How to Make Windows 11 Boot from USB (Top 2 Ways + 1 Tip)

Scenario: How do I force Windows to boot from USB?

Preparations before booting Windows 11 from USB

You should check several factors before the actual process of how to boot Windows 11 from USB, such as your PC’s compatibility and its readiness to receive the update. Installing Windows 11 from a USB drive is straightforward, but you must follow each step carefully.

1. Check for compatibility

Not all PCs can run Windows 11. To ensure compatibility, your device needs to meet the following minimum specifications:

· A 64-bit processor with at least 2 cores and a processing speed of 1 GHz.
· 4GB of RAM.· 64GB of storage space, plus additional space for the OS installation software.
· A graphics card compatible with DirectX 12 or later, featuring a WDDM 2.0 driver.
· A high-definition display with a resolution of at least 720p.· TPM 2.0 support.
· UEFI firmware with Secure Boot capability.

2. Check your device for available memory

Before installing Windows 11, ensure your device has sufficient storage. You'll need at least 5.1GB of extra space for the Windows 11 ISO file.

Make sure you have 5.1GB free on the computer where you download the file, the USB drive, and the computer where you’ll install the operating system. Some USB drives may not have enough space, so consider getting one with more than 6GB to ensure there's ample room.

If you're low on storage, delete temporary files, unused programs, and files you no longer need. Make sure you have purchase information and license keys for any programs you plan to reinstall later.

How to Make Windows 11 boot from USB (2 secure ways)

You may encounter two main scenarios when you want to boot from USB on Windows 11. One is that your computer is working properly and you can access the boot disk settings from the Windows Settings app portal. The other is that your computer has an error and the system crashes and doesn't work properly, then you need access to the boot menu to start your computer from USB in BIOS. Now let’s check each method one by one together.

Way 1. PC can start normally – from Settings

Follow the given steps below to boot Windows 11 from USB with your computer still running smoothly.

1. Plug a bootable USB flash drive into a USB port on your Windows 11 computer. Press Windows + I to open Settings, then select System＞Recovery option.

2. Click on the Restart now button to the right of Advanced startup. In the pop-up window, Windows 11 will let you know that it will restart your device, so you’d better save your work before that. Then click or tap the Restart now button from the dialog.

3. After that, your PC will restart and load into recovery environment. Under Choose an option window, select Use a device option.

Note: If the Use a device option is not there it means that the USB device you’ve created is not bootable.

4. Next, your PC will list the bootable devices that your computer can use, which includes the USB drive you have connected to your PC before, so click or tap on it.

Finally, your computer can restart and then boot from the USB drive you have set up.

Way 2. PC cannot start normally – from Boot Menu

1. Connect the bootable USB drive to the USB port. Press the Power button to boot your PC. When it starts loading, keep tapping the appropriate Boot Menu option key like ESC, F2, F8 , or F10 (It can vary depending on the motherboard’s manufacturer and model) to enter your BIOS setup.

2. In the boot menu, look for the Boot order and move the USB drive that you want to boot from to the top of the list.

3. When you confirm your settings, press F10 key to save and exit. Upon exiting your PC will boot from the USB flash drive.

Tip: Make a Windows 11 bootable USB with best media creation tool

Before you can use a bootable device to boot Windows 11, first you need to create and have one in advance. If you have no idea what is the best and most secure way to do that, here is a professional bootable media creation tool for you - that is AOMEI Backupper Standard.

With AOMEI Backupper Standard, you can not only create Windows 11 recovery USB for the current computer, but also it can be applied to all Windows PCs, including Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista and XP (Both 32 bit and 64 bit). You can enjoy more powerful features as follows:

 ◑ It enables you to create bootable DVD/CD or USB that can be used to start a crashed computer of various brands. And the created media is able to boot in both BIOS and UEFI mode.
◑ As a comprehensive data protection solution, it allows you to create system backup, disk backup, file backup and partition backup at scheduled internals such as daily, weekly and monthly to various locations like local disk, external hard drive or network share, cloud, etc. 

Moving on, download and install the Windows 11 bootable USB media creator – AOMEI Backupper Standard to your computer to have a try.

Step 1. Insert a blank USB drive into your computer. Open AOMEI Backupper, click Tools and then select Create Bootable Media.

Step 2. Select bootable disc type from Linux based or Windows PE based, and click Next. Linux based bootable media only allows you to use basic functions of AOMEI Backupper, while Windows PE allows you to access full functions.

Step 3. Select USB Boot Device and click Next to run this process. 

Helpful tip: If you don't have any CD/DVD or USB drive, you can create recovery environment that can be accessed from Windows boot menu, so no bootable device is needed to boot a failed system. (Upgrade to higher editions to enjoy this feature).

✨ Bonus tip: create a system backup image with AOMEI Backupper:

To prepare a system image that can be used to roll back a crashed system to the previous state in case of a disaster, you can go to Backup > System Backup to prepare a disaster recovery solution for your current operating system. Just follow the wizard to backup Windows 11 to USB drive or other storage devices.

Why need to use USB to boot Windows 11?

There are many situations where you may want to know how to boot Windows 11 from USB on your computer. I’ve listed 3 common reasons here.

Boot new Windows system. Maybe because you want to try the latest release of Windows 11 22H2, but you think it has instability and uncertainty, you want to install it on the USB to boot and prevent it from affecting the version you are running.
To troubleshoot. The second reason is that your computer's operating system just won’t boot properly, shows you the blue screen on Windows 11, or keeps crashing due to viruses, malware, corrupted files, system upgrades, etc. That’s when you need a bootable USB disk to boot your computer properly.
Enjoy the same configurations on multiple PCs. You need to copy the operating system, data, settings, etc. from the current computer you are using to another or a new computer. Booting the new computer from a USB bootable disk with your old system will allow you to enjoy the same computer configuration.

No matter what your reason is, this can be an easy and simple task to fix with the bootable USB drive to boot your computer in different situations.

Conclusion

If you want to make Windows 11 boot from USB but don't know how to do it, then you can refer to the methods in this tutorial to solve this problem easily and effortlessly. This article also recommends the best free tool for creating bootable media – AOMEI Backupper.

With it, you can easily create a secure USB boot disk to boot Windows 11 in case of computer failure. Meanwhile, you can create a system image of your old operating system with its help so that you can roll back to a normal state when something goes wrong.

It is an all-in-one data protection solution that brings together remarkable features such as backup and recovery, clone and sync. As the best Synology backup software, you can backup Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 files to Synology NAS with just a few clicks. Now, download and explore more features on your own.