How to Create a Bootable Pendrive using cmd (command-prompt) ?

Bootable USB is a disk that is used to boot up a system for the installation of an Operating System. A USB can be made bootable using a command-line only for systems that have Windows(7/8/8.1/10) operating system. Linux Distributions can’t be used to create a bootable USB device without using third-party tools. Early versions of Windows i.e. before Windows 7, can’t be used for making a USB bootable.

Command-prompt in Windows is easily available in all the versions of Windows. Creating a bootable USB using a command prompt is quite an easier task. You can follow the steps given below in order to make your USB bootable.

Steps to Create a Bootable USB Using CMD

Step 1: Run command-prompt in Administrator mode. There are two ways to do the same:

1. Search for cmd in Start menu, right-click on the command prompt, click on Run as Administrator.

   

2. Open Task Manager, go to File->Run new task, search for cmd and press enter.
   

Step 2: Connect the USB device to the computer that is to be made bootable.
 
Step 3: Type the command ‘diskpart’ and then press Enter.

 
Step 4: Type the command ‘list disk’ to display a list of all the available storage devices on your system. Press Enter to continue.

 
Step 5: Select the disk that is your pen drive. Generally, it is marked as Disk 1, it might vary system to system. Make sure not to select any other available disk as it will get formatted. To choose the disk, type the command ‘select disk 1’ and press Enter.

 
Step 6: To make a pendrive bootable, there is a need to format it to clean the existing data. This can be done by the use of ‘clean’ command.

 
Step 7: Type the command ‘create partition primary’ and press Enter. This will make the disk primary and ready to be made bootable.

 
Step 8: To choose the partition created as primary, type the command ‘select partition 1’ and press Enter.

 
Step 9: Before making the disk bootable, there is a need to format it as NTFS because Windows uses NTFS file system for storage. This can be done with the use of command ‘format=fs NTFS’ and press Enter.

 
Step 10: Type the command ‘active’ and press Enter. This will mark the primary bootable partition as Active.

 
Step 11: Type the command ‘exit’ to exit DISKPART and press Enter.

Now close the command prompt window.
 
Step 12: Now copy all the data from the OS(Windows/Linux/etc.) installation disk to your USB drive that is just been made bootable.

Now, this Pendrive can be used to install the desired Operating System on any computer.