Hello.

Quite often, many users, due to various system errors and failures, you have to reinstall Windows (and this applies to all Windows versions: be it XP, 7, 8, etc.). By the way, I also belong to such users ...

Carrying a pack of disks or several flash drives with an OS is not very convenient, but one flash drive with all required versions Windows is a sweet deal! This article will show you how to create such a multi bootable flash drive with multiple versions of Windows.

Many authors of such instructions for creating such flash drives greatly complicate their manuals (dozens of screenshots, you need to perform a huge number of actions, most users simply do not understand what to press). In this article, I would like to simplify everything to a minimum!

So, let's begin…

What do you need to create a multiboot flash drive?

1. Of course, the flash drive itself, it is better to take at least 8GB.

2. The winsetupfromusb program (you can download it on the official website: http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/downloads/).

3. Windows images in ISO format(either download them or create them yourself from disks).

4. A program (virtual emulator) for opening ISO images. I recommend .

Step-by-step creation of a bootable USB flash drive with Windows: XP, 7, 8

1. Insert the flash drive into USB 2.0 (USB 3.0 - blue port) and format it. The best way to do this is to go to "my computer", click right click mouse on the flash drive and select in context menu item " format"(See screenshot below).

Attention: when formatting, all data from the flash drive will be deleted, copy everything you need from it before this operation!

2. Open the ISO image with Windows 2000 or XP (unless, of course, you plan to add this OS to a USB flash drive) in the program Daemon Tools(or in any other disks).

My computer. pay attention to drive letter virtual emulator in which an image with Windows 2000/XP was opened (in this screenshot, the letter F:).

3. Last step.

Run the WinSetupFromUSB program and set the parameters ( see the red arrows in the screenshot below):

• - select the desired flash drive first;
• - then in the "Add to USB disk" section, specify the letter of the drive in which we have an image with Windows 2000/XP;
• - specify the location of the ISO image with Windows 7 or 8 (in my example, I indicated the image with Windows 7);

(It is important to note: those who want to burn several different Windows 7 or Windows 8, or maybe both, you need: for now, specify only one image and press the GO record button. Then, when one image is recorded, specify the next image and press the GO button again and so on until all the desired images are recorded. For information on how to add another OS to a multiboot flash drive, see later in the article.)

• - press the GO button (you do not need to put any more checkmarks).

Your multiboot flash drive will be ready in about 15-30 minutes. The time depends on the speed of your USB ports, the general loading of the PC (it is advisable to disable all heavy programs: torrents, games, movies, etc.). When the flash drive is written, you will see the "Job Done" window (job done).

How to add another Windows OS to a multiboot flash drive?

1. Insert the flash drive into USB port and run the WinSetupFromUSB program.

2. Specify the desired flash drive (to which we have previously recorded using the same Windows utilities 7 and Windows XP). If the flash drive is not the one with which the WinSetupFromUSB program previously worked, it will need to be formatted, otherwise nothing will work.

Testing a multiboot flash drive

1. To start the installation of Windows OS from a USB flash drive, you need:

• insert a bootable USB flash drive into a USB port;
• set BIOS to boot from flash drive (This is described in great detail in the article "" (see Chapter 2));
• to restart a computer.

2. After restarting the PC, you need to press some key, such as "arrows" or space. This is necessary so that the computer does not automatically start loading the OS installed on the hard drive. The fact is that boot menu on the flash drive will be displayed for only a few seconds, and then immediately transfer control to the installed OS.

3. This is how the main menu looks like when loading such a flash drive. In my example above, I recorded Windows 7 and Windows XP ( actually they are on this list).

Flash drive boot menu. There are 3 operating systems to choose from: Windows 2000, XP and Windows 7.

4. When choosing the first item " Windows 2000/XP/2003 Setup The boot menu prompts us to select the OS to install. Next, select " First part of Windows XP…” and press Enter.

1. What is UEFI?
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is a BIOS replacement that better meets the requirements of today's diverse hardware. At its core, UEFI is an interface that is responsible for the pre-boot environment of the operating system.

2. What advantages of UEFI before BIOS?

• Media support >2TB
• More simple preparation bootable media, no need to write different boot sectors
• Having your own download manager. Now it is not necessary to start a multi-level leapfrog of bootloaders in order to organize a multiboot environment, all records about the available bootloaders are regularly stored in EFI NVRAM, and switching between bootable operating systems is carried out in the same way as between bootable media.
• More secure boot environment
• UEFI graphics configuration mode, with graphics and mouse support

3. Can I update my BIOS to UEFI?
Not really. UEFI cannot be flashed instead of BIOS because it takes up much more memory. But there is such a thing as DUET. It is bootable from the BIOS via a separate boot partition UEFI environment which can be useful if you are going to use >2TB drives on your old BIOS hardware.

4. Is it possible to boot from UEFI, as before, through boot sectors and MBR disks?
Yes, if Legacy Boot support is enabled in the UEFI configuration

5. What is GPT?
GUID Partition Table, GPT is a format standard for placing partition tables on a hard disk. It is part of the EFI interface. EFI uses GPT where BIOS uses MBR.

6. What are the advantages of GPT over MBR?

• Media support >2.2TB
• No limitation on 4 main partitions, and as a result, no need for logical partitions
• Enhanced security - GPT stores backup partition tables at the end of the disk, so in case of problems it is possible to restore the layout using a spare table.
• Protection against damage by outdated programs through Protective MBR
• It is possible to use old boot sectors.

7. Where are GPT analogues of boot sectors stored?
EFI uses the EFI/boot folder at the root of a FAT32 partition to store boot loaders. The /EFI/boot/bootx64.efi file should be loaded by default
If the bootable disk is marked in the MBR style, then the presence of the FAT32 file system on the first partition (if there are several of them) and the file with the bootloader located on the default path are the only conditions for booting from this medium (CD / DVD are also supported). If the disk is marked in GPT style, the partition does not have to be the first, but it must have the boot flag (you can check and set it through gparted)

8. Is it possible to convert a disk from MBR to GPT and vice versa without data loss?
Yes. To do this, you need a boot disk / flash drive with Gparted. After booting from the boot media, a gparted window will open showing the scratch drive (usually /dev/sda) in the upper right corner. You need to remember the name of the disk you want to convert, open a terminal, and type sudo gdisk /dev/sda there, where instead of sda, if necessary, you need to substitute the name of your disk. Then you need to enter the w command and confirm the write of the GPT table to disk. Everything, the disk is converted to a GPT table. To convert back to MBR, you need to open gdisk for your disk in the same way, and type r, then g in sequence, and then confirm the new table entry with the w command.

9. What is UEFI Shell?
This is an EFI (terminal-like) environment that allows you to run efi-compatible boot loaders on the go, perform basic file operations, and operate the built-in boot manager.

10. How to edit/remove/add boot items to the UEFI boot menu?
Download the UEFI Shell, copy it to the /EFI/boot/bootx64.efi file on the FAT32 flash drive, and boot from it. After successfully loading the shell, a command line prompt should appear
shell>
Above the prompt, a list of available drives (fs0:, fs1:, BLK0, etc.) should be displayed. To call this list again if necessary, use the command
map fs*
From the full name of the drive, you can get some information about the drive. For example:
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x1)/Ata(0x0)/HD(1,MBR,0x27212721,0x3F,0x13FA6D9)
from here
Ata(0x0) - disk connection interface, as well as controller port
HD is HDD
1 - number of partitions on the disk
MBR layout

Having found the necessary disk in this way, you need to go to it
fs0:
then, using the good old DOS commands dir and cd, you need to find and change to the directory with the efi boot files. This is usually /EFI/boot/. Then, being in this directory, you can, by entering the name of the bootloader file, immediately boot into it. To add desired file into the list of boot entries, it is advisable to first read the existing entries using the command
bcfg boot dump
Then, to add the boot file to this list, type
bcfg boot add N filename.efi "label"
Where N-sequence number records (if there was something in its place, this item will be overwritten)
filename.efi - name of the file with the loader
label-name under which this entry will be displayed in the list
You can view the list of boot entries again via
bcfg boot dump
and make sure everything is in place. You can reboot and check.
To remove an entry from the list, use the command
bcfg boot rm N
where N is the record number

11. What is Secure Boot?
The Secure Boot specification was developed by Microsoft as part of the UEFI project and allows you to protect the boot environment from interference in boot files by controlling the signatures of downloaded files for their compliance with the white list of keys hardwired into uefi as trusted. " side effect"of such protection against rootkits is the inability to install an OS other than Windows 8 (on this moment only it supports Secure Boot), and also excludes the possibility of starting from old mbr disks and bootable CDs / flash drives.

12. How to disable Secure Boot?

13. How to make a UEFI compatible flash drive with an OS distribution?
In most cases, everything is very simple:

1. Format the flash drive in file system FAT32
2. Copy all the contents of the distribution iso image to it

But in the case of Windows Vista / 7, you will need to prepare the distribution kit first, because. they do not natively contain EFI files in right places. Just a small caveat - windows only supports uefi in 64-bit editions.

14. How do I know that the bootable flash drive is made correctly and will boot in UEFI mode?
If everything is done correctly, then two devices with the same name but different prefixes should appear in the list of bootable media, UEFI: and USB:. Through the first boot in UEFI mode, through the second-Legacy boot from the boot sector.

15. What is Fast Boot Mode?
Mode fast loading, in which control is almost immediately transferred to the operating system, even before the equipment is ready for operation, the initialization of which is carried out by the OS itself. Fast Boot eliminates delays caused by double initialization of devices. In "classic" mode, after receiving control, the operating system re-initializes devices already previously initialized by the BIOS. Given that the initialization of some types of devices is a rather lengthy process, the gain in speed is obvious. When Fast Boot is enabled, control is transferred to the system before USB initialization is performed, which leads to the inaccessibility of USB drives and the keyboard before the start installed on the system disk. Since Microsoft imposes rather strict requirements on the time that the firmware must meet when Fast Boot mode is enabled, and the initialization of USB devices can take seconds, USB devices remain uninitialized by the time the system starts. In this case, the reverse side of the coin appears - the user of a computer with a USB keyboard cannot interrupt the boot process and initiate the installation of another system, since the keyboard remains inoperative until the OS starts. Moreover, the initialization of the i8042 chip also takes time, and on some laptops, firmware manufacturers leave the built-in PS / 2 keyboard uninitialized.

This article addresses the questions that users of our site asked in the article: Creating a bootable USB flash drive using WinSetupFromUSB. For example, there was a question about How can I burn two axes of Windows 7 on one USB flash drive or “what if you want to install two axes on a USB flash drive at once: for example, Windows XP Home and Windows XP Prof, then how to do it so that this choice of operating systems is also displayed on the netbook when booting up?” . We did not answer the questions raised as quickly as some of our visitors would like, but in this article we will offer a solution to the questions raised.

The issue is also relevant because the memory capacity of our flash drives is constantly increasing. Create a bootable flash drive with one image written to it, given that there is still a lot left free space, doesn't make sense. (Creating "normal" bootable flash drives discussed in the following articles: Create a bootable flash drive using Novicorp WinToFlash How to make a bootable USB flash drive? and How to make a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 8 ). Therefore, it would be logical to make this option: burn several versions of Windows onto one USB flash drive and, if necessary, choose what to install.

Let's get started with the questions raised. Our task will be to write two operating systems to one USB flash drive at once - Windows XP and Windows 8 in such a way that, booting from a USB flash drive, we can choose which one to install. And for this we need a small portable program YUMI. You can download it from these links (version YUMI 2.0.1.5):

After downloading the archive with the program, unpack it and run the file. A window will appear:

Creating a bootable flash drive is divided into several simple steps. The first step is to specify the flash drive. Of course, the flash drive must be connected to USB. It needs to be formatted, preferably in the NTFS file system.

The program allows you to format in FAT32, but since this file system does not work with files larger than 4GB, it is better to manually format it in NTFS. If you still won't burn images larger than 4GB, you can try FAT32 as well.

How to format a flash drive in NTFS was discussed in the articles: Writes that there is not enough space on the flash drive, although there is space and How to format a flash drive.

So, we completed the first step, indicated the flash drive, go to the second step - you need to choose what we will write to the flash drive. We recommend choosing the penultimate option .

We have come to the third step - we select the ISO image for writing to a USB flash drive. To do this, click Browse.

Specified ISO image, now click , that is Create.

click Yes

We see that files are being copied from the image to the USB flash drive.

All files from the image have been successfully copied to the USB flash drive, click Next.

It's very important point. The program asks if you want to add another ISO image. If we want to write only one image to a USB flash drive, then press Not. But our task is to write another image to a USB flash drive, so click Yes.

Here we repeat the previous three steps. Here is what should be the result:

We recorded two images on a USB flash drive and this is enough for an example. Since we don’t copy any more disk images to a USB flash drive, we click Not. You can write as many iso images to a USB flash drive as the size of your USB flash drive allows.

The program reports that everything is perfectly recorded. To complete the work, click .

Now everything is ready. To get started with our flash drive, set the BIOS to boot from the USB port. After booting from the flash drive, you will see a menu where its items will be the names of the images that you have written to the media.

In this way, a multiboot flash drive is created, or, in other words, in this way, several operating systems can be written to a USB flash drive at once.

About how successfully you work with the proposed program or your own methods for creating multiboot flash drives, write in the comments to the article.

No matter how difficult the installation of the OS is, and my opinion is that it is enough to be friends with the computer and have two more hands in addition to the head - one right and the other left. To install an OS on a computer, you need or.

But what if there is neither one nor the other, the optical drive does not work, or you have a netbook? After a little thought, I remembered that I have an external usb-pocket for the HDD and a free old HDD 2.5ʺ is also there. In general, if there is a pocket hard drive, it can be made bootable accordingly.

For this purpose, there are utilities with which you can do this, but I decided to use standard means Windows.

There are a lot of descriptions and videos on the network, but, unfortunately, there is one problematic point that the authors for some reason omit. Well, okay, I'll start in order.

Preparing an external HDD

Before working with a disc, be sure to transfer and save the necessary information from this disc to another medium.

All settings will be carried out as standard Windows tools 8.1. Perhaps there are some differences from Windows previous issues, but if there is, then not significant.

First of all, I want to note that making an external HDD bootable is much more convenient. I divided the disk into two partitions, one contains the Windows distribution, the other partition is for my needs.

1. Connect usb-pocket and go to Disk Management.

Attention! All data on the disk will be destroyed!

If you have Windows 8.1 installed on your PC, right-click: Start / Disk Management;

If Windows is older, open the Computer Management console: Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / expand Storage Devices / left click Disk Management.

See screenshot:

2. Choose an external HDD disk. Be extremely careful, if you choose another disk by mistake, all information will be destroyed.

In my case, this is Disk 1. As you can see in the screenshot, the disk is divided into two volumes (partitions):

3. Delete disk partitions:

4. Create new disk partitions. One for the distribution, the second will remain for your needs:

Right-click on the free space of the disk, select the command in the context menu Create a simple volume:

5. In the New Simple Volume Wizard window that appears, click the button Further:

Specify the volume size of 4404 megabytes and click Next. Please note that the size is indicated in megabytes. And since 1 gigabyte is equal to 1024 megabytes, then 1024 × 4.3 = 4403.2 megabytes is obtained under the distribution section (the weight of mine is 4.18 GB for example);

In this dialog, you need to format new section(FAT 32), click Further then Ready:

6. After that, you need to make the created partition active. (don't forget, because the computer will boot from this partition), for this:

Right mouse click, select the command in the context menu Make section active.

To the request for confirmation, we answer YES.

External HDD looks like this:

7. In the same order, we format the second partition on the disk, preferably in NTFS, but do not make it active.

Copying Windows to the active partition of an external HDD

copying Windows distribution to a bootable external HDD is quite simple and easy.

From bootable DVD:

Open the installation DVD in Explorer, select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition external HDD;

From ISO image a:

By and large, an ISO image is a kind of archive. So you can open it with any archiver. You can also open the ISO image via Total Commander or DaemonTools. Well, if you have Windows 8 or 8.1 installed on your PC, then open it with Explorer. Select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of the external HDD;

That's it, your external HDD can act as bootable media. Just reboot and set USB HDD as boot priority in BIOS (depending on BIOS type).

• When you turn on your laptop, press F2, to ;
• Go to tab Boot;
• AT Boot priority order install USB HDD;
• Click F10, and then OK.

If not, then check out the article.

Save your changes and get started.

As you can see from the text, preparing an external HDD for Windows installation, is pretty simple. And my description will not be complete if I do not talk about one problem, which for some reason is rarely written about on the net.

Making a hard disk partition active

When I divided the hard drive into two volumes, for some unknown reason, none of the disk partitions could be made active. This function was not available in the context menu.

The partition from which the computer boots is called active.

There are two ways to make a partition active:

1. Using the Computer Management console. We have already considered this method, but, unfortunately, for a number of reasons, the Make Partition Active command is not available. The solution to this problem is also not difficult. Remember how to prepare a bootable flash drive from the Command Prompt.
2. Using the Command line, through the utility diskpart. The second way is a little more complicated, but more effective. You just need to do all the operations carefully and slowly.

Installation active partition using the command line

1. Connect an external USB HDD;

2. Click Start/All Programs/Accessories/ Command Prompt. Press the right mouse button and select Run as administrator.

3. In the window that opens, write the command diskpart and press the button Enter. A prompt for working with the utility will appear - DISKPART>;

4. Enter command list disk and press the button Enter. You will see all disks installed on your computer;

5. Select the disk with which we will work. To do this, enter the command select disk 0, where "0" is the disk number in the list, i.e. for my external drive there will be a command select disk 1. Click the button Enter, the message Disk 1 selected;

6. Next, you need to find all partitions on the selected disk. Enter command list partition and press the button Enter.

7. Select the section with which we will work. We enter the command select partition 1, where 1 is the section number in the list, i.e. for the section that we make active. Click Enter, a message will appear Section 1 selected.

8. We mark the selected partition as active, to do this, enter the command active. Click the button Enter, a message will appear DiskPart: partition marked as active.

That's all. Good luck.

More on the site:

How to make an external USB HDD (hard disk) bootable using standard Windows tools? updated: February 6, 2018 by: admin

How to create a multiboot flash drive containing two operating systems at once Windows 7 and Windows 8! Hello admin, I can’t wait for your article on this topic, such a flash drive would be very useful to me, but I just don’t know how to create it. In the previous article, you wrote that such a flash drive can be created in the WinSetupFromUSB program, but for some reason I can’t, I just can’t find it in the program desired settings for this. All I can do is create a bootable USB flash drive with one Windows 7 or Windows 8 operating system.

How to create a multiboot flash drive containing two operating systems at once Windows 7 and Windows 8

Very simple, let's not waste time and get straight to the point. You and I will need the WinSetupFromUSB program already familiar to us, but we will need its final version 1.3, so if someone has old version program, do not be lazy, visit the official website of the program and download it.

Note: WinSetupFromUSB creates a UEFI flash drive, that is, using such a bootable USB flash drive, you can install Windows 7 and Windows 8 both on a computer or laptop with a simple BIOS, and on a computer with a UEFI BIOS. Do not forget, if you are installing Windows 7, then insert the USB flash drive into a USB 2.0 port. USB ports 3.0 (as you know) the "seven" will not see the blue color during installation. To create a multiboot flash drive, I used a 16GB flash drive.

Let's return to our article.

Official site of the WinSetupFromUSB program.
Select WinSetupFromUSB 1.3.exe (22 MB)

Download and run the program.

If we need create a bootable Windows flash drive 7 64 bit (32 bit) and Windows 8 64 bit, then we run the WinSetupFromUSB_1-3_x64.exe file.

Attention: If you want, then you will have to format the USB flash drive to the FAT32 file system, it follows that your Windows 7 and Windows 8 images must be less than 4 GB, since the FAT32 file system does not work with files larger than 4 GB. Immediately go to the very end of the article, there is detailed information for you.

Most users need normal multiboot flash drivewith Windows 7 and Windows 8, which means your images of operating Windows systems 7 and Windows 8 may well be over 4 GB, in which case the bootable Windows 7 flash drive we created will be in NTFS format!

How create a multiboot flash drive with Windows 7 and Windows 8

In the main window of the WinSetupFromUSB program, you can see the name of our connected flash drive.

Put a tick on the item Auto format it with FBinst and mark the item NTFS

Check the box

If your flash drive is formatted in the FAT32 file system, then this warning will appear, click OK.

In the explorer that appears, find the ISO Windows image 7 64 bit or Windows 7 32 bit, depending on what you need, select it with the left mouse and click "Open"

Click GO

a warning will open, click Yes,

again yes

The process of creating a multiboot flash drive begins.

The flash drive has been created.

Now in the same way we add Windows 8 64 bits to our bootable flash drive

Again we launch our WinSetupFromUSB program, in the USB disk selection field there should be the name of your connected flash drive.

Check mark on Auto format it with FBinst NOT put!

Check the box Vista/7/8/Server 2008/2012 based ISO and click on the button on the right to open the explorer window

In the explorer that appears, find the ISO image of Windows 8 64 bit, select it with the left mouse button and click "Open"

Press the GO button and start the process of creating an already multiboot flash drive.

Multiboot flash drive with Windows 7 and Windows 8 created.

But that's not all friends, the most important thing remains - to install Windows 7 or Windows 8 from this flash drive.
If you install Windows 7 or Windows 8 on a laptop or computer with a simple BIOS, you simply boot your computer or laptop from the created bootable USB flash drive. Perhaps at this stage, our article will be useful to some of the users.
If you selected your USB flash drive in the laptop boot menu,

Or set up in the BIOS the priority of booting the computer from a USB flash drive, the first window will be a menu in which nothing needs to be selected, it will disappear within a few seconds.

Then the GRUB4DOS bootloader window appears. Using the arrows on the keyboard, select the first option 0 Windows NT6 (Vista / 7 and above) Setup, which means installing the operating systems Windows Vista, Windows 7 and higher. Press Enter.

In the next window, select the one to install operating system which we need Windows 7 SP 1 x64 or Windows 8 x64.

How create a multiboot UEFI flash drive with Windows 7 and Windows 8

In this case, the process of creating a multiboot flash drive with Windows 7 and Windows 8 differs only in that the flash drive must be formatted to the FAT32 file system at the very beginning.

Run the program WinSetupFromUSB.

In the main window of the program, you can see the name of our connected flash drive.

Put a tick on the item Auto format it with FBinst and tick the item FAT32