How to Create a WinPE Bootable USB for All Windows Versions - 2 Ways

What is a WinPE boot disk?

WinPE, short for Windows Preinstallation Environment, is a lightweight version of the Windows operating system (such as Windows 10/8/7/XP). It is a streamlined operating system used to prepare a computer for installation, deployment, and Windows servicing.

Why Create a WinPE Boot Disk

A WinPE bootable disk comes in handy for managing disk partitions when the OS crashes, adjusting the primary drive to reinstall another OS, and even managing partitions on a computer without an OS. Additionally, it allows you to recover deleted partitions without losing data, extend system partitions, and rebuild MBRs. Most importantly, a WinPE bootable disk can boot a crashed computer and a computer without an operating system. In this guide, we'll show you how to create a WinPE bootable disk using two methods.

Method 1: Create a WinPE Bootable USB with Simple Steps

Creating a WinPE bootable drive is quite complicated. It involves many steps and requires advanced computer knowledge. Therefore, we recommend a third-party tool – AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to Windows beginners. AOMEI Partition Assistant specializes in disk partition management on computers, allowing users to resize partitions, move partitions, convert MBR SSD to GPT, and even migrate OS to HDD/SSD without data loss under different Windows operating systems. More importantly, it helps create a WinPE bootable drive with fewer steps.

Download Partition Master now and refer to the following guide for the easiest way to create a WinPE boot disk.

Step 1. To create a bootable Disk Partition Master, you need to prepare a storage media such as a USB drive, flash drive, or CD/DVD disc. Connect the drive properly to your computer.

Step 2. Launch Partition Master and look for the “Bootable Media Creator” feature on the left. Click it.

Step 3. If you have a USB drive or a CD/DVD, select it. If you don't have a storage device, you can also save the ISO file to your local drive and burn it to media later. After making your choice, click the Create button to start the process.

• Read the warning, and then click Yes.

When it's done, a dialog box will pop up asking you if you want to restart your computer from the bootable USB drive.

• Reboot now: Select this if you want to restart your current computer and boot into the disk partitioning tool from the live media, without an operating system in place.
• Finish: Select this if you do not want to restart your current computer, but instead use the bootable USB device on a new one.

Note: To boot from the live disk on a new computer, you will need to restart the target computer and press F2/F8/DEL to enter the BIOS, and then set the USB bootable disk as the first boot device.

Wait patiently, the computer will automatically boot from the USB boot media and enter the WinPE tool desktop.

This software can also be applied in the following scenarios:

How to Create a Bootable Windows XP USB | Full Guide

Here are 3 practical methods to create a Windows XP bootable USB safely and easily.

Method 2: Create a WinPE boot disk using the Windows ADK

You can also use the Windows ADK. This method is a bit more complicated, but if you want to try it, follow these steps.

Step 1: Download the Windows ADK (Assessment and Deployment Kit). This includes the CopyPE and MakeWinPEMedia command-line utilities.

Step 2: Start the ADK tool, select Install the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit-Windows 10 on this computer, and then click Next.

Step 3: On the following page, click “Next” and then “Accept.”

Step 4. Select the “Deployment Tools” and “Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)” options, and then click “Install.”

Select the features you want to install

Step 5: Once the installation is complete, close the installer. Go to your Start menu and open the “Windows Kits” folder. Right-click on “Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment” and select “More” then “Run as administrator.”

Step 6: After running it, execute the command: copype amd64 G:\WinPEx64 (replace G:\ with the letter of your drive).

Step 7. Run the command: MakeWinPEMedia /ISO G:\WinPEx64 G:\WinPEx64\WPE64.iso. When you see “100% Complete” and “Success”, you've successfully created your Windows PE file.

Step 8. Now you can navigate to drive G or the location where you created the WinPE files. You should see a Windows PE ISO file there.

Then, connect the target disk to your computer and boot from the ISO file. To do this, you can use Windows To Go (a feature available in Windows 10 Education/Enterprise/Pro and Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise).

Step 9: Type “Windows To Go” into the search box to launch the tool.

Step 10: It will automatically detect all the USB drives that are inserted. Select the target USB drive, and click “Next” to proceed.

Step 11: Click “Add Search Location,” and then find and select the mounted Windows install ISO file.

Step 12. In the next window, you can set up a BitLocker password to encrypt your Windows To Go workspace.

Finally, you'll have a bootable WinPE disk for Windows 10.