How to use the built-in webcam on a laptop. Instructions for turning on the camera on a laptop
Greetings, dear readers! In today's article we will talk about multi bootable USB flash drive, why it is needed and how to create it, but first things first...
It's always good to have a multiboot flash drive with multiple operating systems on hand. In fact, why bother searching for disks and distribution kits when you will always have the opportunity to install any system you need at hand?
Many of you have wondered: how to make such a multiboot flash drive? What programs should I use so that I can have my own flash drive with several operating systems? But not always knowledge and skills regular user enough for that. In this material I will provide you with clear instructions, how to put multiple operating systems on a flash drive.
So, first of all, let’s generalize the concept - “Multi-boot flash drive”, because not every user knows such a term. Imagine that your computer won't boot from hard drive or drive, for some unknown reason the system cannot boot from the above devices. Then in this case, a multiboot flash drive comes to the rescue. We can say that such a flash drive is a certain multi-purpose set necessary utilities, programs that are designed to diagnose your personal computer. Here it will not be difficult to guess what diagnostic operations you can carry out with your PC; as an example, I will give you a few of them:
1.Testing RAM or hard drive
2. Hard drive diagnostics (recovery, backup)
3. Record on removable media.
Speaking in simple words, the installer is written to the flash drive, thanks to which when booting from external storage A menu for selecting specific actions will appear (OS installation, testing, diagnostics, etc.)
So, I suggest you start creating your own bootable USB flash drive. In this article, as an example, I will create a bootable flash drive with two operating systems, Windows XP and Windows 7. I will add that in one of my future articles I will definitely tell you how, in addition to operating systems, you can also write utilities onto a flash drive that will allow you to perform various diagnostics of your computer.
How to put multiple operating systems on a flash drive?
I am absolutely convinced that after reading this material, you will be able to create multi-boot flash drives with multiple operating systems. Including, you can create a flash drive with Windows 7 and 8 on board, not to mention old-fashioned XP.
What do we need to get such a wonderful flash drive? First, you need a working operating system. In the example we will use Windows 7 (32 Bit). In it we will make our wonderful multi-load flash card, on which Windows XP and Windows 7 will be recorded.
To do this, we use the fairly well-known WinSetupFromUSB utility. This program has long been known and has proven itself as a utility that allows you to create multiboot flash cards. I suggest you go to the official website of the WinSetupFromUSB program in order to download and install it on your computer. http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/downloads/
Essentially this program allows you to create flash drives on the UEFI system.
In our example, we will use an 8 GB flash card. This is quite enough to record two operating systems. You can always take a larger flash drive, but keep in mind that you will need at least 4 gigabytes of memory for one system.
So, you and I have downloaded the program onto our computer, now all we have to do is unzip and run it.
I note that the program can run on both 32 and 64 bit systems. On at the moment I'm running the program on Windows 7 (32 bit system), so I click WinSetupFromUSB_1-4X32.
So, let's open our program. Do you see the main window? The name of our flash card is displayed here. Check the box next to “Auto format...”. Next, click on NTFS. Select “Windows 2000...” and then click the Explorer button that opens on the right.
In the explorer itself, you need to assign a folder with the XP file distribution. In the event that you have installation disk, then all you need to do is just make a copy of the files and transfer them to a folder, calling it something like “WindowsXP”.
If you are working with a separate XP image, then you need to open it in DAEMON Tools, and then perform the same actions, namely copy the entire distribution to this folder.
All. The folder is specified. Now we need to click on the “ok” button.
We agree with the license
Click “go”
And once again
The first stage of creating your multiboot flash card is complete!
Moreover, it was completed successfully: it already has one operating system.
Approximately the same actions need to be repeated with the “Seven”. This operating system, which many prefer to 8, is quite versatile and not too demanding. How to install it? No more difficult than XP.
Go to the folder where the utilityWinSetupFromUSB is located and click on WinSetup…exe.
In the main menu that appears, we will see that our flash drive has been identified. This time we do not click on the “Auto format it...” item.
You need to tick the box Vista/7/8/…Next - open the explorer (the button is on the right). We are looking for a 64-bit image of the “seven”, click on it once with the left mouse button and then simply open it. We start the process by clicking on “GO”.
So everything went well. Now you have two systems on the flash drive: “XP” and “Seven”.
This is already a lot. However, what should you do if you want to write another, more modern system? Let's say "Eight"?
So, the process for this is exactly the same as in the previous case: select your flash drive. Do not click on the “Auto format...” checkbox, otherwise existing operating systems will simply be removed from your computer.
Then check the box Vista/7/8/... Finally, click on the Explorer menu, find the image of the required operating system there and click on “open”. Next - “go” and voila! The third operating system will appear on your flash card.
How to install one of the systems from a flash card?
If you are going to install xP, "Seven" or "Eight" on a PC with UEFI, then your very first step is to turn off Secure Boot. This is very important, because otherwise installation of the system will be impossible. If you don't know how to do this, here you go .
If you are going to install systems on a computer with a BIOS, then you should simply start booting it with your flash card.
So, we enter the boot menu of your computer. Next you select your flash drive. The first window that appears is the GRUB4DOS menu.
Select Windows XP/2000/2003...and XP will be installed.
Select Windows NT6... and you will have a choice: start downloading “Seven” or “Eight” 64-bit.
So, let's try to install both systems. Let's start with XP.
Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, you simply select “Windows XP/2000/2003...”. Then press Enter. A window appears. We agree, select the third item and press “Enter”.
At this moment, the loading of the operating system begins. Then you install XP as if from disk. There is nothing complicated about it.
I will only note that a reboot awaits you. After the GRUB4DOS window appears, select “4 Second part of Windows XP”... That’s it. Soon the installation will continue and your PC will have Windows XP.
By the way, if during the installation process you crashed like this blue screen,
then in this case you should perform one simple trick in the BIOS of your computer. Namely, switch from AHCI mode Mode in IDE mode Mode, in the tab - SATA Configuration.
If the above method did not help you avoid a blue screen, then I recommend that you create an image operating system with integrated inside SATA drivers. In the event that these drivers are not available, then on new ones motherboards An angry blue screen will pop up indicating an error. And all because the program simply cannot detect hard drive. We will consider this issue in more detail in the next article.
Of course, today there are a huge number of programs that will allow you to easily create a multiboot flash drive. Moreover, most of them are not only free, but also very easy to use. For example, you can look at the presented video.
By creating such a flash drive, you will always have several operating systems at hand, which will undoubtedly save you a lot of time. You won't need to search anymore boot disks operating systems or CD writers. Once, having spent your time creating something like this an indispensable tool, you will never regret it.
I hope that today's tips on how to make a multiboot flash drive were useful to you. I tried to cover this process in as much detail as possible and therefore I am sure that you will succeed if you follow my simple instructions. That's all for today, if you have any questions, ask them in the comments, I will be glad to help you!
Dear users, if after reading this article you have any questions or would like to add something regarding the subject of this article or the entire Internet resource as a whole, then you can use the comment form. Also ask your questions, suggestions, wishes..
So, for today, that’s actually all I wanted to tell you about in today’s episode. I can only hope that you found interesting and useful information in this article. Well, I, in turn, am waiting for your questions, wishes or suggestions regarding this article or the entire site as a whole
Hello, today I’ll tell you what a cool multi-boot flash drive I have, which has saved me more than once. With the advent of large-capacity flash drives (from 8 GB), it became possible to make multiboot flash drives with a huge range of software and operating systems. Now you don’t need to carry around a bunch of disks with drivers and installers for Windows/Linux.
In my case, a multiboot flash drive is a whole “combine” with two operating systems, software for checking and testing computer hardware, and even a completely ready-to-use operating system (LiveCD).
First, let me tell you what we will end up with:
- Ability to install Windows 7 SP1 x86-x64
- Ability to install Ubuntu (any version)
- Ability to run LiveCD
- Program for working with HDD – Acronis Disk Director
- Program for testing RAM MemTest
Preparing the flash drive for use
Now let's look at everything in more detail. First you need to download the archive with the files you will need:
Now you need to prepare your flash drive for further work. Format it regular means windows
Ready! Now you need to install the bootloader on the flash drive using grub4dos. Launch the program grubinst_gui.exe from the archive, select our flash drive in it and click “ Install”
If after clicking the Install button you see a window like this, then everything was successful:
Let's move on. Now there is nothing on your flash drive, it is completely empty, in order for it to become bootable, you need to copy the bootloader files and the boot menu itself to it. They are located in the root of the archive
grldr– bootloader
menu.lst– menu setup file
Open the copied file menu.lst in a notepad. As you can see, it is completely empty. We will set it up together with you now.
To start, add this line:
Title Turn off PC halt
At this stage, we have a bootable flash drive ready, but it can’t do anything other than turn off the computer (this is the command we added). Now let's check if the flash drive is working. To do this, you don’t need to restart your computer at all, just copy the file MobaLiveUSB_0.2.exe to the root of the flash drive and run it, click the “ button Non”
An emulator window will open, in which you will see everything the same as if you booted your computer from a bootable USB flash drive.
As you can see, “krakozyabry” are displayed on the screen instead of Russian letters
We will fix this issue by connecting one of the templates to the bootloader (in my case, winlin.gz). Copy the file to the root of the flash drive winlin.gz and write the following lines in menu.lst at the very beginning
Gfxmenu/winlin.gz
Now run the emulator again and see what your bootloader screen will look like. If everything was done correctly, you will see the following screen:
As you can see, the “Turn off PC” message is now displayed normally. Great, now let's move on.
Adding the Windows 7 SP1 x86-x64 installer
Now let's add Windows installer 7 SP1 x86-x64 for the ability to install windows from your multiboot flash drive.
To do this, download the Windows 7 image you like and extract all the files to the root of the flash drive.
After extracting the files, add the following lines to the menu.lst file:
Title Installing Windows 7 SP1 x86-x64 RU map --unmap=0:0xff map --unhook root chainloader /bootmgr
Download the emulator and check what you get. As you can see, the “Install Windows” item has appeared.
When you select this item, it starts Windows installation. Let's move on...
Adding the Ubuntu installer
I often have to use Linux, so I decided to add the Ubuntu distribution to the flash drive. Download the latest distribution from the official website. Create a folder on the flash drive /ubuntu and copy the downloaded image into it (as is, in one file).
Now open ubuntu image V UltraISO program and from the catalog /casper copy two files: vmlinuz And initrd.lz to a folder /ubuntu on a flash drive. The name of the ubuntu disk image should be ubuntu.iso.
Now write the following in the menu.lst file:
Title Installing ubuntu-10.04.4-desktop-i386 kernel /ubuntu/vmlinuz iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu/ubuntu.iso boot=casper only-ubiquity initrd=/casper/initrd.lz locale=ru_RU quiet splash -- initrd /ubuntu/initrd.lz
Restart the emulator and check what you got
When you select the menu item “ Installing Ubuntu” installation of the distribution will begin
Adding LiveCD launch
Very useful thing! It happens when the system doesn’t boot, and before reinstalling you need to save the contents of your desktop, doesn’t it happen? This has happened to me, and in such moments, LiveCD will help.
I downloaded the first assembly I came across (if you want to find it, search by name), it contains both Windows 7 and Windows XP. For every taste, as they say.
So, I downloaded the image and put it in a folder /os, V menu.lst added the following:
Title Run Windows LiveCD map /os/LiveCD_Seven+LEX.ISO (hd32) map --hook root (hd32) chainloader (hd32) boot
Now I have one more point
I would like to note right away that when launched from the emulator, the version with Windows 7 will not start, but the version with Windows XP will start without problems.
Now we have two operating systems and a LiveCD. Let's add some software.
Adding programs for a bootable flash drive
1. To work with hard drives, I downloaded the image Acronis Disk Director(available on torrents). I put it in a folder /program and added the following entry to the menu:
Title Working with hard drives Acronis Disc Director map /program/acronis.iso (hd32) map --hook root (hd32) chainloader (hd32) boot
Now I have in my arsenal good tool for working with disks
2. To test RAM, I will use the “MemTest” program
I downloaded it from . Unpacked and put the image in a folder /program , added the following to the menu:
Title Check RAM MemTest 4.10 map /program/mt410.iso (hd32) map --hook root (hd32) chainloader (hd32) boot
Trying to run from the emulator...
Works! Let's move on.
3. A huge set of different tools can be found in Hiren`s BootCD. You can download it. Unzip and copy the image to a folder /program , you also need to copy the firadisk.IMA file from my archive into it.
firadisk.IMA is a driver that allows you to load a disk image into RAM and work with it as with a regular disk.
We enter the following in the menu:
Title Hiren`s BootCD v9.3 map --mem /program/firadisk.ima (fd0) map --mem /program/hbcd.iso (hd32) map --hook chainloader (hd32)
When loading Hiren's BootCD, you need to wait a little while the disk is loaded into RAM, after which it will start.
4. Add a utility to the flash drive to reset the administrator password. You can download it and copy the ISO image to a folder /program. Added the following entry to the menu:
Title Reset Administrator password map /program/BOOT-DSK.ISO (hd32) map --hook root (hd32) chainloader (hd32) boot
The image contains several utilities, we are interested in the one highlighted with an arrow:
5. I will add the Victoria program for diagnosing the hard drive. You can download it. I throw the image into /program
I write the following in the menu:
Title Diagnosis of hard disk Victoria 3.5 map /program/vcr35r.iso (hd32) map --hook root (hd32) chainloader (hd32) boot
In principle, you can add a bunch more things, you can only be limited by your imagination and the size of the flash drive. For me, this toolkit is quite enough.
Here is a screenshot of my bootable USB flash drive
And here is my menu.lst file:
Gfxmenu /winlin.gz title Installing Windows 7 SP1 x86-x64 RU map --unmap=0:0xff map --unhook root chainloader /bootmgr title Installing ubuntu-10.04.4-desktop-i386 kernel /ubuntu/vmlinuz iso-scan/ filename=/ubuntu/ubuntu.iso boot=casper only-ubiquity initrd=/casper/initrd.lz locale=ru_RU quiet splash -- initrd /ubuntu/initrd.lz title Run Windows LiveCD map /os/LiveCD_Seven+LEX.ISO ( hd32) map --hook root (hd32) chainloader (hd32) boot title Working with hard drives Acronis Disc Director map /program/acronis.iso (hd32) map --hook root (hd32) chainloader (hd32) boot title Check operational MemTest memory 4.10 map /program/mt410.iso (hd32) map --hook root (hd32) chainloader (hd32) boot title Hiren`s BootCD v9.3 map --mem /program/firadisk.ima (fd0) map --mem / program/hbcd.iso (hd32) map --hook chainloader (hd32) title Reset Administrator password map /program/BOOT-DSK.ISO (hd32) map --hook root (hd32) chainloader (hd32) boot title Victoria hard drive diagnostics 3.5 map /program/vcr35r.iso (hd32) map --hook root (hd32) chainloader (hd32) boot title Shut down PC halt
If you have any questions, welcome to the discussions!
Hello.
No matter what anyone says, but popularity optical disks is rapidly falling: not even all computers and laptops have a drive for them anymore. And, perhaps, this is not surprising: after all, an ordinary flash drive that fits in any pocket can easily replace them.
To install Windows, it is also more convenient to use a USB flash drive (there is a USB port on any computer!). But for this it needs to be written down/prepared correctly.
In this article I will cover everything typical questions related to the creation of installation flash drives: programs for this operation, step by step settings before recording, the process of creating flash drives with multiple OS (multi-boot), UEFI flash drives. But first things first...
Note!
You might find this article useful on how to download an ISO image from Windows 10 [officially and legally] -
There are quite a lot of programs of this kind. To cover them all in one article is a thankless and unnecessary task. I will give below those programs that I used (and use) myself repeatedly when recording my bootable media.
Note : How to use this or that program will be discussed in the second part of this article.
Table No. 1 (main)
| Program name / website address | Description | Screenshots |
|---|---|---|
| Ultra ISO
|
One of best programs for working with ISO disk images. Allows you to edit them, extract files from them (or add), write images to a flash drive/disk, etc. In general, indispensable program for working with the ISO format, and I have repeatedly recommended it in my articles (and, by the way, almost all Windows operating systems are distributed in this format). |
(main program window) |
| Rufus
|
Small free utility, capable of creating almost any bootable flash drive, memory card, etc. Allows you to prepare flash drives for UEFI. Another advantage of the utility: it works somewhat faster than other analogues. Note: yes portable version(not requiring installation), and classic. Works on all Windows OS: XP, 7, 8, 10. |
(Rufus settings for writing a bootable USB flash drive) |
| One of the most famous programs for burning bootable media. Allows you to create bootable media with OS: Windows 2000, XP, 7, 8, 10, etc. The program also allows you to create multiboot flash drives (i.e. on which there are 2-3 or more Windows operating systems and when loading you can choose which one to install). In general, indispensable software if you need to create installation media from time to time. |
(setting before writing a flash drive) | |
| WintoFlash | Simple and convenient program to create bootable media. A wizard will accompany you during the creation and configuration process: the whole process goes step by step, which is very convenient if you have never used such programs before. Possibilities:
|
(WintoFlash main window) |
| Windows 7 usb dvd download tool | A simple and convenient utility for burning bootable flash drives from Microsoft itself (therefore it could not be included in this review ).
You can burn a bootable USB flash drive with the following Windows operating systems: 7, 8, 10. The entire recording process is divided into several steps: selecting a flash drive, selecting an image, confirming, recording... By the way, there is nothing superfluous in the program: the design is in a minimalist style. In general, I recommend it! Among the disadvantages: it is not always possible to record ISO image from Windows to a 4 GB flash drive (the program asks for 8, although other similar utilities write this image to the same flash drive...). |
(the first step is choosing an ISO image) |
Support programs
A small free* program for working with images (supports a huge number of different formats: ISO, MDS/MDF, CCD, etc.). After installing this program, you will see in “my computer” virtual drive(their number can be increased) in which you can open any of the images. For the computer, it will all look as if you had opened a real CD/DVD disc in the drive.
In addition to opening images, you can also create them from various disks. In general, an indispensable program on a PC (especially with the development and popularization of disk images).
*Note: in addition to free version, on the developer’s website you can find a paid version (with advanced functionality).
An analogue of Daemon Tools, it has the same functions: creating and opening images, supporting protected disks, etc. Alcohol 120% is paid version programs, there is a free one - Alcohol 52%.
In principle, you can work with both Daemon Tools and Alcohol. The choice is a matter of taste!
Step-by-step creation of a bootable USB flash drive
Windows XP
Once one of the most popular OS from Microsoft. Now, of course, its popularity is falling, but still quite large number The PC runs on this OS. Therefore, I decided to include it in this article...
WinToFlash
In my opinion, the easiest way to burn a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP is to use the WinToFlash utility. The fact is that it has a built-in wizard that will guide you through all the thorns... (by the way, the Lite version is enough for the job).
After launching the utility, click on the green checkmark (screen below) - " Windows Setup to USB Wizard".
WintoFlash - getting started with the wizard
Next step: you need to specify the path to the image file with Windows XP and select the flash drive on which this image will be written.
Actually, in the next step the program will warn you that all information will be deleted from the disk and will offer to continue. You agree and wait until all the files are copied to the flash drive.
Help! I have more detailed instructions on working with WinSetupFromUSB -
This program is slightly different from the previous one. Firstly, there is no wizard who will guide you step by step (you need to enter all the settings yourself), secondly, there is no support for the Russian language...
First, insert the USB flash drive into the USB port and run WinSetupFromUSB and as administrator.
- select the inserted flash drive;
- Click the "Auto format it with FBinst" checkbox, file system - NTFS;
- indicate the path to the folder with Windows distribution XP (ISO image can be unzipped using WinRar programs, or open it in Daemon Tools (links to programs are provided above));
- The final touch is to press the “GO” button.
In the next step, the program will warn you that all data on the flash drive will be deleted during the process of writing data to it. You're just confirming it.
If the flash drive was successfully written, you will see the “Job Done” window.
Windows 7, 8, 10
In principle, you can use the same utilities to record these OSes - the whole process is identical. Using the example of several utilities, I will show the whole process step by step.
Windows 7 usb/dvd tool
Despite the fact that this utility is intended for Windows 7, you can use it to burn a USB flash drive with Windows 8/10. Because This program is the simplest (it couldn’t be simpler) of all and the entire process of recording an image in it consists of only 4 steps, I recommend it first of all.
Step 1: specify an ISO image with Windows OS (the "Browse" button, when the image is specified, click "Next").
Specify ISO file
Step 2: select the device on which the recording will be made. IN in this case you need to choose either USB device, or DVD. Let's choose the first one.
Step 3: select the drive letter to which the recording will be made (i.e. specify the required flash drive, because several of them can be connected to a PC...).
Step 4: Recording process. When a message about the successful completion of the operation (Bootable USB device created successfully) is displayed, you can restart the PC and check the flash drive...
As you can see above, the whole process is extremely simple and does not contain anything superfluous.
Ultra ISO
Rufus
Article update from 01/24/2019: added screenshots of version 3.4. I also have instructions for working with Rufus 3.4 on my blog -
UEFI flash drive
UEFI is new standard, new interface(so to speak). It is designed to replace the "old" BIOS. One of the main tasks of UEFI is to protect the computer from boot viruses that are loaded along with (or before) loading the Windows OS (sorry for the tautology).
Therefore, in new computers/laptops, if you connect a flash drive created in the classical way to their USB port, the PC will not see it! In order for this flash drive to become visible: you need to switch UEFI to Legacy (the spelling may differ slightly depending on the BIOS/UEFI version) and turn off Secure Boot.
In this same part of the article I will look at a couple of ways to create bootable UEFI flash drive (so you don’t have to turn it off BIOS protection Secure Boot). So...
Method No. 1 - using the WinSetupFromUSB utility
First, run the utility as an administrator (how to do it: right-click on the executable file, then select the desired function in the context menu).
- Select a flash drive (be careful, when writing, all data on the flash drive will be deleted!);
- Click the "Auto format it with FBinst" checkbox and select the file FAT system 32 (don’t touch the other checkboxes);
- Next, select ISO image file with Windows OS (in the example below I chose Windows 8);
- Press the GO button and wait for the process to complete.
Setting up WinSetupFromUSB for writing a UEFI flash drive.
Method number 2 - using the Rufus utility
Rufus is a great recording utility different types bootable media. All settings are made in one window, everything is simple and fast.
You also need to run the utility as an administrator (screenshot below).
Rufus 3.4 - creating a flash drive for UEFI (GPT)
Multiboot flash drive (several OS on 1 flash drive!)
You can write not only one version of Windows OS to a flash drive, but several at once! For example, imagine you have the following OS on one flash drive: Windows XP 32 bit, Windows 7 64 bit, Windows 8 64 bit and Windows 10 64 bit. If something happens, you don’t need to carry around a bunch of flash drives with different OSes - you can immediately install the one you need with just one. Below I will consider in detail how and what is done...
To create such a flash drive, you need the following:
- multiple ISO images with the necessary systems(eg Windows XP and Windows 7). By the way, Windows image It is better to take XP with integrated SATA drivers, otherwise you will get a “blue” screen during installation on new motherboards;
- Daemon Tools or Alcohol (if you want to add Windows 2000, XP to the flash drive): programs that can open an ISO image (i.e. you will see the virtual drive in “my computer”, since it will not be an ISO image, but regular disk inserted into CD-Rom. Presented in the first part of the article);
- 8-16 GB flash drive (the more OS you are going to write, the more capacious the flash drive should be);
- program (presented at the top of the article,).
Step by step instructions creating a multiboot flash drive
- Launch the program WinSetupFromUSB as administrator. To do this, simply go to the program folder, select executable file and click on it right click mouse, then select "Run as administrator" from the context menu.
- Next, in Daemon Tools, open the image with Windows 2000/2003/XP (those who will not write these OS to a flash drive can skip this step).
Windows XP ISO image opened in Daemon Tools.
- Insert the flash drive into the USB port;
- Next you need to set following parameters: 1)
indicate the inserted flash drive (in my case, drive “E:\”); 2)
Check the box "Auto Format it with Fbinst", select the file NTFS system (if you plan to create a flash drive for UEFI, choose FAT 32); the rest of the checkboxes are by default; 3)
indicate the virtual drive in which the ISO image with Windows XP/2000 is open; 4)
indicate the ISO image with Windows 10 (in my case, this particular OS was chosen for the multiboot flash drive); 5)
Press the "GO" button - start recording the flash drive. All numbers are illustrated in the screenshot below.
- Next, the program will ask you whether to start recording. By the way, it’s important that all data on the flash drive will be deleted!
- Then the program will ask again - the answer is affirmative.
Warning 2 - click "Yes".
- Next, if everything went well, you will see a “green bar” at the bottom of the window - the program has started working. The recording time depends on the flash drive, the selected images, the speed of your USB port, the PC load, etc. On average, 5-20 minutes. to record multiple OS. At this time, it is better not to touch the computer and not run resource-intensive tasks on it: games, video/graphics editors, etc.
- When the flash drive is written, you will see the inscription “Job Done”. In principle, the flash drive can already be used, it now has 2 Windows XP and 10 operating systems! Screenshot below.
- To add another OS, for example, Windows 7, simply insert the USB flash drive into the USB port again, run WinSetupFromUSB (as administrator). Then: 1)
select the desired flash drive (note: on which we previously recorded 2 OS)
; 2)
specify the ISO image with the Windows OS to be added; 3)
press the "GO" button. Note: Please note that you do not need to check the box next to “Auto format it with FBinst”, as we did before!
- When another OS is added, you will see the usual window - the job is done. Now there are 3 OS on the flash drive: Windows XP (32 bit), 7 and 10 (64 bit).
- If you want to add another OS, for example Windows 8, you need to do step 9 again (see above). In principle, this way you can add quite a lot of OS to your flash drive (let’s say, provide for all the options)...
Checking a multiboot flash drive
To check the created flash drive in operation, you need to do the following:
- Go to the BIOS and put a USB flash drive in the boot queue (you can use the BOOT Menu). More details about which buttons to move in Bios and call Boot Menu is described here:
- Insert the flash drive into the USB port and restart the computer;
- A window should appear as in the screenshot below: for example, I selected Windows string NT 6 (this is for choosing to install Windows 7, 8, 10).
After this, if you have 2 or more "new" OSes, you will see a list with all of them. Select the desired option and continue with the installation. The screenshot is below, the flash drive works!
On this positive note I conclude the article; as always, I will be grateful for additions.
But what to do if you have several computers or laptops at home with different operating systems installed. Or friends often ask you to reinstall Windows or install it new version. Of course, you can create a bootable USB flash drive every time. You can also buy several flash drives and install various programs on them. But it’s much easier to choose this option - creating a multiboot flash drive with different Windows versions and utilities. About this and we'll talk in this article.
What you need
So, what do you need for this? Of course, you must have all the necessary ISO images that you want to burn onto it: various operating systems and utilities. This could be Windows XP, 7, 8 and others; Dr.Web LiveCD or Kaspersky Rescue Disk – to scan your computer for viruses, Victoria – to fix hard errors disk, Acronis Disk Director – for division of hard disk into partitions and others. You can download them from the Internet, or make images from disks, you can read about this by following the link.
You will also need special program, with which we will create a multiboot flash drive, and, of course, the USB drive itself. Choose its volume based on what you will be recording. If it's a set various programs, 1-4 GB is enough. If you want to make a multiboot flash drive with multiple OSes and add programs to it, take a flash drive with a memory capacity of 8 GB or more.
As an example, in this article we will make a multiboot flash drive with Windows 8 and the Victoria program. I took a 4 GB flash drive. We will use free program WinSetupFromUSB.
Downloading the required utility
You can download the program from the official website. Write “WinSetupFromUSB” in the search engine and follow the link shown in the figure below.
We will download the latest version of the program at the time of writing. Follow the appropriate link.
Click on the blue “Download” button.
Formatting a flash drive
The next thing we will do is format the flash drive using standard Windows tools, which will be bootable. Copy from it necessary files, since all information from the device will be completely deleted.
Insert it into your computer or laptop, and you need to use a USB 2.0 port. Go to “Computer”, right-click on it and select from context menu "Format".
will appear information window that all data will be destroyed, click “OK”.
When the USB drive is formatted, a corresponding window will open. Click “OK” in it and close the formatting utility.
Operating system entry
Unpack the downloaded archive from WinSetupFromUSB program and run the file “WinSetupFromUSB_1-6”.
First of all, let’s write an image with the Windows 8 operating system onto our multiboot flash drive.
In the program window, in the section, select the flash drive that we formatted. In the "Add to" section USB disk» put a tick in the box « Windows Vista/7/8/10/Server 2008/2012 based ISO"
An Explorer window will open. Find the required image on your computer, in the example this is the operating system image Windows systems 8, and click "Open".
Click "GO".
After the process is completely completed, the “Job done” window will appear.
I only have a 4 GB flash drive, so I won’t be able to write many operating systems onto it. If you need to add to multiboot Windows flash drive Vista, 7, 10 – repeat all the steps described above. To add Windows XP, in the “Add to USB disk” section, check the box "Windows 2000/XP/2003 Setup". Each time, select the same flash drive on which you recorded images earlier.
Recording programs
Now let's add a program to the multiboot flash drive to check and fix Victoria hard drive errors.
Run WinSetupFromUSB and in the section "USB disk selection and format tools" select our flash drive. Next, in the “Add to USB disk” section, put a tick in the box "Linux ISO/Other Grub4dos compatible ISO" and click on the button with three dots.
Through Explorer, find the program image on your computer and click Open. Then an information window will appear, click “OK” in it, or it will disappear itself after 10 seconds.
Click “GO” and wait for the program to be written to the flash drive.
To add other programs you need to the multiboot flash drive, repeat everything the above steps. Select the desired utility image each time.
Examination
After you add all the images of operating systems and programs to the flash drive, let's look at the result - open boot menu flash drives in virtual machine QEMU.
To do this, in the program window, click on the “Refresh” button, then check the “Test in QEMU” box and click “GO”.
You can see what the boot menu looks like after each addition of an OS or program to the flash drive.
In the example, the boot menu of the flash drive looks like this. The flash drive contains Windows 8 OS and Victoria program. You will see a different list depending on what you upload to it.
The main purpose of such a flash drive is a set of various utilities for system diagnostics. You can also compactly store several operating systems for installation on your computer. For example, if, when loading the computer, any errors occur in reading data from the hard drive, the operating system will not load. This is exactly when a multiboot flash drive will come in handy. Using it, you can diagnose the system and troubleshoot any problems that may arise, as well as install new system. Well main advantage bootable flash drive in front of the disk - this is its compactness.
Therefore, if you want to know how you can create a multi bootable flash media and what tools are needed for this, I advise you to study today’s article, which will reveal all the details of this process.
Bootable USB flash drive with multiple operating systems
The whole trick is to write a special installer. During this time, he will give us the opportunity to select the desired OS and various options its downloads. It goes without saying that to create such a flash drive you will need a working operating system, through which we will perform everything necessary actions. To burn a multi-bootable USB flash drive, you need to use the WinSetupFromUSB utility. Besides it, there are many other programs that can create flash drives with multiple OSes. But still, this application It worked well in practice, so we will use WinSetupFromUSB. The program itself creates a flash drive in the UEFI system.
A flash drive for two systems, it is recommended to use a capacity of at least 8 gigabytes. This is explained by the fact that for each OS it is necessary to allocate a volume of at least 4 gigabytes. Now let’s get down to the process of creating such a flash drive. Go to the official website of the utility.
Download WinSetupFromUSB by selecting latest version and clicking on the “Download” button. After the program is downloaded to your computer, you need to unzip it (if you downloaded an archive with the program, if you downloaded .exe right away, then you don’t need to do anything).
Launch it by clicking on the WinSetupFromUSB_1-5.exe file.
Your flash drive should be selected in the main program window (it should already be connected to the computer). If it is not there, click on the “Refresh” button and select from the drop-down list. Then check the box next to "Auto format it with Fbinst". Set the switch to the “NTFS” position. Check the boxes next to “align” and “copy BPB”.
Now check the box next to “Windows 2000/XP/2003 Setup”. Then click on the explorer button next to this item. Specify the folder with file system operating system that we will install on the flash drive. In our case, this is Windows XP.
An important point: in this case, there must be OS files, and not a disk image. If you have an image, or an archive with the system, then you need to extract all the files from it in separate folder. For the archive, use any archiver. And if you have a disk image, you need to run it in DAEMON Tools and open it as a folder through “My Computer”. Then simply copy everything from there into the folder created for this.
After specifying the folder with the system, click on the “OK” button.
IN license agreement click “Accept”.
Now click on the “GO” button at the bottom of the window.
Click on “Yes” twice more.
Confirm again with the “Yes” button.
The process of creating a flash drive for loading operating systems has begun.
Now our flash drive already has one OS.
But we are creating a multiboot flash drive. Therefore, in a similar way we install Windows 7 on the same flash drive.
You need to run WinSetupFromUSB again.
But now there is no need to check the box next to “Auto format...”. We simply check the “Windows Vista/7/8/Server 2008/2012 based ISO” checkbox. Then, through the Explorer window, select the image of the next OS. Then click on “GO”.
After installation, the flash drive will already contain two systems: Windows XP and Windows 7.
If there is still enough on the flash drive free space, then, if desired, you can install another system, for example, it could be Windows 8. This is done in the same way as with Windows 7. The main thing is not to check the box next to “Auto format”. Otherwise, you risk losing all previously installed systems.
Installing Windows from our flash drive
To install one of the recorded systems that are on a flash drive via UEFI, you will need to disable Secure Boot. You can read more about how this is done in.
If you install everything in a standard way via , then you just need to boot from your bootable USB flash drive.
To do this, simply select our flash drive in the Boot settings. After which a menu will appear with a list of systems.
If you select the “Windows XP/2000” option, Windows XP will be installed.
If you select another item: Windows NT6 (Vista/? and above) - the installation of the seventh Windows will begin. If a third OS was installed, Windows 8 for example, then at this point there will be a choice between “seven” and “eight”. For clarity, you can look at how Windows XP is installed.
To install XP, use the arrows to select “Windows XP/2000...”, then press “Enter”. In the next window we confirm everything and agree with everything. Then selecting item number three, press “Enter”.
After this, in a standard way Windows XP will be installed, just like it happens when installing from a disk.
Your computer will restart during installation. After this, you need to select the fourth item “Second part of Windows XP”, after which the installation will continue.
In rare cases, “ ” may pop out.
Then go into the BIOS and in the SATA configuration section, switch from AHCI Mode to IDE Mode. Now try installing the system again.