One of the most pressing questions among home users and beyond. Bootable flash drive or USB HDD will help you bypass the use of an optical drive, and you can also carry it with you if you often install the system or repair computers. After all, manufacturers have already stopped equipping their devices - netbooks and ultrabooks - with optical drives. If there is no disk drive, you can reinstall the system only by booting from the installation flash drive. The easiest way to create such media is to use special utility. You can write anything to such a USB drive: ERD Commander, a program for working with a hard drive like Paragon or Acronis, as well as an image with Windows, MacOS, etc.
In order to make a bootable USB flash drive from an ISO image necessary (ISO image is a copy of the installation disk in a special container with the ISO extension):
The program will automatically process the ISO image and make bootable USB flash drive, with which you can later install the OS on your computer without using a CD/DVD-ROM or download an image of a portable version of your favorite OS and install it so that it is always at hand. Also, the YUMI utility, which is an analogue of UNetBootin, does a good job of recording images.
How to create/burn an ISO image
It is worth noting that you can create an ISO image from a finished DVD or CD containing a distribution kit with Windows or another necessary program using the CDBurnerXP program. Launch the application and select the item in the main menu "Copy disc". Specify your installation disk in the drive as the source, and to save the finished ISO image, a folder on your hard drive. Click on the button "Copy disc". With this program you can burn previously saved images to optical discs. Having created the image, you can use it to transfer it to a flash drive or memory card using the above-mentioned programs.
Bootable USB flash drive with antivirus
You can check your system for malware by running an antivirus program from a removable device (flash card, portable hard drive etc.) if Windows stopped loading altogether. I recommend using the following software as a portable antivirus for bootable flash drive: Kaspersky Rescue Disk and Dr.Web LiveUSB. These antiviruses have been tested in practice more than once and have proven themselves well. By following these links you can download the application for recording the antivirus; you will only need a flash drive with a capacity of at least 512 MB. If you want to load some other antivirus or scanner program from a flash drive or USB HDD, having an ISO image, then use.
Windows Emergency Boot
Let's say Windows doesn't start, and you need to save your personal data. If no means help restore the system, then it is best to use the ERD Commander distribution kit (for Windows 7 32bit, Windows 7 64bit and Windows XP 32bit) and an external HDD. ERD Commander is a set of programs that allow you to boot the system from removable media, which makes it possible to start your computer even if the OS files are completely damaged. Write it down ISO file using UNetBootin to a flash drive or any program for burning images to disk (ImgBurn, Ashampoo Burning Studio or Nero Burning Rom) at minimum speed and boot the system from it. The interface of this bootloader is in Russian and is intuitive. We call the file manager and get access to the hard drive. We mark all the files that need to be saved and open the external HDD to copy the data to it. There is a risk that you have copied a virus to your hard drive. Therefore, before transferring data to new system Windows, be sure to install an antivirus and check the files on your portable HDD.
How to burn Windows to a flash drive or USB disk (Windows ISO image on a flash drive)
Attention, the “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool” utility works perfectly with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 images.
1. Download the utility Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.
2. Run the downloaded file as administrator and install.
How to burn Windows to a USB flash drive with Windows USB/DVD Download Tool(similar to UNetBootin from Microsoft) .
1. Specify the Windows 7 or 8 ISO image file by clicking Browse
2. Click Next. Select the device on which the image will be created. Click USB device(if you want to create a flash drive installer) or DVD(if you want to create bootable dvd disk). Before specifying the desired device, insert the USB flash drive into USB port or DVD disc into the drive, respectively.
3. Specify the flash drive on which the bootloader image will be written. To start creating the installation flash drive, click Begin copying.
4. Now wait until the process of creating a bootable USB flash drive is completed. After the process is completely completed, you will receive a ready-to-install USB flash drive with Windows 7 or 8.
* Before installing Windows 7 from a flash drive, do not forget to enable booting the computer from a USB device in the BIOS!* The minimum size (volume) of a flash drive must be at least 4GB!
Bootable USB flash drive with Acronis Disk Director 11, True Image 2012, Paragon Partition Manager 11
This assembly is a universal solution for bootable flash drive with the ability to choose from the most popular programs for data recovery, OS and hard drive work. You just need to write the downloaded archive onto a flash drive and you will receive universal bootable usb disk. You can also burn this assembly to disk.
Supported OS bit depth: 32bit + 64bit
Compatible with Vista and Windows 7: Full
Interface language: Russian
System requirements: Processor: Intel Pentium or equivalent, with a frequency of 1000 MHz or higher; RAM: 512 MB and above; Mouse; SVGA video adapter and monitor;
Flash drive larger than 2 GB (for all boot images)
Bootable USB flash drive based on Windows Preinstallation Environment 3.1 (WinPE) includes:
- Acronis Disk Director 11
- Acronis True Image Home 2012
- Paragon Hard Disk Manager 11
- Paragon Partition Manager 11 Professional
- Paragon Home Expert 11
- Windows 7 x86 Recovery Environment
- Recovery environment Windows 7 x64
Instructions for installing a bootloader on a flash drive
Booting a computer from a USB flash drive or other removable media
In order for your computer to start from a CD, DVD, flash drive or external USB drive when rebooted or turned on, you need to make changes to the BIOS settings. Most modern motherboards provide the ability boot from USB flash drive, but on older models sometimes you can only enable booting from optical discs. This problem in some cases it can be solved by installing latest version BIOS, but for very old motherboards such updates may not be released.
After turning on the PC, go to the BIOS by pressing the key "Del" or "F2". Then find the appropriate menu items, indicating the boot order and devices used for this. Depending on the manufacturer and BIOS version, this can be done in the sections "Boot" or "Advanced BIOS features". In addition, modern motherboards allow you to specify the device from which the system will boot without reconfiguring the BIOS. To do this, when you start the PC, you need to call "boot menu". As a rule, this can be done with the key "F12".
As sad as it may be for many, the era of CD/DVDs is slowly but surely coming to an end... Today, users are increasingly thinking about having an emergency bootable USB flash drive in case they suddenly have to reinstall the system.
And the point here is not only to pay tribute to fashion. The OS is installed faster from a flash drive than from a disk; such a flash drive can be used on a computer that does not have a CD/DVD drive (and all modern computers have USB), and you shouldn’t forget about the ease of transfer: a flash drive can easily fit into any pocket, unlike a disk.
1. What is needed to create a bootable USB flash drive?
1) The most important thing is a flash drive. For Windows 7, 8 OS, you will need a flash drive with a size of at least 4 GB, preferably 8 (some images may not fit into 4 GB).
2) Image boot disk Windows, which is most often an ISO file. If you have an installation disk, you can create such a file yourself. It is enough to use the program Clone CD, Alcohol 120%, UltraISO and others (see how to do this).
3) One of the programs for writing an image to a flash drive (they will be discussed below).
Important point! If your PC (netbook, laptop) has, in addition to USB 2.0, also USB 3.0, connect the flash drive to the USB 2.0 port during installation. This applies primarily to Windows 7 (and lower) operating systems, because... These OS do not support USB 3.0! The installation attempt will end with an OS error stating that it is impossible to read data from such media. By the way, they are quite easy to recognize, USB 3.0 is shown in blue, the connectors for it are the same color.
usb 3.0 on laptop
And one more thing... Make sure your Bios supports booting from USB media. If your PC is modern, then it should definitely have this function. For example, my old home computer, bought back in 2003. can boot from USB. How configure Bios to boot from a flash drive - .
2. Utilities for burning a bootable ISO disk to a USB flash drive
2.1 WinToFlash
I would like to focus on this utility mainly because it allows you to burn bootable flash drives with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8. Probably the most universal! You can read about other functions and capabilities on the official website. Here I would like to look at how you can create a flash drive for installing the OS.
After launching the utility, by default, the wizard starts (see screenshot below). To proceed to creating a bootable USB flash drive, click on the green checkmark in the center.
Transfer process system files Windows usually takes 5-10 minutes. At this time, it is better not to load your PC with unnecessary resource-intensive processes.
If the recording was successful, the wizard will notify you about this. To start the installation, you need to insert the USB flash drive and restart the computer.
One of best programs for working with ISO format images. It is possible to compress these images, create, unpack, etc. There are also functions for recording boot disks and flash drives (hard drives).
This program was mentioned quite often on the site, so here I will give only a couple of links:
2.3 USB/DVD Download Tool
A lightweight utility that allows you to burn flash drives with Windows 7 and 8. The only negative, perhaps, is that when writing, it may give an error of 4 GB. The flash drive supposedly doesn't have enough space. Although there is enough space for other utilities, on the same flash drive, with the same image...
By the way, the issue of recording a bootable USB flash drive in this utility for Windows 8 was considered.
2.4 WinToBootic
Website: http://www.wintobootic.com/
A very simple utility that will help you quickly and worry-free create a bootable USB drive with Windows Vista/7/8/2008/2012. The program takes up very little space - less than 1 MB.
At the first launch, it required Net Framework 3.5 installed; not everyone has such a package, and downloading and installing it is not a quick task...
But the process of creating bootable media is very fast and pleasant. First, insert the flash drive into the USB, then launch the utility. Now click on the green arrow and indicate the location of the image with the Windows installation disk. The program can directly record from an ISO image.
2.5 WinSetupFromUSB
Simple and main free program. With it you can quickly create bootable media. By the way, what’s interesting is that a flash drive can accommodate not only Windows OS, but also Gparted, SisLinux, a built-in virtual machine, etc.
To start creating a bootable USB flash drive, run the utility. By the way, please note that there is a special add-on for the x64 version!
Once launched you only need to specify 2 things:
- First, indicate the flash drive on which the recording will be made. Usually, it is determined automatically. By the way, under the line with the flash drive there is a checkbox: “Auto Format” - it is recommended to check the box and not touch anything else.
- In the “Add USB dick” section, select the line with the required OS and check the box. Next, indicate the location on your hard drive where the image with this ISO OS is located.
- The last thing you do is click on the “GO” button.
By the way! The program may behave as if it is frozen while recording. In fact, most often it works, just do not touch the PC for about 10 minutes. You can also pay attention to the lower part of the program window: messages about the recording process appear on the left and a green stripe is visible...
3. Conclusion
In this article, we looked at several ways to create bootable USB flash drives. A few tips when writing such flash drives:
- First of all, copy all the files from the media, in case you need something later. During recording, all information from the flash drive will be deleted!
- Do not load your computer with other processes during the recording process.
- Wait for a successful information message from the utilities with which you work with the flash drive.
- Disable antivirus software before creating bootable media.
- Do not edit the installation files on the flash drive after burning it.
That's all, happy OS installation everyone!
This installation method is suitable if you own a netbook or your CD/DVD drive has failed and you need to install Windows 7. This method is also good because the process Windows installations 7 from a flash card is several times faster than from a CD or DVD.
Before you start writing Windows 7 to a flash drive, copy all important data from the flash drive to other storage media (a hard drive where Windows will not be installed, another flash card, disk, etc.), as during the formatting and recording process Windows 7 image onto a USB flash drive, all the data on it will be destroyed.
First way
If you are creating a bootable USB flash drive while in the Windows 7 operating system, then you will need a program Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, which can be downloaded from Of. Microsoft website following the link.
If you create a bootable USB flash drive under the operating system Windows system XP, you will need to install Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 And Microsoft Image Mastering API 2.0. Of course, if you already have them installed (usually the first program), then you do not need to install them again.
1) Insert the USB flash drive into the laptop.
2) Launch the program. Click the button Browse.
3) Select the Windows 7 ISO image and click the button Open.
4) After you have specified the Windows 7 ISO image, click the button Next.
5) Click the button USB device.
6) Your flash drive should appear in this window. Click the button Begin copying
7) Click on the button Erase USB Device
8) Click Yes.
9) The process of writing the Windows 7 image to the USB flash drive will begin
10) When recording is complete, the status will change to Backup completed. Close the program
Second way
For the second method you will need a program Ultra ISO.
1) Insert the USB flash drive into the laptop.
2) Launch the program. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, it is recommended to run the program as an administrator.
The UltraISO program is paid, but you can use a trial period, we will consider this option. Click the "Trial period..." button
3) Select a menu item File ->Open...
4) Select the Windows 7 ISO image and click the button Open.
6) In the field Recording method: select USB-HDD. Click the button Format.
7) The formatting utility will launch. Click the button Begin.
8) Click OK.
9) After formatting, a success window will appear. Click OK.
10) Close the program.
11) Press the button Write down.
12) Click Yes.
13) The process of writing the Windows 7 image to the USB flash drive will begin.
14) Upon completion of recording in the column Event The message “Recording complete!” will appear. Close the program.
Third way
For the third method, we need the WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 Beta 7 - program.
Note: the link has a newer version, but the principle remains the same.
1) Insert the USB flash drive into the laptop.
2) Launch the program. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, the program must be run as an administrator.
In field USB disk selection and format your flash drive should be listed.
Note: If the flash drive is not detected, then format it using the PeToUSB or HPUSBFW utility.
Also, the flash drive may not be detected if it is inserted into the laptop after the Winsetupfromusb 1.0 Beta7 program has been launched and for it to be detected, just press the button Refresh.
3) Click the button RMPrepUSB.
4) Mark the following lines: WinPEv2/WinPEv3/Vista/Win7 bootable (CC4), NTFS. Place a check mark next to it Boot as HDD (C: 2PTNS). Click the button 6 Prepare Drive.
5) Click the button OK.
6) Click the button OK.
7) After this, something like this will appear Dos window.
Warning: Do not close this window. It should close automatically.
8) After Dos the window will close click the button Exit.
9) Check the box next to it Vista/7/Server 2008 - Setup/PE/RecoveryISO. Click on the square on the right.
10) A window will appear Browse folders in which you need to choose virtual drive in which the ISO image of Windows 7 is mounted.
After you have done this, press the button OK.
11) Press the button GO. The process of writing Windows 7 to the USB flash drive will begin.
12) At the end of recording, a small window will appear. Click OK.
13) Close the program.
Fourth method
The installation method is quite simple, so anyone can do it! For this we need:
1) Windows 7 image
2) Flash drive with a capacity of at least 4GB
3) A program for creating and editing ISO images, ultraISO from the above method or free MagicDisk
You can take any media from a regular flash drive to an SD card, but not less than 4GB!
4) Launch the command line (in Windows XP this is standard->command line. In Windows Vista/Windows 7, open start, at the very bottom there is a search, enter cmd and open with administrator rights).
5) Next in command line enter diskpart, the disk management utility will open.
6) Next, in the diskpart utility itself, enter: list disk, this will display all the physical disks of the PC, namely disks and not partitions.
Among them we are looking for our flash drive.
7) Then we execute the command select disk #, Where # This is the number of our flash drive.
In this case, the flash drive on the screen is number 1, therefore s elect disk 1. All further manipulations will be carried out only with this disk.
8) Execute the command clean, clean the drive, then the command create partition primary- create a new partition on the disk.
9) After creating a new section, write select partition 1, select this section for manipulation, enter active, thereby making the section active.
10) Now for the flash drive to be visible in bios, you need to format it in NTFS format, which we do with the command format fs=NTFS.
11) Next, you need to activate the process of connecting the device and assigning letters to it, we do this with the command assign.
That's it, the preparation process is complete.
Installing Windows 7
You can record the distribution using any file manager or a free one.
In this case, you need to somehow open the image of the installation disk with the OS, this can be done with any disk emulator, Alcohol or MagicDisk, create an image and copy everything from it with a file manager to our prepared flash drive.
That's it, the process of creating the installation flash drive is completed, now we try to install the OS by first setting it in bios.
Well, that’s all, which of the four methods of creating a bootable flash drive to use is up to you.
Enabling booting from a flash drive in the BIOS
Before you start installing Windows 7 from a flash drive, you need to go into the BIOS and enable booting from the flash drive.
To enter the BIOS you need to press a certain key when the computer boots. On desktop computers, this is the Del key. On laptops, the F2 key is most often used.
Usually, when you turn on the laptop, a screen appears on which at the very bottom there is a line that says which key you need to press in order to enter the BIOS.
If you do not have such a line, then you need to look at the information on how to enter the BIOS User Manual walking with a laptop.
1) Insert the flash drive into the laptop if it is not inserted.
2) Turn on the laptop, if it is on, then reboot.
3) Go to BIOS.
Using an example, the whole process will look as shown below; if your BIOS is different, then the principle will remain the same. If you have questions, write in the comments.
4) Go to the tab Boot. In it, in boot order, you need to put our flash drive in first place, using the arrow keys and keys F5 And F6. That is, we use the arrow keys to select our flash drive, and use the key F6 we take her to the very top.
To find out which keys you need to use to set the boot order, see the tips on the right.
The name of the flash drive should appear in the line USB HDD.
Also, the flash drive may appear in the line USB KEY.
To save changes and exit the BIOS, press the key F10. (Depending on the BIOS manufacturer, the key may be different. See tips on the right or below).
5) A window will appear asking in English whether to Save changes and Exit? You are taking Yes.
6) After this, a reboot will occur and the Windows 7 installation process will begin.
Installing Windows 7 from a USB flash drive
If a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7 was created using the WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 Beta 7 program, a green screen will first appear. Select Start Vista/Win7/Server 2008 Setup or PE/Recovery ISO from partition 0.
Next, the Windows 7 setup program will launch.
Write in the comments what is not clear and what questions you have.
In this article, I will tell you how to burn an image to a flash drive (in this case, a Windows image) for subsequent installation of the system on a computer. Nowadays, many people have laptops and netbooks that simply do not have an optical drive, or there is no way to install windows from a disk; this is where creating a bootable Windows 7 flash drive comes to the rescue. This article is primarily aimed at these tasks.
We will write the image to a flash drive in two ways. The first method will be implemented using a very good ultra iso program, and the second using WinSetup From USB. We will start by considering actions to work with ultra iso, since this method less labor-intensive and the process of creating a bootable Windows 7 flash drive will be quite fast. The second method will remain for those who, for some reason, “didn’t work out” with the first option.
Method No. 1
So, let's go. First, download the program Ultra ISO. After the program has been downloaded, installed and launched (click on the trial period if you don’t want to buy), you can begin the fairly simple process of writing Windows to a flash drive:
1. You must specify the path to the image that should be placed on your hard drive:
Click “File” => Open (Fig. 1)
Fig.1
Rice. 2
Rice. 3
Method No. 2
This method will also tell you how to write windows to a flash drive. What you will need for this option:
1. A little free time;
2. Computer (with iron, which supports booting from a flash drive);
3. Program for preparing a flash drive ( download);
4. Actually the flash drive itself (even an SD card will do);
5. An image of the operating system that we want to install.
As an example, I will show how we will write an operating system image to a 4GB SD cardMicrosoft Windows 7Home Premium 64-bit. I would like to immediately draw your attention to the choice of operating system. If your computer has less than 4GB of random access memory (RAM), then you should install a 32-bit (x86) version of the operating system, since a 64-bit version will simply clutter RAM unnecessary processes.
We insert the flash drive into the USB port and format it to FAT32 or NTFS using Windows. To do this, you need to go to My Computer, find the flash drive there and right-click on its icon. In the context menu, select “Format...”. In the format window, select the file system FAT32 or NTFS (the latter will be better if the flash drive has a capacity of more than 4GB), and also select the cluster size “Standard cluster size” and click the “Start” button. Everything is shown in the picture:
Next, we download a small program in which we will do all the operations we need. There are several programs of this type, but I chose WinSetupFromUSB because it does not require installation and takes up almost no space on disk and easy to use.
Let's launch the program. First, we need to select the device on which we will burn the image. This is done in the drop-down menu at the top (if the flash drive is not displayed in this menu, click on the Refresh button). Next, we need to prepare the flash drive for recording the image, because if we simply copy the image, it will be impossible to enter the system installer, because there is no boot sector. To create it, click on the Bootice button.
In the Bootice utility window that opens, click the Process MBR button, then see if the Grub4Dos checkbox is checked (if not, check it) and click the Install/Config button. In the Config Grub for DOS window, click on the “Save to disk” button, the program will display a window that the boot record has been successfully written to the drive.
We return again to the Bootice utility window, where we press the “Process PBR” button and do everything the same, without changing anything in last window, click OK.
That's it, now all we have to do is write the image to a flash drive, this is done in the main program window, which we saw immediately upon launch. You need to check the required box - if you are going to install Windows XP, then this is the first checkbox, but if Vista or Seven - the second. Next, click on the “…” button on the other side of the checkbox and set the path where our unpacked image is stored on the hard drive, or simply mounted in a virtual drive using DaemonTools or Alcohol. Click on the “GO” button and wait until the process finishes.
Upon completion, the program will display the message “Job Done!” That's it, dear friends, you can reboot and start installing the operating system.
Also, I advise you to read the article regarding
Since almost no one uses CDs and DVDs these days, it is logical that it is best to burn the Windows image for further installation onto a USB drive. This approach is indeed much more convenient, because the flash drive itself is much smaller and is very convenient to store in your pocket. Therefore, we will analyze all the most efficient methods for creating bootable media for further installation of Windows.
For reference: creating bootable media means that an operating system image is written to it. From this very drive, the OS is subsequently installed on the computer. Previously, when reinstalling the system, we inserted a disk into the computer and installed it from it. Now you can use a regular USB drive for this.
To do this, you can use a proprietary software Microsoft, the already installed operating system or other programs. In any case, the creation process is not difficult at all. Even a novice user can cope with it.
All the methods described below assume that you already have a downloaded ISO image of the operating system on your computer, which you will write to a flash drive. So, if you haven't downloaded the OS yet, do so. You must also have suitable removable media. Its volume should be sufficient to accommodate the image you downloaded. At the same time, some files may still be stored on the drive; it is not necessary to delete them. All the same, during the recording process, all information will be irretrievably erased.
Method 1: Use UltraISO
There is a detailed description of this program on our website, so we will not describe how to use it. There is also a link where you can download it. To create a bootable USB flash drive using Ultra ISO, do the following:
If any problems or errors appear during recording, most likely the problem is in a damaged image. But if you downloaded the program from the official website, no difficulties should arise.
Method 2: Rufus
Another very convenient program that allows you to very quickly create bootable media. To use it, follow these steps:
It is worth saying that Rufus has other settings and recording options, but they can be left as they are originally. If you wish, you can check the box "Check for bad blocks" and indicate the number of passes. Thanks to this, after recording, the installation flash drive will be checked for damaged parts. If any are detected, the system will automatically correct them.
If you understand what MBR and GPT are, you can also indicate this feature of the future image under the inscription “Partition scheme and system interface type”. But doing all this is completely optional.
Method 3: Windows USB/DVD Download Tool
After the release of Windows 7, developers from Microsoft decided to create a special tool that allows you to make a bootable USB flash drive with an image of this operating system. This is how a program called . Over time, management decided that this utility could well provide recording for other operating systems. Today, this utility allows you to record Windows 7, Vista and XP. Therefore, for those who want to make media with Linux or another system other than Windows, this tool is not suitable.
To use it, follow these steps:
Method 4: Windows Installation Media Creation Tool
Microsoft specialists have also created a special tool that allows you to install on a computer or create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7, 8 and 10. The Windows Installation Media Creation Tool is most convenient for those who decide to record an image of one of these systems. To use the program, do the following:
In the same tool, but for Windows 10, this process will look slightly different. First, check the box next to the inscription "Create installation media for another computer". Click "Further".
But then everything is exactly the same as in the Windows Installation Media Creation Tool for version 8.1. As for the seventh version, the process there is no different from that shown above for 8.1.
Method 5: UNetbootin
This tool is intended for those who need to create a bootable Linux USB flash drive from Windows. To use it, do this:
Method 6: Universal USB Installer
Universal USB Installer allows you to burn images of Windows, Linux and other operating systems to drives. But it is best to use this tool for Ubuntu and others like it operating systems. To use this program, do the following:
