MS-DOS boot disk. Creating a bootable flash drive with DOS Diary Maxim Bogolepov
A special file manager for conveniently launching portable programs directly from a flash drive.
Attention! The description below of working with the program refers to an earlier version: Linker 2.1.0.911.
USB flash keys came into mass use not so long ago, but immediately gained popularity among users. Compared to floppy disks, flash drives are more reliable, compatible with all PCs and, most importantly, much larger capacity.
The latter fact led to the emergence of so-called portable software: programs adapted to launch and work directly from a USB drive without the need for installation.
Users liked this idea so much that today there are portable versions of almost all popular applications. Moreover, the developers of many new programs, focusing on the consumer, deliberately begin to release programs that do not require installation.
If you are a modern user and closely follow trends in software development, then you probably have your own collections of portable applications for all occasions.
However, a problem may arise when trying to run a particular program: you will have to open the flash drive and look for the folder (sometimes nested in several subdirectories) in which the executable file is located. However, you can do it easier - collect all the links to the necessary programs, files and folders in one place. A small program will help us with this - Linker.
Thanks to it, you can create a catalog of all the data you need with direct links to them. Thus, calling any program added to the list will be done in one click! A commercial analogue of Linker is CodySafe Σ:
Comparison of the Linker program with the paid analogue CodySafe
Compared to its paid counterpart, Linker has, one might say, a Spartan interface. It does not have ready-made pre-installed sections, but this can hardly be considered a disadvantage, since it is possible to completely customize all sections to suit your needs. CodySafe Σ is integrated with an online database of portable software.
Linker does not have such integration, but you can download from the official website a small selection of useful utilities called “Quick Start”.
I suggest downloading the program and getting to know it better. Linker does not require installation, so you just need to unpack it to any directory (even on your hard drive).
When you first launch it, two more files will appear next to the program’s executable file, which should not be deleted: one of them will store information about all added links, and the second will contain the settings of the Linker itself.
Linker interface
Let's now look at the program in action:
When you first start it, you will see only a small empty window with four buttons at the top. The first opens the program menu, the second serves to add new entries to the list, the third allows you to edit already added links, and the last one allows you to delete them.
Creating partitions
Logically, we should first create the sections we need. To do this, click the “Add” button and select “Add group” in the menu that appears:
In the window that appears, enter a name and description for the group being created (the latter is optional). After clicking the “Ok” button, the new group will be added to the list.
Creating links in sections
It's even easier to place a link in a newly created group! We can use the same “Add” menu for this (by selecting “Add element”), but it will be much faster to simply drag the desired file into the program window.
As mentioned above, Linker perfectly supports Drag&Drop, so after dragging a new element, basic information about it in the form of a link and icon will be automatically added to the form:
All you have to do is set a name, specify additional parameters for launching a new program and add a description to it. It can be very convenient to use the function of automatically copying the selected file to a flash drive.
To transfer it to a USB drive, just activate the “Copy folder with the program to a shared directory” option in the adding element window. The folder with the selected portable application will be in the same folder where you have Linker.
The only caveat is that in order to be able to collapse sections, you should simply drag all programs related to it onto the name of the desired group. After this, a “+” icon will appear next to the name. Now, after clicking on the group name, the list will open:
Be sure to save your changes before exiting the program. To do this, you need to go to the “Advanced” menu. Functions" and select "Save configuration":
Bonus goodies
The last Linker function is not so obvious, but it is extremely useful if the list of links is large enough. To quickly find the element you need, just start typing its name. This activates the filtering function, and Linker will display a list consisting only of those records in which the combination of characters you entered occurs:
To return to the general list, just delete the entered characters using the Backspace key.
The advantage of Linker is its versatility. We are not dependent on the whim of the developer and are free to create our own sections that only we need. We can add links not only to portable software, but also to any other files and even folders without any restrictions.
And the last argument in favor of Linker is the ability to use the program on your local hard drive as a program to quickly launch applications and documents! As for the downsides, there are basically none :).
conclusions
By choosing Linker we get a completely stable and functional program! Therefore, if you have finally decided to “put things in order” on your flash drive, then you can safely install Linker on it and you won’t go wrong;)!
P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.
The development of the hardware and software industries occurs in different ways. At first glance, it may seem that applications must change faster than physical technologies because they are run by a huge army of programmers and because modernization of the code requires only a computer to support it. In practice, over thirty years, the principles of microcircuit layout, production technology of processors and RAM, displays and input/output devices have changed dramatically.
And the MS-DOS operating system still remains one of the most relevant tools for restoring PC functionality.
Although its shortcomings - which, first of all, include the lack of a graphical interface familiar to most users - frighten off non-specialists, experienced system administrators, faced with serious malfunctions in the computer, boot it from DOS.
Features of the Volkov Commander tool
The absence of a graphical shell, among other things, means the absence of a number of auxiliary processes that themselves can cause errors, so simple DOS is ideal for diagnostics - especially since some “native” Windows programs for it do not work correctly.
These include, for example, Volkov Commander - a file manager, which, along with Norton Commander, was the main manager for DOS for many years and, as a result, one of the key tools for viewing files on a computer with “dead” Windows. In everyday life, Volkov Commander is unlikely to be needed by anyone, but a hard drive infected with viruses is sometimes most effectively cleaned manually, through a manager that does not hide some files and libraries of its own free will, as Explorer usually does.
Creating Volkov Commander using HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
To use Volkov Commander, you need to have a bootable USB flash drive with this program. You need to prepare it in advance, and this can be done in many ways. In particular, you can resort to burning a disk image with DOS and Volkov Commander via UltraISO. However, in relation to DOS, it is more reliable to use some utility to create bootable flash drives. To do this, you will need the utility itself - for example, the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, distributed free of charge - and a package of DOS operating system files, which can also be found freely available on the Internet.
Creating any bootable flash drive begins with copying all valuable files from it - they will be destroyed in the process of writing boot files.
Configuring settings in the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
Then you need to launch the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. In the program window, in the “Device” list, you need to select the flash drive that will be bootable, leave FAT32 in the “File system” list (NTFS - DOS OS is not supported without installing a special driver), and check the “Create a DOS startup Disk” checkbox.
In other utilities, the names of interface elements are almost the same; they all boil down to the fact that you need to specify the drive itself, its formatting parameters, and the fact that the flash drive must have a so-called boot sector.
In order for the operating system to be written to the flash drive, you need to check the box “using DOS system files located at” and specify the path to the unpacked DOS files. After clicking Start, a message will appear stating that all information on the flash drive will be deleted; click OK and wait for the recording to complete.
Copying Volkov Commander to a USB flash drive
After this, you can copy to the flash drive those programs that will run under DOS, including Volkov Commander. You just need to check that all names contain only Latin characters, and the programs themselves are in unpacked form, i.e. with exe extension.
In the file AUTOEXEC.BAT, which should be located in the root of the USB flash drive, you can register programs to autorun. Otherwise, they are opened from DOS by specifying the location and name of the executable file.
The time of floppy disks is irrevocably a thing of the past, and with it the unique opportunity to boot your computer from them. Global corporations failed to revive this magnetic storage medium, despite the fact that a number of attempts were made to increase its capacity. Flash memory has won on all fronts, and even software is already offered by some manufacturers on USB drives and memory cards.
But with the introduction of “memory key fobs”, as well as the cessation of supplies of cases equipped with 3.5-inch floppy drives, which are now being replaced by “all-in-one” card readers, ordinary users were faced with questions: how to boot, how to make a bootable USB flash drive if the OS suddenly out of order? This also applies to fashionable and inexpensive netbooks. You can buy a USB optical drive and forget about the problem. But its cost has recently increased greatly (the average price exceeds 3,500 rubles), and even if you purchase it, the mobility of a netbook is greatly reduced.
Tool selection
What remains is the USB drive (or flash card). It would be easier if the image of a bootable flash drive could be
download from the Internet, “deploy” it on your own media and don’t rack your brains over making it yourself. But due to technological features, flash media does not have a boot sector, and to write it you need an emulator program. This means that you will not be able to use the ISO image.
Let's start making a bootable flash drive ourselves. Having studied all the methods, we chose the simplest, most effective and also with support for FAT32, which will make it possible to work with long file names. It is based on creating a boot partition on the drive using the free HP Usb Disk Storage Format Tool.
Additionally, most computers today have hard drive partitions on the NTFS file system. Therefore, in order to see the computer’s hard drives after booting from a USB flash drive, you need to install an NTFS driver. After a long search for free solutions, Paragon came to our aid. In her arsenal she found a suitable driver that allows not only reading, but also writing files to an NTFS disk partition.
So, we will need the following programs:
1. HP Usb Disk Storage Format Tool;
2. Windows 98 boot floppy image;
3. SMARTDRIVE utility;
4. file manager running under DOS (for example, Volcov Commander);
5. Paragon-NTFS-for-DOS, NTFS driver for DOS.
HP USB DISK STORAGE FORMAT TOOL— a program for formatting and creating bootable flash media. Unlike its analogues, it can format them in FAT32.
You will find all these programs on the DVD that comes with the CHIP magazine, with the exception of the Windows 98 boot diskette image. The latter can be easily downloaded from the Internet (for example, at: www.flashboot.ru) - its volume is 1.42 MB.
It is advisable to use a USB flash drive or memory card (SD is more suitable for a standard card reader) with a capacity of 4 GB, since it will be possible to place the installation kit of the required OS on it. In case of data rescue, additional storage space will also not hurt.
BOOT FROM A FLASH DRIVE, you can copy
Windows XP installation kit on hard drive
Practical use
By booting from a USB drive, we have the ability to copy and edit files both from a flash drive to a hard drive and vice versa, which can be useful for rescuing data on an inoperable operating system. In addition, if you connect an external hard drive to another USB port, the volume of saved information will not be limited by the capacity of the drive. If you have a Windows XP distribution, you can copy it to your hard drive to later use for installation. But installing the system on a hard drive will not work, since in this case drive C is a bootable “flash drive”.
________________________________________
The process has started
So, all the necessary components are at hand - let's get started.
Install the HP Usb Disk Storage Format Tool utility and launch it using the shortcut that appears on the Desktop.
In the window that opens, in the “Device” field, indicate your flash drive, and in the “File system” field, select FAT32. The “Volume label” field can be left empty, but in the “Format option” section, check the “Create a DOS startup disk” option. In the field that opens, specify the address of the directory with the Windows 98 boot floppy image.
Please note that during the subsequent operation the USB drive (or memory card) will be formatted and all files will be destroyed. Therefore, before performing this operation, the program will warn you about this. Confirm the formatting by first copying important data from it. The program will show a format bar and notify you that bootable media has been created.
After the “flash drive” turns into a bootable drive, copy to it the folders with the file manager (in our case this is the \VC folder) and the NTFS driver (you will get it by unpacking the Pargon-NTFS.rar archive from our disk), the SmartDrive file and , if necessary, the directory with the OS installation kit (in the case of Windows XP, this can be the \i386 folder). 
Everything is ready to start
To be able to start the system from a USB drive, you need to set the appropriate parameters in the BIOS of your computer. Reboot it and, after waiting for the BIOS to start loading, press the “Del” key (different devices use different buttons for this). Go to the section where boot device priorities are set and select boot from USB-HDD there. Unfortunately, there is no uniformity among manufacturers, so you will have to experiment.
Save your settings and exit the BIOS setup screen. After this, connect the bootable “flash drive” to any USB port (or a memory card to a card reader) - the computer should start from this media.
Once you see “C:\>” and a blinking cursor on the black screen, you can enter DOS commands or launch a file manager by typing “\vc\vc.com.”
Note that drive C in our case is bootable media, not the computer’s hard drive.
The next important step is to launch the NTFS driver, which will allow you to work with hard drives, or rather with their NTFS format partitions. Go to the \ntfs-paragon folder and run the mount.bat file. After this, all disks will be available.
You may find this information useful:
Sometimes you need to run a program from the command line. This could be flashing the BIOS, or some other task.
For these purposes, it is best to use a bootable USB flash drive with DOS. In this case, having a working operating system is not necessary.
How to create such a flash drive will be discussed in this guide.
Creating a bootable USB flash drive
First you need to download the archive with the necessary files from these links: /
Run the downloaded file:
We indicate where the archive should be unpacked and click Extract:
Go to the folder USB-Flash-www.site and run the file hp_usb_tool.exe:
We insert the flash drive, copy all the information from it to the laptop’s hard drive or to another flash drive
During the preparation of the bootable flash drive, all information from it will be deleted
Launch the utility HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool:
Up in the field Device indicate the drive on which your flash drive is located. Put a tick next to Create a DOS startup Disk, celebrate using DOS system files located at and indicate the path to the DOS folder in the folder where you unpacked the archive. In the window File System indicate FAT32.
We start the process by clicking Start. The utility will issue a warning that all information on the flash drive will be deleted. Click Yes:
We wait until formatting is completed:
At the end of the process, the following window will appear:
We insert them onto your flash drive:
If everything is done correctly, then the bootable flash drive should have the following files:
You can also copy files and programs that you will run from DOS to a flash drive.
Without removing the flash drive, reboot the laptop, press F2 to enter the BIOS. We look in the BIOS where the boot order is indicated (sometimes this section is called Boot options). Using the F5 and F6 buttons, we ensure that your flash drive is at the very top, that is, loading starts from the flash drive, and not from the hard drive or DVD drive.
Let's reboot. When loading, the file manager should start Volkov Commander.
Now you can run the necessary programs for flashing the BIOS, restoring the MBR and for other tasks.
Edited by: FuzzyL- March 4, 2011
Reason: Updating materials
We believe that in any home you can find tools such as a screwdriver or scissors - useful and necessary things in the household. In the same way, anyone who deals with computer hardware will definitely have at hand (in addition to the same Phillips-head screwdriver) a couple of media that are aptly dubbed “reanimators” by the people. These media are bootable disks or flash drives with recorded software intended for testing and restoring system operation. Live distributions of various operating systems, most often based on Linux, are used as such a “saving” independent environment.
The question “Where can I get a resuscitator?” can be solved in different ways. For some it is easier to download an image of such media from the Internet, while another user will prefer their own assembly, compiling a collection of the necessary software and drivers for a specific configuration. Well, of course, the second option is more attractive, since it makes it possible to get an ideal tool in all respects for checking the functionality of individual computer units and restoring the system. However, not everyone has the free time and desire to experiment with creating such a tool. It is for such users that this article is intended. In it we will tell and show how to create a “saving” bootable USB flash drive in a matter of minutes.
Developers of LiveCD distributions often include a special utility that can be used to burn their version of Linux to a USB drive. However, in most cases, such software does not provide the ability to work with any images of other systems, and besides this, the number of functions in such utilities is limited. That is why it makes sense to use universal tools for creating bootable flash drives. We will look at some of them in this review.
⇡ MultiBoot USB 2.1.5.1
- Developer: Pen Drive Linux
- Distribution: free
- Russian interface: no
To prepare a bootable USB flash drive, you need to download a LiveCD boot disk image from the Internet in advance. When a user just starts experimenting with recording various Linux builds, it is difficult for him to “hit the mark” the first time and guess the best version of the operating system. Therefore, before settling on any particular distribution, you have to spend time searching for images, downloading them, recording them on media and analyzing their performance. With MultiBoot USB this task is greatly simplified.
Sometimes, for some reason, a certain LiveCD does not start or starts incorrectly. The reason for this may be either the specific configuration of the computer or errors in the assembly itself. To reduce the likelihood of failure to launch the “emergency system,” you can create a multiboot flash drive image that will simultaneously include several boot disk images. For example, you can put Ubuntu, Windows PE, Kaspersky Rescue Disk, KNOPPIX, Jolicloud, and so on on one drive.
MultiBoot USB works very simply. After launching the application, the letter to which the flash drive is currently attached is indicated. After that, from the long list of supported distributions, you select the name of the Linux assembly that should be written to the media. The number of images recorded on one flash drive is limited only by the storage capacity. When selecting the desired distribution, you can check the box next to the "Download the ISO" option. In this case, MultiBoot USB will automatically download the image of the selected disk from the Internet, or rather, open a direct download link in the browser. Since the direct download link address may change, after selecting the desired LiveCD from the list, a link appears in the program window to go to the official project page.
You can only add one OS to a flash drive at a time. At the end of the process of copying and unpacking files, MultiBoot USB will ask whether to complete the procedure for writing a multiboot flash drive. If you answer in the affirmative, the program will close, otherwise the procedure for adding the next image to the USB drive will be the same as the first time.
The multiboot flash drive menu is based on a modified GRUB4DOS bootloader. The principle of its preparation is so universal and simple that you can add one that is not in the general list to the menu of supported distributions. To do this, just select the Try an Unlisted ISO option and specify the path to the distribution on your hard drive. The configuration files that MultiBoot USB copies to a flash drive can be easily edited, for example, changing the order of systems in the menu, item titles, and so on.
By default, the menu with selected LiveCD images is designed in a classic style: a black background and a penguin with a USB drive.
If desired, you can change this design to your own. To do this, you need to prepare an image with a resolution of 640x480 in advance. Because this uses a low-color (4-bit) graphics mode, “cartoon-like” images, such as vector drawings with a limited number of colors, will look best.
If you look at the contents of a multiboot flash drive prepared using MultiBoot USB, you will see that the splash.xpm.gz archive is present on the disk. This archive contains an image that will serve as a background when a menu with a choice of download options is displayed. This picture is saved in *.xpm format. You can get an image in this format in different ways. For example, this can be conveniently done using the Total Commander file manager and the installed additional module Imagine, designed for viewing and working with graphics. Select the image you are going to use for the multiboot menu and press Ctrl+Q. Now right-click on the image and from the Imagine menu change the color depth of the image by selecting Image > Change color depth. In the menu that appears, specify 16 colors (4 bits) and save a new file called splash.xpm by selecting File > Save as from the same context menu. Overwrite the old image in the archive with a new file and you can check the result by rebooting from the USB drive.
Another convenient way to convert an image to *.xpm format is using the free online service ImageMagick Studio. Using it, you can load an image from your hard drive or specify its location on the Internet, then click the View button and on the Colormap tab, specify in the parameter field the number of colors used in the image (up to sixteen). After this, you can export the image using the Output tab settings (after selecting the xpm file format and setting the Storage Type switch to Single file). To save a picture, click on the thumbnail in the ImageMagick window. You can also use other tools of this service, for example, to resize a picture, apply effects to the original image, add a border, text, etc.
To create your own splash screen, you can also use graphic editors that allow you to save the image in XPM format, say, the same Gimp.
⇡ LinuxLive USB Creator 2.6.9
- Developer: Thibaut Lauzière
- Distribution: free
- Russian interface: yes
The creator of the program affectionately calls it LiLi, after the first letters of its full name. This utility has several advantages over similar applications for preparing a bootable USB flash drive. Firstly, the program has a rather unusual interface, bright and memorable.
Secondly, LinuxLive USB Creator supports the “great and mighty” Russian language. Unfortunately, for some of our users, English is such an insurmountable problem that in the absence of a Russian version, the program simply ceases to exist for them. Therefore, this LinuxLive USB Creator feature may be a decisive factor in choosing software for some.
LinuxLive USB Creator is designed as a step-by-step wizard, however, unlike the usual wizards, all stages of creating a bootable flash drive are shown at once - they are placed in separate settings blocks.
In the corner of each block you can see an icon in the form of a traffic light. Until the settings for a particular stage of preparing the recording media are determined, this icon will show red, and as soon as the user specifies the required parameters, green will “light up”.
The first item indicates the type of media used. Next, you need to enter the location of the LiveCD image. As the source of the Linux distribution you are using, you can use an image on your hard drive or specify an optical drive with a recorded LiveCD, from which you want to create a copy on a flash drive. In addition, the utility allows you to automatically download images of supported operating systems from the Internet. In this case, the user must indicate the name of the distribution, selecting it from a long list, and also decide on the boot mode - automatic or manual. In the first case, the program will search for mirrors, determine the highest source speed and quickly download the desired image. In the second case, LinuxLive USB Creator will show statistics of working and broken links, after which you can copy the appropriate link and use your browser or download manager to get the file.
LinuxLive USB Creator is capable of not only compiling the contents of a bootable flash drive, but can also check the distribution used for errors. If any are detected, the program will offer a choice: re-download the disk image or try using the “wrong” image.
The next step in preparing a bootable flash drive is defining the settings file. At this stage, you can see the advantage of a LiveUSB disk over a regular LiveCD. LinuxLive USB Creator allows you to specify the size of the settings file. Since the flash drive is a rewritable medium, it would be convenient to use this for full work in the Linux environment. When the system boots from a CD or DVD media, the user is forced to work in the configuration that was prepared before recording to the disk. When using a flash drive, you can use the persistence function (it is turned on automatically when you specify the size of the settings file). The settings file will allow you to perform some actions with files in the Live system, as if the system was installed on a hard drive.
If the system is not used very actively, the volume of this file can be selected up to 300 megabytes, but if active work with a bootable flash drive is expected, the volume can be increased to a gigabyte or higher.
Please note that the settings file in combination with the Live distribution cannot replace a full-fledged operating system for a number of reasons. Firstly, the maximum size of the settings file is limited by the capabilities of the file system of the flash drive - it must be FAT32, which means the maximum size of the settings file should not exceed 4 gigabytes (3950 MB). Secondly, using a persistent system does not allow you to perform some actions. For example, you cannot make changes to the system kernel, you cannot install drivers.
It is very simple to check whether the persistence option is enabled on the flash drive - just load Linux recorded onto the media, and then create a folder on the desktop. Now, the next time the system boots (if the settings file parameters were specified correctly and the procedure for writing data to the flash drive passed without errors), the folder created earlier on the desktop will be displayed.
The last step before creating a flash drive is to specify several additional options. During the process of writing bootable media, the program can format data in FAT32 and hide the created files. And finally, the most interesting option of LinuxLive USB Creator, which makes this program unique in its own way, is the ability to use a bootable flash drive... under Windows. Yes, yes, exactly under Windows, you don’t even have to restart your computer to start working with Linux. If you check the appropriate box in the settings, the program will download a portable version of the free VirtualBox virtual machine from the Internet, and then perform the necessary configuration based on the boot distribution. Thanks to image virtualization, the user receives a flash drive with a virtual machine, which automatically starts when the media is connected.
On the flash drive in the VirtualBox directory you will find two EXE files: Virtualize_This_Key.exe and VirtualBox.exe. The first starts a virtual environment session with bootable Linux, the second opens the VirtualBox interface. True, not all Linux distributions will work correctly on a Windows virtual machine. You will have to figure out which assemblies will function on your own. The version of the VirtualBox program is modified, so you cannot count on official support from Oracle.
⇡ Universal USB Installer 1.8.3.3
- Developer: Pen Drive Linux
- Distribution: free
- Russian interface: no
When looking at Universal-USB-Installer, it may seem that this program completely repeats the MultiBoot USB utility discussed at the beginning of the article, but this is not entirely true. Some similarities are explained by the fact that both Universal-USB-Installer and MultiBoot USB have the same developer. However, the purpose of this utility is somewhat different - it can be used to write only one Live distribution onto a flash drive.
The list of Linux assemblies available for copying to a USB disk is sorted by category - assemblies based on Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, Puppy Linux and others. Please note that the lists of supported distributions for MultiBoot USB and Universal USB Installer are slightly different.
The program is based on the syslinux bootloader, so changing the menu design is even easier than when using MultiBoot USB and the Grub bootloader - it's just a splash.png graphic file.
If a persistent file can be used for the selected distribution, the program will prompt you to specify its size and reserve space on the media for user data. In most cases, user data is stored unencrypted and uncompressed, but these disadvantages are compensated by the ability to access bookmarks, email settings and other important files at any time.
Before writing data to the flash drive, the program will announce the “last Chinese warning” several times that the data will be destroyed and the formatting operation is irreversible. These additional mouse clicks seem unnecessary, but, on the other hand, this is insurance against erroneous actions, because an accidental movement can lead to the wrong choice of the carrier letter, and then - goodbye to the archive with documents and photographs.
⇡ FlashBoot 2.0u
- Developer: Mikhail N. Kupchik
- Distribution: shareware
- Russian interface: no
This program is suitable both for beginners who have never set out to create a bootable USB flash drive before, and for those who regularly engage in similar experiments and study the capabilities of Syslinux and GRUB boot loaders. The program allows you to simply install the bootloader selected in the settings, which will subsequently be used to install the mini-OS. FlashBoot can write to a DOS flash drive and copy information about boot files from other media.
If you already have one working bootable or multiboot USB drive, then using the USB to USB option you can quickly copy all data from one media to another, including the ability to boot from a flash drive. This program allows, if necessary, to turn the media into a regular flash drive, not bootable, by formatting it again.
⇡ Conclusion
It’s worth getting a bootable flash drive with a Live distribution even if you have a vague idea in what situation it might be needed. Such a carrier is not only a life preserver that one has to resort to during force majeure circumstances. This is also an opportunity to have a small private system that no one but you will have access to. By booting from such a flash drive, you can be sure that the personal data stored on it will not be accessible to anyone except you.
