Want to test whether your USB drive is bootable without actually trying to install the OS in it? Here are 3 ways to do it in Windows.
Creating a bootable USB drive in Windows is pretty easy, thanks to free software like Rufus or the official Microsoft tool like the Media Creation Tool (for Windows 11). Once you create a bootable drive, they generally work perfectly fine. However, what if you want to check whether a USB drive is bootable? For example, maybe you want to verify a newly created USB drive or check the old drive you created long ago before trying to boot and install an OS with it. This also helps when the bootable USB drive might not work as it should, which often wastes your time with multiple restarts and troubleshooting steps.
Thankfully, on Windows, you have 3 ways to check whether your USB drive is bootable. In this quick and easy Windows guide, I will show you those three methods. Let’s get started.
Quick navigation links:
- Check the Disk Management tool
- Use the MobaLiveCD program to check if a USB drive is bootable
- Command to check if USB is bootable
1. Check if the USB Drive is Bootable or Not Using the Disk Management Tool
Most don’t know this, but with a simple trick, you can check whether your USB drive is bootable using the built-in Disk Management Tool. All you have to do is check the drive properties. Here’s how.
- Press the “Windows key + X” shortcut.
- Select the “Disk Management” option.
- Find your USB drive, right-click it, and select “Properties“.
- Go to the “Hardware” tab.
- Select your USB drive and click “Properties“.
- Go to the “Volumes” tab.
- (Optional) Click the “Populate” button, if available.
- You will see “Master Boot Record” or “GUID Partition Table” next to “Partition Style”.
- This confirms your drive is bootable.
- Close the Disk Management Tool window.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
First, right-click the Taskbar’s Start button or press “Windows key + X” and select “Disk Management“. You can also search for the same in the Start menu.
After opening the Disk Management tool, identify the USB drive, right-click it, and select “Properties“.
Here, go to the “Hardware” tab, select your USB Drive, and click the “Properties” button under the “Device Properties” section.
Now, go to the “Volumes” tab. If the USB drive is bootable, you will see “Master Boot Record” or “GUID Partition Table” next to the “Partition Style” entry.
Important note: If you cannot see the Disk Information, click the “Populate” button. It will force Windows to grab and show the disk information.
Once you are done with the confirmation, close the Disk Management Tool, and you are good to go.
2. Use the MobaLiveCD to Check if a USB Drive is Bootable
MobaLiveCD is a nifty little program that can scan a USB drive and tell whether it’s bootable. One of the best things about MobaLiveCD is that it tries to boot from the USB drive. That way, you will know with 100% certainty whether the drive is bootable. Let me show you how to use it.
Step 1: First, go to the dev website and download the MobaLiveCD application.
Step 2: After downloading the application, open your downloads folder, right-click the exe file, and select the “Run as administrator” option. This action will open the MobaLiveCD application with admin rights.
Step 3: Once the application opens, on the main screen, click the “Run the LiveUSB” option.
Now, select the USB drive from the dropdown menu and click the “OK” button.
MobaLiveCD will ask if you want to create a hard disk image for the virtual machine. Click the “No” button to continue.
As soon as you do that, MobaLiveCD will try to boot from the USB drive. If the boot drive is created correctly, you will boot into the USB drive or see an error that the boot device is not supported (in the case of UEFI). This confirms that your USB drive is bootable.
After checking, you can safely close the application.
3. Use the Diskpart Command to Check if a USB is Bootable
You can take a look at the disk properties using the Command Prompt to tell if a USB drive is bootable or not. Specifically, we need to take a look at the Status of the USB drive. If the status says “No Media”, then it is probably bootable. Here is how to find it.
Important note: While this is a good method, it is unreliable. So, only follow this method if the above two methods did not work.
First, open the Start menu by clicking the “Start” button on the taskbar. Next, search for “Command Prompt” and select the “Run as administrator” option. This action opens the Command Prompt tool with administrator rights.
After opening the Command Prompt tool, type “diskpart” and press Enter.
The above action will open the Diskpart command-line program inside the Command Prompt window. Next, type the “list disk” command and press Enter.
Now, recognize your USB and look at its Status column. If it says “No Media“, then the USB drive is bootable.
Execute the “exit” command twice to quit the command window.
Important note: Keep in mind that this approach is not perfect and unreliable at times. Depending on the bootable drive, the OS, and how it is created, the Status might also say “Online” or “Offline” for the bootable drive.
That is it. It is that simple to check if a USB drive is bootable. If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.
