How do I create an Ubuntu bootable USB drive on Windows 11?

Hey, I recently did something similar, trying to make an Ubuntu bootable USB drive using the command line on Windows 11, and ran into some issues. I think the steps you mentioned are generally correct, but there may be some details that I didn't understand. Let me share the steps I took and some things to note when doing this operation, I hope it can help you!

First format the USB drive: I used the diskpart command to clear all the contents of the USB drive. You can do this:

diskpart
list disk
select disk X   # X is your driver.
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
assign
exit

The USB drive is now clean and an NTFS partition has been created. Be sure to check the partition format, as Ubuntu can boot using NTFS.

Write the ISO to the USB drive: I used the dd command for this step, but I recommend using a Windows version of dd, such as Win32 Disk Imager or Rufus, as dd can sometimes be unstable on Windows. However, if you insist on using the command line, you can try the following method:

Open a command prompt (with administrator privileges) and enter:

dd if=C:\path\to\ubuntu.iso of=\\.\X: bs=4M

If is followed by the path to the Ubuntu ISO file, and of is the path to your USB drive (e.g. \\.\D:). Make sure bs=4M, which will increase the writing speed.

Confirm that the USB drive is bootable: If the USB drive is formatted correctly and the ISO file is written successfully, the next step is to check if the USB drive is bootable. You can restart your computer, enter the BIOS setup, set the USB drive as the first boot item, and see if Ubuntu can be successfully booted.

If you still get a message saying that system files are missing after following these steps, it may be because the USB drive partition is not formatted correctly, or the dd command did not write all the necessary boot files correctly. You can also try using the Rufus tool, which has a nice GUI that can avoid the tediousness of the command line and supports UEFI boot mode.

I hope this information is helpful to you!