USB flash drive with support for booting in uefi mode. Secure Boot Facts. What is UEFI

Already dragged on for a blog? But what to do if there are several simple and very convenient ways do it. The reader must be given a choice.

And if we take into account the fact that nowadays laptops are used quite often without disk drives, then you will not get away from this question. Do you agree? Therefore, let's finish off the section about creating a bootable USB flash drive Windows 7 in UltraISO. Not you know what kind of beast is this (UltraISO)? Yes it is free program.

For the sake of a word of mouth, it is worth noting that the solution described in this article is perfect for creating bootable media not only for sevens, but also for Win 10. There is also UEFI support. Therefore, I personally like this alignment very much.

So let's get started. The first step is to download an application called UltraISO and install on your computer. The process is pretty simple, there isn't much to tell. We take and set. Then we run it and Windows 7. In our case, there will be a 64-bit version:

And then we smoothly move on to almost the last step. Namely, we follow the path "Hard Disk Image":

And in the window that opens, set the following options:

  • Disk Drive: specify the flash drive for copying files.
  • Recording method: choose USB-HDD +.
  • Do not forget to press the button "Save".

Naturally, you need to understand that formatting the drive will erase all the information on it. Well, in general, that's all, friends, the creation of a bootable Windows 7 USB flash drive in UltraISO has come to an end.

Again, I repeat that this method can be used to record Windows without any problems. Everything is done by analogy. As they say, exactlyat- exactly.

The only disadvantage of this approach is the impossibility of adding something to such a medium. Rather, you can do this, but you will need to manually edit the ISO image in the program and the files in the boot menu.

Therefore, write your thoughts and questions in the comments to the article, I always read them and answer whenever possible. I will also be happy with constructive criticism and business proposals. And now, everyone, let's watch an entertaining video.

In order not to guess, here's some advice:
- If you have an MBR disk layout in your laptop, then do it in Diskpart as usual
- If you have a GPT disk partition in your laptop, then do it in Rufus in GPT UEFI

Then you won't be mistaken and you will be happy !!!

Reply

aaalekseyyy 22.11.2015

Deniska, apparently your BIOS is configured to boot from the extended version of Boot UEFI by default, which is supported only by Windows 8, 8.1, 10.
Windows 7 does not support booting from Boot UEFI Enhanced, Windows 7 needs to downgrade Boot UEFI from Windows 8.1 Enhanced to Launch CSM... And for this, you first need to disable protection Secure Boot.
Also, check, to download and install on a GPT disk, Windows 7 must be x64 (64-bit).

Reply

aaalekseyyy 30.11.2015

Denisk, what advice to you:

1. Downgrade the BOOT UEFI version in BIOS to the minimum (If there is Secure Boot, then disable it first).

2. Go from a Windows 7 Live CD, initialize your disk to GPT and partition the disk. I do not recommend making large partitions, because, for example, for a 1 TB partition, in case of information loss, only one pass of the Recovery program will take 17-24 hours, and to completely restore the information, it will take up to 3 days of continuous computer operation. Better just create just one section 200-500 Mb, let the rest remain unallocated space, then you will finish it as you need, after installing the system.

For a UEFI system to boot from a USB flash drive, it must be formatted with the FAT32 file system. Microsoft's official utility for creating bootable flash drives, windows 7 USB / DVD download tool, formats the drive in the NTFS file system, so a system with UEFI in native mode will not boot from such media.

Let's try to prepare a USB flash drive on our own and fill it with the windows 7 distribution kit. What we need:

  • USB (v2 or v3) flash drive with a capacity of at least 4 GB
  • 64-bit distribution of windows 7 (32-bit versions of Microsoft OS on UEFI systems will not be loaded). The distribution kit can be in the form of an installation DVD disc or ISO image file

How to create an installation USB flash drive with windows7 for a UEFI system:

After completing all the described manipulations, you have a USB flash drive in your hands, with which you can install windows 7 on a UEFI system in native mode. The process of installing windows 7 on a system with UEFI and all the pitfalls will be discussed in more detail in the next article.

winitpro.ru

How to make a bootable windows flash drive or UEFI disk

On computers with a new UEFI interface instead of the usual BIOS, it is advisable to install windows in EFI mode to improve the performance of the operating system. To install windows in EFI mode, you will need an image of a 64-bit operating system windows 7 SP1 or later. Wherein system disk on which windows will be installed in EFI mode, should not be partitioned in the usual MBR form, but converted to GPT format. This is done in 64-bit windows versions using the Diskpart utility.

Option 1. Create a USB stick for installing windows in EFI mode.

1) Create a bootable USB drive (flash drive) for installing windows 7.

Bootable USB stick must be formatted to file fAT system32 to be recognized as a bootable UEFI device, the USB stick must be at least 4 GB in size. To create a windows 7 flash drive in EFI mode, you cannot use the Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool from Microsoft. This utility formats the installation flash drive in NTFS and UEFI does not recognize it.

Connect the USB stick to the USB port. - In the Start menu in the search bar, enter cmd.exe, and click right click mouse on the found object. In the opened context menu select the item Run as administrator. - We enter the commands one by one. After entering each of them, press the Enter key ↵.

here - # is the number of the USB stick obtained in the previous command. Next, the commands will completely clear everything on the selected disk.

clean create partition primary select partition 1 active format fs \u003d FAT32 assign exit

Unpacking the image installation disk (ISO file) and copy all data from it to the flash drive.

Note: To create boot disk you can use the UltraISO program, which immediately creates an installation flash disk formatted in file system FAT32.

2) On the flash drive, open the folder *: \\ efi (here * is the letter of the flash drive with the installation windows files 7). 3) Create a new folder inside this folder named boot. (*: \\ efi \\ boot). 4) Copy the entire contents of the *: \\ efi \\ microsoft \\ boot folder to the *: \\ efi \\ boot folder. 5) Using an archiver (for example, 7-zip) open the file *: \\ sources \\ boot.wim or *: \\ sources \\ install.wim. 6) Go to the archive in the folder *: \\ sources \\ boot.wim \\ 1 \\ windows \\ Boot \\ EFI \\. 7) Copy the bootmgfw.efi file from the archive to a USB flash drive, into the folder *: \\ efi \\ boot. 8) Now you need to rename the copied file bootmgfw.efi (*: \\ efi \\ boot \\ bootmgfw.efi) to bootx64.efi (*: \\ efi \\ boot \\ bootx64.efi)

Done! Now the *: \\ efi \\ boot \\ folder should contain all the content copied from the *: \\ efi \\ microsoft \\ boot folder and the bootx64.efi file obtained from boot.wim or install.wim. Note: For some motherboards, you must additionally copy the bootx64.efi file to the root of the flash drive either with the same file name or with the shellx64.efi name.

Option 2. Create a DVD for installing windows in EFI mode.

1) Download the archive from microsoft program CD / DVD Premastering Utility and unpack it to any folder. 2) Copy the oscdimg.exe file to the C: \\ windows \\ System32 folder. 3) Unpack the installation disk image (ISO file) into a temporary folder. 4) In the Start menu, in the search bar, enter cmd.exe, and right-click on the found object. In the context menu that opens, select the Run as administrator item. 5) Enter the command to create an ISO file of the installation disk image:

oscdimg -lWin_7_x64_UEFI -m -o -u1 -pEF -e -bD: \\ Win_7_x64 \\ efi \\ microsoft \\ boot \\ efisys.bin D: \\ Win_7_x64 D: \\ Win_7_x64_UEFI.iso

where the following options are used: -l - Specifies the volume label. Don't use spaces. -m Ignores the maximum image size limit. -o - Optimizes storage using MD5 hashing algorithm for file comparison. -u1 - Creates an image that has both UDF and ISO 9660 file systems. ISO 9660 file systems are written using DOS-compatible 8.3 file names. The UDF file system is written using Unicode filenames. -p - Specifies the value for the platform identifier in the El Torito directory. The EF identifier is used to represent the UEFI system. Don't use spaces. -e Disables floppy disk emulation in the El Torito directory. -b - Specifies the El Torito boot sector file to be written to the boot sector or disk sectors. Don't use spaces. D: \\ Win_7_x64 - Specifies the location of the source files. D: \\ Win_7_x64_UEFI.iso - Specifies the path to generated file ISO.

6) Press the Enter key ↵. 7) We write the created image to a disc using the UltraISO utility.

Features of installing windows in EFI mode.

If you overclocked something from your components, it is better to restore the settings to the default values. - In UEFI / BIOS, set AHCI for SATA mode and enable ACPI 2.0, if disabled. - If the device does not boot from the device, then in the UEFI / BIOS install the USB flash drive first in the boot queue. - If you have both USB 3.0 ports and USB 2.0, it is recommended to plug the flash drive into the USB 3.0 port for successful installation. USB sticks 2.0 can also be connected to a USB 3.0 port. Copy the drivers to your flash drive for uSB port 3.0.

1) Connect the USB stick to the USB connector and restart the computer. 2) When the computer boots up, press the key to call the Boot Menu. Depending on the manufacturer motherboard is F8, F11 or F12. 3) In the list of devices, select "UEFI: [name of your device]".

If installing on a blank unpartitioned disk, go directly to step seven. When installing on a disk with existing partitions and using the old MBR, not GPT, do the following:

4) After downloading to the installation windows screen press the combination ⇑ Shift + F10.

5) We enter the commands one by one, pressing the Enter key after entering each of them.

diskpart list disk select disk #

Here # is the number hard diskon which windows will be installed. It will be returned by the previous command. Next, enter the commands to completely clear the entire selected disk:

clean сonvert GPT exit

6) Close the command window and continue installing windows. 7) Specify the drivers for the USB 3.0 port if you connected a USB flash drive to it. 8) In the window for selecting a disk for installing windows, select the Unallocated disk space item and click the Create button. After that, 3 sections will be automatically created ( system partition EFI (ESP), backup partition Microsoft (MSR) and mainstream windows partition.) 9) Select the main partition and continue installing windows in EFI mode, like a normal installation.

Note: If the installation was successful and the system does not boot, then in the UEFI / BIOS set “ windows Boot Manager ”first in the download queue.

set-os.ru

How to create a bootable UEFI flash drive

Good day.

On new computers and laptops, many users are faced with the impossibility of booting from an installation flash drive with windows 7, 8. The reason for this is simple - the emergence of UEFI.

UEFI is new interfacedesigned to replace the outdated BIOS (and in the meantime to protect the OS from malicious boot viruses). To boot from the "old installation" flash drive, you need to go into BIOS: then switch UEFI to Legacy and turn off Security Boot mode. In the same article, I want to consider creating a "new" bootable UEFI flash drive ...

Step by step creation bootable UEFI flash drive

What do you need:

  1. directly the flash drive itself (at least 4 GB);
  2. setting iSO image with windows 7 or 8 (the image needs the original one and is 64 bits);
  3. free rufus utility (Official site: http://rufus.akeo.ie/ If anything, then Rufus is one of the simplest, most convenient and quick programs to create any bootable USB drives);
  4. if the Rufus utility doesn't suit you, I recommend WinSetupFromUSB (Official site: http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/downloads/)

Consider uEFI creation flash drives in both programs.

1) After you download Rufus - just run it (no installation required). An important point: you need to run Rufus as an administrator. To do this, in the explorer, simply right-click on the executable file and select this option from the context menu.


Figure: 1. Run Rufus as administrator

  1. device: specify the USB flash drive that you want to make bootable;
  2. partition diagram and system interface type: here you need to select "GPT for computers with UEFI interface";
  3. file system: select FAT32 (NTFS is not supported!);
  4. then select the ISO image that you want to write to the USB flash drive (I remind you if that is windows 7/8 in 64 bits);
  5. check three boxes: quick format, create bootable disk, create extended label and icon.

After the settings have been made, press the "Start" button and wait until all files are copied to the USB flash drive (on average, the operation lasts 5-10 minutes).

Important! All files on the flash drive will be deleted during such an operation! Do not forget to save all important documents from it in advance.

Figure: 2. Configuring Rufus

1) First, run the WinSetupFromUSB utility with administrator rights.

2) Then set the following settings (see fig. 3):

  1. select the flash drive to which you will burn the ISO image;
  2. check the "Auto format it with FBinst" checkbox, then check a few more checkboxes with the following settings: FAT32, align, Copy BPB;
  3. windows vista, 7, 8 ...: specify the ISO installation image with windows (in 64 bits);
  4. and lastly, press the GO button.

Figure: 3. WinSetupFromUSB 1.5

Then the program will warn you that all data on the flash drive will be deleted and will ask you to agree again.

Figure: 4. Continue deleting ..?

After a few minutes (if there are no problems with the flash drive or ISO image), you will see a window with a message about the completion of work (see Fig. 5).

Figure: 5. The flash drive is recorded / work done

By the way, WinSetupFromUSB sometimes behaves "strange": it seems that it is frozen because there are no changes at the bottom of the window (where the information bar is located). It actually works - don't close it! On average, the time to create a bootable USB drive is 5-10 minutes. It is better not to launch other programs at all while WinSetupFromUSB is running, especially all kinds of games, video editors, etc.

This, in fact, is all - the flash drive is ready and you can proceed to the next operation: installing windows (with uEFI support), but that's the topic of the next post ...

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pcpro100.info

Creating a bootable UEFI flash drive with windows

Almost all modern computers and laptops do not come with the old BIOS system, but with the new one - UEFI. Unlike its predecessor, it is more "smart" and intelligent. It is very easy to determine what is used by you. Firstly, if your computer was preinstalled with windows 8 or 8.1 and when you turn it on, the operating system starts immediately, and the usual for BIOS polling of controllers and a system test is not carried out, this is UEFI. The same if set SSD disk and at the same time the operating windows system 8 or 8.1. Although it should be noted that the presence of this novelty does not deny the possibility of installing older systems both in normal mode and in legacy mode. In this post, I will talk about three easy ways to create a bootable UEFI flash drive to install windows 7 or windows 8 on a computer or laptop.

The first and easiest way is to copy the installation files

So far, this can only be done with windows 8.1, with windows 10 that has not yet been officially released and on latest versions Ubuntu and ArchLinux. The procedure is as follows: Download the operating system distribution kit in ISO format.

We unpack it to any folder on the disk using an archiver. 7zip is great at working with ISO images:

We format the USB flash drive to the FAT32 file system. To do this, go to "My Computer", right-click on the USB drive:

Select the file system and click on the "Start" button. After that, it goes to the folder with the unpacked Windows image and just copy everything that was unpacked directly to the USB flash drive:

The trick is that the installers of the new operating systems are already optimized for UEFI. It remains only to boot from it and check the performance.

Method two - using the Diskpart utility

This option is used to install windows 7 on a computer or laptop with UEFI. The first step is to start the windows command line. To do this, press the key combination Win + R and in the Run window that opens, enter the command: "cmd":

Click the OK button. Now, at the command line, launches the utility for working with partitions:

A list of disks with numbers available in the system will open: select disk 《Disk_number ю I think it is clear that at this step you need to specify the number of the USB-media obtained from the list. For example, select disk 2, as in my case. We clear it completely:

Create a section:

create partition primary

We select it:

select partition 1

Making the section active:

We format in FAT32:

We automatically assign a letter to it:

But that's not all. Find the efi \\ microsoft \\ boot folder on the USB stick and copy it all to the efi folder. As a result, the efi \\ boot directory should appear. Now you need to find the file: bootmgfw.efi. To do this, you need to unpack the 7zip archiver or WinRar archive sources \\ boot.wim. The required file will be located in the sources \\ boot.wim \\ 1 \\ windows \\ Boot \\ EFI \\ folder.

Copy the bootmgfw.efi file to the efi \\ boot folder and then rename it to bootx64.efi. Done. We made a bootable UEFI USB stick with windows 7.

Method three - using special programs

Some programs for creating bootable USB drives can do this for UEFI as well. One of these is the free utility Rufus. Install and run the program:

We set the partition scheme and the type of system interface: - "GPT for computers with UEFI interface" if you are using a GPT partition. - "MBR for computers with UEFI interface" if Legacy mode and MBR partition table are used. Next, we set the FAT32 file system, feed the program an image of the operating system and start the recording process installation files to the USB drive by pressing the Start button.

After 10 minutes you will have a ready-made installation flash drive.

Hello.

Who would not say what, but the popularity of optical discs is rapidly falling: not even all computers and laptops have a drive for them. And, probably, this is not surprising: after all, an ordinary flash drive that fits into any pocket can easily replace them.

For windows installations it is also more convenient to use a USB flash drive (there is a USB port on any computer!). But for this, it must be written down / prepared correctly.

In this article I will consider all the typical questions related to creating installation flash drives: programs for this operation, step by step settings before recording, the process of creating flash drives with multiple OS (multiboot), UEFI flash drives. But first things first...

Note!

You may find useful an article on how to download an ISO image with Windows 10 OS [officially and legally] -

There are quite a few programs of this kind. To cover all of them in one article is a thankless task, and it is unnecessary. I will give below those programs that I have used (and still use) myself many times when writing my bootable media.

Approx. : how to use this or that program will be discussed in the second part of this article.

Table number 1 (main)

Program name / site address Description Screenshots
UltraISO

One of best programs for working with ISO-disc images. Allows you to edit them, extract files from them (or add), write images to a USB flash drive / disk, etc.

In general, an indispensable program for working with the ISO format, and I have repeatedly recommended it in my articles (and in this format, by the way, almost all Windows operating systems are distributed).

(main program window)
Rufus

A small free utility that can create almost any bootable flash drives, memory cards, etc. Allows you to prepare, including flash drives for UEFI.

Another advantage of the utility: it works somewhat faster than other analogues.

Note: there is both a portable version (does not need installation) and a classic one. Works in all Windows OS: XP, 7, 8, 10.

(Rufus settings for writing a bootable flash drive)
One of the most famous programs for writing 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 2-3 or more Windows operating systems and at boot you can choose which one to install).

In general, an indispensable software if you have to create installation media from time to time.

(setting before burning a flash drive)
WintoFlash Simple and convenient program to create bootable media. In the process of creating and configuring you will be accompanied by a wizard: the whole process goes in steps, which is very convenient if you have never used such programs before.

Capabilities:

  • Writing a USB flash drive with OS Windows XP / 2003 / Vista / 2008/7/8/10;
  • Choosing a bootloader for a USB drive: GRUB or Standard;
  • Image support: ISO, RAR, ARJ, ZIP, 7z, CAB, DMG (many similar utilities only support ISO!);
  • Ability to write recovery discs or mini-OS (for example, BartPE, etc.) to a USB flash drive.
(main WintoFlash window)
Windows 7 usb dvd download tool A simple and convenient utility for writing bootable flash drives from Microsoft itself (therefore, it could not be included in this review ).

You can write a bootable USB flash drive with the following Windows OS: 7, 8, 10.

The entire recording process is divided into several steps: choosing a flash drive, choosing an image, confirming, recording ... By the way, there is nothing superfluous in the program: design in the style of minimalism. In general, I recommend!

Among the disadvantages: it is not always possible to write an 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)

Helper programs

A small free * imaging program (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 a computer, it will all look as if you 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 the 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 one (with advanced functionality).

Analogue Daemon tools, has the same functions: creating and opening images, support for protected disks, etc. Alcohol 120% is a paid version of the program, there is a free version - Alcohol 52%.

Basically, you can work with both Daemon Tools and Alcohol. The choice is a matter of taste!

Step-by-step creation of a bootable USB drive

Windows XP

Once one of the most popular operating systems from Microsoft. Now, of course, its popularity is falling, and yet a fairly large number of PCs run on this particular OS. Therefore, I decided to include it in this article ...

WinToFlash

In my opinion, the easiest way to write a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP is to use the WinToFlash utility. The fact is that a wizard is built into it, which will guide you through all the hardships ... (by the way, the Lite version is enough for work).

After launching the utility, click on the green check mark (screen below) - " Windows Installer to USB Transfer Wizard".

WintoFlash - Getting Started with the Wizard

The next step: you need to specify the path to the image file with Windows XP and select the USB flash drive to 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. Agree and wait until all files are copied to the USB flash drive.

To help! I have more detailed instructions for working with WinSetupFromUSB -

This program is somewhat different from the previous one. Firstly, there is no wizard here who will guide you through the steps (all settings must be entered by yourself), and secondly, there is no support for the Russian language ...

First, insert the USB stick into the USB port and run WinSetupFromUSB and the administrator name.

  1. select the inserted USB flash drive;
  2. click the "Auto format it with FBinst" checkbox, the file system is NTFS;
  3. specify the path to the folder with the Windows XP distribution kit (the ISO image can be unzipped using the WinRar program, or open it in Daemon Tools (the links to the programs are presented above));
  4. the final touch - press the "GO" button.

In the next step, the program will warn you that all data on the USB flash drive will be deleted during the process of writing data to it. Just confirm it.

If the flash drive has been successfully registered, you will see the "Job Done" window.

Windows 7, 8, 10

In principle, you can use the same utilities to write these OSes - the whole process is identical. I will show you the whole process step by step using several utilities as an example.

Windows 7 usb / dvd tool

Despite the fact that this utility is designed for Windows 7, you can use it to write to a USB flash drive with Windows 8/10. Because this program is the simplest (it couldn't be easier) of all and the whole process of recording an image in it consists of only 4 steps, I recommend it first.

Step 1: specify an ISO image with Windows OS ("Browse" button, when the image is specified, click "Next").

Specify ISO file

Step 2: select the device to record. In this case, you need to choose either USB device, or DVD. We choose the first one.

Step 3: select the letter of the drive to which the recording will be carried out (i.e., indicate the desired flash drive, because several of them can be connected to the PC ...).

Step 4: recording process. When the message about the successful completion of the operation (Bootable USB device created successfully) is displayed, you can restart the PC and check the USB flash drive ...

As you can see above, the whole process is extremely simple and not replete with anything superfluous.

UltraISO


Rufus

Update article from 24.01.2019: Added screenshots of version 3.4. Also on my blog there was an instruction for working with Rufus 3.4 -

UEFI flash drive

UEFI is new standard, new interface (so to speak). It is intended to replace the "old" BIOS. One of the main tasks of UEFI is to protect your computer from boot viruses that are loaded along with (or before) the Windows operating system boots (sorry for the tautology).

Therefore, in new computers / laptops, if you connect a USB 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 disable Secure Boot.

In the same part of the article, I will consider a couple of ways how you can create a bootable UEFI flash drive (so that you do not have to turn off Secure Boot protection in the BIOS). So...

Method # 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).

  1. Select the USB flash drive (be careful, all data on the USB flash drive will be deleted during recording!);
  2. Click the "Auto format it with FBinst" checkbox and select the FAT 32 file system (do not touch the other checkboxes);
  3. Next, select iSO image file with Windows OS (in the example below, I chose Windows 8);
  4. Press the GO button and wait for the process to complete.

Configuring WinSetupFromUSB for writing a UEFI flash drive.

Method number 2 - using the Rufus utility

Rufus is a great writing utility different types bootable media. All settings are performed in one window, everything is simple and fast.

You also need to run the utility from the administrator (screenshot below).

Rufus 3.4 - creating a USB stick for UEFI (GPT)

Multiboot flash drive (multiple OS on 1 flash drive!)

On a USB flash drive, you can write not only one version of Windows, but several at once! For example, imagine you have an OS on one flash drive: Windows XP 32 bit, Windows 7 64 bit, Windows 8 64 bit and Windows 10 64bit. In which case, you do not need to carry with you a bunch of flash drives with different OS - with only one you can immediately install the desired one. Below I will consider in detail how and what is done ...

To create such a USB flash drive, you need the following:

  • multiple ISO images with the systems you want (e.g. Windows XP and Windows 7). By the way, windows image It is better to take XP with integrated SATA drivers, otherwise on new motherboards you will get a "blue" screen during installation;
  • Daemon Tools or Alcohol (if you want to add Windows 2000, XP to the USB stick): programs that can open an ISO image (ie you will see a virtual drive in "my computer", since this is not an ISO image, but a regular disc inserted into a CD-Rom. Presented in the first part of the article) ;
  • 8-16 GB flash drive (the more OS you are going to record, the more spacious the flash drive should be);
  • program (presented at the top of the article).

Step-by-step instruction creating a multiboot flash drive

  1. Run the program WinSetupFromUSB as administrator... To do this, just go to the program folder, select the executable file and right-click on it, then select "Run as administrator" from the context menu.
  2. Next, in Daemon Tools, open the image with Windows 2000/2003 / XP OS (those who will not write these OS to a USB flash drive can skip this step).

    The Windows XP ISO is open in Daemon Tools.

  3. Insert the USB flash drive into the USB port;
  4. Next, you need to set the following parameters: 1) specify the inserted USB 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 USB flash drive for UEFI - choose FAT 32); other checkboxes by default; 3) specify the virtual drive in which the ISO image with Windows XP / 2000 is open; 4) specify the ISO image from Windows 10 (in my case, this OS was chosen for a multiboot flash drive); 5) press the "GO" button - start recording the flash drive. All numbers are illustrated in the screenshot below.

  5. Next, the program will ask you whether to start recording exactly. By the way, it is important that all data on the flash drive will be deleted!
  6. Then the program will ask again - the answer is yes.

    Warning 2 - click "Yes".

  7. Further, 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 boot, 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.

  8. When the USB flash drive is written, you will see the inscription "Job Done". In principle, the USB flash drive can already be used, it now has 2 Windows XP and 10 operating systems! The screen is below.
  9. To add another OS, for example, Windows 7 - just insert the USB stick again into the USB port, run WinSetupFromUSB (from administrator). Then: 1) select the desired flash drive (note: on which we previously recorded 2 OS) ; 2) specify the ISO image with the added Windows OS; 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!

  10. When another OS is added, you will see the usual window - the job is done. Now the flash drive has 3 OS: Windows XP (32 bit), 7 and 10 (64 bit).
  11. 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 USB flash drive (so to speak, provide all the options) ...

Checking a multiboot flash drive

To check the created USB flash drive in operation, you need to do the following:

  1. Go to the BIOS and queue the USB flash drive (you can use the BOOT Menu). In more detail about which buttons for running in Bios and calling the Boot Menu is described here:
  2. Insert the USB flash drive into the USB port and restart the computer;
  3. A window should appear as in the screenshot below: for example, I selected windows string NT 6 (this is for choosing the installation of Windows 7, 8, 10).

After that, if you have 2 or more "new" operating systems, you will see a list with all of them. Choose the option you want and continue with the installation. The screen is shown below, the flash drive is working!

On this positive note, I am finishing the article, for additions, as always, I will be grateful.

Installing, reinstalling and restoring the operating system, as well as carrying out some types of diagnostic work, as a rule, requires the mandatory use of special bootable disks or flash drives. But in order for the computer to boot from external media, in the settings of the basic input-output system or otherwise BIOSa, the appropriate priority should be set, that is, literally indicate from which source the system should boot.

The procedure for configuring boot from external media is quite simple, however, it raises many questions for many novice users. And this is quite understandable. Firstly, you rarely have to deal with the need for such a download, and secondly, in different models computers, the procedure for entering BIOS and changing boot priorities may vary in detail. Let's consider everything in more detail.

There are currently two types of basic I / O systems: the classic BIOS and its enhanced UEFI. They both represent special programs, recorded on the motherboard microcircuit and designed to configure and check the readiness of hardware components, and transfer control to the PC operating system... Unlike BIOS, UEFI is more autonomous, it has a convenient graphical interface with mouse support, allows you to integrate drivers, run EFI executable files, work with gPT disks... In addition, computers with UEFI start up an order of magnitude faster than PCs with a regular BIOS.

How to get into BIOS or UEFI

To get into the BIOS or UEFI, immediately after turning on the computer, press and hold the Del, F2, or Esc button. Which button should be used to enter BIOS / UEFI in your desktop or laptop model should be indicated in the supplied user manual. However, on newer Windows 8.1 computers, this can be problematic. If fast boot technology is activated in the system, you simply will not have time to press Del or F2 in time. In this case, follow these steps:

Open up Settings -\u003e Change computer settings -\u003e Update and recovery -\u003e Recovery -\u003e Special options download, and then click Restart Now. After rebooting, you will be taken to the Select Action window. Click on Diagnostics -\u003e Advanced Options -\u003e UEFI Firmware Options... The computer will restart and you will be taken directly to the UEFI interface.

Note

Determining which interface your computer is using is easy. To do this, press Win + R and execute the msinfo32 command in the window that opens, and then in the system information window, find the item "BIOS mode". Old version the I / O system will be marked "Obsolete", the new one will be "UEFI".

Configuring boot from CD / DVD / flash drive in BIOS

Most bIOS versions the Boot section is responsible for configuring boot parameters.

It is he who contains a list of all devices connected to the computer. Because hDD and CD-ROM are built-in components, they will be on the list anyway, but if you want a USB flash drive there, you need to insert it into the USB port in advance, before entering the BIOS. The first in the list is the device from which the system is currently booting. Using the arrow keys, you can change the boot priority, and by pressing the F10 key, apply the new settings.

In some BIOS versions, the Boot section may contain additional options, in particular Boot Device Priority, Hard Disk Drives and so on.

If booting from a CD / DVD or a regular flash drive, it will be enough to move this device to the top of the list in Boot Device Priority and save the settings. If the flash drive is formatted as HDD, you will first need to go to Hard Disk Drives, select the first device in the list (1st Drive), press Enter and specify the flash drive in the menu that appears. Then the same will need to be done in the Boot Device Priority subsection. We save the settings with the F10 key. This is the case for AMI BIOSes.

The procedure for configuring boot from DVD / flash drive in BIOS AWARD or Phoenix is \u200b\u200bslightly different. Here in the main BIOS menu you need to find the Advanced BIOS Features section, and in it find the First Boot Device item, which is responsible for prioritizing boot devices. Being on the First Boot Device, press Enter and in the menu that opens (list of devices) select CD-ROM or, if available, a USB flash drive. If there is no flash drive in the list, switch to the first item of Hard Disk Boot Priority, press Enter, select our flash drive in the list, move it up the list. To save the settings, press Esc twice, and then Save and Exit Setup and confirm saving the parameters with the Y key.

Configuring boot from CD / DVD / USB stick to UEFI

Setting boot priority in UEFI is easier, and not just because you can use a mouse. Most UEFI interfaces have a Boot Priority panel at the bottom of the window, which displays all devices connected to the computer, including flash drives and removable HDDs. To install a boot from a particular device, just drag it with the mouse to the beginning of the panel, and then save the new settings when exiting UEFI.

You can also click the "Exit / Advanced mode" button, go to the Boot tab in the window that opens, select "Boot Option # 1" in the Boot Option Priorities list and set a USB flash drive, hard disk, CD-ROM or other connected to computer device.

New settings are saved when exiting UEFI or pressing the F10 key.

Have a great day!