Creating a bootable media (ISO file, USB flash drive or CD/DVD) based on Windows PE (Windows Pre-installation Environment) can load an operating system and run Partition Assistant under the system. It can avoid damage to the native operating system due to some reasons, such as your wrong operation. It is very useful to troubleshoot computer problems and recover data when the native system fails to boot.
Windows PE Bootable media enables you to start a computer for the purposes of deployment and recovery. It boots directly into memory, which lets you remove the Windows PE media after the computer boots. Once you have booted into Windows PE, you can reformat or modify the hard drive and then copy the Windows PE source files to the hard drive.
How to make a WinPE bootable media? With the help of Qiling Disk Master, it becomes very easy.
This tool is very useful for you to troubleshoot computer problems, and recover partitions in case of system boot failure. If you would like to use this feature, please upgrade to a paid version of Qiling Disk Master Professional, Server, or above versions.
1. Install and launch Qiling Disk Master. Click the "Tools" main tab and select "Make Bootable Media".
2. Confirm the operation and click "Next" to continue.
Tips:
3. Choose a way to create the WinPE bootable media according to your needs and click "Proceed".
There are three ways available to create bootable media based on Windows PE.
Burn to CD/DVD: To create a bootable CD/DVD.
USB Boot Device: To create a bootable USB Device.
Export ISO File: Use this method to make a bootable ISO file. After the ISO is exported, you need to burn it with a third-party burning program. Or, you can use the ISO to boot some virtual machines or burn it to other devices.
Here we take USB Boot Device for example.
Tips: "Add Drivers" allows you to manually add additional and necessary drivers into the bootable media so that more devices will be available after you boot into WinPE.
4. The creation operation will start. The progress of creating a WinPE bootable USB drive will take a few minutes. Once it is finished, you can click "Finish".
So far, you have created the bootable media successfully. In the event that your computer does not start or certain operations cannot be performed under Windows, you can use the bootable media to boot the PC into WinPE to do the operations you need. It can be used in multiple situations:
If your PC cannot boot due to the damaged Master Boot Record (MBR) issue, you can use it to boot into WinPE to rebuild MBR to fix the corrupted MBR, which helps fix the system boot issue.
If a partition is deleted or data is lost, you can also use it to boot into WinPE to recover partition.
If you would like to remove or reset your Windows password without booting into Windows, you can boot into WinPE to reset Windows password.
If the partition resizing operation cannot be finished normally under Windows, you can use it to boot into WinPE to resize partitions.
If the MBR/GPT disk conversion operation cannot be finished normally under Windows, you can use it to boot into WinPE to convert drive.
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Notes:
FAQs:
Q: What is the main difference of a WinPE bootable media and a portable version?
A: The main difference is that the bootable media is mainly used to boot a PC in case of PC boot failure, while the portable version is mainly convenient for engineers or technicians to do IT maintenance or support on client computers without installation.
Q: After you boot into WinPE, some devices cannot be recognized.
A: Maybe it lacks related drivers in the Winpe, you could click the "Add Drivers" button to add corresponding drivers when recreating the WinPE.
Q: There is an error "Failed to create the bootable ISO file. The WIM file you specified may be invalid or there might be an error during the process of the creation. We suggest you reboot the computer and try once again, or read the online FAQ" during the creation of the bootable media.
A: One possible reason is that your system doesn't have the Recovery Environment or the Recovery Environment has been damaged, please install ADK and WinPE Addon and retry creation.