB, you must take a backup of it before proceeding further.

After Rufus completes the process, you will have a bootable USB drive with Windows 10 on it. Now, you can use this USB stick to install Windows 10 any of your computers.

Using Media Creation Tool:

Media Creation Tool is a utility extended by Microsoft team, allowing you to download a copy of ISO file compatible with your PC and creating a bootable USB media drive to install the Window 10 media creation tool.

It is one of the easiest ways to create the bootable USB for Windows 10 installation.

First, you have to go to the Windows 10 download page and then click on the Download tool now to get the Media Creation Tool exe file.
It will download a portable file that can run independently, open the file, and accept its terms.
Now, you have to select the ‘Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC’ option and click Next to proceed.
Then the tool will ask you to provide language, edition, and architecture. You can either select each of those or use recommended settings by clicking on the tick mark below and then click the Next button to proceed.
You will have two options on the next page, either choose a USB flash drive or ISO file. Since we aim to create a bootable USB drive, so we’ll select the former.
Now, you have to select the USB drive from the list and click on the Next button to continue.
Then, the tool will download windows 10 and create a bootable USB flash drive.