When setting up Windows Server 2019 on a new physical server, you might encounter the issue of not having a DVD drive.
To successfully install from a USB stick, you must make a UEFI bootable USB drive with the operating system image. I’ll guide you through the steps to do this quickly.
Install Windows Server with UEFI boot stick.
First, you need the software, Rufus. This little program allows you to bootable USB sticks with an image of your choice. Rufus is free and can be installed from the Microsoft Store or from Rufus’ homepage to be downloaded.
You’ll need an image of the operating system you want to install to make a UEFI bootable USB drive. I’ll use an ISO image of the Windows Server evaluation version in my example.
Connect your USB stick to your computer and open Rufus. Run the application with administrative rights to ensure Rufus has the required permissions. When you launch the application, this might prompt Windows User Account Control (UAC) notification.
Create a bootable USB stick with Rufus.
Once Rufus has started, you should be able to select your USB stick under Drive. Then click “SELECTION‘ and select the image file to be copied to the UEFI boot stick.
Next, you should “Standard Windows installation‘ as an image property, the partition scheme ‘GPT‘ and as a target system ‘UEFI (without CSM)” choose. Now you can optionally enter a drive designation and complete the process by clicking on “begin” begin.
The USB stick will be reformatted by Rufus, which means that all data on the USB stick will be lost. After formatting, you can follow the copying process’s progress in the program’s lower part.
A tip: the progress bar sometimes stops for several minutes with larger files – so wait.
Once the process is complete, the USB stick will be bootable and should be recognized as a UEFI device. Nothing stands in the way of installing Windows Server using a USB stick.
