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A program for creating an installation disk. The best programs to create a bootable USB flash drive

There are several ways to create a bootable and multiboot flash drive, which can be used to install a new operating system or restore and “repair” an old one. There are currently many utilities available for creating such flash drives, and the best of them will be described below.

We use standard Windows tools

If you need to install Windows 10 or 8.1 on computers with UEFI (the easiest way to identify it is by the presence of a mouse cursor when entering the BIOS), then you can carry out the installation in the simplest way. Enough transfer the unpacked image OS on a flash drive formatted in FAT32. The image, however, must be licensed, otherwise the recording may not work and it would be better to use other means.

Microsoft Windows Installation Media Creation Tool

A utility released by Microsoft allows you to create a bootable flash drive for OS 8.1 and 10. In this case, the program itself is downloaded from the official Microsoft website, just like the distribution kit for creating the image. In this case, you can be one hundred percent sure that there will be no viruses in either the image or the program.

After downloading, you will need to select the language, version and bit depth of the OS. If the utility is used from a computer with Windows 8.1 or 10 installed, the license key will be taken from the system, otherwise it will have to be entered manually. After this, you need to specify the device on which the image will be written or save it to your computer for subsequent recording to disk.

Programs for creating multiboot flash drives

This type of portable device allows you to store several operating systems at once and use exactly the one that is needed at the moment to boot. Basically, such flash drives are used by those who often deal with computer repairs, but it would not be a bad idea for an ordinary user to have one at home.

WinSetupFromUSB

A well-known program that is quite easy to work with, and at the same time, recorded images rarely fail to run, and then, mainly, because of themselves, and not the recording. In order to avoid installing various adware programs on your computer, the utility is better download from the official website.

In order to use the program, you do not need to install it, just run. After starting, you need to check the boxes for the types of operating systems that will be loaded onto the flash drive, and then specify the path to the corresponding required file. If the flash drive is not bootable, you need to check the very first box, as in the image. This will erase all data and make the device bootable. If the user is going to add another system to an existing bootable portable device, then this checkbox must be unchecked.

SARDU

A utility that helps you write images to a drive and test the result. After downloading, you need to specify the path to the OS file on the disk, or you can download one of those that the program offers. This system will still be downloaded to the computer, but it is better to change the standard folder to your own in the “Downloader” item.

After all the necessary files have been downloaded to your computer, you should check the boxes next to them and burn them using “BurnISO”.

Butler

Program from an author from Russia. After downloading, you will need to install it and format the flash drive using the included program. After launch, you will need to select the appropriate menu item " Folder" or " Image", depending on how the system is stored. In point " Teams“You can configure various commands for the boot disk; in the case of installing Windows, you should select the first item.

In the future, you can choose the design and type of the loading window, which will not affect the functionality in any way.

Utilities for creating bootable flash drives

These applications allow you to record only one OS on a portable device, but are easier to use.

Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

The official program, downloaded from the Microsoft website, works only with their operating systems. It’s extremely easy to use, just select a file where to write it and that’s all.

WinToUSB Free

Allows you to create a device from which Windows will directly launch, without installation on computer. It can be useful if the user has messed up and deleted system files in the main system, but does not want to reinstall the system. By running the OS from a portable device, you can restore these files, and generally just work as if you were running a regular system.

Rufus

An excellent and free utility that copes where many others fail. To use, you need to select a flash drive, specify the file system in which it will be formatted and select the OS to install. To do this, in the corresponding menu item you should chooseISO image. In the latest versions, it allows you to create a portable device to run the system from it without installation.

WinToFlash

A fairly simple program that allows you to burn almost any Windows onto a USB flash drive.

Creating a bootable disk using UltraISO

First, you need to download and install the UltraISO program from the Internet. The program is paid, but most Internet resources post already hacked versions (for example, on the website rutracker.org). You can also download the Windows image there if you haven't already. In addition, you will need a blank CD or DVD, which you can buy at any computer store or market 🙂 The further process is incredibly simple! Insert a blank disk into the drive of your computer, go to the folder with the already downloaded Windows image. Right-click on the image, point to the “UltraISO” inscription, move the mouse arrow to the right to the menu that appears and select “Burn to disk...”.

creating a bootable disk using UltraISO

The “Burn disc” window appears, there you simply click the “Burn” button and wait. When the recording is complete, the drive will give you a ready boot disk.

Creating a Boot Disk Using Nero

To create a boot disk using this method, you must have any version of the popular Nero program installed on your computer. Also, as in the previous method, you must have a blank CD or DVD and a Windows image. Launch the Nero Burning Rom program (Start->Programs->Nero->Nero Burning Rom). You should see the New Project window appear. On the left, select the “DVD-ROM (boot)” option from the list, then to the right of the “image file” line, click the “browse” button and specify the path to the Windows image.

Click the “New” button, then in the window that appears at the top, select “Record”. It is advisable to check the box next to “Finalize disc”. Insert a blank disc into the drive, if you have not already done so, and click the “Burn” button.

Wait for your boot disk to burn. That's it 😉 An article on installing Windows XP, and an article on installing Windows 7.

Best regards, Alexander Molchanov

Hello, friends! Today we’ll talk again about creating a bootable USB flash drive.

How to create a bootable USB device? For what purpose should I use it and what program should I use to record it?

A brief overview of the five most popular and free programs for creating a bootable USB flash drive.

Modern developments do not stand still, and yesterday's technologies are slowly but surely losing their relevance. So the once popular CDs and DVDs no longer seem like such a clear solution for storing, transferring and working with information. High data reading speed, versatility and reusability are just a small part of all the advantages of a flash drive as a bootable medium over disks. Already today, almost all personal computers and laptops, if they are no more than ten years old, support the ability to boot from USB devices. And in some cases (for example, a netbook), a flash drive may be the only boot device from an external drive.

By the way, the new Windows 10 operating system will be the first axis, the distribution of which will be officially distributed on a USB drive. And if you suddenly need to recover files from a flash drive, read about it. I also recommend paying attention to, which will help you take your mind off everyday work and lift your spirits.

With the help of additional software, a flash drive can be used not only as a boot device for installing, reinstalling and restoring the operating system, but also to create an emergency device (Multiboot). This is a kind of resuscitator, a tool from which you can boot at any time and cure your computer of viruses, restore system files or save important data. I described how to create such a flash drive resuscitator in the article “Creating a bootable Live CD/DVD/USB device and its use.” You can read this article.

Despite all the obvious advantages and the growing popularity of a flash drive as a bootable device, there are not so many programs for creating it. Nevertheless, they exist, and today I will introduce you to them in more detail, but first a few words about the preparatory stage.

Preparing a flash drive

We will need the flash drive itself, plus knowledge of some important aspects. First, you need to make sure that your computer supports booting from USB devices. There is a misconception that if in the bios (boot section) there is no option to select boot from usb (there are only floppi, hdd and dvd-rom options), then boot from usb is not supported. This is wrong!

More precisely, this is not always the case. The only correct solution is to refer to the manual (user manual) of your motherboard or using specialized software (AIDA64 as an option) to obtain a detailed report on the hardware used.

The second point is the size of the flash drive. Here everything will depend on what we write on it. For example, to create a Live-USB, Linux or Windows 7 installation disk, a 4 GB flash drive is enough. To create a bootable device with the latest versions of Windows, it is advisable to have a flash drive of at least 8 GB on hand.

The third point is transferring files from a flash drive. Typically, the process of creating a boot device involves completely formatting it. If there are important files on the flash drive, transfer them to another device in advance. To create a bootable USB flash drive and then use it as a boot device, use the USB-2.0 port (Windows 7 does not support USB 3.0).

How to create a bootable USB flash drive

Let's look at five different methods using five free programs for Windows as an example.


A small but quite functional utility with the self-explanatory name WinSetupFromUSB. Equally well suited for recording a bootable and/or multiboot flash drive (up to 10 operating systems) and creating Live devices. Official site .

Among the shortcomings is the lack of support for the Russian language. Among the advantages, as I already said, is its versatility. The utility can work not only with Windows distributions, but is also suitable for burning an installation disk with Linux.

The usual option for creating a bootable flash drive, for example, with a Windows distribution, involves selecting the flash drive itself, the option to automatically format the media, and the ISO image of the operating system in the appropriate boxes. The recording process starts after pressing the “Go” button. You can read more about how this program works.

To create a multiboot flash drive (several OS), you need to specify the path to the ISO images of the operating systems. At the time of writing this article, the Windows 10 selection item is missing by default, but in reality everything is written and works, you just need to select the appropriate box with the available versions - Vista, 7, 8.

2. Rufus

Perhaps the simplest solution for creating bootable USB drives. Everything is simple and intuitive. Suitable for working on systems that do not have an installed OS. Official site rufus.akeo.ie.

The main advantages are speed, simple interface, Russian language. An excellent solution if you need to create a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive with UEFI support. By the way, I wrote in detail about how to do this in.

Distributed in the format of a regular installer and a portable version. To create a bootable USB flash drive, in the utility window you need to specify the path to the ISO image to be written and click the “Start” button.

On new systems that use UEFI instead of BIOS, set the Partition Scheme and System Interface Type menu to GPT for computers with UEFI.
In other cases, the default settings will be sufficient. The option to format a flash drive is assigned by default.

3. Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

This utility is an official application from Microsoft. The interface is minimalistic, simple and clear, it is easy to work with. Download from the official website wudt.codeplex.com.

Perhaps the name of the utility (Windows 7 USB) will mislead many that with its help you can only write the Windows 7 distribution to removable media. However, this is not the case. In addition to the seventh version, Windows 8.1 and 10 distributions can be stored on a flash drive.

The downside is that the utility is not Russified, but the simple and intuitive interface is designed to offset this drawback.

All that is required from the user is to insert a USB drive in advance, select an ISO image with the operating system and specify the path to the media (flash drive) to which this image should be deployed.

The operating principle of this program is based on standard tools of the Windows operating system - these are “diskpart”, “bootsect /nt60”, unpacking ISO onto a flash drive. The program acts only as a graphical interface.

UltraISO is one of the best and most functional programs for working with disk images. A universal “harvester” that supports work with almost any known formats. Can work in tandem with Nero Burning Rom and integrates with virtual emulators. It will help if the boot disk image is not in ISO format.

The program can convert other image formats into ISO files - NRG, MDF, MDS, IMG, CCD, etc. With UltraISO you can edit ISO files without unpacking them. The UltraISO interface has been translated into many languages, including Russian. For downloading, you are offered several editions of UltraISO, adapted for individual versions of Windows, as well as a portable version of the program. Download link www.ezbsystems.com.

By and large, the program does not care what boot devices will be created with its help, with what operating system, what software and from what manufacturer. The ISO image to be burned must be opened in the program window either using the Open command in the File menu or using the browse button on the toolbar. This can also be done using the Ctrl + O key combination.

Then in the window that appears, if the program automatically selects the desired flash drive, you should click the “Burn” button.

Daemon Tools Ultra is a professional tool for working with images. The program itself is familiar to many users from the free Lite version, which allows you to mount virtual drives for reading disk images. Its more functional version - Daemon Tools Ultra - offers, among other features, the creation of boot devices.

Among the disadvantages, it is worth noting that it is paid, but to create a bootable flash drive, you can download a free 20-day trial version on the official website of the program. Official website of the program.

Go to the official website and download the program. During installation (installation), you need to select a trial license type.

The program works with a huge number of disk image formats and can be used both to create a boot device with subsequent installation of the operating system, and to restore it (Live disk).

To create a bootable flash drive, in the main window of Daemon Tools Ultra, select the “Tools” menu item, and among its commands is “Write bootable image to USB”. Or the hotkey combination Ctrl+B.

In the recording parameters window, specify the path to the image, enable the MBR rewrite option and click “Start”.

When the flash drive is ready, all that remains is to boot from it. The easiest way is to use the boot menu keys. The table below shows a clear example of such keys.

Of course, this is not the entire list of programs designed to create bootable devices, but for the vast majority of users, the capabilities and functionality of the listed software will be sufficient.

For example, the Rufus program can be used as the simplest and fastest tool for creating a bootable USB drive with one Windows distribution or for flashing BIOS from DOS.

If you have long been looking for a high-quality and simple program with which you can create bootable and multiboot usb-flash, and even in Russian, then now you can breathe a sigh of relief, since an updated version of the program was released this year Butler, which is just such a tool. With its help, you can create multi-boot flash drives with the Grub4DOS bootloader, with which you can easily install operating systems from Windows 2000 and higher!

The Butler program is very easy to use thanks to the Russian-language interface! After all, previously, in order to understand programs of this type, you had to translate the names of the tools manually or follow not always clear instructions in order to create a bootable flash drive. And in Butler everything is clear and precise. In addition to creating a bootable USB flash drive with various Windows operating systems and updates for them, you can also create and load onto a USB flash drive images of programs for system recovery or maintenance, such as ERDC Commander, Acronis, Kaspersky Resque Disk Partition Magic, Paragon and others.

Download Butler in Russian via torrent

You can download the Butler program to create a multiboot flash drive in our project by following the link below. If you are trying to create such a usb-flash for the first time, then do not be afraid that something may not work out for you, because, as mentioned above, the Butler program is really very easy to use, you just need to perform three simple steps: specify image type, path to it, select the media type and also indicate the path to it. And - voila! - bootable flash drive is ready for use!

INSTALLING THE BUTLER PROGRAM
- Run the installation file for the Butler 2.5 program setup.msi.
- Install the program following the prompts of the installation wizard.
- Go to the folder C:\Program Files\nikmam\Butler 2.5
- Right-click the “start.exe” file and select the “properties” menu
- In the "Start.exe Properties" window, on the compatibility tab, enable the "Run this program as an administrator" checkbox.
- Click “Apply” and “OK”. The program is ready to use.

WORKING WITH THE PROGRAM
- Format the USB drive by running the program
Start -> nikmam -> tools -> HPUSBFW
- Launch the Butler 2.5 program
Make sure that the program was launched as an administrator and did not generate any errors (Check the properties of the start.exe file in the folder with the program).
- Create a list of programs and OS to be added on the USB-Flash by filling out the list of download points as follows:
a) Select the folder with the Windows distribution by clicking the "browse folder" button on the "Folder" tab, or select the boot image by clicking the "browse files" button on the "Disk Image" tab
b) The program will automatically detect the contents of the folder or boot image.
The name of the distribution will appear in the "name" field. Edit the title or leave it as is
c) Click the add button to add to the list of download points
d) On the "Commands" tab you can select the desired command, also edit the name and add it to the list of loading points
- Check all added distributions to ensure there are no errors. If something happens, select the distribution you don’t need and click the delete button.
Attention! To install Windows, be sure to add the “Start HDD” command to the flash drive menu to start the hard drive from the flash drive after the first stage of installing Windows.
- Select the media on which we will install the added utilities.
- Click the next button and select the bootloader menu theme from the list. To preview a theme, double-click on an element.
- Click the start button to create a bootable USB flash drive.
- Wait until the bootable flash drive is created.
- Be sure to defragment your boot files. Boot images with the “Linux”, “KRD”, and “ESET” algorithm types will not work without defragmenting the files of these images on the USB drive.
Run the Start program -> nikmam -> tools -> WinContig and select the files on the flash drive and defragment them.

The flash drive is ready!!! Good luck!!!

P.S. It is recommended to choose a theme for the bootloader menu called “Text”, because The graphical theme for the bootloader menu may not work on some motherboards and instead a text menu with “Crakozyabrs” will be displayed.

As sad as it may be for many, the era of CD/DVDs is slowly but surely coming to an end... Today, users are increasingly thinking about having an emergency bootable USB flash drive in case they suddenly have to reinstall the system.

And the point here is not only to pay tribute to fashion. The OS is installed faster from a flash drive than from a disk; such a flash drive can be used on a computer that does not have a CD/DVD drive (and all modern computers have USB), and you shouldn’t forget about the ease of transfer: a flash drive can easily fit into any pocket, unlike a disk.

1. What is needed to create a bootable USB flash drive?

1) The most important thing is a flash drive. For Windows 7, 8 OS, you will need a flash drive with a size of at least 4 GB, preferably 8 (some images may not fit into 4 GB).

2) An image of a Windows boot disk, most often an ISO file. If you have an installation disk, you can create such a file yourself. It is enough to use the program Clone CD, Alcohol 120%, UltraISO and others (see how to do this).

3) One of the programs for writing an image to a flash drive (they will be discussed below).

Important point! If your PC (netbook, laptop) has, in addition to USB 2.0, also USB 3.0, connect the flash drive to the USB 2.0 port during installation. This applies primarily to Windows 7 (and lower) operating systems, because... These OS do not support USB 3.0! The installation attempt will end with an OS error stating that it is impossible to read data from such media. By the way, they are quite easy to recognize, USB 3.0 is shown in blue, the connectors for it are the same color.

usb 3.0 on laptop

And one more thing... Make sure your Bios supports booting from USB media. If your PC is modern, then it should definitely have this function. For example, my old home computer, bought back in 2003. can boot from USB. How configure Bios to boot from a flash drive - .

2. Utilities for burning a bootable ISO disk to a USB flash drive

2.1 WinToFlash

I would like to focus on this utility mainly because it allows you to burn bootable flash drives with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8. Probably the most universal! You can read about other functions and capabilities on the official website. Here I would like to look at how you can create a flash drive for installing the OS.

After launching the utility, by default, the wizard starts (see screenshot below). To proceed to creating a bootable USB flash drive, click on the green checkmark in the center.

The process of transferring Windows system files usually takes 5-10 minutes. At this time, it is better not to load your PC with unnecessary resource-intensive processes.

If the recording was successful, the wizard will notify you about this. To start the installation, you need to insert the USB flash drive and restart the computer.

One of the best programs for working with ISO images. It is possible to compress these images, create, unpack, etc. There are also functions for recording boot disks and flash drives (hard drives).

This program was mentioned quite often on the site, so here I will give only a couple of links:

2.3 USB/DVD Download Tool

A lightweight utility that allows you to burn flash drives with Windows 7 and 8. The only negative, perhaps, is that when writing, it may give an error of 4 GB. The flash drive supposedly doesn't have enough space. Although there is enough space for other utilities, on the same flash drive, with the same image...

By the way, the issue of recording a bootable USB flash drive in this utility for Windows 8 was considered.

2.4 WinToBootic

Website: http://www.wintobootic.com/

A very simple utility that will help you quickly and worry-free create a bootable USB drive with Windows Vista/7/8/2008/2012. The program takes up very little space - less than 1 MB.

At the first launch, it required Net Framework 3.5 installed; not everyone has such a package, and downloading and installing it is not a quick task...

But the process of creating bootable media is very fast and pleasant. First, insert the flash drive into the USB, then launch the utility. Now click on the green arrow and indicate the location of the image with the Windows installation disk. The program can directly record from an ISO image.

2.5 WinSetupFromUSB

A simple and main free program. With it you can quickly create bootable media. By the way, what’s interesting is that a flash drive can accommodate not only Windows OS, but also Gparted, SisLinux, a built-in virtual machine, etc.

To start creating a bootable USB flash drive, run the utility. By the way, please note that there is a special add-on for the x64 version!

Once launched you only need to specify 2 things:

  1. First, indicate the flash drive on which the recording will be made. Usually, it is determined automatically. By the way, under the line with the flash drive there is a checkbox: “Auto Format” - it is recommended to check the box and not touch anything else.
  2. In the “Add USB dick” section, select the line with the required OS and check the box. Next, indicate the location on your hard drive where the image with this ISO OS is located.
  3. The last thing you do is click on the “GO” button.

By the way! The program may behave as if it is frozen while recording. In fact, most often it works, just do not touch the PC for about 10 minutes. You can also pay attention to the lower part of the program window: messages about the recording process appear on the left and a green stripe is visible...

3. Conclusion

In this article, we looked at several ways to create bootable USB flash drives. A few tips when writing such flash drives:

  1. First of all, copy all the files from the media, in case you need something later. During recording, all information from the flash drive will be deleted!
  2. Do not load your computer with other processes during the recording process.
  3. Wait for a successful information message from the utilities with which you work with the flash drive.
  4. Disable antivirus software before creating bootable media.
  5. Do not edit the installation files on the flash drive after burning it.

That's all, happy OS installation everyone!