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I have a laptop (DELL XPS p11f) and can't boot on a Windows 10 USB key though I can boot on a Windows 7 USB key. Both keys were created with Rufus 3.5 with the same physical key. I was able to boot the windows 10 key on another computer successfully.

So what's the differences between Windows 7 and Windows 10 installation images, why the Windows 7 image can boot bot not the Windows 10 one and finally how to fix this?

Edit: I used the official Windows 10 consumers edition version 1803 image and official windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 image. Both were the 64 bits versions.

For the windows 7 image, I used the GPT partition table wint a FAT32 filesystem.
For the windows 10 image, I used GPT/FAT32 the first time and MBR/NTFS the second time.

Thanks.

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    Please give more information about which ISO you used and what parameters for Rufus.
    – harrymc
    Commented Apr 14, 2019 at 17:06
  • You need to use the same settings you used for Win7 - bootable in UEFI mode only - otherwise it will boot in Legacy mode (not recommended even if enabled in the target PC). For better results use the official tool instead of Rufus as that creates a hybrid version that should boot anywhere. But you WANT UEFI mode anyway for new PCs and the options you had in Rufus do the opposite.
    – user931000
    Commented Apr 15, 2019 at 18:54

2 Answers 2

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So it seems that rufus creates quite a strange USB key for some reasons. It works perfectly with the official media creation tool from Microsoft.

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  • Rufus takes a different approach from the Microsoft tool, that enables dual BIOS+UEFI boot by default. With Rufus you have to know whether your target is BIOS or UEFI based, and choose the right mode. This is a different philosophy from the Microsoft utility, as it makes it too easy to install Windows in Legacy mode otherwise, even on an UEFI system... So that's why people are often confused. You can find more about this in here.
    – Akeo
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 12:10
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Apparently, "non-official" image creation tools sometimes do not create full image. While creating an image they leave some small files aside. I have had the same problem with Rufus and WinToFlash. Using "official" software is the best solution. Have a nice day!

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  • Rufus developer here. You will have to demonstrate that assertion, because in its 7 years of existence, we have not been a single report of Rufus "leaving some files aside" during the creation of bootable media. Ergo, unless you can prove your point, I will advise everyone to treat your comment as FUD.
    – Akeo
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 12:07
  • @Akeo Dear Sir/Madam, 1 out of 10 times creating an image with Rufus (on the same hardware) resulted in not being able to boot my Windows 7 OS installation. I cannot explicitly say that the software was not working properly, maybe my hardware has malfunctioned. While using WinToFlash however, this problem happened more frequently. "Using "official" software is the best solution." - This is my preference. After encountering problems while using the previously mentioned software brands I have chosen to use Windows Media Creation Tool. Therefore, I suggested the OP the same thing.
    – Zdravko Brdarovski
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 13:59
  • Well, you do realize that what you are saying now "resulted in not being able to boot" and what you were asserting earlier "leave some small files aside" are wildly different things. You explicitly posited (and so far we still haven't seen any proof of that) that Rufus and/or other utilities might "forget" to copy some files, which is what I called you up on. So, again, unless you can provide some evidence of what you assert, I will continue to point out that your explanation is not fact based at all, and that you should have refrained from putting an unverified argument forward.
    – Akeo
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 19:56
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    As to the non booting issue, the explanation is very simple, and has to do with what I mentioned in my reply to @o2640110: Rufus takes a different approach from the Microsoft tool, that enables dual BIOS+UEFI boot by default. With Rufus you have to know whether your target is BIOS or UEFI based, and choose the right mode, else your drive will not boot. This is done to avoid unwanted Legacy installs on UEFI systems... You can find more about this here.
    – Akeo
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 20:00
  • @Akeo My apologies! Thank you for taking your time to explain me the cause!
    – Zdravko Brdarovski
    Commented Apr 20, 2019 at 10:20

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