How to Create UEFI Bootable USB Media to install Windows Server 2016

This guide walks you through the steps to create a bootable usb media to install Windows Server 2016 on UEFI enabled machines. I have configured the BIOS settings of the server to only boot UEFI and disabled the legacy boot.

Prerequisites

• A USB stick with more than 5.3GB is required
• UEFI requires a FAT32 partition
• FAT32 has some serious limitations and the size of the install.wim file exceeds those limits. This file requires therefore to be split into multiple more suitable parts

You can create USB boot media compatible with UEFI using PowerShell with the following script.

# Set here the path of your Win2K16 ISO file
$iso = 'C:\Users\username\Downloads\en_windows_server_2016_x64_dvd_9327751.iso'

# Clean ! will clear any plugged-in USB stick!!
Get-Disk | Where BusType -eq 'USB' | 
Clear-Disk -RemoveData -Confirm:$true -PassThru

# Convert GPT
if ((Get-Disk | Where BusType -eq 'USB').PartitionStyle -eq 'RAW') {
    Get-Disk | Where BusType -eq 'USB' | 
    Initialize-Disk -PartitionStyle GPT
} else {
    Get-Disk | Where BusType -eq 'USB' | 
    Set-Disk -PartitionStyle GPT
}

# Create partition primary and format to FAT32
$volume = Get-Disk | Where BusType -eq 'USB' | 
New-Partition -UseMaximumSize -AssignDriveLetter | 
Format-Volume -FileSystem FAT32

if (Test-Path -Path "$($volume.DriveLetter):\") {

    # Mount iso
    $miso = Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath $iso -StorageType ISO -PassThru

    # Driver letter
    $dl = ($miso | Get-Volume).DriveLetter
}

if (Test-Path -Path "$($dl):\sources\install.wim") {

    # Copy ISO content to USB except install.wim
    & (Get-Command "$($env:systemroot)\system32\robocopy.exe") @(
        "$($dl):\",
        "$($volume.DriveLetter):\"
        ,'/S','/R:0','/Z','/XF','install.wim','/NP'
    )

    # Split install.wim
    & (Get-Command "$($env:systemroot)\system32\dism.exe") @(
        '/split-image',
        "/imagefile:$($dl):\sources\install.wim",
        "/SWMFile:$($volume.DriveLetter):\sources\install.swm",
        '/FileSize:4096'
    )
}

# Eject USB
(New-Object -comObject Shell.Application).NameSpace(17).
ParseName("$($volume.DriveLetter):").InvokeVerb('Eject')

# Dismount ISO
Dismount-DiskImage -ImagePath $iso

That's it.