Creating a Bootable USB Flash Drive

You can create a bootable USB flash drive from the reinstallation DVD if you do not have an external USB DVD drive to connect to the ISC-178x.

Note If you have an external USB DVD drive, you can use the reinstallation DVD to restore Windows without creating a bootable USB flash drive. Proceed to the next section if you are using an external DVD drive.

What to Use

  • USB flash drive, at least 8 GB but no more than 32 GB
  • Windows reinstallation DVD
  • Windows computer with a DVD drive

What to Do

Complete the following steps to prepare the USB flash drive for recovery.

  1. Insert the USB flash drive into the USB port on the computer and wait for the flash drive to be recognized.
    Note Ensure the USB flash drive appears as a Removable Drive in Windows. Avoid using drives that appear as Fixed Disk drives.
  2. Open a command prompt as an administrator.
  3. Type diskpart.exe and press <Enter>.
  4. Type list disk and press <Enter>.
  5. Identify the drive number that corresponds to the USB flash drive.
  6. Type select disk x, where x is the drive number of the USB flash drive, and press <Enter>. For example, in the following image, the USB flash drive is disk number 5. The command is select disk 5.

    1378

    Caution Following this process will delete all data on the USB flash drive.
  7. Type clean and press <Enter>. This command deletes all data from the USB flash drive.
  8. Type create partition primary and press <Enter>.
  9. Type active and press <Enter>
  10. Type format fs=FAT32 quick and press <Enter> to format the USB flash drive.
  11. Type assign letter free volume letter, where free volume letter is a letter not currently associated with any disk drives. For example, assign letter K.
  12. Copy the contents of the reinstallation DVD to the root of the USB flash drive.
    The USB flash drive is now bootable and will install Windows.