Given the fact that Windows XP has reached end-of-life status and doesn’t officially support installation over USB, we have to outline a number of problems and conditions in order to get it working. To give an overview of what to expect from each solution, refer to this success table: Over the course of this article, we’re going to be looking at five different solutions that accomplish the exact same thing: Creating a USB-based Windows installer if one doesn’t work, the next one should (at least, that’s the hope). While it’s beyond the scope of this article, those who truly want a fast install experience can slipstream USB 3.0 support into the install media, which on current chipsets and an SSD target can allow you to install Windows in under 4 minutes flat. Even if a DVD has been burned at the highest commercial speeds, it won’t be able to compete with flash memory which offers far improved IOPS performance (operations per second) – it’s the same reason why SSDs are much faster for booting an OS and loading applications than a mechanical hard drive the seek times are minuscule in comparison.

Ever walk around with a disc in your pocket? It looks a bit odd.įor us, performance and reliability are the key reasons why we’ve opted to use USB-based installers in lieu of discs, especially with USB 3.0 being much more common. Discs can be easily scratched, while well-built USB flash drives can generally handle a bit of abuse. To start, USB media is more durable than disc-based media. Admittedly, the time and effort of creating the drive might make it best-suited for system builders, but for people like us, who juggle test machines, USB is a no-brainer.

Method 5 – Windows 10 Media Creation ToolĮven if the target desktop or notebook has an optical drive, there are a couple of reasons to consider first creating a USB-based installer.

Method 4 – Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool.

However, there are times when a flash drive has some quirk that prevents it from working with a particular solution, so for that reason, this article takes a look at five different methods. Creating a bootable Windows USB drive used to be a chore, but today, one solution can pretty-well suit most people.

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