Formatting WinPE 3.1 Flash Drive – (DISM)

In my previous article I wrote about how to create the WinPE 3.1 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

Type the following:

Diskpart

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

Step #3

Type the following:

List Disk

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

Step #4

Type the following:

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

Type the following:

clean

This cleans up your disk.

Step #6

Type the following:

create partition primary

This creates the partition on your flash drive.

Step #7

Type the following:

select partition 1

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

Step #8

Type the following:

active

This marks the select partition as active.

Step #9

Type the following:

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

Type the following:

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

Type the following:

exit

This exits DiskPart.

Step #12

Type the following:

exit

This exits CMD.

Step #13

Then just copy the contents of the “c:\winpe_x86\ISO\” folder in which you have your WinPE 3.1 environment created in the previous article and you are ready to boot up on a flash drive to WinPE 3.1. Enjoy!

Here are the commands all together:

Diskpart
list disk
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit
exit