Windows Content Creation for Bootable USB

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James Robinson

Limp Gawd
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Dec 4, 2016
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Anyone know how to avoid the dreaded 'Fat 32' issue while making an OS install bootable flash drive?

I decided to get the nice Patriot 128gb with the 400 per second rating, and damned if no matter what I do, the process goes to Fat 32 and uses a whopping 32gb of the 128. The rest sits after the partition unused.

Is there a way to format it with NTFS and then clone the data over so it's still bootable and viable as a install drive? Was mucking about with it for a couple hours last night and gave up in frustration... thanks
 
B00nie said:
There is one good way - install another OS instead.
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The least you could do is slap a smiley of some kind on the comments you make like that one, I mean really. ;) <<<--- See, like this!

Anyway, if you're making a USB installer stick for Windows you should be using the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool (yes the name sucks ass but whatever) because it formats the target media as NTFS by default before the file copy begins. As for why you'd be using a 128GB USB stick just to put a few gigs of installer files on it is beyond me - you're only going to be able to install Windows itself so fast and no faster. These days most of the time required for the installation is the decompression of the files which has nothing to do with the media you're using but the power of the CPU and the speed of the RAM more than anything else.

Regardless, use that tool - if you get an error at the end saying it can't copy the bootsect.exe file (it happens if you are using a 64-bit version of Windows to create a 32-bit installer stick) just copy the bootsect.exe manually from the installation files in the /boot folder to the /boot folder on the media it creates. It's a simple bug because of how the 64-bit installer works differently from the 32-bit so just copying that one file to the proper location resolves the issue.

If you're attempting to create a USB run version of Windows it's not really going to work that well since Windows isn't really designed to be "portable" but it is possible to some degrees - there is the Windows To Go potential with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Enterprise editions but honestly I can't imagine most people having any real use for such a thing. It's possible, yes, but... why? :)

The fact that you said "install drive" means a USB stick for installing Windows, at least to me, not a stick you're intending to run Windows from directly so, that's why I offered two answers of a sort.
 
Thanks... I'm using a 128gb because its the smallest Patriot had for the 400per rate. My big genius plan was to make my Win10 boot/install flash drive, then save all the programs, keys, certificates, and general file data I wanted to re-install/restore after. Does my installing Win10 change anything?
 
Your best bet if you want to go that far and you're concerned with "starting over" then perhaps you should consider using the USB stick for a storage target and just make images of your Windows partition, I suppose, that would allow you to make regular images (could be incremental but I just prefer to make new complete ones regularly).

I'm still not 100% certain of what you're looking for to be honest. So let's do this:

1) You want a USB stick that can be used to install Windows (whichever version) cleanly as though you were using an installation DVD but obviously the USB stick will do this much faster as well as giving you additional space to store program installers on

2) You want a USB stick that is a Windows installation meaning you can plug it in and then run Windows directly from the USB stick itself aka Windows To Go aka a portable version of Windows (which does exist with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Enterprise editions but most consumers/home users would never need that nor have the proper editions)

So, is it 1 or 2? :D
 
Tiberian said:
1) You want a USB stick that can be used to install Windows (whichever version) cleanly as though you were using an installation DVD but obviously the USB stick will do this much faster as well as giving you additional space to store program installers on

So, is it 1 or 2? :D
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This please.... ver.Win10 Pro 64.. I have no intention of running the OS from the Flash drive, only installing it from there, and making the process as easy and efficient as possible .
 
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James Robinson said:
Anyone know how to avoid the dreaded 'Fat 32' issue while making an OS install bootable flash drive?
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I have no idea what this means. The cool way to make Windows USB sticks these days is with Rufus: https://rufus.akeo.ie/

If your sources\install.wim file is over 4.xGB, it won't fit on a FAT32-formatted USB. I haven't seen MS distribute it over that size (yet).
 
I'm using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool. I have Windows 10 Pro 64 installed, and it was the free upgrade from Win8 to Win10 Pro. Win8 was an upgrade from Win7 Ultimate 64 (the only media I actually possess), which I won in a contest.I don't have source ISOs or materials, so using that to make me an install USB Flash Drive. As a test I formatted the drive with NTFS for the full 128GB, then ran the program. It immediately detected the drive and went to work. When it was done the drive was formatted for Fat32, had a single partition for 32GB, and all the remaining space was unallocated after the partition. I had the option to move as much of that space in front of the partition as I wanted, but could not merge it WITH the partition.

What I want to do, is have all my space available on the partition, along with my Windows 10 Pro 64 bit installer. I can then use that extra space to save everything else I want installed after the OS is up and running again.
 
I think the tool can just make an ISO. Just make an ISO, and use RUFUS to make the USB stick from the ISO.
 
Then I refer back to my original post (#2 in this thread) and recommend that you use the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool if you already have the Windows 10 ISO. If you do not have the Windows 10 ISO already then you'll want to use the Windows Media Creation Tool which you'll find on this page:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Download the tool, go through the steps, choose the options/version you want and when it asks you if you want to make the Flash drive or make the ISO, choose make the ISO which you then use to make a USB stick with the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool I linked to above. Using that method you'll end up with a USB stick that has Windows 10 installation files on it and the rest of the capacity of the stick is wide open and ready for whatever additional content/media/files/etc you want to put on it.

FAT32 partitions created by Windows itself are limited to 32GB in size which is why the other method you're using keeps creating the 32GB partition and making the rest of the stick "disappear" - you could use diskpart or Disk Management to make use of that additional space but the method I just pointed out in the paragraph above is your best option at this point.

Yes, Rufus is another USB drive creation tool that is recommended by a lot of people and I do use it myself for Linux ISOs but I don't use it for creating sticks for installing Windows, I'm not saying it can't get the job done but I find the Microsoft-created Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool works better and has never failed me in the past for several hundred USB sticks - I've had issues using Rufus for that purpose so, that's why I don't personally recommend it for that purpose.
 
SuperSubZero said:
If your sources\install.wim file is over 4.xGB, it won't fit on a FAT32-formatted USB. I haven't seen MS distribute it over that size (yet).
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Server 2012 R2 (the current/latest images) and I believe Server 2016 break this with the .wim file being larger than the FAT32 file limit. Boards that can boot from a UEFI NTFS can get around it.
 
Thanks all, especially Tiberian... that seems to have done the trick. Of course, I won't know till I'm finally ready to do my build next month... :)
 
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