Question How should a USB boot drive be formatted

[ptTimeBldr]

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.

 

[ptTimeBldr]

And running a Windows OS from a flash drive is desperately slow.
Yes, I've done this (not recently). It sux.

Your "good reasons" aren't so good.

The video suggests otherwise, I think it's worth a try. If it's too slow, or rejected or whatever, then I'll clean and reformat the USB and install onto the SATA SSD.

 

[ptTimeBldr]

So being cheaper and not being practicable to add another SATA drive, are not good reasons for going the bootable USB route? They seem good reasons to me.

 

[TerryLaze]

but clearly this video is suggesting that you can install Windows onto a USB flash drive from a CD.

What words from the video makes you say this?
He says make a bootable copy of a cd/dvd.
The dvd you use does not boot into windows, it boots into the windows installation so why would you think that a copy of a dvd that boots into the installation would boot into windows just because you copy it?

At 0:35 he even says "it's really important to have bootable flash drives with windows installers on them...so I'm going to show you how to do this"

 

[USAFRet]

So being cheaper and not being practicable to add another SATA drive, are not good reasons for going the bootable USB route? They seem good reasons to me.

A spinning hard drive is cheaper per GB than a solid state drive.
That does not automatically make the HDD a better choice.

Not having a free SATA port?
Well, what is on the drives taking up the current ports? Move that data to a flash drive, freeing up that SATA port for an OS drive.


There is rarely a good reason to try to run a Windows OS from a flash drive as the normal course of operations.

 

[ptTimeBldr]

What words from the video makes you say this?
He says make a bootable copy of a cd/dvd.
The dvd you use does not boot into windows, it boots into the windows installation so why would you think that a copy of a dvd that boots into the installation would boot into windows just because you copy it?

At 0:35 he even says "it's really important to have bootable flash drives with windows installers on them...so I'm going to show you how to do this"

Sorry for late reply, I've just gone through a Systems Restore quagmire for one of my laptops...

Ok, it seems you're right and I was mistaken, but you could perform a windows installation from the windows dvd itself, so why go through all that routine just to be able to boot into the windows installation on a usb flash drive?

 

[ptTimeBldr]

A spinning hard drive is cheaper per GB than a solid state drive.
That does not automatically make the HDD a better choice.

Not having a free SATA port?
Well, what is on the drives taking up the current ports? Move that data to a flash drive, freeing up that SATA port for an OS drive.


There is rarely a good reason to try to run a Windows OS from a flash drive as the normal course of operations.

A spinning hard drive is cheaper per GB than a solid state drive.
That does not automatically make the HDD a better choice.

I didn't say it did, so why do you bring this up?

Not having a free SATA port?

I have three free SATA ports, but it's not practicable for me to add another SATA drive because of how the cabling is arranged and because the open frame chassis that I'm using didn't come with additional brackets for another drive.

 

[TerryLaze]

Sorry for late reply, I've just gone through a Systems Restore quagmire for one of my laptops...

Ok, it seems you're right and I was mistaken, but you could perform a windows installation from the windows dvd itself, so why go through all that routine just to be able to boot into the windows installation on a usb flash drive?

I think he also says that.
A lot of people don't have an optical drive anymore, often cases don't even have a front bay for one anymore.
MS is selling Windows on USB for years now as well as on DVD for that reason.

 

[ptTimeBldr]

I think he also says that.
A lot of people don't have an optical drive anymore, often cases don't even have a front bay for one anymore.
MS is selling Windows on USB for years now as well as on DVD for that reason.

I knew you could download ISO files for windows, but didn't know MS were selling windows on usb flash drives. I also accept that newer laptops and so on don't have optical drives, but you would need one though to make a bootable usb from a windows cd/dvd, unless you copied an ISO download onto a usb.

 

[USAFRet]

A spinning hard drive is cheaper per GB than a solid state drive.
That does not automatically make the HDD a better choice.

I didn't say it did, so why do you bring this up?

Not having a free SATA port?

I have three free SATA ports, but it's not practicable for me to add another SATA drive because of how the cabling is arranged and because the open frame chassis that I'm using didn't come with additional brackets for another drive.

You mentioned the "cheaper" as a bonus.
I was giving the HDD/SSD comparison as an example of 'Not always'.


With this SATA port thing, you're just inventing roadblocks.
Running a Windows OS from a flash drive is rarely a good idea.


With the MediaCreation tool from MS, you can make a Windows installer on a USB in about 10 minutes.
Trivially easy.