I will show you 4 ways to help you make a bootable USB flash drive. This is usually needed to install Windows or for a program if it runs before the system boots.

There are many programs to solve this problem, but sometimes you can get by using the system. I will provide instructions that will help you make a bootable USB flash drive with any version of Windows or program. 4 methods, 2 universal and 2 for specific OS.

But before that you need to prepare. You will need:

1. Flash drive with a capacity of 4 GB or more.
2. Image ( iso) operating system or program for which a bootable USB flash drive will be created.

Before creation bootable flash drive Be sure to format it to avoid errors.

Bootable USB flash drive in Windows OS

You can do without third-party programs and do everything in Windows. To do this you will have to use a number of commands. I will demonstrate only the most necessary ones.

First clear your device of all files. To do this, go to the execution line ( Win+R) from the Start menu >> Run, and then enter the command diskpart as in the image below.

In the window that appears, enter list disk to see all devices for further work with them.

In my example, there were 2 devices:

1. 0 - hard drive.
2. 1 - flash drive.

Distinguish a flash drive from hard drives very simple in size. Select it with the command select disk 1.

Be careful, there may be another number instead of 1.

After this, you need to create a primary partition. To do this, enter create partition primary.

Select a section by entering select partition 1 and activate it with the command active.

Then set the letter to the carrier ( automatically) by entering assign and finish the job Exit.

Now be sure to download the files to the USB flash drive unpacked. If you just copy the iso file, nothing will work.

If you don’t understand something, you can watch a video on how to do it using a real example.

Bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Download and install the USB/DVD Download Tool. It is made specifically to work with Windows files 7 and absolutely free. Most likely it won't work with others. Total 4 simple steps to create.

Please note that if you use an image not from the official Microsoft website, problems or errors may occur.

Provide the path to the iso file and proceed to the next step.

Then select “USB device” for a flash drive or “DVD” for a disk.

Select a flash drive and start copying. It must have at least 4 GB of free space.

Then wait until it is written to the device and you will receive a ready-made bootable USB flash drive.

The instructions are also available in video format.

Bootable USB flash drive for all images in UltraIso

This paid program has a free trial period. Download it from the official website and install. It is multifunctional and in Russian. Suitable for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10.

You can see an example Windows installations XP in the video. With other versions of systems, everything is done similarly.

Once launched, select a trial period.

Then open the image in the program.

Now in the “Bootboot” tab, select the image entry as shown in the example below.

Settings are made here.

1. Disk drive- flash drive.
2. Image file— here check whether the path is correct.
3. Recording method- be sure to use USB-HDD+. Otherwise, in some cases it will not work.

After checking all the settings, start recording.

Wait for it to finish. Time to finish is shown on the right.

Under no circumstances remove the flash drive until the process is completed.

If completed successfully, you will see a completion message. After this, the bootable USB flash drive will be ready. Just close the window and enjoy.

Additional method for Windows XP

Download the free DirectGrub utility and unpack the archive. No installation required. Select the iso file, flash drive and click “Start” as in the image below.

Wait while the files are copied. After successful completion, a window will appear.

I hope you don’t have any questions and everything turned out well.

What did you use to create a bootable USB flash drive?

On our website there are many instructions on how to make a bootable flash drive from a regular flash drive (for example, to install Windows). But what if you need to return the flash drive to its previous state? We will try to answer this question today.

The first thing to note is that banal formatting will not be enough. The fact is that when a flash drive is converted into a boot drive, a special service file is written to a memory sector inaccessible to the user, which cannot be erased using conventional methods. This file forces the system to recognize not the actual volume of the flash drive, but the occupied image of the system: for example, only 4 GB ( Windows image 7) from, say, 16 GB (actual capacity). As a result, only these 4 gigabytes can be formatted, which, of course, is not suitable.

There are several solutions to this problem. The first is to use specialized software designed to work with drive layout. Second, use the built-in using Windows. Each option is good in its own way, so let's look at them.

Pay attention! Each of the methods described below involves formatting the flash drive, which will delete all data on it!

Method 1: HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

To terminate the process correctly, enter exit and close the command line. If you did everything correctly, your flash drive will return to working condition.

Despite its cumbersomeness, this method is good with an almost one hundred percent guarantee of a positive result in most cases.

The methods described above are the most convenient for the end user. If you know alternatives, please share them in the comments.

Formatting is the process by which a data storage area is marked up. This area is called file system, and is a table.

Each square of such a table is called a cluster. And when a file is copied to a flash drive, the clusters are filled with data one by one until the file is completely moved.

If information is frequently rewritten to the device, the clusters begin to fill unevenly, since some of them contain remnants of previous files. And new recorded files can occupy clusters at different ends of the “table”, which slows down the operation of the flash drive.

Formatting resets all parameters and re-marks. This has a positive effect on the speed of the device, because the file system is reset. That is, the “table” is cleared.

Why do you need to format

• To quickly destroy all recorded information
• To “kill” all viruses and traces of their activity
• To resolve errors that occur when opening and writing files
• To speed up the device
• When creating a bootable USB flash drive

Formatting erases all data that was written to the flash drive! Therefore, before you run it, be sure to transfer everything important files to another location (for example, to a hard drive).

How to quickly format a flash drive

This can be done standard means systems. They are available in any version of Windows (XP, 7, 8, 10).

1. Insert the flash drive into your computer.

Most likely, an autorun window will open in a second or two. Let's close it.

2. Open Start - Computer.

3. Right-click on the flash drive icon and select “Format...”.

4. Select parameters or leave everything as is.

File system. You are asked to choose one of three. The default is usually Fat32. It is good if small files will be written to the device, as it interacts with them faster. But if you need to write a file larger than 4 GB, then problems arise - Fat32 does not support working with such large files.

NTFS is another matter. This system is capable of working with very large files, even more than 1TB. But with small ones it works a little slower than Fat32.

There is also exFAT. This is an upgraded Fat 32 that can handle files larger than 4GB. However, at the moment it is only supported in Windows system 7 and higher, and other devices (for example, TVs) and computers on the previous Windows versions can't work with her.

There are more advanced file systems, for example, ext4, but Windows does not yet support anything better than NTFS and exFAT.

So, if you plan to write small files to a flash drive, then you can leave the default file system (Fat32), and if you need to copy individual files larger than 4 GB (for example, a movie) to it, then choose NTFS.

Cluster size. Minimum data size. It is better not to change anything in this field.

Volume label. The name of the device that will be shown during boot. For example, I want the flash drive to appear as "Neumeka". This means that I erase from this field what is suggested and print the name I need. As a result, it will appear like this:

Formatting Methods. Initially, this item is checked for “Quick (cleaning table of contents)”. This method will overwrite the file system, which is usually quite enough.

If you uncheck the box, a full format will be done, which means that the computer will first check the physical surface of the flash drive and if it finds damage, it will fix it. In fact, they will simply disguise themselves and then it will not be possible to write information there. And only after all this will the file system be written.

5. Click “Start”.

The system will warn us that it will destroy all information from the device. We agree and wait for the end of the process.

When it finishes, we will see the following window. Click “OK” and close the formatting window.

All! The device is ready for use.

If it didn't work out

Despite the fact that a flash drive is more reliable than a CD and DVD disc However, she also faces problems. For example, it may simply not be displayed in “Computer”.

This happens for several reasons:

• File system is damaged
• The device was not formatted by the manufacturer
• The letter of the flash drive matches the letter of the drive already used by Windows

To eliminate these reasons, go to Start - Control Panel.

Go to “System and Security” and/or “Administration”.

Open "Computer Management".

Click on “Disk Management” on the left side.

The window takes on the following appearance.

Right-click on the flash drive and select “Format...”.

Formatting using the command line

Another formatting method. But in order to use it, you need to know exactly the letter of the flash drive. Otherwise, you may accidentally delete data from another, desired drive.

1. Press the keyboard shortcut Win + R.

2. In the Run window, enter cmd and click OK.

3. In the window that appears, enter format G: /FS:NTFS /Q /V:flashka

• format is a command to start formatting
• G is the drive letter under which your computer recognizes the flash drive (do not confuse it!)
• /FS:NTFS - file system in which you want to format the device. If you want fat32, then enter FS:FAT32
• /Q- quick formatting. If you need the complete one, just don't use this command
• /V:flashka - volume label (this name will be displayed when loading in “Computer”).

When everything is ready, a similar inscription will appear.

Low-level formatting or “flash drive treatment”

Use this method should only be done if all of the above did not help.

Download and install HDD program LLF Low Level Format Tool from the official website. During the installation process, select “Continue for free”.

Open the program, select your flash drive and click Continue.

A window with information about the device will appear. Go to the LOW-LEVEL FORMAT tab.

Click on the FORMAT THIS DEVICE button.

A warning appears that all data written to the media will be erased. Click “Yes”.

And we wait for the end of the process: when the window becomes something like this and 100% complete is written.

We close it and do the usual formatting, otherwise the flash drive will not open. To do this, follow the first instructions from this article (Start - Computer - right-click on the flash drive icon - Format...).

To create a bootable flash drive, we will use programs from both a third-party manufacturer and the built-in Windows command interpreter. 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 flash drive using any of the proposed methods:

• how to make a bootable USB flash drive using command line
• how to make a bootable USB flash drive using UltraISO
• how to make a bootable USB 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 systems 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 flash drive in order, as defined in the above list, accordingly we proceed to the first method.

BOOT FLASH DRIVE using the command line (method I)

Next, we will use only those commands that we need when creating a bootable flash drive. Therefore, the figure below shows the sequential entry of commands to create a bootable USB flash drive. And please pay attention to the fact that the commands you enter are indicated by a red underline!

Graphical representation of command input on the command line

Now let's describe the previously entered commands:

DISKPART- launch the program, command interpreter text mode, which allows you to manage objects (disks, partitions or volumes) using scripts or directly entering commands from the command line.

list disk- display a list of disk drives connected to a personal computer.

select disk 1- select disk number “1”, since in our case it is a removable flash drive.

clean- clears all data from removable media - flash drive.

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, you can assign a letter for the flash drive in this way.

Exit- exit the DISKPART program.

BOOTABLE FLASH DRIVE CREATED!

NOTE: Once you have created a bootable USB flash drive, you need to transfer the operating system files to this removable media. Files must be transferred in unpacked form, do not under any circumstances simply add an operating system image, for example one *.ISO file, it WILL NOT WORK!!!

You can see the complete list of Diskpart program commands in the following table:

Table of commands of the "DISKPART" program

TEAM	EXPLANATION
ACTIVE	- Mark the selected section 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 or disable automatic mounting of basic volumes.
BREAK	- Splitting the mirror set.
CLEAN	- Clear configuration information or all data on the disk.
COMPACT	- Attempts to reduce the physical size of the file.
CONVERT	- Convert disk formats.
CREATE	- Create a volume, partition or virtual disk.
DELETE	- Delete an object.
DETAIL	- View object parameters.
DETACH	- Detaches the virtual disk file.
EXIT	- Shutdown 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	- Formatting a given volume or partition.
GPT	- Assigning attributes to the selected GPT partition.
HELP	- Display a list of commands.
IMPORT	- Import a disk group.
INACTIVE	- Marking the selected section as inactive.
LIST	- Display a list of objects.
MERGE	- Merging a child disk with its parents.
ONLINE	- Transferring an object marked as "offline" to the "online" state.
OFFLINE	- Transferring an object marked as “online” to the “offline” state.
RECOVER	- Update the status of all disks of the selected package. Attempting to rebuild disks of the wrong package and resynchronizing mirrored and RAID5 volumes with outdated plex or parity data.
R.E.M.	- Does not perform any actions. Used to comment scripts.
REMOVE	- Deleting a drive name or mount point.
REPAIR	- Recovering 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 currently loaded OS.
SELECT	- Setting focus on an object.
SETID	- Changing the partition type.
SHRINK	- Reduce the size of the selected volume.
UNIQUEID	- Display or set the GUID Partition Table (GPT) code or master signature boot entry(MBR) disk.

BOOT FLASH DRIVE using the UltraISO program (II method)

The UltraISO program is designed for creating and editing 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:

Select the required 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 image file to be recorded and the recording method are correctly specified (it must be set in USB-HDD+ mode) and click the “burn” button

After clicking the "Write" button, a "Hint" window will appear, prompting 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 operating system image will be written to a newly created bootable USB flash drive for future installation.

BOOTABLE FLASH DRIVE IS MADE!

NOTE: Don't forget to install on the I/O system BIOS loading primary device, that is, make sure that the computer boots from removable media - the bootable flash drive you created.

BOOT FLASH DRIVE using Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool (III method)

The Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool program created by Microsoft for burning operating system disk images to optical and removable media. When creating a bootable flash drive, we will sequentially follow all the instructions of the program.

First you need to download this program from the official Microsoft website. Then you need to install the program following the installer's instructions. After installing the program, a shortcut will appear on the desktop, as shown in the figure:

Run it with "Administrator rights", right-click on the shortcut and click on the line "Run as administrator". The program will start, click the "Browse" button and select the operating system image *.ISO

After you have selected the image of the system to be recorded, click “Next”, another window will appear where you will be asked to select the type of media - optical or removable. Since we have a removable storage device - 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 clicking the above button, the process of formatting the flash drive will begin...

After some time, the process of writing the disk image data to the flash drive will continue.

We wait some time for the image to be recorded, and eventually we will get 100%, and here we are The bootable flash drive is created!

NOTE: Do not forget to set the BIOS input/output system to boot the primary device, that is, make sure that the computer boots from removable media - the bootable flash drive you created.

Sometimes, reading information, playing music and movies from a flash drive or external hard drive on all devices, namely: a computer, a household DVD player or TV, Xbox or PS3, as well as in a car radio, it can cause some problems. Here we’ll talk about which file system is best to use so that the flash drive can be read everywhere and always without problems.

Currently, there are two most common file systems (for Russia) - NTFS (Windows), FAT32 (old Windows standard). File files can also be used Mac systems OS and Linux.

It would be logical to assume that modern operating systems would work with each other's file systems by default, but in most cases this is not the case. Mac OS X cannot write data to a drive formatted with NTFS. Windows 7 does not recognize HFS+ and EXT drives and either ignores them or reports that the drive is not formatted.

Many Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, support most file systems by default. Copying from one system to another is a common process on Linux. Most distributions support HFS+ and NTFS out of the box, or support for them is installed in one free component.

In addition, game consoles such as Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 only provide limited access to certain file systems, and only allow data to be read from a USB storage device. To see which file systems are supported on which devices, take a look at this table.

	Windows XP	Windows 7/Vista	Mac OS Leopard	Mac OS Lion/Snow Leopard	Ubuntu Linux	Playstation 3	Xbox 360
NTFS(Windows)	Yes	Yes	Read only	Read only	Yes	No	No
FAT32(DOS, Windows)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
exFAT(Windows)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes, with ExFat package	No	No
HFS+(Mac OS)	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
EXT2, 3(Linux)	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes

It is worth noting that the tables reflect the OS capabilities for working with file systems by default. On both Mac OS and Windows, you can download additional software, which will allow you to work with unsupported formats.

FAT32 is a long-standing format and, thanks to this, almost all devices and operating systems fully support it. Thus, if you format a flash drive in FAT32, it is almost guaranteed to be readable anywhere. However, there is one important problem with this format: the size limitation of an individual file and an individual volume. If you need to store, write and read huge files, FAT32 may not be suitable. Now let's talk more about size restrictions.

File size limits on file systems

The FAT32 file system was developed a long time ago and is based on previous versions of FAT, which was originally used in DOS. Disks with today's volumes did not exist at that time, and therefore there were no prerequisites for the file system to support files larger than 4GB. Today, many users have to face problems due to this. Below you can see a comparison of file systems based on the sizes of supported files and partitions.

Modern file systems have expanded file size limits to limits that are still difficult to imagine (we'll see what happens in 20 years).

Each new system beats FAT32 in size separate files and a separate disk partition. Thus, the age of FAT32 affects its ability to be used for various purposes. One solution is to use file system exFAT, support for which appears in many operating systems. But, one way or another, for the ordinary USB flash drives, if it does not store files larger than 4 GB, FAT32 will be the most best choice, and the flash drive will be read almost anywhere.