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Q: How do I create a bootable USB stick that can install to a UEFI system?
Learn how to create a bootable USB drive that can install to a UEFI system such as you'd find with Windows 8.
John Savill
November 28, 2012
1 Min Read
A: Most USB boot sticks are formatted as NTFS, which includes those created by the Microsoft Store Windows USB/DVD download tool. UEFI systems (such as Windows 8) can't boot from an NTFS device, only FAT32.
Therefore you need to create a bootable USB device that's formatted as FAT32 instead, then copy the contents of the Windows installation media to it. For example use the commands below to create a FAT32-formatted USB device:
Open an elevated command prompt, then start the diskpart utility:
diskpart.exeList all the disks and identify your USB stick:
list diskSelect the disk number that is your USB stick, e.g.,:
select disk 4Remove all existing partitions:
cleanCreate a new partition, make it active and format as FAT32, then assign a drive letter:
create partition primary select partition 1 active format quick fs=fat32 assignExit diskpart:
exit
Example of Diskpart Output in Response to Commands Above
The final step is to copy all the files from the Windows install media to the USB device--for example, where d: is my ISO mount of Windows media and f: is my USB stick:
xcopy d:* f: /s /eYou can now boot your UEFI system and install Windows from this FAT32 USB drive. (See my FAQ about installing UEFI to a Windows machine.)
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