Developer Submission: WinUSB – Create Windows bootable USB without formatting!
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Hello everybody! Now I want to tell you how to create Windows bootable USB flash drive without formatting it.
There are many ways to make a bootable USB stick with Windows on board. But most of them lead you through a mandatory formatting step or are very difficult to use with many options and confusing interfaces.
It can make you waste a lot of time understanding what to do, selecting important files and their subsequent saving on hard drive…
Now we have a technique that allows you to avoid the problems described above. It is called WinUSB – small portable application that will guide you to creating Windows bootable USB flash drive with just three ease steps.
Another important feature is in supporting both UEFI and BIOS for FAT32 and NTFS.
Ok, let’s go! To begin you need download last version the program – v2.0 from the official web site:
As I promised you will need to overcome just three steps:
1. Select ISO or DVD to burn
At first you need to select what type of distribution you have. Windows Installation DVD or Windows ISO file?
Don’t warry if you currently do not have any of these, you can get ISO file from Microsoft official web site. Read how to download Windows ISO from Microsoft web site in this article:
How to download Windows ISO from Microsoft website
2. Choose USB flash drive
Ok, now we have defined the type of distribution, we need to choose a flash drive wich will be bootable by clicking a “Select USB drive” combo-box. You need a USB stick at least 4 GB of free space.
When you plug it in, it will be detected automatically.
The horizontal line below of stick name represents the ratio of free and used space. If you remove some data from selected drive or unplug it, application will also react automatically.
3. Choose file system, if it necessary & Go!
If you have enough space on flash drive to put windows distribution to it without removing something, program will ask you whether you want to format it to one of known operation systems to get clean Windows USB drive.
But if there is not enough space, application will have to insist on formatting to release it, because WinUSB doesn’t know which files on flash drive are important for you and which are not. Of course, you can transfer your files into a safe place and WinUSB automatically detects freed up disk space.
Ok, please read an information message and when you will be ready just click “Go” button!
WinUSB will take care of the rest!
That’s it! Now you have your own Windows Installation USB drive with no losing any data from it.
You are welcome on www.winusb.net website! 🙂
What’s new in version 2.0?
- In contrast to the 1st version, the second doesn’t use a Windows command file for running necessary actions.
- UEFI supporting for FAT32 and NTFS. Great thanks to Pete Batard and his UEFI:NTFS!
- Auto-convert USB drive to NTFS if required
- Auto-select all required operations
- Interface simplified and optimized
- Interface has become more informative
