If you want to install or reinstall an operating system on a computer or laptop, then it is quite natural that you have a question: how to create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows. In this article, we will look at three ways that will help us with this.
Using the first and second, you can make a bootable Windows flash drive 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10. Using command line or the WinSetupFromUSB program, you can make a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP.
Choose a flash drive with more memory than the image you have on your computer operating system. Save all the information on it to HDD or other external media, since the flash drive will be formatted, respectively, all data from it will be deleted.
Through the command line
To create a bootable USB flash drive using the command line, you do not need to install any third party applications. To launch the command line, press the key combination Win + R, the Run window will open. In the "Open" field, write cmd and click "OK".
Display a list of all devices - enter list disk .
In this case, two devices Disk 0 and Disk 1 are connected to the laptop. From them, you need to select a USB flash drive, which we will make bootable. I took a 4 GB flash drive, so we look at the column "Size", it corresponds to Disk 1 - 3.9 GB. We enter the following command - select disk 1. If your flash drive corresponds to another device, such as Disk 2, enter the select disk 2 command - only the number at the end changes.
Enter the clean command.
Let's create a primary partition using the create partition primary command.
Select it - select partition 1.
We make it active - active .
Format the flash drive in NTFS format - format fs=NTFS. Wait for the process to complete.
After that, select a letter for the section, for example R - enter assign letter=R .
Exit the diskpart program - type exit . To close the command prompt, type exit again.
The bootable flash drive has been created. Now you need to copy the files to it for Windows installation. If you have them stored in an archive or in an image, extract all the files from them to a USB flash drive.
To install Windows from a flash drive, we change the boot priority in the BIOS, we need to boot from the created flash drive. Detailed articles about the installation can be read by clicking on the links at the bottom of the article.
With Rufus
This program does not require installation on a computer, takes up very little space, is free and easy to use. Download the Rufus program by clicking on the link.
Let's run it on the computer. In the "Device" field, select the desired flash drive. See if there is a check mark in the box "Create boot disk» . Then click on the floppy disk to select the operating system image.
Through Explorer, we look for an image on the computer and click "Open".
A line will appear at the bottom "Using an Image". Press "Start". The program will warn that all data from the flash drive will be destroyed, click OK.
Wait until the flash drive is formatted and the files of the ISO image are copied to it. Then click "Close".
Bootable flash drive with operating system Windows system created. We change the boot priority in the BIOS and install a new OS on the computer.
Using the program WinSetupFromUSB
To get started, download the WinSetupFromUSB program, for this you can follow the link. We insert the USB flash drive, which will be bootable, into a computer or laptop and run the program.
In the area of USB disk selection and format select the desired flash drive and press the button "Bootice".
In the next window, in the "Destination Disk" field, select the USB flash drive from the list again. Here you can navigate by the amount of memory. I took a 4 GB flash drive, respectively, USB 3.9 GB suits me. Click "Perform Format".
In the "File System" field, select the file system NTFS system and click OK.
In the following windows there will be warnings that the flash drive will be formatted, all data will be deleted, and so on. Press "OK". In the last window, click "Yes" and wait for the process to complete.
A window will appear that the bootable USB flash drive has been created and you can write to it required files. Close the "BOOTICE" window by clicking on the red cross.
In the main program window, in the "Add to USB disk" area, check the box "Windows 2000/XP/2003 Setup". Click on the rectangle opposite the field and select the folder where you store files with the operating system.
If the files for installing Windows are stored on the computer in an archive or in an image, they must first be extracted.
Press "GO" and wait for the files to be written to the USB flash drive.
Using WinSetupFromUSB program, You can easily make a bootable USB flash drive with the Windows XP operating system.
USB flash drive is not recognized as a disk when connected to a computer or laptop? Can't you write anything on it? And even formatting the flash drive does not work? Basically, all is not lost. Most likely, the problem lies in the controller. But we'll fix it. And everything will take a maximum of 5-10 minutes.
The only caveat - restoring the performance of a flash drive is possible only if it does not have any mechanical damage (+ it displayed in device manager). That is, if you disabled it not through "Safely Remove" (or something like that), then this can be fixed. At the very least, it's worth at least trying to restore a non-working flash drive.
How to restore the performance of a flash drive
Even if it seems that the USB flash drive has come to an end, you should not take it in for repair. And even more so throw it away. First, you can try to recover a damaged flash drive.
The instruction works for all USB flash drives: Silicon power, Kingston, Transcend, Data Traveler, A-Data, etc. With it, you can restore file system and fix any problems (except for mechanical damage).
So, the first thing you need to do is determine the parameters of the USB flash drive. Or rather, its VID and PID. Based on this information, you can determine the brand of the controller, and then choose a utility that will help restore a damaged flash drive.
To find out these parameters, do the following:
- Connect the flash drive to a PC or laptop and go to Start - Control Panel - Device Manager.
- Find the "USB Controllers" section.
- Double-click on it and look for the item "Memory USB device". This is your flash drive (I remind you that it must be connected to the computer).
- Right click on it and select "Properties".
- In the new window, go to the "Details" tab.
- In the "Property" field, select the item "Hardware ID" (or "Instance Code").
- See the VID and PID values and remember them.
- Next, go to the site http://flashboot.ru/iflash/, enter your values at the top of the site and click the "Search" button ("Search").
- Look for the model of your USB flash drive (by manufacturer and amount of memory). In the right column "Utils" there will be the name of the program with which you can try to restore a non-working flash drive.
After that, it remains to find this utility by name or follow the link (if any) and download it.
Restoring Kingstone, Silicon Power, Transcend and other models is easy: just run the program and follow the instructions.
What to do if you have not found a suitable utility for your model? To do this, go to Google or Yandex and write something like this: “Silicon Power 4 GB VID 090C PID 1000” (of course, you should specify the parameters of your flash drive here). And then look what the search engine found.
Never use programs that are not suitable for the VID and PID parameters of your controller! Otherwise, you will “kill” the flash drive completely, and it will no longer be possible to restore it.
In most cases, recovering a damaged flash drive is successful. And after that it will be determined when connected to a PC or laptop.
This is how you repair a flash drive with your own hands using a free utility.
And most importantly: in this way it is possible to restore a damaged flash drive in 80% of cases. While the majority specialized programs may not be able to meet this challenge.
For creating bootable flash drive we will use programs from both a third-party manufacturer and a built-in interpreter Windows commands. 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 USB flash drive using any of the proposed methods:
- how to make bootable usb flash drive using command line
- how to make bootable usb flash drive UltraISO programs
- how to make a bootable flash drive using Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool
If you are interested in information about creating a bootable USB flash drive for a family of operating Linux systems, then you can read the information at this link "bootable USB flash drive for Linux".
So, I propose to start creating a bootable USB flash drive in order, as defined in the above list, respectively, proceed to the first method.
BOOT USB flash drive using the command line (I method)
Further, we will use only those commands that we need to create a bootable USB flash drive. Therefore, the figure below shows the sequential input of commands to create a bootable USB flash drive. And please pay attention to the fact that the commands you enter are marked with a red underline!
Graphical representation of typing commands on the command line
Now let's describe the previously entered commands:
DISKPART- run the program, a text-mode command interpreter that allows you to manage objects (disks, partitions or volumes) using scripts or direct commands from the command line.
list disk- display a list of disk drives connected to a personal computer.
select disk 1- select the disk numbered "1", since in our case it is a removable flash drive.
clean- clears all data from removable media - flash drives.
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, in this way you can assign a letter to the flash drive.
exit- exit from the DISKPART program.
BOOT DRIVE IS CREATED!
NOTE: After you have created a bootable USB flash drive, you need to transfer the operating system files to this removable media. The files must be transferred unpacked, in no case do not just add an image of the operating system, for example, one * .ISO file, this WILL NOT WORK!!!
You can see the full list of Diskpart commands in the following table:
Command table of the program "DISKPART"
| TEAM | EXPLANATION |
| ACTIVE | - Mark the selected partition 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 and disable automatic connection base volumes. |
| BREAK | - Splitting the mirror set. |
| CLEAN | - Clear configuration information or all data on the drive. |
| COMPACT | - Attempts to reduce the physical size of the file. |
| CONVERT | - Convert disc formats. |
| CREATE | - Create volume, partition or virtual disk. |
| DELETE | - Delete object. |
| DETAIL | - View object parameters. |
| DETACH | - Disconnects a virtual disk file. |
| EXIT | - Shut down 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 | - Format the given volume or partition. |
| GPT | - Assign attributes to the selected GPT partition. |
| HELP | - Display a list of commands. |
| IMPORT | - Import disk group. |
| INACTIVE | - Mark the selected section as inactive. |
| LIST | - Displaying a list of objects. |
| MERGE | - Merge child drive with parent. |
| ONLINE | - Transferring an object marked as "offline" to the "online" state. |
| OFFLINE | - Transfer to the "offline" state of an object marked as "online". |
| RECOVER | - Update the status of all disks of the selected package. Attempting to recover disks in the wrong package and resynchronizing mirrored and RAID5 volumes with stale plex or parity data. |
| REM | - Doesn't take any action. Used for commenting scripts. |
| REMOVE | - Delete drive name or mount point. |
| REPAIR | - Recovery of 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 current booted OS. |
| SELECT | - Setting focus on an object. |
| SETID | - Change partition type. |
| SHRINK | - Reduce the size of the selected volume. |
| UNIQUEID | - Display or set GUID Partition Table (GPT) Code or Primary Signature boot record(MBR) disk. |
BOOT USB flash drive using the UltraISO program (method II)
The UltraISO program is designed to create and edit 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:
We select the necessary 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 file of the image to be written and the recording method are correctly specified (it must be set in USB-HDD + mode) and click the "burn" button
After pressing the "Write" button, a "Hint" window will appear, which will prompt 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 image of the operating system will be written to the newly created bootable flash drive for future installation.
BOOT DRIVE DONE!
NOTE: Do not forget to set the BIOS input / output system to boot the primary device, that is, make the computer boot from removable media - the bootable USB flash drive you created.
BOOT DRIVE with Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool (III method)
The Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool was created by Microsoft to burn operating system disk images to optical and removable media. When creating a bootable flash drive, we will consistently follow all the instructions of the program.
To get started, you need to download this program from the official Microsoft website. Then you need to install the program following the instructions of the installer. After installing the program, a shortcut will appear on the desktop, as shown in the figure:
Run it with "Administrator rights", click right button click on the shortcut and click on the line "Run as administrator". The program will start, click the "Browse" button and select the *.ISO operating system image
After you have selected the image of the system to be written, click "Next", another window will appear where you will be prompted to select the type of media - optical or removable. Since we have removable media - 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 pressing the above button, the process of formatting the flash drive will begin ...
After a while, the process of writing disk image data to the USB flash drive will continue.
We wait for some time until the image is written, and in the end we will get 100%, and now bootable flash drive is formed!
NOTE: Do not forget to set the BIOS input / output system to boot the primary device, that is, make the computer boot from removable media - the bootable USB flash drive you created.
How to restore an SD card or USB flash drive if the computer does not see them, does not read or write data? Problems with flash drives are rarely caused by normal wear and tear. More often, the causes of problems with them are ignoring the rules by users safe extraction devices, experiments with various software in which these flash drives are involved, as well as their initially lousy quality. Below is a list of possible actions to be taken in Windows environment, which can solve the problem, unless, of course, the cause lies in a mechanical breakdown. And we, friends, will go from simple to complex.
Recovery of SD cards and USB flash drives in Windows environment
- Note: below we will only talk about restoring the performance of flash drives, but not about saving the data stored on them. This is a separate topic, and on this account the site has, you can still use this program for. Most of the methods for recovering SD cards and flash drives suggested below will result in the loss of their data.
1. Hardware lock
SD cards, MicroSD adapters and flash drives can be hardware-protected from writing data or completely blocked even for reading. These devices have a lock switch, which must be set to the "Unlocked" position accordingly.
2. Problems not related to the drives themselves
The cause of problems with SD cards and flash drives can be a policy Windows Security. You need to find out if access to removable drives (in full or in part of writing data to them) is blocked by the computer administrator. You also need to check the card reader or ports Computer USB. If everything is in order with the latter, the card reader reads other SD cards, but there are still problems with the flash drive, no matter how you connect it to others USB ports, move on.
3. Windows Explorer
Standard formatting tools Windows Explorer can help in simple cases such as unsuccessful data writing to a USB flash drive. Or when for some reason a smartphone, tablet, camera or other device cannot handle this operation with respect to SD cards. In any of the current Windows versions in the explorer window on the drive, call the context menu, click "Format".
We leave the original file system and first try a quick format.
If it fails, we repeat the operation, but with full formatting (uncheck the quick one).
4. Windows Disk Management
You can try to format the format in disk management. To launch this tool, in the system search field, enter:
diskmgmt.msc
In the disk management window, focusing on the size of the drive, we are looking for it among the drives connected to the computer. And in the context menu called on it, we start formatting.
You can immediately choose full formatting.
If your flash drive has a partition structure like a hard drive, you need to delete each of those partitions. This is done using the option in the context menu "Delete volume".
And then, in place of the resulting unallocated space, you need to create a single partition. To do this, in the context menu on this most unallocated space, run the operation “Create new volume” and follow the instructions of the step-by-step wizard.
5. Programs for low-level formatting
Regular formatting tools may not help difficult cases, for example, when flash drives show up (in the same Explorer or Disk Management) as unrecognized devices with a file RAW system. The latter means that either the Windows environment does not understand the file system of the drive, or there is no file system as such in principle. Actually, this is what causes problems with a flash drive or SD card when it works on other devices, with other operating systems. In such cases, third-party Windows programs designed for the so-called low-level formatting.
In fact, low-level formatting is a procedure that is carried out either in the production environment of flash device manufacturers, or in serious narrow-profile services. Various Windows software that claims this kind of operation actually performs the usual full format, but by mechanisms different from those used by the operating system. Such programs are good at dealing with flash drive problems if these problems occur at the file system level. Let's look at two of these programs.
HDD Low Level Format Tool
http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/
Shareware portable program HDD Low Level Format Tool can format different type storage media such as SD cards and USB sticks. After unpacking the archive with the program, run it, agree to the license terms.
Choose free use.
Directly in the program window, specify the problematic drive and click "Continue".
We confirm the decision.
We are waiting for the operation to complete and check the operation of the media.
SDFormatter
http://flashboot.ru/files/file/355
The completely free little program SDFormatter is another tool for so-called low-level formatting. Works with both SD cards and USB sticks. We install SDFormatter into the system, launch it, in the "Drive" column we indicate the problematic flash drive. Click "Format".
The program wants to make sure the seriousness of our intentions, click "OK.
Asks not to touch the drive while the operation is being carried out.
Upon completion, we test a USB flash drive or SD card. If it doesn’t help, repeat the operation with the settings for a complete rewriting of sectors (nothing more than a full format). Press "Option", select "Full (OverWrite)". And also click on "Format" at the bottom.
If using the above methods it was not possible to reanimate the flash drive, and it is still under warranty, you need to stop at this stage. And take no further action, except to contact the seller with a request to replace the device. All the actions that are described below should be resorted to only when, in fact, there is nothing to lose. The instructions below apply to USB sticks, SD cards, and MicroSD cards. However, in the case of the latter, the probability of recovery is extremely small.
6. D-Soft Flash Doctor
D-Soft Flash Doctor performs the so-called low-level formatting, and along the way it also detects bad sectors (cells). Well, and, accordingly, knows how to block them and replace them with backup ones. The program can help when flash drives or SD cards have difficulty reading individual files that have fallen on bad sectors. The program is free and portable. I did not find the official site, but it can be freely downloaded on the Internet.
In the D-Soft Flash Doctor window, the first thing to do is run a scan for errors.
In my case, there were no damaged (broken) sectors.
But if in your case, friends, the scan results are different, and bad sectors are found, we start the recovery process.
The window for this operation promises that the process will not last longer than 10 minutes, but in fact, remapping bad sectors on a drive with a capacity of more than 4 GB can take quite a long time. So it is better to run the recovery operation at night.
7. Flashing the memory controller
Programs for the so-called low-level formatting or their analogues, in any other form declaring the function of resuscitation of all types of SD cards and / or USB flash drives, turn out to be powerless in the event of a software failure of the controller when it needs to be flashed. This problem may have different symptoms, but more often it is either the computer does not completely see the drive, or it sees, it can even read data, but cannot format it by any means. In particular, due to write protection, despite the fact that the drive is not blocked by hardware.
Quite often, users are faced with the problem of correctly creating bootable flash drives that can be used to install operating systems or perform actions to restore them if Windows cannot start for some reason. But how to make a regular one from a bootable USB flash drive if there is no need for such a medium? The question is quite serious, but you should not exaggerate ahead of time, since several can be suggested to perform the necessary actions. simple methods available to users of any skill level.
Is it possible to make a regular one from a bootable USB flash drive?
It is quite elementary to make any media ordinary, if it was bootable before. But before performing operations of this type, it is necessary to clearly understand what the principle of using boot device. According to many users, the main problem is that on any media in the process of creating a device for starting, instead of the operating system, a special hidden partition is created, in which the bootloader itself is recorded. First, it works, and only then control is transferred to all those software components that are present on the drive.
Some, however, believe that you can simply delete all those objects that are displayed in file manager and finish with this. As it turns out, this is clearly not enough, since the total capacity of the drive will still be less as a result.
How to make a normal flash drive from a bootable USB flash drive if there is no explicit partitioning on it?
To begin with, consider the situation when you don’t want to delete the hidden section or don’t have it at hand necessary funds. How to make a regular one from a bootable USB flash drive?
You can simply remove all visible and hidden objects or perform any type of formatting. But there is a catch here. The fact is that when the device is restarted or the computer is turned on, when it is inserted into the port, it will still be recognized as bootable, but since it does not have the necessary software components, or an error will appear, or the system will continue to start with hard drive. But you need to restore the full volume! That is why simple formatting is not good.
How to remove partitioning using Windows tools?
How to make a flash drive normal after bootable in this case? Among the tools Windows is better just use the command line, since disk management tools are far from the most effective.
Bring up the console with administrator rights and first run the diskpart toolkit. After that, determine the number of your flash drive by calling the list with the list disk command, and remember the number of the removable device (you can determine the flash drive itself by volume). After that, select the device (select disk N, where N is specified number) and clean the drive with the clean command. Next, you will need to re-create the markup (create partition primary), make the entire partition active (active), format the media (format) and assign a letter to it (assign), and then exit the toolkit with the exit command.
Note: when formatting the media, you can immediately set the file system type and formatting option. For example, to quickly format to NTFS, the command would be: format fs=ntfs quick.
Using Third Party Programs
The above proposed method may seem rather complicated and time-consuming to ordinary users. Therefore, let's see how to make a regular one out of a bootable USB flash drive. in a simple way, using for this specialized applications third party developers. Among all that can now be found on the Internet, the Rufus utilities and the USB Disk Storage Format Tool are the best.
In the first program, you need to select your device from the list, leave the partition scheme unchanged, set the output file system type, and then, in a mandatory order, mark the items for quick formatting and creating an extended label, as shown in the image above, and then activate the formatting process.
In the second application, user actions are even simpler. You only need to install your preferred file system, and the bootable USB flash drive will turn into a normal one automatically.
Finally, to delete partitions, you can also use software products like AOMEI Partition Assistant and first remove the markup, and then merge them. But in this situation, this is akin to using disk management in Windows itself, and it may take a little longer than when using the same command line tool that was described above.
Epilogue
As for the tips in the end, it’s worth mentioning separately that in the case of formatting, in relation to all the methods described, it is not always advisable to use a quick cleanup. In some cases, to be completely sure that the available volume will be restored, it makes sense to apply a full format. Of course, this will take much more time, but if there are errors and bad sectors, it will give a 100% result, even without performing checks on the drives used.
