If you want to create external media that can install one of several operating systems, you first need to read the instructions on how to create bootable USB flash drive V multiboot usb.
MultiBoot USB is a universal, popular utility for creating multiboot removable media. The application is distributed free of charge.
Interface: English.
Creating a flash drive in multiboot usb allows you to avoid some restrictions - the user can load two identical versions of the OS onto one external drive at once.
They should only have different assemblies. Also, the number of recorded images is unlimited.
It all depends on the memory capacity of your flash drive.
The initial stage is preparing devices and programs before installation
First of all, you need to think in advance how many images you want to install on one external storage medium.
Based on this information, calculate the approximate location and take a flash drive that will have enough memory.
Download and install the multiboot usb utility on your computer using the link provided at the beginning of the article.
Despite the fact that the program has only an English-language interface, there is detailed instructions on its use in Russian.
Familiarize yourself with the program's basic functions and toolbar elements before you begin. This will help you avoid common mistakes.
The multiboot usb utility image includes a number of programs that must be installed on bootable external media:
- FreeDOS command line boot utility;
- Program for working with NTFS partitions;
- You also need to confirm the installation of the password editor and operating system registry;
- Program to install earlier deleted files and applications;
- QuickTech Pro - a utility that allows you to quickly test the performance of hardware components personal computer or laptop;
- A number of programs for testing RAM and quality service PC;
- A program for checking the health of hard drives and working with their partitions.
Important! Do not delete the contents of the flash drive after the initial stage of its creation; all of the above utilities are necessary for further installation of the operating system on your PC. Removing or damaging at least one component can lead to the failure of a multiboot flash drive of a software nature.
The main stage is creating bootable removable media
In the initial window of the utility, the user has access to a list of utilities that are necessary to create a bootable USB flash drive. Follow the instructions to prepare the external media:
- Enable the first utility in the list (Figure 1). It is designed to format removable media. Check the QuickFormat box to speed up the process. It is best to format for the NTFS file system.
Thanks to it, you will not have any problems installing images whose volume exceeds 4 Gigabytes;
No. 2. Installing the HP Usb Disk Storage Format Tool
- Now return to the start menu (Figure 1) and run the grub4dos program. During installation, you must specify the disk name - select the path to it. The name will not be reflected, you will only see the amount of free space on the selected hard drive.
Now click on the utility installation key;
No. 3. Grub4dos utility configuration
No. 4. Successful unpacking of the package
- After installation, a new program window will appear in which the user must specify the path to the flash drive and click on the Eject button. This way you will unpack all the necessary applications that are needed for the media to function properly.
№5. Appearance main application window
To begin the basic stage of creating a bootable USB flash drive, follow the instructions:
- Connect the flash drive to the computer and wait for it to be recognized by the system
- Now run the MultiBoot USB program;
- In the main program window, select the path to the connected flash drive in the Step 1 field;
- In the Step 2 field, select all components. They will also be installed on the bootable media;
- Click on the Create button to create a multiboot flash drive.
After completing all the steps above in the instructions, the flash drive will be created, however, there will not be any installation image operating system.
Adding new operating system images
To complete the process of creating a multiboot flash drive, you need to supplement it with images needed by the user operating systems.
All images must be exclusively in ISO format.
To make it more convenient for you to navigate between files on a flash drive, create a special folder where you will move all OS images.
This way you won’t confuse them with previously unpacked utilities.
For OS Windows
To install an OS Windows image (of any version and build) on a created flash drive, first create virtual drive using a program or any other similar utility.
Now go to the My Computer window and find the mounted disk image there. Open its contents. An example of the content is shown in the figure below:
No. 6. Example of the contents of the directory of a mounted operating system image
Now go to the utility window (Figure 1):
No. 7. Windows OS image recording window
In the above window, select the path to the virtual image drive. Then check the box for the OS version that matches the mounted image. And now press the GO key.
Go to the folder with the image. Its contents will change, as, for example, in the figure below:
No. 8. Contents of the folder with the OS image after using the WinsetupFromUsb utility
To add another Windows OS to a flash drive, do the same steps, just don’t forget to check the box next to the OS version corresponding to the image (as in Figure 7).
For Linux OS
For Linux operating systems, follow these steps:
- find the file menu.lst on the flash drive and open it using a standard notepad or the Notepad utility;
- In the first line write down the name of the operating system, in the second line - the path to the image. Save the final file. The file system may freeze for 15-20 minutes. Wait until its operation returns to normal and the image is written to the flash drive.
An example notepad file content should look like this:
No. 9. Example of adding a new Linux OS image
Thus, you can add any number of images of different operating systems until the flash drive runs out of free space.
Try not to take up all the memory on the media, then the computer will recognize it faster and load image files.
Advice! You should not start installing the OS immediately after adding all the images. Make sure the device is working properly. To do this, run the WinSetupFromUSB utility and select the created multiboot flash drive as the device. Check the TestinQEMU box and click OK. The process of testing the performance of the flash drive will start.
Thematic videos:
How to create a multiboot flash drive
How to create a multiboot flash drive MultiBoot program USB
MultiBoot USB - Creating a multiboot flash drive
How to create a bootable USB flash drive. The process is shown without installation on a USB flash drive installation files OS
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 disc A.
Before you start Windows entries 7 to a flash drive, copy all important data from the flash drive to other storage media ( HDD where Windows will not be installed, another flash card, disk, etc.), since during the process of formatting and writing the Windows 7 image to a flash drive, all 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 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 image 7
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 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 physical disks 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.
Windows installation 7
You can record the distribution using any file manager or a free one.
In this case, you need to somehow open the image installation disk with the OS, you can do this 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.
Inclusion in BIOS boot from a flash drive
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.
I don't remember the last time I used an installation disk Windows or Ubuntu on PC. Every time I create a bootable USB flash drive, or an installation one, whichever is convenient for you, I use the same method, which I want to talk about in this post, citing step by step instructions with screenshots.
I have to install Windows from a flash drive quite often! I always use the same flash drive. I can’t say the exact number of computers on which I had to install Windows from a flash drive, there were approximately a little more than 20, that’s for sure!
During all this time, installing Windows from a flash drive, I have not encountered a single problem, and I wish the same for you!!!
I use a completely simple flash drive. And the flash drive itself is already old, only God knows how old it is.
In general, the simplest and most common 4 gig flash drive.
Preparing a flash card.
Preparing a flash card consists of one simple thing. It needs to be formatted in the file system NTFS. This can be done as standard without any problems. using Windows. Go to my computer and RMB on the flash drive icon, from context menu select "Format..."
In chapter " File system" you are taking NTFS and click the “Start” button in the warning window and agree by clicking the “ok” button.
This completes the preparation of the flash card, now all that remains is to prepare the image with Windows.
Preparing a Windows disk image.
Windows preparation consists of unpacking all files from “ ISO» Windows images. It can be done this way.
1 – Unpack with a regular archiver “Win RARom" To do this, open the iso image file using “Win RAR"
And unpack all the files into the previously created folder, for example “win7”.
2- Use the program " Ultra ISO“The principle of action is the same.
Open the image, select all the files and drag them into the “win 7” folder Or whatever you called it there!
The windows files are unpacked and that’s all, you can start creating a bootable flash drive.
Create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows.
The flash drive is ready Windows files extracted from the “ISO” image, there is still a little time left and the bootable flash drive will be ready for use.
Download the program “WinSetupFromUSB” (Link at the bottom of this post). And we launch.
In the main program window, click the " Bootice»
In the next window, make sure that the flash drive you need is selected in the drop-down list and click the “ PerformFormat»
Here you need to select “ USBHDDmode (SinglePartiton) "And press the button " NextStep»
In the next window, select file system NTFS and click "ok"
After clicking ok, respond positively to all warnings received. Then close all windows and go to the main program window.
Check the box next to " Vista / 7/ Server 2008…… " and select the same folder "win7" where you previously unpacked the Windows files from the iso image.
All that remains is to press the “GO” button and wait about 10 minutes until the program finishes its work.
It is worth noting that the program may not respond and simply freeze; in this case, you do not need to turn it off. In fact, it works, you just have to wait. After some time, the program will come to its senses and you can observe the progress of the work.
Hi all!
Today, reinstalling Windows OS is one of the most pressing problems for many PC users.
The reason for the reinstallation may be an action accidentally deleted system partition And so on.
If you do not have a disk drive to install Windows, you will need a bootable USB flash drive.
Let's talk about this. Today I will tell you how to create a bootable USB flash drive using two programs that, in my opinion, are the most convenient.
But perhaps you will also be interested in these articles:
In order to create a bootable flash drive, you need to take a drive with a capacity of at least 4 GB for the Windows OS and at least 1 GB for the Windows XP operating system. If you want to save an operating system image containing a set certain programs, then it is better to take a flash drive of 8 GB or more.
You will also need an ISO image of the operating system, which can be downloaded on the Internet, and a specialized program for creating bootable media.
WinSetupFromUSB 1.4.
First of all you need to download this application. To do this, go to the official Internet resource of the developers http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/downloads/.
It will be saved on your computer as an archive. If you plan to create a 32-bit Windows, then select WinSetupFromUSB_1-4.exe, and if 64-bit - WinSetupFromUSB_1-4_x64.exe.
Launch the application, select your flash drive. Then check the box next to “Auto format it with FBinst” and note that you need a file system called “NTFS”.
Remember! The described method consists of the following steps - formatting, selecting and recording ISO image. You can also simply put birds in all the right places, select the image at once and click on “Go”.
After you click on “Go”, a dialog box will appear in front of you in which you need to select “Yes”. A message will appear on the screen that you need to format the flash drive and all data will be lost. Don't worry, you took a flash drive without information?
The formatting process takes a few seconds. After this, the program will inform you that the work is complete. Click on “Ok” and proceed to the next step.
After formatting the flash drive, the application will immediately begin recording Windows. Since we are going to install the seventh version of Windows, we should select the appropriate field. The same is true when working with Windows XP. Check the box and click on the button with the ellipsis to...
After the image name appears in the field, select “Go”. The program will begin the process of creating a bootable flash.
Creating a flash drive for Windows installations lasts 3-5 minutes. When everything is ready, you will see a message at the bottom of the window, click “Done” and a window with the same confirmation will appear in front of you. Click “Ok”.
All is ready! If you this method If you’re not satisfied with something, then let’s look at the next one.
Creating a bootable flash drive using the CMD command line
I like this method primarily because there is no need to search for and download all kinds of programs, everything is done using standard Windows tools. The seventh version has a special utility called DISKPART. It is with the help of it that you and I will create our flash drive. Let's get started.
Now we move on to the last step - unpacking the ISO image and copying the files to the USB flash drive. To do this, right-click on the image and select “Extract to...” (select any folder on your PC), after unzipping, select everything and copy it to the drive. That's it, the bootable USB flash drive is ready!
I hope you found the information you received today helpful. Share a link to the material you read in in social networks, subscribe to blog news and see you soon!
With respect! Abdullin Ruslan
Step-by-step instructions for creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7, 8.1, 10, XP from an ISO image. Let's consider five different programs, for example let's create installation flash drive Windows 7.
All data from the flash drive will be deleted, make sure that there are no important files left in it!
1. Rufus
The Rufus program is distributed free of charge and allows you to quickly create a bootable USB flash drive with distributions of Windows 7, 8, 10. This utility weighs only 817 KB, has a completely Russified interface and also works without installation.
- Launch Rufus and connect the removable drive to your computer.
- Select the letter of the connected flash drive in the “Device” line.
- Specify the partition scheme. Select MBR for computers with BIOS or GPT for computers with UEFI.
- Select the NTFS file system.
The remaining parameters can be left unchanged. Now all you have to do is specify the path to the downloaded Windows 7 distribution by clicking on the CD-ROM icon next to the “ISO image” item. Through the Explorer window that opens, select the appropriate ISO image and click “Open”. In the main window Rufus programs Check again that the displayed data is correct and click on the “Start” button.
The bootable USB flash drive will be ready in 5-10 minutes.
2.UltraISO
The UltraISO program is designed to work with ISO disk images, but its capabilities also allow you to create bootable media to install the operating system.
3. Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool
The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool program is an official Microsoft product, so company representatives advise using it to create a bootable flash drive. However, even without such recommendations, the utility would have been a success - after all, you can do it in four simple steps. To do this, download the program and run it with administrator rights.
A wizard will appear on the screen. Microsoft Store", which will help you create a bootable USB flash drive.
- Click the “Browse” button and point the program to the path to the Windows distribution. Then click on the “Next” button.
- Select the media type - removable or optical. Since you are writing the system image to a flash drive and not to a DVD, click the “USB device” button.
- Connect the flash drive to the computer and select it in the line with detected devices. Click "Begin corying".
A warning will appear indicating that all files on the removable drive will be erased. 
Click "Erase USB Device", then confirm your choice again by clicking the "Ok" button. - Wait until the process of formatting and writing files to the removable drive.
4.WinSetupFromUSB
The WinSetupFromUSB utility does not have a Russian interface, but figuring out how to use it to burn an installation flash drive is quite simple.
Connect the drive to the USB port of your computer and format it so that there are no unnecessary files left on the flash drive. Further:
- In the WinSetupFromUSB program window, check the box next to “Windows Vista/7/8”.
- Click on the button in the form of three dots next to the marked line.
- Select via Explorer window Windows ISO image, which you want to burn to a removable disk, and open it.
- Click the “Go” button to start the installation media burning process.
The entire recording process will take about 20 minutes - quite long compared to other programs, but not so critical that you will be dissatisfied. When the bootable flash drive is ready, the message “Job done” will appear on the screen, which means “Job done.”
Close the program, restart the computer, set the BIOS to the desired one, or use the Boot Menu to install Windows 7.
5.UNetBootin
This program has exactly the same functions as those mentioned above, allowing you to create bootable media with the distribution Windows various editors.
- Download the Windows version of the program from the official website, install it and run.
- Connect the flash drive to your computer.
- In the main program window, select “Disk Image” and specify the path to it via Windows Explorer by clicking on the button with three dots.
- Specify the letter of the media on which the distribution will be written.
- Click OK and wait for the system files to be extracted and copied.
Conclusion
Users sometimes complain that this or that program does not see the connected flash drive or refuses to start at all. If you encounter such a situation, then try using another utility and at the same time check whether the USB controllers and the flash drive itself are working correctly: sometimes the problem is with them, and not with the program.
Is our step by step guide It would be incomplete if we did not consider the situation in which you have a UEFI BIOS on your computer and you want . For this purpose you will have to use Rufus or WinSetupFromUSB - they have the necessary tools to perform such an operation. In Rufus, to create a bootable USB flash drive on UEFI, you need to select not “MBR for computers with BIOS” in the partition scheme, but the second or third item, where we are talking about the UEFI interface ( latest versions BIOS). With WinSetupFromUSB everything is a little more complicated, since you will first have to format the flash drive to another file system - FAT32.
This is done like this:
- Connect the USB flash drive and run the utility. Check that the program detects the connected drive.
- Check "Auto Format" and select "FAT32".
- Check “Windows Vista/7/8” and specify the path to the system image.
- Confirm formatting to FAT32 and start burning the installation media by clicking “Go”.
When preparing to record, “Warning” windows will appear in which you need to click “Yes”. Don't worry, the flash drive will be written without errors, despite the warnings. Now it can be used to install Windows 7 on a computer with UEFI BIOS.
In principle, you can do without using third party software by creating installation media via the command line. However, this method is not entirely convenient, since it involves entering about a dozen commands. Special utilities can significantly save time by performing all the work quickly and without errors.
