Question How should a USB boot drive be formatted

ptTimeBldr

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Nov 13, 2022
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If you want to turn a USB flash drive into a Windows-10 boot drive, should it be formatted to FAT32 or NTSC? Initially I was thinking NTSC as Window-10 works with that format for internal drives, but the newer UEFI bios won't accept external USB flash drives that have been formatted to that, only to FAT32.
 
To run the OS. According to this vid, you can make a bootable USB drive from any Windows CD, and so presumably a DVD.
What he shows in the video does still work even for win 11, he just writes an mbr to the flash and copies all the files from the dvd to the flash.
The resulting usb is going to be just an installation media exactly like the dvd or a ready made usb.
UEFI bios will run ntfs fine as long as secure boot is disabled.

Also just try both, you don't have anything to lose other than time.
 
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ptTimeBldr

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Nov 13, 2022
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What he shows in the video does still work even for win 11, he just writes an mbr to the flash and copies all the files from the dvd to the flash.
The resulting usb is going to be just an installation media exactly like the dvd or a ready made usb.
UEFI bios will run ntfs fine as long as secure boot is disabled.

Also just try both, you don't have anything to lose other than time.
Ok, I'll try both, and thanks for saying UEFI will accept NTFS if I disable secure boot.
My impression however, was that he had installed Windows from the CD to the USB flash drive so he could boot from it, hence 'Bootable USB from any CD'. So this is not just an installation media; he's able to boot from it which is the whole point.
 
Ok, I'll try both, and thanks for saying UEFI will accept NTFS if I disable secure boot.
My impression however, was that he had installed Windows from the CD to the USB flash drive so he could boot from it, hence 'Bootable USB from any CD'. So this is not just an installation media; he's able to boot from it which is the whole point.
Booting only means that the PC starts and does something.
Booting into OS means that it actually gets into desktop.
For the DVD or USB to allow you to install windows it has to boot, it has to make the PC do things, draw stuff on the screen so you can make choices, it boots into the installation program.

Just getting the bios screen on a PC is already considered booting, even if you only get a blinking cursor or a missing operating system message, since at that stage the PC is ready to load in anything else, like an OS.
 

ptTimeBldr

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Booting only means that the PC starts and does something.
Booting into OS means that it actually gets into desktop.
For the DVD or USB to allow you to install windows it has to boot, it has to make the PC do things, draw stuff on the screen so you can make choices, it boots into the installation program.

Just getting the bios screen on a PC is already considered booting, even if you only get a blinking cursor or a missing operating system message, since at that stage the PC is ready to load in anything else, like an OS.
I know that booting can mean just that a system starts, but clearly this video is suggesting that you can install Windows onto a USB flash drive from a CD. However in the end I've decided that I'll install it onto the SATA SSD because I tend to agree with USAFRet saying there would be a speed issue, but then why is this video suggesting it at all?
 
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ptTimeBldr

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And there circles back around to my question...

What are YOU wanting to do?

Use a flash drive to install from?
Or
Install Win 10 TO a flash drive, and run the OS from the USB connected flash drive?
What do you think? Why would anyone want to install Windows onto a USB flash drive? One good reason is they are a lot cheaper than SATA SSD/HDDs, and another is that it may not be practicable to add another SATA drive.