Sometimes you may want to boot your computer with an external device such as a USB drive instead of the system drive. For example, you need to install or perform a system recovery for Windows using installation media. You will first have to change the boot order in BIOS settings on startup. The Windows 10 boot media can be created with Windows tools and EaseUS Todo Backup.
What You Need When Booting from USB
By default, your computer firmware will try to boot from the local drive first. In this case, Windows 10 is installed on the drive and will be booted up automatically when you start up your computer. You can edit the boot priority order in BIOS settings in order to boot from external devices such as a CD/DVD or a USB drive. You will usually see this being used when installing an operating system using installation media, or when you are using a recovery tool if the operating system fails to boot.
You can create bootable media in multiple ways. For Windows users, you can use Windows utilities to set up the drive as needed. Many third-party options are also available for you to use. After you have created a bootable USB, you can restart your computer and boot from it. You will have to change boot priority first, as we will show below.
How to Boot from USB on Windows 10
Once you have your device ready, you can restart the computer. Accessing BIOS settings may be different for various systems, but the menu should be similar.
Step 1. When you see a prompt on startup, press the key listed as “Access BIOS,” “BIOS settings,” etc. The key needed is usually a function key like F1, F2, F8, F10.
Step 2. Once you have entered BIOS settings move to the Boot tab.
Step 3. Select Hard Drive BBS Properties.
Step 4. In boot options, select Generic USB Flash Device as #1.
Step 5. Save and exit the BIOS menu to reboot the computer.
How to Create a Bootable USB for Windows 10
You can also create your own bootable drives for various uses such as Windows 10 installation. You can download the Windows media creation tool and use your license code to create an installation media. Another choice is to use third-party software such as EaseUS Todo Backup which can do more for you. In this part, we will introduce both tools and the steps needed to create a bootable USB for Windows 10.
Method 1. Use EaseUS Todo Backup to Create a Bootable USB
The easier and more convenient method of creating bootable media is to use a powerful tool such as EaseUS Todo Backup and clone your operating system with a few clicks. With the third-party tool’s System Clone feature, you will be able to clone your OS to an external device like a USB drive and bring Windows with you everywhere.
Apart from system cloning, the backup software supports various other data utilities such as:
- Automatic scheduled backup of important data.
- Backing up entire disk partitions.
- Saving backup on FTP servers, cloud storage, etc.
- Backing up the operating system along with user settings.
Users of EaseUS products will also have access to 24/7 technical support. Our data specialists will be able to assist you with any problems you may experience when using our products or if you have other questions with data management. We ensure that you will be able to fully use the software without any trouble. Just contact our support, and we will guide you through the entire process if you are experiencing any issues.
Method 2. Create a Bootable USB with Windows Media Creation Tool
For users looking to use official tools, Windows has a tool for bootable media creation. With this tool, you will be able to create an installation media that can be used to perform a fresh install of Windows 10 or upgrade from older versions to Windows 10. However, here’s what you will need in order to create an installation media:
- A computer connected to the internet: The installation media will download additional data from the internet during installation.
- A USB flash drive or DVD: The external device will be used as a bootable drive, note that all data on the device will be lost once it is used to create a bootable drive. Back up all data as needed.
- A Windows product key: As you are going to install Windows 10, you will need to have the required license key in order to install Windows 10 through bootable media.
Before installing or upgrading to Windows 10, you should check your PC for the following:
- Check if the CPU is 32-bit or 64-bit: The correct version of Windows must be installed
- Check if the computer meets the system requirements for Windows 10
- Check the language and edition of Windows
Once all requirements are noted, you can begin creating the installation media.
1. Download and install the media creation tool.
2. Run the tool, select Create installation media for another PC
3. Select the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for the Windows 10 installation.
4. Connect your USB drive to the computer, the drive must have at least 8 GB of space. This will delete all data on the drive. You can also create an ISO file on your PC which can be written to a disk later.
Once the media is created, you can begin installing Windows 10. But first, you should save and backup all important files beforehand. You may also need to update all drivers as needed. If your installation media is an ISO file, you will have to burn the file onto a disk first.
You can then boot into the USB drive using the method explained above. Select appropriate settings and begin installing Windows 10.
Conclusion
Sometimes you may want to boot your computer with an external device such as a USB drive instead of the system drive. For example, you need to install or perform a system recovery for Windows using installation media. We recommend that you use EaseUS Todo Backup, a versatile data utility tool that allows you to easily clone the operating system onto an external device. With this bootable media, you will be able to use Windows 10 on other computers as needed.
