How to Download Windows 10 to USB | Revised in 2021


Windows 10 OS is distributed via ISO disk image, which is a common file format being used for OS installation. You don't have to download thousands of files for entire OS. Only a single ISO file is enough for making a bootable installation media. That is why ISO becomes industry standard for OS distribution.

However, the USB won't be a bootable disk if you just simply copied Windows 10 ISO to it. Instead, you have to decompress the ISO image and write booting information required by Windows OS in order to make the USB becoming a bootable Windows 10 disk. The whole process is called ISO burning technically.

In the following sections, we will share you how to download Windows 10 to USB. After that, you can use this bootable USB for Windows 10 installation.

 

Part 1: Get Prepared

Before starting, a couple of things you should prepare or pay attention to.

First, make sure you already have a Windows 10 ISO at hand. We can't create a Windows 10 install USB without the ISO file. If you did not get it so far, please follow the suggestion in this post to download latest Windows 10 ISO image. Or you can contact our support team for direct download link.

Secondly, a fast USB drive, usually it refers to USB 3.0 or 3.1 drive because the physical reading and writing speed is much faster than USB 2.0 drive. However, USB 2.0 is preferred if you are trying to install Windows 10 on an old computer. In addition, don't forget to back up data on USB drive as it will be formatted during burning step.

Lastly, get an ISO burning program. In here, we will be using ISO Editor tool as it is more stable and you can get prompt reply if you had any question.

Part 2: How to Download Windows 10 to USB on PC

UUByte ISO Editor is a cross-platform utility designed for creating Windows bootable USB from ISO file. It works perfectly on the latest Windows 10 as well as Windows 8 and Windows 7. You won't meet any glitch or error during the whole process as the program has been tested numerous on different devices.

Honestly, you could find free alternatives. But I am sure it will take more time and effort until you get a working Windows 10 installation USB. This is based on our in-depth researchingļ¼

Main Features of ISO Editor

  • Easily create Windows 10 installation disk.
  • Open and mount ISO image.
  • Extract files and folders from ISO image.
  • Support Windows and macOS.
  • Edit ISO image freely.

 

Step 1: Connect a USB drive into the computer and back up important data from it.

Step 2: Check the following download button and save the .exe file. Double click the downloaded file to open up the installation wizard. The rest is the same as common software installation.

Step 3: You will see a desktop short of UUByte ISO Editor when the installation is completed. Double click it to open the program. From the main screenshot, click 'Burn' button to get started. This feature lets you making bootable Windows USB from ISO file.

UUByte ISO Editor

 

Step 4: In Burn settings, please import Windows 10 file into the program check 'Create A Bootable USB' menu, from where you can choose the USB drive connected to this computer. Do select the right one for burning.

UUByte ISO Burner

 

Step 5: Leave the File System and Volume Label in default value. Then click 'Burn' icon to begin the task. This will format the USB drive and burn Windows 10 ISO to USB drive.

Start ISO Burning

 

Wait about six minutes and you will receive a burning successfully message. This means you have created a Windows 10 bootable USB with the help of UUByte ISO Editor and it can be used for installation later.

Part 3: How to Download Windows 10 to USB on Mac

You would be not fortunate enough if you were a Mac user and wanted to download Windows 10 to USB on Mac. There are only two working apps for creating Windows 10 bootable USB on Mac. The first one is Terminal developed by Apple. However, it is a command based app and no GUI.

The other is UUByte ISO Editor Mac version, which is the only third-party app for this purpose. And the steps are the same as described above because the GUI is the same for PC and Mac version. However, if you were interested in command interface, here are the steps to download Windows 10 to USB on Mac using Terminal app.

Step 1: Plug a USB drive into Mac and take a backup. Then type the following command to see the drive letter of USB:

diskutil list external

List USB Mac

 

The drive letter is disk2 and the volume label is TOSHIBA.

Step 2: Format the USB to MBR file system to be used for holding Windows 10 OS files. The command is:

diskutil eraseDisk MS-DOS "WIN10USB" MBR disk2

Format USB Mac

 

MS-DOS is the partition format and WIN10USB is the volume name of USB drive.

Step 3: Double click Windows 10 ISO file to mount it on your Mac. You can see the volume name in left sidebar of Finder app. In our example, the mounted ISO volume name is CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN_US_DV9.

Mount ISO Mac

 

Step 4: Now, you need to know the mounted volume name for USB drive and Windows 10 ISO. This can be done with ls command.

ls /Volume

List Volume Mac

 

Step 5: All the preparation work has been done and it is time to burn ISO to USB on Mac. The corresponding command is:

cp -rp /Volumes/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN_US_DV9/* /Volumes/WIN11/

Copy ISO Files to USB Mac Terminal

 

When the burning process starts, all files in mounted Windows 10 volume will be copied to USB drive. The only thing you can do is waiting. When you see a new line in Terminal, it means the copying process is completed. Luckily, this won't take much time and make sure the Mac does not run into sleep mode during download process. Now you can use this bootable USB to install Windows 10 on a PC or Mac.

Install Windows 10 on PC

 

 

Note: If the Windows 10 ISO file was larger than 5 GB, then you must split the install.wim file to make it working. To do this, you need to install addition packages and an extra command to fulfill the task. The steps are covered in this tutorial. Please check it out.

Part 4: Frequently Asked Question

By following the above tutorial, you should be able to download Windows 10 to USB without any problem. However, you may come across issues during installation process. Below is the troubleshooting guide.

Q: Windows 10 installation not getting stared on my PC

A: By default, the USB drive is formatted with MRB partition scheme. However, some of the new computers only support UEFI boot with GPT partition scheme. Windows 10 installation setup utility won't show up after selecting the USB drive name in boot menu. You need to change Partition Style to GPT (required for UEFI boot).

Q: Media driver missing on this computer

A: By default, the USB drive is formatted with MRB partition scheme. However, some of the new computers only support UEFI boot with GPT partition scheme. Windows 10 installation setup utility won't show up after selecting the USB drive name in boot menu. You need to change Partition Style to GPT (required for UEFI boot).

Q: Stuck at black screen or booting error screen after selecting USB drive

A: If you are using a damaged or incomplete Windows 10 ISO, the above error will appear. Make sure Windows 10 ISO is downloaded from legal sources and the download process is finished successfully. To verify it, just double click the ISO file. If it could be mounted and no error popped up, then it means ISO file is intact.