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How to create bootable USB stick from ISO or WIM file

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Hi,

I've made my bootable USB stick already. But I'd like to store an ISO or WIM file elsewhere in case my USB stick is lost or damaged. In that case, how would I create a new USB stick from the existing ISO or WIM file? Which method is easier for Windows 7 or Windows 10?

thanks!

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Stuart, welcome to these User Forums.

There are several options open to you with regards to creating a bootable USB stick - obviously, you can use the Acronis Rescue Media Builder application to do this without the need to first create an ISO or WIM file.  You can use a third-party tool such as Rufus or ISOtoUSB to burn the contents of your ISO file to a USB stick and make it bootable that way.

Another alternative would be to make an Acronis backup image (.tib) file of your working USB stick then simply restore that backup to the same or a new USB stick should the need arise.

All of the above methods should work regardless of having Windows 7 or 10 as the host OS.

In reply to by truwrikodrorow…

Thanks for the info. Since Acronis can make a bootable USB and it can also create an ISO file, I hoped they could use the software functionality of these pieces to create a bootable USB stick from an ISO file without having to use third-party software. Judging from the reviews (and the fact that they're free) I'm a little nervous about using them compared to something I trust (such as Acronis).

Perhaps making a bakup image of the USB stick is really the way to go. I guess I'm curious why Acronis offers the ISO and WIM options if they don't have a solution to continue the process from there.

Thanks again.

Stuart, if you are using Windows 10 then you can just right-click on any .ISO file and take the option to Burn to disc which will invoke the integrated Windows Disc Image Burner without the need to use any third-party software.

Other backup products offer very similar options to create ISO or WIM files without any means of burning these directly to USB from within those products, relying instead on giving users a direct method of creating USB media (without going via ISO or WIM).

You can also use the free EasyBCD software to add either an ISO or WIM image as a boot option to allow booting directly from that media, but the obvious disadvantage of this is that, like the ASRM (Acronis Startup Recovery Manager), if you suffer from a fatal disk error, you lose these boot options too.

Thanks. I'm still learning the features of Windows 10 but I have plenty of those PCs available if necessary to burn a USB stick with a .ISO file for some other crashed PC. That sounds like the best route now that you mention it.

 

Thanks for all your excellent suggestions.

Stuart and other readers,

Be advised that a True Image ISO is a Linux based version whereas a WIM is a WinPE based version.  The WIM being Windows based has better driver support thus supporting more hardware than the Linux version. 

I understand your concern regarding free software however, some titles are very good products.  Your posts sound like you are in charge of a number of computers .  As such, you might have need for other utilities in ISO or WIM format that can be booted from removable media .  If you do then I recommend easy2boot.  With it you can create a bootable disk and add both ISO and WIM files to it and boot them.  I use it and it works well.