Formatting WinPE 3.0 Flash Drive – (DISM)

This is the old version, please see the new Formatting WinPE 3.1 Flash Drive.

In my previous article I wrote about how to create the WinPE 3.0 environment, add drivers, mount the .WIM file, add batch scripts, etc. Here are the steps for creating the bootable flash drive.

Step 1

Open up Command Prompt

You can do the first step within a normal command prompt window or within the WAIK Deployment Tools Command Prompt Window.

Step 2

Diskpart

This launches the DiskPart program which is included within Windows Vista x32, x64 and Windows 7 x32, x64.

Step 3

List Disk

Before you do anything you will want to see which disk is which on your computer.

Step 4

select disk 1

You will want to pick the corresponding disk in which you want to use for your bootable flash drive. Careful, because this will completely erase the disk you select.

Step 5

clean

This cleans up your disk.

Step 6

create partition primary

This creates the partition on your flash drive.

Step 7

select partition 1

This selects the partition you just created in Step #6.

Step 8

active

This marks the select partition as active.

Step 9

format fs=fat32 quick

This will format your flash drive in FAT32 format. Make sure you use the quick command otherwise it will do a standard format and will take a while. For bootable flash drives the quick format will always be fine.

Step 10

assign

This will assign the next available drive letter to your flash drive. (You can also specify which drive letter you would like it to be assigned)

Step 11

exit

This exits DiskPart.

Step 12

exit

This exits CMD.

Step 13

Then just copy the contents of the “c:\winpe_x86\ISO\” folder in which you have your WinPE 3.0 environment created in the previous article and you are ready to boot up on a flash drive to WinPE 3.0. Enjoy!

Here are the commands all together:

Diskpart
list disk [See which drive is which]
select disk 1 [corresponding to disk on your computer]
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit
exit

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