To create a bootable flash drive, we will use programs from both a third-party manufacturer and the built-in Windows command interpreter. Each method is different and has its own specifics, but I think that a simple end user will be able to cope with creating a bootable flash drive using any of the proposed methods:

• how to make a bootable USB flash drive using the command line
• how to make a bootable USB flash drive using UltraISO
• how to make a bootable USB flash drive using Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool

If you are interested in information about creating a bootable USB flash drive for the Linux operating system family, then you can read the information at this link “bootable USB flash drive for Linux”.

So, I propose to start creating a bootable flash drive in order, as defined in the above list, accordingly we proceed to the first method.

BOOT FLASH DRIVE using the command line (method I)

Next, we will use only those commands that we need when creating a bootable flash drive. Therefore, the figure below shows the sequential entry of commands to create a bootable USB flash drive. And please pay attention to the fact that the commands you enter are indicated by a red underline!

Graphical representation of command input on the command line

Now let's describe the previously entered commands:

DISKPART- launch the program, a text-mode command interpreter that allows you to manage objects (disks, partitions or volumes) using scripts or directly entering commands from the command line.

list disk- display a list of disk drives connected to a personal computer.

select disk 1- select disk number “1”, since in our case it is a removable flash drive.

clean- clears all data from removable media - flash drive.

create partition primary- create a primary partition.

select partition 1- select the created section.

active- make the section active.

format fs=NTFS- format the flash drive in the NTFS file system.

assign letter=T- if necessary, you can assign a letter for the flash drive in this way.

Exit- exit the DISKPART program.

BOOTABLE FLASH DRIVE CREATED!

NOTE: Once you have created a bootable USB flash drive, you need to transfer the operating system files to this removable media. Files must be transferred in unpacked form, do not under any circumstances simply add an operating system image, for example one *.ISO file, it WILL NOT WORK!!!

You can see the complete list of Diskpart program commands in the following table:

Table of commands of the "DISKPART" program

TEAM	EXPLANATION
ACTIVE	- Mark the selected section as active.
ADD	- Adding a mirror to a simple volume.
ASSIGN	- Assign a name or mount point to the selected volume.
ATTRIBUTES	- Working with volume or disk attributes.
ATTACH	- Attaches a virtual disk file.
AUTOMOUNT	- Enable or disable automatic mounting of basic volumes.
BREAK	- Splitting the mirror set.
CLEAN	- Clear configuration information or all data on the disk.
COMPACT	- Attempts to reduce the physical size of the file.
CONVERT	- Convert disk formats.
CREATE	- Create a volume, partition or virtual disk.
DELETE	- Delete an object.
DETAIL	- View object parameters.
DETACH	- Detaches the virtual disk file.
EXIT	- Shutdown DiskPart.
EXTEND	- Expand volume.
EXPAND	- Increasing the maximum available space on the virtual disk.
FILESYSTEMS	- Displays the current and supported file systems for the volume.
FORMAT	- Formatting a given volume or partition.
GPT	- Assigning attributes to the selected GPT partition.
HELP	- Display a list of commands.
IMPORT	- Import a disk group.
INACTIVE	- Marking the selected section as inactive.
LIST	- Display a list of objects.
MERGE	- Merging a child disk with its parents.
ONLINE	- Transferring an object marked as "offline" to the "online" state.
OFFLINE	- Transferring an object marked as “online” to the “offline” state.
RECOVER	- Update the status of all disks of the selected package. Attempting to rebuild disks of the wrong package and resynchronizing mirrored and RAID5 volumes with outdated plex or parity data.
R.E.M.	- Does not perform any actions. Used to comment scripts.
REMOVE	- Deleting a drive name or mount point.
REPAIR	- Recovering a RAID-5 volume with a failed member.
RESCAN	- Search for disks and volumes on your computer.
RETAIN	- Placing a service partition on a simple volume.
SAN	- Display or set the SAN policy for the currently loaded OS.
SELECT	- Setting focus on an object.
SETID	- Changing the partition type.
SHRINK	- Reduce the size of the selected volume.
UNIQUEID	- Display or set the GUID Partition Table (GPT) code or Master Boot Record (MBR) signature of the disk.

BOOT FLASH DRIVE using the UltraISO program (II method)

The UltraISO program is designed for creating and editing disk images. When creating a bootable flash drive, we will use the built-in functions of this program.

Open the program with administrator rights, as shown in the figure:

Select the required operating system image to create a bootable USB flash drive, for example, the Windows Vista disk image is selected here:

A pop-up window appears where you need to make sure that the removable media, the image file to be recorded and the recording method are correctly specified (it must be set in USB-HDD+ mode) and click the “burn” button

After clicking the "Write" button, a "Hint" window will appear, prompting you to erase all information on the flash drive. Agree!

Then the data will be written to the flash drive...

And finally, after a certain time, the operating system image will be written to a newly created bootable USB flash drive for future installation.

BOOTABLE FLASH DRIVE IS MADE!

NOTE: Do not forget to set the BIOS input/output system to boot the primary device, that is, make sure that the computer boots from removable media - the bootable flash drive you created.

BOOT FLASH DRIVE using Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool (III method)

The Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool program created by Microsoft for burning operating system disk images to optical and removable media. When creating a bootable flash drive, we will sequentially follow all the instructions of the program.

First, you need to download this program from the official Microsoft website. Then you need to install the program following the installer's instructions. After installing the program, a shortcut will appear on the desktop, as shown in the figure:

Run it with "Administrator rights", right-click on the shortcut and click on the line "Run as administrator". The program will start, click the "Browse" button and select the operating system image *.ISO

After you have selected the image of the system to be recorded, click “Next”, another window will appear where you will be asked to select the type of media - optical or removable. Since we have a removable storage device - a flash drive, select "USB device"

We select our removable media from the proposed list, i.e. flash drive and press the "Begin copying" button

After clicking the above button, the process of formatting the flash drive will begin...

After some time, the process of writing the disk image data to the flash drive will continue.

We wait some time for the image to be recorded, and eventually we will get 100%, and here we are The bootable flash drive is created!

NOTE: Do not forget to set the BIOS input/output system to boot the primary device, that is, make sure that the computer boots from removable media - the bootable flash drive you created.

How to change ntfs to fat32? What is the correct format to use for a FAT32 or NTFS flash drive? All this will be discussed below.

By and large, both formats can be used, FAT32 and NTFS. It all depends on how you are going to use the flash drive.

When buying a new flash drive, as a rule, they have the FAT32 file system and this is not surprising, since this file system is readable from many devices, something like a universal format. Well, there are opinions that this format is more productive than NTFS.

You may encounter difficulties only when you need to transfer a file larger than 4GB onto a flash drive. There may be other errors, too, but these are usually special cases.

For example, you go to install windows from a flash drive. If your flash drive is in FAT32 format, then when you try to write a large file (more than 4GB) to it, Windows itself will give you an error that the file is too large.

Well, when recording an image, you will be asked to format the flash drive or you will also receive an error.

Therefore, before recording a Windows image or before moving a large file to a flash drive, first format your flash drive in NTFS format.

And, of course, you have a reasonable question: which file system to choose for a flash drive, FAT32 or NTFS.

Today, flash drives already come with a large capacity, 32 GB and 64 GB or more. Accordingly, if you buy flash drives with such volumes, you probably plan to throw both movies and large files onto it.

For such purposes, format the flash drive in NTFS and use it as you wish.

If you do not plan to put large files on the flash drive, but plan to use it for documents, photos or small files, for example, music files, then formatting is not necessary.

When choosing a file system for a flash drive, first think about how you will use it, and from there choose the format.

In addition:

How to change fat32 to ntfs or ntfs to fat32 on a flash drive

If for some reason, you have previously formatted a flash drive from fat32 to ntfs and now you need to return everything back from fat32 to convert ntfs or vice versa, then to change to the fat32 or ntfs file system you need, follow these steps:

1. Insert the USB flash drive into your computer/laptop.

2. When the computer detects your device, select the flash drive and right-click, in the menu that opens, click formatting, then select the desired file system format and click start.

After the operation is completed, your flash drive will be in the file system you need.

Attention! Before formatting a flash drive into another format, if there is data on it, first transfer (copy) the files to another location. When formatting, all data from the flash drive is deleted!

On our website there are many instructions on how to make a bootable flash drive from a regular flash drive (for example, for installing Windows). But what if you need to return the flash drive to its previous state? We will try to answer this question today.

The first thing to note is that banal formatting will not be enough. The fact is that when a flash drive is converted into a boot drive, a special service file is written to a memory sector that is inaccessible to the user and cannot be erased using conventional methods. This file forces the system to recognize not the actual volume of the flash drive, but the occupied system image: for example, only 4 GB (Windows 7 image) out of, say, 16 GB (actual capacity). As a result, only these 4 gigabytes can be formatted, which, of course, is not suitable.

There are several solutions to this problem. The first is to use specialized software designed to work with drive layout. The second is to use the built-in Windows tools. Each option is good in its own way, so let's look at them.

Note! Each of the methods described below involves formatting the flash drive, which will delete all data on it!

Method 1: HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

To terminate the process correctly, enter exit and close the command line. If you did everything correctly, your flash drive will return to working condition.

Despite its cumbersomeness, this method is good with an almost one hundred percent guarantee of a positive result in most cases.

The methods described above are the most convenient for the end user. If you know alternatives, please share them in the comments.

Introducing programs for reliable formatting of flash drives

In this article we will look at the following question: which program to choose for formatting flash drives. Nowadays, flash drives of various types are used everywhere.

ATTENTION! We highly recommend reading the note about cleaning laptops. This is one of the main problems of beech trees breaking as a result of overheating! If all the heated air does not escape from the beech, do you think the internal parts could burn out from the elevated temperature? Of course yes, that is why this issue needs to be known very well.

Let's get down to business...

Introduction

In terms of convenience and speed of operation (in moving information), you cannot find a device better than a flash drive. But like any device, a flash drive can fail, that is, break. Their breakdowns are different.

For example, if it is a mechanical malfunction, such as a flash drive fell on the floor and became unreadable, or the flash drive was in water, and so on. Such breakdowns usually cannot even be repaired, unless they undergo specialized repairs.

But since the prices for them are now very low, repairing them in a specialized service is not profitable, unless the flash drive contained very important data, which can often be recovered.

From this we can conclude that a flash drive is a fairly fragile device and careless use of it can lead to its breakdown and loss of all data on it.

Formatting a flash drive

But it also happens that a flash drive just needs to be formatted in order to improve its performance or change the file system, install ntfs or fat32. This, of course, can be done in the standard way in the operating system ( go to my computer - right-click on the flash drive "properties" - format), but this doesn't always help.

But in this case, there are many different programs that help not only change the file system but also bring the flash drive back to “life” or improve its speed. We will analyze these programs in this article.

This advice is that if you decide to find a program for formatting a flash drive, then it is advisable to use the same one as the manufacturer of the flash drive. For example, if you have a Kingston company, then it is advisable to select a utility for Kingston flash drives, but this is only possible, if not or do not want to bother searching, then just use the ones presented below.

But this is not always possible to do, so you can completely use drives that are universal for all types of drives.

Let's move on to downloading programs for formatting a flash drive - we present below the 2 most effective and popular

The first program we will analyze will be HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. A very good tool to fulfill our purpose.

You can also download it from the official website. The program can be downloaded from this link http://www.teryra.com/articl_comp/kak_otformatirovat_fleshky/HPUSBFW.ZIP (copy, paste into the browser and press enter). There is no need to install the program, just run it.

It is packaged in an archive; in order to run it, you may need an archiver; in general, this is a standard program; how and where you can download it, see the article on how to open a rar file.

And so, HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool is a very easy to use program. All you need is:

1. Launch it
2. Indicate your flash drive in the first line
3. Next, specify the file system, preferably NTFS, although FAT32 is also possible
4. And put a tick in the Quick Format line. There is a small nuance here. If you just need to change the file system, for example from FAT32 to NTFS, then check the box. A tick indicates that formatting will be quick. If we need to correct the incorrect operation of the flash drive or it is impossible to write files to it at all, then we do not check the box. This means that the formatting will be complete. With full formatting, in simple terms, some errors accumulated on the flash drive are corrected and perhaps after this process it will work better.

Don't forget that formatting deletes all information from the flash drive, so copy it if there is anything important

If everything is specified, then click “Start”:

The following program is hdd low level format tool

To download it, click here:

Install hdd low level format tool

The installation process is standard, click next and next everywhere, only click “Accept” in the license agreement window.

The entire program is installed, the only thing is that it is paid and when you start it a window will appear asking you to pay or use it for a limited time. But it will be enough for us to perform several operations.

If you don’t want to pay, then choose the trial version, that is, click the bottom line “Continue for free”:

The program looks like the figure below. In our case, as we can see, the program has identified two devices, this is a 1.5 Tr hard drive. and a 16 GB flash drive:

How hdd low level format tool works

This program approaches the formatting process more thoroughly. It performs low-level formatting (as stated, although there is an opinion that this process can only be started in factory conditions, but we still try).

During this formatting, sectors are edited and bad zones are eliminated. It can show the technical condition of the hard drive (only for hard drives), to do this, in the initial device selection window, select your hard drive and click “Continue”, and then go to the S.M.A.R.T tab. and click on the “Get Smart Data” button:

In order to format a flash drive, select it in the initial window ( ATTENTION! WE ARE VERY CAREFUL HERE, WE CHOOSE Slowly, Otherwise, you will format your hard drive and lose all the data accumulated over a long time), click “Continue”:

In the next window, go to the LOW-LEVEL FORMAT tab and click on “Format This Device” at the bottom. The low-level formatting process will begin and will take from 40 minutes to several hours:

This program often helps to cope with a problem such as a flash drive that has stopped being read or has started to work slowly. It is very important to do everything slowly and thoughtfully. If you doubt something, it is better to ask someone again than to later regret hasty actions.

So we looked at such an interesting and popular question as a program for formatting flash drives. This is very useful information. Thanks to it, in many cases you can save a flash drive from emerging problems.

Formatting is the process by which a data storage area is marked up. This area is called file system, and is a table.

Each square of such a table is called a cluster. And when a file is copied to a flash drive, the clusters are filled with data one by one until the file is completely moved.

If information is frequently rewritten to the device, the clusters begin to fill unevenly, since some of them contain remnants of previous files. And new recorded files can occupy clusters at different ends of the “table”, which slows down the operation of the flash drive.

Formatting resets all parameters and re-marks. This has a positive effect on the speed of the device, because the file system is reset. That is, the “table” is cleared.

Why do you need to format

• To quickly destroy all recorded information
• To “kill” all viruses and traces of their activity
• To resolve errors that occur when opening and writing files
• To speed up the device
• When creating a bootable USB flash drive

Formatting erases all data that was written to the flash drive! Therefore, before running it, be sure to transfer all important files to another location (for example, to your hard drive).

How to quickly format a flash drive

This can be done using standard system tools. They are available in any version of Windows (XP, 7, 8, 10).

1 . Insert the flash drive into your computer.

Most likely, an autorun window will open in a second or two. Let's close it.

2. Open Start - Computer.

3. Right-click on the flash drive icon and select “Format...”.

4 . Select parameters or leave everything as is.

File system. You are asked to choose one of three. The default is usually Fat32. It is good if small files will be written to the device, as it interacts with them faster. But if you need to write a file larger than 4 GB, then problems arise - Fat32 does not support working with such large files.

NTFS is another matter. This system is capable of working with very large files, even more than 1TB. But with small ones it works a little slower than Fat32.

There is also exFAT. This is an upgraded Fat 32 that can handle files larger than 4GB. However, it is currently only supported on Windows 7 and above, and other devices (such as TVs) and computers running older versions of Windows cannot work with it.

There are more advanced file systems, for example, ext4, but Windows does not yet support anything better than NTFS and exFAT.

So, if you plan to write small files to a flash drive, then you can leave the default file system (Fat32), and if you need to copy individual files larger than 4 GB (for example, a movie) to it, then choose NTFS.

Cluster size. Minimum data size. It is better not to change anything in this field.

Volume label. The name of the device that will be shown during boot. For example, I want the flash drive to appear as "Neumeka". This means that I erase from this field what is suggested and print the name I need. As a result, it will appear like this:

Formatting methods. Initially, this item is checked for “Quick (cleaning table of contents)”. This method will overwrite the file system, which is usually quite enough.

If you uncheck the box, a full format will be done, which means that the computer will first check the physical surface of the flash drive and if it finds damage, it will fix it. In fact, they will simply disguise themselves and then it will not be possible to write information there. And only after all this will the file system be written.

5 . Click “Start”.

The system will warn us that it will destroy all information from the device. We agree and wait for the end of the process.

When it finishes, we will see the following window. Click “OK” and close the formatting window.

All! The device is ready for use.

If it didn't work out

Despite the fact that a flash drive is more reliable than a CD and DVD, it still suffers from problems. For example, it may simply not be displayed in “Computer”.

This happens for several reasons:

• File system is damaged
• The device was not formatted by the manufacturer
• The letter of the flash drive matches the letter of the drive already in use by Windows

To eliminate these reasons, go to Start - Control Panel.

Go to “System and Security” and/or “Administration”.

Open "Computer Management".

Click on “Disk Management” on the left side.

The window takes on the following appearance.

Right-click on the flash drive and select “Format...”.

Formatting using the command line

Another formatting method. But in order to use it, you need to know exactly the letter of the flash drive. Otherwise, you may accidentally delete data from another, desired drive.

1 . Press the keyboard shortcut Win + R.

2. In the Run window, enter cmd and click OK.

3. In the window that appears, enter format G: /FS:NTFS /Q /V:flashka

• format is a command to start formatting
• G is the drive letter under which your computer recognizes the flash drive (do not confuse it!)
• /FS:NTFS - file system in which you want to format the device. If you want fat32, then enter FS:FAT32
• /Q - quick formatting. If you need the complete one, just don't use this command
• /V:flashka - volume label (this name will be displayed when loading in “Computer”).

When everything is ready, a similar inscription will appear.

Low-level formatting or “flash drive treatment”

This method should only be used if all of the above did not help.

Download and install the HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool program from the official website. During the installation process, select “Continue for free”.

Open the program, select your flash drive and click Continue.

A window with information about the device will appear. Go to the LOW-LEVEL FORMAT tab.

Click on the FORMAT THIS DEVICE button.

A warning appears that all data written to the media will be erased. Click “Yes”.

And we wait for the end of the process: when the window becomes something like this and 100% complete is written.

We close it and do the usual formatting, otherwise the flash drive will not open. To do this, follow the first instructions from this article (Start - Computer - right-click on the flash drive icon - Format...).

Hello admin! I read on many sites that a bootable UEFI USB flash drive with Windows 10 can be created by simply copying Win 10 files to a flash drive previously formatted in the FAT32 file system. And today I bought a new 32 GB flash drive, formatted it in FAT32 and copied Windows 10 files onto it, and the flash drive turned out to be non-bootable. My computer won't boot from it. What can be wrong? Please explain in detail, since my level of computer knowledge is very basic. Best regards, Sergei.

Another way to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10

Hi all! A week ago, our reader Vladimir wrote about this, and today I will also comment. I honestly tried to explain everything as simply as possible.

One of my friends bought a flash drive, formatted it into the NTFS file system, then threw files from an ISO image of Windows 10 onto it and went for someone to install the system on a new laptop, but they couldn’t install anything, since modern computers and laptops have a regular BIOS replaced by the UEFI interface, and this standard can only be booted from media formatted in the FAT32 file system. I explained everything to him over the phone, and the second time the flash drive was formatted in FAT32, then the Win 10 files were copied onto it, and finally I was able to install the system from it on a new laptop.

The next day, my friend again installed Windows 10 for someone from this flash drive, but on a simple desktop computer, and again nothing worked out for him. The question is why?

Friends, the thing is that the flash drive was new and there was no active partition on it. The peculiarity of the UEFI BIOS is that if there are Windows 10 files on a FAT32 flash drive (without an active partition), then it will still boot from this flash drive and you can install Win 10.

If the UEFI interface is disabled on your laptop or you want to install Windows 10 from such a flash drive on a computer with a regular BIOS, then nothing will work for you for the reason stated above - there is no active partition on the flash drive. My friend needed to format the flash drive to the FAT32 file system from the very beginning, copy Win 10 files to the flash drive, and make the flash drive active in the command line using a couple of commands. Such a flash drive would be universal and you could install Win 10 from it on any computer or laptop, with or without UEFI. How to do it!

• Note: If you have been using your flash drive for a long time, you probably made it bootable using WinSetupFromUSB, Rufus and the like, and installed operating systems from it, which means it already has an active partition (it cannot be deleted by simple formatting).

You can check if there is an active partition on the flash drive by running the program , in the top field select the flash drive, click on the button Bootice

Choose our flash drive

Click on the button Parts Manage

If under the item Act. there is a letter A, which means the flash drive is active.

In principle, it’s not even necessary to check whether your flash drive is active or not, just make it active in the command line and that’s it (the flash drive won’t get any worse).

For example, you have a new or not quite flash drive and you want to install Windows 10 from it on other computers.

You can install Windows 10 from any media that has the Windows installation program on it. The storage medium can be a USB flash drive that meets the parameters described below in the article. You can turn a regular flash drive into an installation drive using third-party programs or the official application from Microsoft.

Preparation and characteristics of the flash drive

The flash drive you use must be completely empty and work in a certain format; we will achieve this by formatting it. The minimum size to create a bootable flash drive is 4 GB. You can use the created installation media as many times as you like, that is, you can install Windows 10 on several computers from one flash drive. Of course, you will need a separate license key for each of them.

Preparing a flash drive

The flash drive you choose must be formatted before you begin placing the installation software on it:

Second formatting method

There is another way to format a flash drive - through the command line. Expand the command prompt using administrator rights, and then run the following commands:

1. Enter one by one: diskpart and list disk to see all the disks available on the PC.
2. To select a disk, write: select disk No., where No. is the disk number specified in the list.
3. clean.
4. create partition primary.
5. select partition 1.
6. active.
7. format fs=FAT32 QUICK.
8. assign.
9. exit.

Obtaining an ISO image of the operating system

There are several ways to create installation media, some of which will require an ISO image of the system. You can download the hacked build at your own risk from one of the sites that distribute Windows 10 for free, or get the official version of the OS from the Microsoft website:

1. https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10).
2. Select OS language, version and bit depth. You should choose the version based on your needs. If you are an average user who does not work with Windows at a professional or corporate level, then install the home version; there is no point in taking more sophisticated options. The bit depth is set to the one supported by your processor. If it is dual-core, then choose the 64x format; if it is single-core, then choose 32x.
3. When prompted to select media, check the ISO file option.
4. Specify where to save the system image. Done, the flash drive is prepared, the image is created, you can start creating the installation media.

Creating installation media from a USB flash drive

The easiest method can be used if your computer supports UEFI mode - a newer BIOS version. Typically, if the BIOS opens as a menu, then it supports UEFI. You can also find out whether your motherboard supports this mode or not on the website of the company that made it.

1. Insert the USB flash drive into the computer and only then start rebooting it.
2. As soon as the computer turns off and the startup process begins, you need to enter the BIOS. Most often, the Delete key is used for this, but other options are possible, depending on the model of motherboard installed on your PC. When the time comes to enter the BIOS, a prompt with hot keys will appear at the bottom of the screen.
3. Change the boot order: by default, the computer starts from the hard drive if it finds the OS on it, but you must install your UEFI: USB flash drive first. If the flash drive is displayed, but there is no UEFI signature, then this mode is not supported by your computer and this installation method is not suitable.
4. Save the changes you made to the BIOS and start your computer. If everything is done correctly, the OS installation process will begin.

If it turns out that your board is not suitable for installation via UEFI mode, then use one of the methods below to create universal installation media.

Media Creation Tool

You can also create Windows installation media using the official Media Creation Tool.

1. Go to the official Windows 10 page and download the installation program from Microsoft from it (https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10).
2. Run the downloaded program, read and agree to the standard license agreement.
3. Select the option to create installation media.
4. As described earlier, select the OS language, version and bit depth.
5. When prompted to select media, indicate that you want to use a USB device.
6. If several flash drives are connected to your computer, select the one you prepared in advance.
7. Wait until the program automatically creates installation media from your flash drive. After this, you will need to change the boot method in the BIOS (put the installation flash drive in the first place in the “Boot” section) and proceed to install the OS.

Using unofficial programs

There are many third-party programs that create installation media. They all work according to the same scenario: they write a Windows image that you created in advance onto a flash drive so that it turns into bootable media. Let's look at the most popular, free and convenient applications.

Rufus

Rufus is a free program for creating bootable USB drives. It runs on Windows operating systems starting with Windows XP SP2.

1. Download and install the program from the developer’s official website: http://rufus.akeo.ie/?locale.
2. All program functions fit in one window. Specify the device to which the image will be written.
3. In the “File system” line, specify the FAT32 format, since this is what we formatted the flash drive in.
4. In the system interface type, set the option for computers with BIOS and UEFI if you are sure that your computer does not support UEFI mode.
5. Specify the location of the pre-built system image and select a standard Windows installation.
6. Click on the “Start” button to start the installation media creation process. Done, after completing the procedure, change the boot method in the BIOS (in the “Boot” section you need to put the flash card in first place) and proceed to installing the OS.

Ultra ISO

UltraISO is a very multifunctional program that allows you to create and work with images.

1. Buy or download a trial version, which is quite enough to complete our task, from the official website of the developer: https://ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/.
2. While in the main menu of the program, expand the “File” menu.
3. Select “Open” and specify the location of the pre-created image.
4. Select "Burn Hard Disk Image".
5. Specify which flash drive you want to use.
6. Leave the recording method as USB-HDD.
7. Click on the “Record” button and wait for the process to complete. After completing the procedure, change the boot method in the BIOS (put the installation flash drive in the first place in the “Boot” section) and proceed to installing the OS.

WinSetupFromUSB

WinSetupFromUSB is a utility for creating a bootable USB flash drive with the ability to install Windows, starting with version XP.

Is it possible to use MicroSD instead of a USB flash drive?

The answer is yes, you can. The process of creating an installation MicroSD is no different from the same process with a USB flash drive. The only thing is that you must make sure that your computer has a suitable MicroSD port. To create this type of installation media, it is better to use third-party programs described above in the article, rather than the official Microsoft utility, as it may not recognize MicroSD.

Errors during creation of the installation flash drive

The installation media creation process may be interrupted for the following reasons:

• There is not enough memory on the drive - less than 4 GB. Find a flash drive with more memory and try again,
• The flash drive is not formatted or formatted in the wrong format. Go through the formatting process again, carefully following the instructions above,
• The Windows image recorded on the USB flash drive is damaged. Download another image, it is best to take it from the official Microsoft website,
• if one of the methods described above does not work in your case, then use another option. If none of them work, then the problem is with the flash drive and should be replaced.

Video: creating an installation flash drive with Windows 10

Creating installation media is an easy process and is mostly done automatically. If you use a working flash drive, a high-quality system image and use the instructions correctly, then everything will work out, and after restarting the computer you can begin installing Windows 10. If after installation is complete you want to save the installation flash drive, then do not move any files to it, then can be used again.

Every year laptops become thinner, more compact and lighter. However, for the sake of convenience and beauty, most current models are not equipped with DVD drives, and on a stationary computer it can simply break.

We are used to downloading all the programs and movies we need from the Internet. But what to do if there are problems with the operating system? Indeed, in most cases, serious and critical problems can be solved only by reinstalling it. Or simply, many people love Windows 7 much more than Windows 8; this OS is now installed on all laptops by default.
Don’t buy an external DVD drive for a one-time task like reinstalling the system.

The solution to this problem is to create a bootable USB flash drive. Such a flash drive, unlike a boot disk, has its advantages, such as protection from mechanical damage and small size.

In this article we will look at the three most common techniques for creating a bootable USB flash drive.

Before you turn a flash drive into a bootable one, you need to format it

To record versions of Windows 7, 8, 8.1, you need a flash drive with a minimum capacity of 4 GB and formatted in FAT32. You can format it in Explorer - “My Computer” by right-clicking on the flash drive and selecting “Format”. In the “File system” field, specify FAT32 (default).
Of course, you can choose the NTFS format, but there is a high probability that the motherboard BIOS simply will not see such a flash drive, for example, UEFI BIOS sees only FAT32. And don't worry about the fact that FAT32 doesn't support files larger than 4 GB, because Windows Installer doesn't have any files even close to that size.

Important! All files stored on the flash drive will be erased, so if there is anything important on it, it is better to make copies.

The UltraISO program is specialized for working with disk images; it allows you to both edit and create them from scratch. The program itself is paid, but there is a 30-day trial period, with a limit on the image file size of 300 MB.

In this example, we will try to make a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 8.1. In the same way, it will be possible to make flash drives with any other operating systems, for example Linux.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive in UltraISO

To ensure that the program has all the necessary rights and capabilities to work, run it with administrator rights by right-clicking on the program shortcut and selecting “Run as administrator” in the context menu.

Program interface

In the program that opens, click on “File” in the top panel, and in the drop-down context menu click on “Open...”. An explorer window will open where you will need to select the image of the operating system itself in ISO format. A bootable flash drive will be made from it.

Selecting an ISO image

The ISO file of the system image that we opened will appear in the upper right window of the program.

After the flash drive is inserted into the USB port, in the UltraISO program on the top panel, click on “Boot”, in the drop-down context menu select “Burn Hard Disk Image...”

“Write Disk Image” will open. Check that you have selected the correct flash drive in the “Disk Drive” field. The “Recording method” field should be “USB-HDD+”, check the attached screenshot.

Click to enlarge

If you have formatted the flash drive in advance, then there is no point in clicking on the “Format” button; go straight to recording by clicking on the “Record” button.

The writing speed of a bootable flash drive will depend both on the speed of your computer and on the speed of the flash drive itself.

Bootable USB flash drive is ready!

That’s it, now you can close the UltraISO program, we won’t return to it. After that, go to Explorer and check whether the image was written to the flash drive. By opening the flash drive, you can make sure that everything went perfectly.

How to make a bootable USB flash drive using Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Program interface

A utility officially presented by Microsoft for creating bootable disk images, the only drawback of which is the inability to burn a homemade Windows distribution. Despite the fact that the program name only includes Windows 7, the program perfectly creates images of Windows 8 and 8.1.

The whole process takes 4 steps:

1. It is better to format the flash drive first.
2. Open the program as “administrator” and click on the “Browse” button (here you need to select the system image that we want to turn into a bootable USB flash drive). Click on “Next”.
3. In the next window you need to select the media type - “USB device”.
4. Next, you need to select a flash drive for recording. And finally click on “Begin copying”.

If there are any files on the flash drive, the program will offer to clean it, but if not, then the process of formatting and copying all the necessary files will begin.

Important! If you formatted the flash drive in FAT32 format in advance, the program will in any case reformat it to NTFS. As stated above, such flash drives may not be visible to some BIOS versions.

The flash drive is ready

After such a message appears, it means the bootable flash drive is ready, you can check whether the files have been recorded in Explorer.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive using the Windows command line

This method may seem quite complicated, but I will try to analyze it in as much detail as possible. As in the previous two methods, first delete all information from the flash drive.

Press the “Win+R” keys on your keyboard simultaneously and enter the “CMD” command (without quotes) in the dialog box. The command line will launch.

I have highlighted all the commands that will need to be entered in bold, they are entered without quotes.

1. Immediately after the command prompt is launched, enter "diskpart" and press "Enter". An interpreter will appear that allows you to manage all disks, partitions and volumes.

Interpreter interface

2. To display a list of all devices, enter "list disk". Determining where our flash drive is is quite simple, firstly, all connected devices are shown at the end, secondly, we previously cleared it of all files and a zero will be shown in the “Free” column, thirdly, the size of my flash drive is approximately 8 GB, so we conclude that the flash drive from which we will make a bootable one is number 6.

3. Select our flash drive by entering the command "select disk 6", instead of “6” you enter the number of your flash drive.

4. Immediately enter the command "clean" so that the flash drive is 100% cleared.

Click to enlarge

6. Now let's format the disk again using the command "format fs=fat32" or "format fs=NTFS". To make formatting quick, add the word “quick” to the end of the command, for example, so it looks like this: "format fs=fat32 quick". After formatting is completed, the message “Diskpart successfully formatted the volume” will appear.

7. After this there won't be much left, enter "assign", to assign a drive letter. At this point we finish working with the command line and enter the last command - "Exit". That's it, you can safely close the command line.

Click to enlarge

The last step is to unzip the ISO disk image with the operating system onto a flash drive, for example with a program.

ISO image opened in WinRAR

How to boot from a bootable USB flash drive

To install the operating system from a bootable USB flash drive, you must select boot priority from a USB drive in the BIOS settings. Different motherboards have their own BIOS version, so see how to do this in the user manual.

For example, this is what it looks like in the BIOS on an ASUS motherboard:

Click to enlarge

Finally

As you can see, creating a bootable USB flash drive is quite simple. It will never be superfluous to have one in stock; no one is insured against breakdowns of the DVD drive and the disc itself, and a system image recorded on a flash drive can always come in handy.

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