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Surely each of you, be it a beginner System Administrator or just a lover of IT technology was thinking about creating a flash drive with several operating systems at once. Everything you need will be at hand if suddenly one employee has Windows XP installed and another has Windows 7 or 8. Not so long ago I thought about this task and decided to make a multi-boot USB flash drive for myself.

Initially, I downloaded operating systems from the Internet from XP to Windows 10 and of course I didn’t forget about Hiren’s BootCD boot disk, this is in case I need to access hard drive bypassing the broken OS.

For this task, I decided to use the YUMI mini utility, which can create a bootable USB disk with multiple operating systems.

What is required to create a multi-boot flash drive?

1. Download the mini utility YUMI
2. The hard drive must contain ISO images that will be written to the flash drive. For myself, I downloaded the following ISO images. Windows XP, Windows 7 (x64-x86), Hiren's BootCD, and Dr.Web LiveDisk.

Since the flash drive is only 16GB, I’ve settled on this for now, because the add-on will require additional software - Anti-Virus, archiver, graphic editor, and other software.

Let's complete the task.

1. Open the YUMI program

2. Select the disk on which the data will be written. In my case this is drive H: Multiboot

3. Select a distribution. If we copy Windows 7,8, 10 to a USB flash drive, then select the appropriate partition.

If this is an ISO image of Hiren's BootCD, select another option from the proposed list

.

In my case, Windows and Hiren's were already written to the flash card, so I decided to supplement it with a boot disk from Eset

4. You need to find the ISO image on your hard drive and select it

5. Click the “Create” button and wait until the program finishes transferring the data.

After one of the images is burned, we can continue to add other ISO images in a similar way. The main thing is not to check the "FORMAT" checkbox, otherwise all your efforts will be in vain.

How to add another image, for example Windows, to a flash drive?

After on usb drive one of the images has been recorded, the YUMI program will ask for confirmation to continue working. Click the "YES" button.

From the ready list Step 2, in the “Other Os/Tools” subsection, select the line Windows Vista/7/8 Installer.

Find and select the Windows 7 image on your hard drive

Click the Create button.

Removing and viewing images installed on a flash drive.

To see what programs are already installed on the flash drive, just check the box next to the "View or Remove Installed Distro" option. Here you can also remove installed software.

Now on USB flash drive or external hard drive there are many operating systems and the ISO images you added. To multi- boot menu loaded after turning on the computer, and before loading Windows, do not forget to set the priority in the BIOS to boot from a flash drive.

If everything worked out, the YUMI boot menu should appear.

Each section contains various installation packages, for example, in the "Antivirus Tools" section there will be a link to download LiveDisk, in the "Other Tools" section there is Hiren's BootCd, and of course the "Grub Bootable ISOs" section contains links to operating systems: Windows XP, 7.8.

In the future, I want to create a flash drive with much more functionality, for example, add the operating system Windows 8 and 10, Linux (Ubuntu or Centos), a boot menu for Windows recovery from the image ( Macrium Reflect or Acronis) as well as a wonderful DriverPack package that can automatically install all drivers for your computer hardware.

Please do not compare the article and video tutorial, as they were created in different time. In the video I showed how you can make a bootable USB flash drive with 4 iso images.

Previously new computer programs or the applications were supplied on CDs. But in Lately Most computers do not come with drives to read them. More popular is installing software via the Internet. But what should you do if the operating system fails or you need to reinstall a new version of it on another computer? A flash drive on which the utility will be installed will help in this case. automatic download operating system. It is possible to make a bootable USB flash drive yourself.

Why do you need a bootable USB flash drive with utilities?

For a computer to function properly, it is not enough to install an operating system on it. For correct operation all functional units, correct display of information, playback of audio and video content will require drivers or codecs. There are universal collections of codecs for each operating system that run on computers different configurations, power, type of processors, video cards, input/output devices, peripheral equipment. When installing an OS from a bootable USB flash drive, you must install all these utilities.

Creating a multiboot flash drive

The solution to the problem is possible by using a flash memory device that is connected to a USB port. For Windows installations and everyone necessary utilities For it to work correctly, you will need a flash drive with a capacity of 16 gigabytes (GB). To create a multiboot flash drive for Windows XP/Windows XPE/Vista/7/Windows 7PE/8/10, a flash memory capacity of up to 32 GB is useful. Multiboot Windows flash drive 10 is created using specialized programs: Acronis Disk Director& True Image, RMPrepUSB, Bootice, WinSetupFromUSB, XBoot, FiraDisk_integrator.

What you will need

To create a resuscitation flash drive you need a copy (or image) installation disk OS. To create it you will need the UltraISO program, administrator rights and a disk with the original OS. After downloading, installing and launching, you need to select the location of the image. The UltraISO Wizard will create an ISO image with the OS. Next, select “Burn image” hard drive", create bootable flash. This multiboot flash drive will need to be filled with the necessary service programs, and a standard set of them will need to be downloaded - antiviruses, codecs, backup tools.

Program for creating a multiboot flash drive

Create separately MultiBoot USB Flash for every operating system is difficult. It is possible in Windows 8 to create a multiboot flash drive from the command line, but this can lead to errors. Therefore, several utilities have been created that automate these actions, which have the ability to additionally integrate several operating systems, add antivirus programs to the installer, the programs you need, and batch install this entire set onto a multiboot flash drive. Among them the most interesting are:

  • RMPrepUSB is a universal multi-booter for flash drives, launching them in MS-DOS, FreeDOS, WinPE 1, 2 or 3, BartPE, XP, Win 7, Win 8.x, Win 10, Linux. Works with different file systems - FAT16, FAT32, NFTS. Makes it easier to check flash memory, formatting hard and flash drives, creating backup images of a bootable flash drive, has many auxiliary functions in the interactive mode of operation.
  • Bootice is a useful program when reinstalling the OS on computers without optical drive, has the functions of formatting and splitting the amount of flash memory into several partitions, changing the way the system boots, you can rename the bootloader.
  • WinSetupFromUSB – free software for creating Bootable Flash USB for Windows systems and Linux (Linux) with simple graphical interface. It has the functions of formatting and marking flash memory, copying installation files from distributions, and final testing of the created bootloader.
  • XBoot is a free program for transferring images of operating systems, codecs, and programs to a flash drive. Its advantages are the ability to create a boot disk simultaneously for Windows and Linux OS, and choose the type of boot loader ISO Emulation or Grub4DOS. The downside is the menu is in English.
  • YUMI – Multiboot USB Creator – a small utility for creating bootable USB flash, has a simple English-language interface with descriptions of distributions and recommendations for different computer configurations, offers links for downloading antiviruses, codecs, and drivers.
  • FiraDisk_integrator – multifunctional bootloader, has the ability to integrate all versions Windows different assemblies, there is a choice of localization of the installed software according to the interface language, simple creation of an image from all distribution sources downloaded to the SSD folder.

How to make a flash drive multiboot with MultiBoot USB - step-by-step instructions

When installing a multiboot program, some antiviruses may block this action. It is worth temporarily disabling or adding them this program to exceptions. To create an emergency flash drive, you must complete the following steps:

  1. Formatting a USB drive for the bootloader format.
  2. Installing the bootloader.
  3. Adding operating system images (files with the .iso extension).
  4. Copying files.
  5. Testing the resulting tool.

Formatting a USB Drive

Preparing a multiboot flash drive to turn it into a bootable tool starts with formatting it. Move all the information you need from its memory to other media - formatting will completely clear it. To format, you need to do the following:

  1. Launch HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.
  2. Select your drive from the list.
  3. Specify File system– NTFS if files larger than 4 GB will be installed. FAT32 markup must be left if you intend to work with computers based on BIOS UEFI.
  4. In Format Options you should check Quick Format – quick formatting.
  5. Click Start.

Installing the bootloader

Above are several options for utilities that will download all OS distributions and service files. To use them you need:

  1. Copy the installation module of your chosen bootloader to a formatted USB drive.
  2. Then run this installer.
  3. Choose a name for your flash drive.
  4. Click Install.

After successful installation of the program, a message will appear on the screen confirming the installation of the boot utility on the computer. A message will be displayed on the screen asking you to start it. If up to this point you have created a database with all the necessary distributions and programs on your hard drive, you can check the Start program box and click the Finish button.

Adding operating system images

To add images of different operating systems to a multiboot flash drive, you need to prepare them in the root folder on your computer’s hard drive. This will be several files with iso extension. Using a bootloader like WinSetupFromUSB, you can make a multiboot flash drive for Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 and Linux. To do this you need:

  1. Select the name of the flash drive from the list.
  2. Check the boxes next to the required operating systems in the list, for example – Windows 2000/Xp/2003 Setup.
  3. Specify the location of the mounted images.
  4. Click Go.

Copying utilities and files

After transferring operating system images, you should copy them to a USB flash drive setup files all the utilities and programs from our list necessary for the system to operate. For this purpose in WinSetupFromUSB program:

  1. Uncheck the Auto format it with FBinst checkbox.
  2. Select the item Linux ISO/Other Grub4dos compatible ISO by clicking the button on the right.
  3. In Explorer we find the folder with program images, select all the programs in turn and click “Open”.
  4. We make sure that they are named correctly in Boot menu name.
  5. Click Go and see the process of adding the selected utility to the bootable flash drive.

To create a recovery-reanimation multiboot flash drive, the following basic utilities can be included in the installation package, which can always be changed, removed or replaced with new versions:

  • distributions Windows versions 8.1, 10 and XP;
  • Paragon Hard Disk Manager – distribution manager disk space;
  • AOMEI Backupper Standard – free backup;
  • K-Lite Codec Pack – universal package codecs;
  • Kaspersky Rescue 10 – Kaspersky antivirus;
  • DrWeb LiveCD – Doctor Web antivirus;
  • 7-Zip – archiver of files and folders;
  • Recuva – file recovery utility;
  • RegeditPE – registry editing utility;
  • Symantec Ghost v11.0 – for archiving and restoring personal computer data;
  • Elcomsoft System Recovery Pro v3.0 Build 466 – purpose of the utility – restoring user access to account Windows records, Microsoft applications;
  • Universal Boot Disk v3.7 – servicing NTFS drives in MS-DOS;
  • NT Password & Registry Editor – changing the password and the ability to edit Windows registry XP;
  • Active@ Boot Disk Professional v2.1 – will help restore and edit deleted files;
  • QuickTech Pro v5.8 – setup, diagnostics of the computer and its components;
  • MemTest86+ v4.20 – testing RAM;
  • MHDD v4.6 – check hard drives;
  • Victoria v3.52 – IDE and Serial HDD maintenance;
  • HDD Regenerator v2011 – eliminating physical damage to hard drives;
  • Reanimator – fast liveCD for data recovery and work environment repair;
  • Alkid LiveUSB universal utility system recovery;
  • Acronis Disk Director & True Image – check hard drives;
  • Elcomsoft System Recovery – viewing, changing, deleting passwords for accounts in Windows OS of all editions;
  • Daemon Tools– popular virtual CD-ROM;
  • DOS-Navigator – console file manager for OS/2 and DOS;
  • Alcohol 120% is a program for copying and virtualizing disks.

Testing

After creating a multiboot flash drive, you need to check its functionality. To do this, in WinSetupFromUSB you can use the Test in QEMU utility. To do this, do the following actions:

  • check the box next to Test in QEMU;
  • press GO;
  • the program itself will check the presence of all elements and finally display a list on the computer screen under the heading “Set boot images and utilities for working with hard drive partitions";
  • Below is a list of all operating systems, programs and utilities;
  • If some utilities are not installed, you must repeat the installation process.

Burning a bootable USB flash drive using the RMPrepUSB program

The first step is to run RMPrepUSB. Then you need to go to the dialog box, check in top window whether the multiboot flash drive is defined. Then we do the following steps:

  1. Size – enter MAX.
  2. Volume label – the name of the flash drive in the OS.
  3. On the right, check “No questions asked.”
  4. In the “Boot sector” section, select WinPEv2/WinPEv3/Vista/Win7 bootable (CC4).
  5. File system and options – NTFS.
  6. You have to choose the right one Boot option as HDD (C: 2PTNS).
  7. Check the box "Copy" system files from the following folder...”
  8. An explorer will open in “Browse”, in which you need to select the Easy2Boot archive and click OK.
  9. If you click “Prepare disk”, formatting of the flash drive starts, which must be prepared for this.
  10. Click “Install Grub4DOS”.
  11. We answer “No” to the MBR request.
  12. In the GRLDR ALREADY EXISTS window, press the OK button.
  13. After this we manually transfer boot programs to a flash drive in the MAIN MENU and UTILITIES Menu folders.
  14. To complete the creation, open the menu item Drive->Make All Files on Drive Contiguous.
  15. By launching the RMPrepUSB emulator and pressing the F11 key, you can check its functionality.

If you copied all your OS distributions to the MAINMENU folder on a flash drive, then they will be reflected directly in this menu. The UTILITIES Menu will show service utilities and computer maintenance programs. This completes the process of creating a multiboot flash drive using this program. To select the OS and programs to install, you need to navigate through the menu and select the utilities needed for installation.

Multi-flash drive in Bootice - creation procedure

It is known that Bootice is a utility for creating a multiboot flash memory card. You can download Bootice from the official website of the developer. The utility must be unpacked, and after launching the program:

  1. In the Destination Disk item, select the flash drive that must first be prepared.
  2. You should click Process MBR (master boot record).
  3. Select GRUB4DOS 0.4.5c/0.4.6a (grldr.mbr).
  4. Click Install/Config.
  5. Click Save to disk to write all the information to the flash drive.
  6. For Linux systems, SUSLINUX 4.06/5.01 (FAT/FAT32/NTFS) should be installed.
  7. Click Install/Config.
  8. Select SYSLINUX 5.01.
  9. Click confirmation - OK.
  10. After completing these steps, the multiboot flash drive will be ready.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive with multiple operating systems in WinSetupFromUsb

After launching the WinSetupFromUSB utility, the SFX archive will be unpacked, the program will start and a menu will open, at the top of which we find our flash drive in the drop-down list. Your steps will be:

  1. Format the media – check Auto format it with FBinst, then – NTFS.
  2. Check the box for Linux ISO/Other Grub4dos compatible ISO.
  3. Press the GO button.
  4. The flash drive is being formatted.
  5. At the next step, we sequentially select items from the Add to list USB disk and press the GO button - the OS distribution kits are transferred to a multiboot flash drive.

To randomly select downloadable programs, select Linux ISO/Other Grub4dos compatible ISO and click on the button with the image of three dots on the right, an explorer opens in which we select the utilities and programs we need. Then we add all the ISO images in exactly the same way. The Test in QEMU item will help you check the recorded images. To control, we boot from this multiboot flash drive and check its boot menu.

Utility for creating a multiboot USB drive Xboot

The Xboot interface is simple - to create a multi-boot device for installing and restoring the OS, you need to do the following:

  1. To add images, you need to drag iso files into the program window. At the same time, in a green window with the question “How to perceive this image? when adding Windows images, you must specify Add using Grub4dos ISO image Emulation.
  2. If you are installing a Unix system, then use Utility-Ubuntu.
  3. In addition to OS images, you can add utility images. The program has links, to access which click File->Download. Select utilities and download.
  4. After clicking Create ISO, the program will ask for the path to save the image file and offer to check it in the virtual machine.

FiraDisk_integrator script for resuscitation flash drive with multiple OS

To start creating a multiboot flash drive using the FiraDisk_integrator utility:

Video

I greet, in fact, everyone and everything. Today we have an extremely interesting topic - a bootable flash drive - which many of you have asked for a long time and often, using both and a special topic suggestion.

This article is for those who want to make a multiboot flash drive with operating system installers Windows,Linux, and perhaps even with several LiveCD and in general all sorts of utilities, like checking the disk, and all that other stuff.

Bootable USB Flash or HDD The drive is convenient because you can refuse to use it CD/DVD for installation and use diagnostic programs type , MHDD, TI. A “multi-boot” flash drive is good because you don’t have to format the entire disk for each program, but install everything you need there once and, when loading, select what you need through a menu you created yourself.

This thing is especially relevant for those who do not have CD/DVD reader, but you need to install the system, then, then something else.

Anyway, let's get started.

Video format

Although no, before we get started, let us show you our interesting series of videos about creating such a thing as a bootable flash drive for a system administrator:

A little about the bootloader

The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree. There are quite a lot of programs that allow you to create a bootable USB flash drive, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, the most universal and flexible tool is such a thing as Grub4Dos.

I’ll tell you briefly what kind of animal this is:

GRUB4DOS is a universal bootloader based on GNU GRUB. It can be controlled in command line mode or using a configuration file, and its capabilities include:

(Windows 9x/Me) bootloader (bootloader) bootloader (kernel loading ( kernel)
  • Multiple file system support
  • Download from any device available in "e"
  • (HDD, Floppy, ISO)
  • Changing the loading order (using mapping)
  • Mode support LBA
  • This bootloader is essentially a small console operating system that supports command line, many control commands, working with files, access control, partition modifications, in addition, it supports many file systems, can read data from any of the defined BIOS devices, supports network booting, does not depend on disk geometry, can work with remote terminals etc.

    And this is with a slightly larger size 200 kilobyte! :) Can you feel it? The bootable flash drive will thank you. From a location point of view, at least.

    More Grub has a built-in help system that responds to will always display a list of commands available for execution, and in response to will provide additional information. Autocomplete line (key TAB) will tell you not only the syntax of the command, but also, in some cases, options for its continuation (available devices, partitions).

    Download what we need .iso, put it in a folder boot, we register new line menu with a new path and forward.. At least download, at least Linux, at least installers, at least antiviruses.

    In a nutshell, something like this.

    Afterword

    Predicting a possible ton of questions, I traditionally say that you can leave all of them, as well as additions, opinions, reviews, criticism, gratitude, etc., in the comments to this very article. I'll try to answer.

    But first of all, of course, try to do at least what is presented in the material, test it, and then read the documentation presented above.

    Thank you for your attention. Stay with the project! ;)

    Good afternoon. This one is pretty interesting topic, one of the site’s readers suggested to me. When he asked me a question about whether it was possible to create a bootable USB flash drive or disk, but so that there were several images for installation to choose from, I replied that I didn’t know, but I had heard about something similar in the Unix environment similar systems. But I became interested and began to dig in this direction, it turns out similar utilities There is also one for Windows systems. Although there are few of them, due to the fact that Microsoft does not like the computers on which their operating system is installed to also use another operating system (for example, Ubuntu). Although these technologies completely allow this. For example, you use Windows for games, and after restarting, you can calmly watch a movie and browse the Internet in the safety of Ubuntu.

    Step-by-step instruction

    Well, okay, our topic is a little different. In our case, we are looking at how to create a multiboot flash drive, which will have several operating systems for installation at once. And fortunately, there is nothing complicated here either.

    1. We visit the official website of the program Xboot- link . Download and unpack latest version. The program does not require installation, you just need to run it.
    2. The program interface is quite simple; in order to add images, you just need to drag the iso file of each image into central part program windows. When adding an image, a green window will appear asking how to perceive this image. If you add installation image Windows, then select “Add using Grub4dos ISO image Emulation”. If it’s a Unix system, then “Utility - Ubuntu”.

      In addition to images, you can also add various utilities (also in the form of images). For example, Dr.Web Live CD, Kaspersky Rescue Disk, which will help you check the system in case of a critical computer infection. IN in this case you need to select the appropriate utility from the drop-down menu. If you do not have similar programs, fortunately for you the program knows a lot of links. To open them, just click on the File button and select Download. The familiar list of utility selections will open; when you select one, a transition button will appear to download the utility.

    3. After adding all the images, there are two ways - you can save everything as ISO file for further registration at DVD disc or immediately write to a USB drive (before starting, you need to format it, preferably to FAT32). To do this, there are two corresponding buttons in the lower right part of the window. If you click “Create ISO”, the program will ask for the path to save the image file and quite nicely display the process of creating it.


    4. If you click the “Create USB” button, a window will appear USB selection recording devices and bootloader selection, the default is Syslinux, which is also recommended for work (it only supports FAT32), but if you have problems with it, you can try other Grub4dos (supports NTFS formatting). The only condition is that it won’t hurt to leave 5-10% free on the flash drive. Before clicking OK, carefully check whether you have selected the correct media so as not to delete important information With portable hard disk connected to another port :) After clicking the OK button, the same process of creating an image will go as with creation of ISO image. The program will also offer to check the flash drive in its virtual machine.


    That's all. I hope you found this article useful, click one of the buttons below to tell your friends about it. Also subscribe to site updates by entering your e-mail in the field on the right or subscribing to the group on VKontakte.

    Thank you for your attention!

    Any user will not refuse to have a good multi-boot flash drive that could provide all the distribution kits he needs. Modern software allows you to store on one bootable USB drive several operating system images and useful programs.

    To create a multiboot flash drive you will need:

    • USB drive with a capacity of at least 8 Gb (preferably, but not required);
    • a program that will create such a drive;
    • operating system distribution images;
    • a set of useful programs: antiviruses, diagnostic utilities, backup tools (also desirable, but not required).

    ISO images of Windows and Linux operating systems can be prepared and opened using utilities, or. For information on how to create an ISO in Alcohol, read our tutorial.

    Before you start working with the following software insert your USB drive into your computer.

    Method 1: RMPrepUSB

    To create a multiboot flash drive, you will need the Easy2Boot archive in addition. It contains the necessary file structure for recording.


    You can check its functionality using the RMPrepUSB emulator. To launch it, press the key "F11".

    Method 2: Bootice

    This is a multifunctional utility whose main task is to create bootable flash drives.