How to write an active image to a flash drive. Creating a bootable USB flash drive from an iso image
You can also use standard Windows tools, for example, recovery, but this is not always possible, so it is much easier to remove the old system and install a new one.
To restore you will need a disk or .
Let's consider the process of creating an image using the example of recording Windows 8, although “seven” and other operating systems are written the same way.
Step 1. Beginning of work
To perform further actions, you will need to run the program as Administrator, otherwise the system will simply not allow you to do anything.
After you have opened the program, you need to click the “open” menu as shown in the first screenshot and start creating a bootable ultraiso flash drive.
The example shows a prepared . The files themselves are easy to find on the Internet, in particular on torrent trackers. The extension must be ISO, not EXE.
Once you have confirmed the choice of image by clicking the “open” button, a list of used files will be displayed in the right window of the program.
Do not delete or rename anything to avoid any installation errors in the future.
Step 2. Preparing an image for recording
A pop-up window will appear again, once again warning that the data will be deleted. We agree with this and move on.
Now the fun begins - direct recording of the OS. Ultraiso multiboot flash drive started to be created , which will take some time.
The program itself works quite quickly and efficiently, but the system often slows down the entire creation process. Be patient.
Upon completion of the process, a “Recording complete” notification will be displayed in the logs! This means that our flash drive with Windows 8 is ready for use.
Since we no longer need UltraISO services, the program can be closed.
When you connect the flash drive to the PC a second time, something similar to the one shown in the screenshot should appear.
Depending on the image, its name may differ from this. The picture shows just an example of the final version.
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 of installing Windows 7 from a flash card is several times faster than from a CD or DVD disk.
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 are creating a bootable USB flash drive under the Windows XP operating system, 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 select the virtual drive in which the Windows 7 ISO image 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 on the 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.
It should be said right away that there are many ways to carry out this operation. The choice depends on the purpose and In this case, we will create a bootable flash drive with the Windows operating system. Next you will find out using the “WinSetupFromUSB” program.
Preparation
Since we will be recording Windows, we will therefore need its image. Where you download it from does not matter. The most important thing is that you use a fully working operating system that has already been tested on other devices. You can burn not only an ISO image, but also an already unpacked version of it. It is recommended to use a flash drive with a capacity of at least 2 GB. Burning an ISO image to a flash drive will take you about 30 minutes (it all depends on the parameters of your computer). The “WinSetupFromUSB” program can be downloaded from the World Wide Web for free.
Conclusion
The question of how to burn an ISO image to a flash drive is often asked on various forums and portals. Everyone offers their own tools, programs and, accordingly, instructions. I have offered you my own method that will help you make your own bootable flash drive. I hope you understand how to burn an ISO image to a flash drive.
If the computer does not have a disk drive, then you have to use bootable flash drives to install the operating system. In this article we will talk about how to burn an ISO image to a flash drive using programs and Rufus.
How to burn an ISO image to a USB flash drive using UltraISO
UltraISO is equipped with many functions for working with ISO images. For example, using UltraISO you can create and edit disk images, burn and copy disks. Also among the functions of this program is writing ISO images to a flash drive. The only drawback of UltraISO is that it is paid. But you can .
So, in order to burn an ISO image to a flash drive, you must first open the ISO image using the UltraISO program. To do this, click on the “Open” icon, which is located on the program toolbar.
Or use the “File – Open” menu.
After this, a small window will appear on the screen with which you can select an ISO image to burn to disk. Select the ISO file you need and click on the “Open” button.
As a result, the contents of your ISO image should appear in the UltraISO program.
Now this content can be written to a USB flash drive. To do this, simply open the “Boot” menu and select “Burn Hard Disk Image” there.
This will open a window called “Write Disk Image”. Using this window you can write to a flash drive. To do this, just select the desired flash drive from the list and click on the “Burn” button.
After this, the UltraISO program will begin writing the ISO image to the USB flash drive. All you have to do is wait until the recording process is finished.
How to burn an ISO image to a USB flash drive using Rufus
The second way to write ISO images to a flash drive, which we will consider in this article, is to write through the Rufus program. Unlike UltraISO, this program is completely free and you can. Rufus is a program designed exclusively for creating bootable USB flash drives. Therefore, it has a minimum of functions and is very easy to understand.
So, in order to burn an ISO image to a flash drive using Rufus, insert the flash drive into your computer and launch Rufus. The first thing you need to do after launching the program is to select the flash drive on which you want to burn the ISO image.
If the ISO image you specified is a Windows operating system image, a switch between “Standard Windows Installation” and “Windows To Go” will appear on the screen. Here we select the “Standard Windows installation” option.
This completes the setup of the Rufus program; click “Start” to start the process of writing an ISO image to a flash drive.
Writing an image to a flash drive is a very common task for those who are still trying to choose a distribution or testing new versions of Linux. In Windows, we are accustomed to Rufus - this is one of the best, most intuitive and most popular utilities for writing disk images to a USB flash drive. It is rightfully considered the best and is used quite often. But, unfortunately, there is no version of this program for Linux; If you are a beginner and want to burn an image to a flash drive, you may encounter a problem with how this can be done.
In fact, the Linux operating system has its own programs for writing an image to a Linux flash drive, and there are quite a lot of them. In this article we will look at the best Rufus analogues for Linux, as well as how to use them to solve your problems. Let's get straight to the list.
If you have already tried to ask on the forums how to burn an image to a flash drive in Ubuntu, then you have probably already heard the advice to use the dd utility. This is a simple console utility that allows you to transfer data byte-by-byte from one place to another, for example from a file to a flash drive.
Despite its simplicity, it is very popular among experienced Linux users because it can write data correctly in most cases. Using this utility is very simple. You need to specify the image file from where the data and partition on your flash drive will be copied, for example:
dd if=~/your_image.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=5M
Please note that there are two possible ways to write an image to a flash drive using dd. This is directly to the /dev/sdc flash drive or to the flash drive partition - /dev/sdc1. The first option usually works, but you can try the second one. Writing the image to the flash drive will take some time, so you will have to wait.
After copying is completed, the flash drive will be ready for use. But these are not all the ways to write an image to disk; there are programs with a graphical interface, full-fledged analogues of Rufus Linux.
Unetbootin is an open source graphical utility for burning an image to a USB flash drive. It works completely differently. Unlike dd, here the flash drive must be mounted to the system and formatted into the correct file system. The utility will unpack the contents of the image onto the USB flash drive, and then add the necessary partition flags and install the bootloader so that everything works as it should.
You can select an image from the file system or download the system automatically via the Internet. In addition, you can burn images of floppy disks as well as hard drives. You can also leave free space on the flash drive so you can write files there in the future. It is an excellent alternative to Rufus Linux and is used as often as Rufus on Windows.
You can install the program from the official repositories. On Ubuntu, to install, type:
sudo apt install unetbootin
This is the next generation of programs for burning an image to a Linux flash drive. Etcher is an open source utility that can run on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. But it is distinguished by another feature - a modern graphical interface.
The utility works very simply. First you select the disk image you want to burn, then the flash drive, and then just press the button Write down(Flash!). The program will do everything itself. It's new, so it's not in the official repositories yet, but you can find a portable AppImage image on the official website.
4. YUMI
This is not just an alternative to Rufus Linux, but something more. Using this utility, you can write not just one image to a flash drive, but several at once. Thus, you can create a multiboot flash drive with Linux or Windows systems.
The utility's interface is extremely simple; you can select a flash drive to burn, format it, and configure the boot menu for installed operating systems. A new version of the utility for Linux is expected to be released soon.
5.Multisystem
Another open source utility similar to YUMI. It also allows you to write several operating system images onto a flash drive. Everything is done quickly and easily. Take a flash drive, select it in the program, then select several images and write them down.
Before the images are added, the program will install the Grub2 boot loader on the flash drive, so be careful when choosing a flash drive, otherwise you may damage the hard drive.
After that, all we have to do is write down the images and we can use them. In addition, the utility has many settings for the Grub and Brug boot loader, backup and recovery of flash drives, as well as support for downloading the images you need from the Internet.
conclusions
That's all. We looked at the best analogues of Rufus Linux; using each of these programs you can write your image to a USB flash drive. In most cases everything works quite well. For my purposes I use either dd or Unetbootin. What programs do you use to burn ISOs to a Linux flash drive? Write in the comments!
For dessert, a video on how to use one of the most popular programs - Unetbootin: