Open the Disk Management Tool by typing “disk partition” into the Start menu search box and selecting 'Create and format disk partitions.' Insert your USB stick and make sure there’s nothing important stored on it, as all data will need to be erased to create the bootable install disk. Luckily, there is a workaround, as we’ll explain below.ġ.

To boot into a clean install from an NTFS drive, you’ll need to disable your PC’s Secure Boot feature, and Windows 11 won’t run without Secure Boot being enabled.

This is because the Windows 11 installation file is larger than 4GB, which is the maximum size supported by FAT32. If you try to burn the Windows 11 ISO to a USB stick using Rufus or a similar program, it will create an NTFS-formatted drive rather than a FAT32-formatted one. Usually, we’d recommend using the excellent free program Rufus (opens in new tab) to create the bootable USB drive, but sadly Microsoft has made this difficult, in fact impossible, with Windows 11. You’ll need a USB stick with at least 8GB of storage space on it. Now comes the tricky task of creating a bootable install disk from the Windows 11 ISO file. (Image credit: Microsoft) How to clean install Windows 11: Create a bootable install disk

Surface pro x with windows 11