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Instructions for creating a bootable USB flash drive on Windows. How to burn an ISO image file to a USB flash drive

It should be said right away that there are many ways to carry out this operation. The choice depends on the purpose and In this case, we will create a bootable flash drive with the Windows operating system. Next you will find out using the “WinSetupFromUSB” program.

Preparation

Since we will be recording Windows, we will therefore need its image. Where you download it from does not matter. The most important thing is that you use a fully working operating system that has already been tested on other devices. You can burn not only an ISO image, but also an already unpacked version of it. It is recommended to use a flash drive with a capacity of at least 2 GB. Burning an ISO image to a flash drive will take you about 30 minutes (it all depends on the parameters of your computer). The “WinSetupFromUSB” program can be downloaded from the World Wide Web for free.

Conclusion

The question of how to burn an ISO image to a flash drive is often asked on various forums and portals. Everyone offers their own tools, programs and, accordingly, instructions. I have offered you my own method that will help you make your own bootable flash drive. I hope you understand how to burn an ISO image to a flash drive.

Often when your computer breaks down you have to use a bootable flash drive. With its help, you can get to the recovery partition, launch the command line or edit the registry even if the system itself does not start or does not respond. In this way, you can solve many startup problems and avoid reinstalling the system, and if this does not help, then the same flash drive will be useful for reinstalling the OS. So it doesn’t hurt to have a bootable flash drive at home in reserve.

Usually, bootable flash drives are made from an iso image. This is a file that represents copy of optical drive. You can unpack it using conventional archivers and work with it, you can use special programs that can emulate the operation of optical drives and work with the file through them, there are also many applications that will allow you to write the image to another medium, which will be discussed in this article.

Preparing a flash drive

For starters, it's worth transfer from flash drive all information, because during the recording process, all data will be deleted. If you don’t mind losing information, you can leave it on the drive; in most cases, the programs themselves will delete it during operation. You can also format the flash drive, this is required to record some images, it’s worth finding out what type of file system is required, ntfs or fat32, and re-encoding the flash drive to it.

Third Party Applications

This section will list the utilities that are best used to create a bootable drive.

Ultra ISO

It is better to download the program from the official website; others may contain versions with malware or with additional files, link to the page https://www.ultraiso.com/. After downloading, you will need install file, there is nothing complicated about it, all actions are performed using the usual installation wizard. After starting the program, you should click on the file - open, and then specify the path to the downloaded image. Then, a complete list of files will appear in the window. Next you need to click on Bootstrap - Burn a hard disk image.

After which a window will open in which you should select drive, and then all you have to do is click on record and wait for the process to complete.

Rufus

It is also better to download this program from trusted sources; you can download it from the link https://rufus.akeo.ie/?locale. Unlike the previous utility, this one specializes only in creating boot and multiboot drives. In the top line you should select the drive to which recording will be made, in the next paragraph you need to specify partition scheme, which will depend on the system being installed. In the bottom block you should definitely note “ Create a boot disk", indicate the downloaded iso as the source.

The remaining parameters can be left as default.

WinSetupFromUSB

You can find the utility at http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/downloads/. The program itself is quite easy to understand and use. All you need to do is indicate the drive, check the box below it if this is the first image to be recorded, then check the box for the required system version and indicate the path to the downloaded element. Further required click ongo and wait for the process to complete.

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

The official utility, which can be obtained directly from the developer’s website https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/store/b/home?rtc=1. The program is easy to use, in the first window you need to specify the file, in the next you need to specify the drive, and then you just have to wait for the recording.

Daemon Tools Ultra

This application has many options for working with virtual drives and disk images; you can download it on the official website https://www.daemon-tools.cc/rus/products/dtultra. After installation, all you have to do is click on tools, then on burn image, after which you will only need to specify the flash drive, image and select recording options that you can leave with default settings.

UnetBootin

A utility for creating bootable flash drives based on Linux, you can download it at https://unetbootin.github.io/. Here you should indicate the version of the system, after which the program will download it, or the path to the image, as well as the drive on which the recording will be made.

WinToFlash

You can download the program at https://wintoflash.com/home/ru/. In the first window, which is called the transfer wizard, you need to press only on further, and in the second indicate the image file and the path to the flash drive.

Possible faults

Some utilities refuse to work without NET Framework, usually, it is installed on every computer because many applications require it to work. If the user does not have it, then the latest version can be downloaded from the Microsoft website, but the rest will have to be searched. The problem may also be a mismatch between versions; 64-bit systems may refuse to write to a flash drive if the action itself is performed in a 32-bit environment. In this case, you should try using a different image or another utility.

You have an ISO file that you want on a flash drive or other USB storage device. You should also be able to boot from it. Sounds simple, right? Copy the file to it and you're done!

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Properly burning an ISO to USB is different than just copying the file. It's even different than burning an ISO to a disc. The tricky part is that you plan to boot from a USB drive, and to do that you need to create boot entries on it.

Luckily, there are many free tools that can automatically create a bootable drive. We'll look at how to do this using the free Rufus program.

Note: Burning an ISO image file to USB devices typically takes less than 20 minutes, but the total time varies greatly depending on the size of the image and the performance of the drive.

How to Burn an ISO File to a USB Drive

Step 1

Download Rufus, a free tool that will help you properly prepare your USB drive, automatically extract the contents of the ISO image, and correctly copy the files it contains to your USB device, including any files in the ISO needed to make it bootable.

Rufus is a portable program (no installation required), works on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP and allows you to burn an ISO image file to any type of storage device.

Step 2

Double click on the downloaded file. The utility will be immediately ready for use.


Step 3

Connect the flash drive or other USB device to your computer that you want to burn the ISO file to.

Step 4

Attention: Burning an ISO image to a USB drive using this program erases all data on the disk! Make sure your USB drive is empty or that you have backed up all important files from it.

Step 5

From the drop-down list of devices at the top of the program window, select the USB drive to which you want to burn the image.

Note: The utility shows the size of the USB device, its letter and the amount of free space on the disk. Use this information to ensure you select the correct device.


Note: If the USB drive is not in the list of devices, then the problem may be with the drive itself. Try reconnecting it to another USB port or to a port directly on the motherboard (if you are using a USB hub).

Step 6

Below you can specify the volume label, cluster size and file system. In most cases, we recommend leaving this value at its default.

Step 7

In the "formatting options" section, you can check the "check device for bad blocks" option if you have concerns that there may be a problem with the drive.


Step 9

When the "Open" window appears, select the ISO image that you want to burn to the flash drive and click the "Open" button. Wait while Rufus checks the ISO file you selected. This usually takes a few seconds.


Note: if you see the message “Unsupported ISO”, then in this case, try using another program or downloading another image, since Rufus will not be able to write the file. This error occurs when opening a damaged or non-ISO image.

Step 10

Click the Start button to begin the process of writing the image file to the selected USB device.

Note: If you see a message that the image is too large, you will need to use a larger drive.

Step 12

Once recording is complete, safely remove the USB flash drive and try booting from it. If you succeed, then the recording was successful.

Each of us has ever thought about what to do if there is no CD/DVD drive in the computer/laptop, and loading a game or program from the image is simply vital. In this article we will tell you one of the easiest ways to burn an ISO image to a Flash card. The task at hand will seem so simple to you that even if you are a user with minimal PC knowledge, it will take you just a few minutes to complete.

To complete this you will need:

  • Internet access.
  • Downloaded ISO image of the required program.
  • Blank Flash card.

Please note that if there is any data on the card, it will be erased when the image is recorded.

UltraISO is one of the best software solutions that allows you not only to write images to memory cards, but also to remove images from hard drives, CD/DVD drives, work with the information contained in the images and create your own files, which can then be written to bootable media.

We go to the website https://ultraiso.ru.softonic.com and click on the “Download” button, then “Download” again. The site is verified and is guaranteed not to cause problems for your device.



Go to the downloads folder and run the downloaded file. In the window that opens, be sure to select the item “I accept the terms of the agreement” and press the following buttons: “Next” - “Next” - “Install” - “Finish”. At the same time, do not remove the selection from the “Run UltraISO” item.



When you launch the program, a window will pop up on the screen saying that the program is paid and asking you to purchase a license. We will not pay attention to this, since the trial version of the program has no restrictions on duration and functionality. Click the “Trial period...” button



Now we have the program window open before our eyes, which is divided into two parts. In the first part (above) we will see the components of the image, and in the second (below) we will see the image file itself, which we will write to the memory card. The program's interface is quite friendly, which allows us to work with it without any difficulties. In the lower window, in the directory, select the location of the ISO file and double-click on it. The name of the image and everything it includes will appear at the top (usually the installation file plus additional modules).



At the top, click on the “Boot” item and select “Burn hard disk image.” Now we have before our eyes the image recording window. There is nothing complicated here either. In the “Disk Drive” field, select the media on which our ISO image will be written (don’t forget to insert the flash drive into the computer before doing this, otherwise nothing will work).



In the “Recording method” field, select USB-HDD +v2. You can also make the “Check” item active, but this is not necessary. This function checks the correctness of the image we created. If the matter is urgent, then you don’t have to use the function, as it will take another 3-5 minutes of your precious time. Click the “Record” button. After clicking this button, we will see the step-by-step process of recording the image. You don’t have to watch the process closely; you can just roll up the window and calmly go about your business. Ready! The bootable memory card has been created, now you can safely use it.


In this article, we got acquainted with not the only, but one of the simplest ways to write an image to a memory card. The program we recommend using is absolutely free and does not require additional computer skills.

You can also use standard Windows tools, for example, recovery, but this is not always possible, so it is much easier to remove the old system and install a new one.

To restore you will need a disk or .

Let's consider the process of creating an image using the example of recording Windows 8, although “seven” and other operating systems are written the same way.

Step 1. Getting started

To perform further actions, you will need to run the program as Administrator, otherwise the system will simply not allow you to do anything.

After you have opened the program, you need to click the “open” menu as shown in the first screenshot and start creating a bootable ultraiso flash drive.

The example shows a prepared . The files themselves are easy to find on the Internet, in particular on torrent trackers. The extension must be ISO, not EXE.

Once you have confirmed the choice of image by clicking the “open” button, a list of used files will be displayed in the right window of the program.

Do not delete or rename anything to avoid any installation errors in the future.

Step 2. Preparing an image for recording

A pop-up window will appear again, once again warning that the data will be deleted. We agree with this and move on.

Now the fun begins - direct recording of the OS. Ultraiso multiboot flash drive started to be created , which will take some time.

The program itself works quite quickly and efficiently, but the system often slows down the entire creation process. Be patient.

Upon completion of the process, a “Recording complete” notification will be displayed in the logs! This means that our flash drive with Windows 8 is ready for use.

Since we no longer need UltraISO services, the program can be closed.

When you connect the flash drive to the PC a second time, something similar to the one shown in the screenshot should appear.

Depending on the image, its name may differ from this. The picture shows just an example of the final version.