Microsd bootable USB stick. How to create a bootable USB drive and SD card for each operating system

Introduction

Now on the gadget market there are many cheap Chinese-made devices based on chips from Allwinner running Android OS. Despite the large number of manufacturers under the brand name of which these devices are sold, they have one thing in common: the complete absence of technical support from the manufacturer. The OS for them is compiled by the Chinese, who are in no hurry to update the software to newer versions, although, according to the information on the Allwinner website, these chips support operation up to Android 4.2.2. Something tells me that they are not going to update the software at all.

One of these devices - the RoverPad w74l - I bought from DNS for experimenting with Android. This is an Allwinner A13 based tablet. I would say that this is a very good tablet for all kinds of Internet sitting, reading books, etc. The lack of technical support did not particularly surprise me, because I already have a tablet from another "Russian" manufacturer - 3Q, which, if you open the top cover, poorly fitted by the true manufacturer, is the Pegatron Lucid. Technical support from "Russian" companies is carried out exclusively on the forum by the users themselves. And there is also w3bsit3-dns.com, where people, to the best of their ability, help each other solve technical issues that would be nice to be solved by official technical support.

I decided to present part of my research in the field of firmware for such devices in several articles, since it would be somewhat impolite on my part to write in detail and with pictures on the forum.

What is this cycle about?

So, what will be discussed. During my acquaintance with the internal structure of the tablet, several not very convenient things became clear. Firstly, the firmware is uploaded through LiveSuit. The program, frankly speaking, is not a fountain, and not even a trickle ... In addition, if you worked with the tablet via ADB, having screwed the drivers from Google before that, you will not be able to install your LiveSuit driver, therefore, the firmware will not work. As a way out of this situation, you can use VMWare, which can attach USB devices to the guest OS, or sew on another computer (I used a netbook for this purpose). Secondly, when modifying the firmware, very often it is necessary to re-upload it into the device, which is very long and unproductive. Moreover, before that, it needs to be reassembled, so there are continuous inconveniences. Here's the solution to this part of the question and will be discussed further, namely, how to make a bootable microSD card from the image for LiveSuit, from which you can boot the tablet without using the built-in flash memory. Thus, the changes in the firmware are reduced to changes in files on the microSD, but, as soon as you pull it out of the slot, the tablet will boot from its memory as if nothing had happened. Further, after making the changes, I will show how to make a LiveSuit image from this SD-card, which can already be poured into the device's internal flash and used.

Preparation of the workplace

To begin with, the tools for what we are going to do can be completely different, so I will briefly describe the whole process point by point.

• first, you need to split the firmware image into its components. This is done using the kitchen, which will be discussed below, in the Windows OS;
• further work with the resulting images will take place in Linux, since there will be a need to work with symbolic links of the ext4 file system, which Windows does not support. And there are tons of options. You can install Linux (I used Ubuntu server x64) on another physical computer. The decision is "head-on", but has the right to life. You can use a virtual machine, and then again there is a choice with its pros and cons. To mount an SD card in a guest system, you need the virtualization tool to be able to work with USB, and everything is not so good here. VirtualBox from Sun (or from Oracle, as anyone) has one serious drawback when mounting USB devices (found out through personal bitter experience). The USB driver from VirtualBox does not correctly initialize the USB controller of some manufacturers when starting the OS. Result - after rebooting the USB on the host does not work until you manually reinstall it. WMVare Workstation - works very well with USB, there were no problems at any stage (except that sometimes SD is not immediately mounted in the guest OS, so sometimes there is a need to disconnect it from the guest and then connect it again). But Hyper-V from Microsoft does not know how to give USB as a guest, which is due to the notorious security reasons, therefore, when working with this software, you will first have to create a RAW image of the SD card and work with it, and then write it sector by sector to map. Of the three above, the best option for me is VMWare Workstation with Ubuntu server x64 installed. Although I did the same on VirtualBox and Gentoo, the principle is the same. Ubuntu is faster to deploy, and since all operations with images are done in the console, so as not to waste resources on the GUI, I chose the server option.
• then the SD card is mounted in Ubuntu, divided into partitions, the partitions are formatted, and data from the firmware images is extracted on them. Then the bootloader is written and the initialization scripts are corrected to work with the SD card. The card can then be used to load the tablet.
• then all sorts of manipulations are performed with the firmware files, the results of which can be visually observed by loading a tablet from it. At this stage, you often have to drag files from the guest OS to the host OS and back. I used WinSCP for this, very convenient.
• and, finally, modified images of partitions from the SD card are created, the initialization scripts in them are edited back and a new LiveSuit image is built, which is poured into the tablet.

Tools:

• Linux Ubuntu 13.04 x64- torrent file for download http://releases.ubuntu.com/13.04/ubuntu-13.04-server-amd64.iso.torrent (I used version 12.10, but it doesn't matter at all);
• WMVare Workstation- https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/evalcenter?p=vmware-workstation9 here you can download the trial version;
• Putty- http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.zip SSH client. Very convenient for organizing a multi-window terminal;
• WinSCP- http://winscp.net/download/winscp515setup.exe a tool to transfer files to and from the guest OS;

This is a general list of tools. It will be replenished in the course of the presentation, but about everything in order.

Begin

This work is based on a fairly large number of sources, but two articles were the foundation that served as the beginning of the beginning:

• https://www.miniand.com/wiki/Allwinner/Unpacking+and+building+LiveSuit+images article on disassembling and building images for LiveSuit. I used the technique described here. Unfortunately, and maybe fortunately, the article was written for another device, so it is suitable for disassembling the image, but for assembling it will have to work with the kitchen files more thoroughly;
• http://linux-sunxi.org/Boot_Android_from_SdCard and here it is just described how to make a bootable SD card from Android, however, again, for another device, so I used both articles.

The rest of the sources I will mention in the course of the text in those places where the information from them, in fact, was used.

Run the following commands immediately after installation:

$ sudo su
# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade
# apt-get install sshd - if you did not choose SSH server at the end of the installation
# apt-get install mc - this will install midnight commander - a two-pane file manager that you can work with in the Putty terminal.

If you have installed the Russian version of Ubuntu, then in the settings of the Putty session in the Appearance section, be sure to set the encoding to UTF-8, otherwise the Cyrillic characters will be displayed in a very peculiar way.

The preparatory stage is over, let's get down to business.

I have a Toshiba Portege M205 tablet. The hard drive died, so I grabbed another one and stuck there, intent on reinstalling Windows XP Tablet. However, this particular computer is not equipped with an optical drive. Instead, it has a USB CDRW / DVD drive. There are only one or two Toshiba USB flash drive models that are bootable and the M205 does not boot from USB.

Needless to say, my Toshiba CD drive has died and I cannot boot from it.

Another option is to boot from SD card. I would like to boot into an environment with USB drivers so that I can plug in another USB USB stick and install Windows on my tablet. I tried using WinToFlash, but I couldn't get it to work on SD cards.

Does anyone know how to make a bootable SD card with USB drivers?

I would like to add that the M205 can only recognize up to 32 or 64 MB of SD cards, so I cannot install the installation media to the SD card.

One Solution collect form web for “Create Bootable SD Card”

How to create a bootable Windows SD card or flash drive

Step 1. Splitting your SD card

Start> cmd

DiskPart

And then select disk 2 based on your SD card disk number

After choosing Clean

Create main section section

Select section 1

Active

This step will take a while, so be patient.

Fs = fat32 format

Assign letter = y

Exit

Step 2. Copy the iso

Mount iso with MagicDisc or insert Windows DVD / CD

The following command copies the boot disk, here E: is the source disk if your Windows media is Y: this is your SD card

Xcopy e: * y: \ / s / e / f

SD cards play a special role in the life of Linux users. Yes, they serve to store data. It is also one of the easiest ways to expand the memory on your laptop. In most cases, these little squares of portable memory are what you will need in the first place to turn a Windows or Mac OS machine into a Linux Box.

Since SD cards solve so many problems, it doesn't hurt to know how to manage them. Errors do happen and can lead to data loss. This outcome is unlikely to please anyone.

There are many ways to configure SD, both from the command line and using graphical applications. Here's how to do it.

What is a Partition Manager?

A partition is part of a digital storage space. It could be your entire hard drive, but it isn't always that way. In the alternative boot option, you will have one section dedicated to some Linux distribution, and the other will be dedicated to Windows. Some people use partitions to separate the OS from personal files. Often there is still a separate partition for swap.

The Partition Manager is a tool for managing partitions (not surprisingly). It must be used to format SD cards, create new partitions or duplicates.

Usually, SD cards have only one partition by default, but if desired, one 32 gigabyte card can always be split into two 16 gigabyte partitions.

Here's a 2 gigabyte card in my computer.

Usually, memory sticks are assigned simple names like / dev / sda, / dev / sdb, or / dev / sdc. But this is not always the case. In the variant above, the name == / dev / mmcblk0p1 == is much longer. If I were to use the command line, which I’ll talk about a little later, then I would write exactly this location.

Another way to find out the path is to enter in the terminal:

You will get a long list, so this method is recommended for those who already understand what they are looking for. Even so, I prefer to run the already pre-installed partition manager.

Some desktop environments and distributions come with their own partition managers. Gnome DISKS (pictured above) is integrated with the GNOME 3.x desktop, while KDE users are more likely to prefer KDE Partition Manager. Until now, in many distributions found All these tools, in fact, do the same thing.

If you are looking for a separate program, without the need to additionally install anything, that works on almost all Linux distributions, then pay attention to dd. This command line tool makes the process of backing up SD cards and capturing images a breeze. But you have to be careful when working with it, as one wrong command can completely erase everything from your hard drive.

Formatting SD Cards

Section editors essentially give you the ability to select a section and format it as a new one. If you want to give away or just get rid of the card, then there is the option to completely erase the data. It will take a lot of time, so if you just need to get rid of unnecessary data or create a bootable map with Linux, then it would be logical to choose the fast option.

In the process, you have to choose the type of section. The FAT format works with many operating systems. It is in this format that most SD cards begin their existence. It is quite possible that this is what you need.

In order to erase all data from the card using the command line, we will use the help dd. The command below will erase all data from the card and replace it with zeros. information erased in this way, restore. but most will not be able to.

Dd if = / dev / zero of = / dev / sdc

V dd if denotes a data source. of indicates the direction. In this case, we are copying the zeros to / dev / sdc. Replace this path with the one assigned by your computer to the card.

After running the command, you may need to create a new section. Maybe even two.

Create a separate section

Creating a separate partition based on what you already use is a risky choice and can lead to data loss. Although you can try to do this with GParted Live SD... To make everything less painful, save all the data first. Erase the current section by clicking on "-" or choosing an option from the menu. then click on "+" or choose the option to create a new section.

Instead of using the available space, choose your volume. In the image below, I am making space for two partitions of the same size.

So many sections can be created.

If you want to do this through the command line, you can switch to fdisk and enjoy the magic.

Backing up an SD card

The most obvious way to back up your SD card is to open the file manager and copy all the data to your computer. This has always been enough for me. But this option is obviously not the best, especially if you want to get identical backup data or are going to store several or more backups at once.

In this case, you need to create an image of the partition.

To do this in dd, open a terminal and enter what is shown below.

Dd if = / dev / sdc of = sdcard.img

This command creates a backup of everything on your card in the .img file in your home directory, which will allow you to completely restore all data later. To create a backup on your hard disk, you will need as much space as is available on the SD card, that is, if you have a 32 gigabyte card, then you will need 32 free gigabytes of hard disk space. The process can take a long time. At some point, it will even seem to you that dd has suspended work. Be patient.

SD card recovery

Once you are ready to restore the data on the card, simply swap the directories in dd.

Dd if = sdcard.img of = / dev / sdc

In the partition editor, use the image recovery option. Next, a window for selecting an image that you previously created for recording to an SD card will appear.

Create bootable SD card

To run Linux from an SD card using dd, first download the image of the distribution you intend to install (or test). Then insert the path to this file as an if parameter, as it was done during data recovery. Example:

Dd if = / home / user / Downloads / parabola-2015.11.11-dual.iso of = / dev / sdc

This is the last dd command I will describe here. Just know that dd is so powerful that it can clone your entire hard drive, even if you are operating on terabytes of memory. Once you're ready for something cool, you can go to the list of dd commands from Wikipedia.org. But again, be careful! It's better to take your time with such things.

If you don't want to mess with the command line, look in your distribution's package manager for a tool to create Live USB stick. Ubuntu has Satrtup Disk Creator. Fedora operates Live USB Creator. These and other distributions also work with. When working with one of these tools, you will need to select an image to install (or force the application to download the distribution on the fly) and an SD card as the target device.

SD cards: flexible and compact

SD cards have many advantages over flash drives. They are thinner, lighter, easier to carry in armfuls ... To everything else, they are connected so that they are not visible later.

If you like flash drives, then it doesn't matter. Tools for working with cards are usually suitable for flash drives.

What advice would you give to people who want to learn how to manage their SD cards? Have you ever created multiple sections on one map? Do you have a bootable card? Share your experience in the comments!

A sudden failure to start Windows on a business trip will not be a problem if you take a USB flash drive with you with you. It, unlike the installation DVD, takes up very little space in a bag or laptop case.

Which flash drive is best for recording a Windows image

The Windows installation flash drive will help bring the system into working form in an hour in case of a sudden crash. The drive requirements are as follows:

• the amount of memory is at least 4 GB (the image itself takes 3 GB or more, but flash drives of "non-multiple" sizes are not available, this is not a hard drive);
• the flash drive must support USB 2.0 speed (using USB 1.2 will delay the process of recording a copy of Windows up to several hours).

Preparing a USB flash drive for recording a Windows image

Do the following:

Formatting in fast mode takes up to 15 seconds. After completing the procedure, you can start recording the Windows image. You can also format a USB flash drive with a third-party program or by means of the "Command Line".

Configuring boot from a USB flash drive in the UEFI interface

Before giving advice on setting up UEFI to boot a computer from a USB flash drive, it is worth briefly talking about this program. The user of the newest PC will in any case face it at the first attempt to reinstall Windows.

How UEFI differs from BIOS

UEFI is the next generation BIOS analog, but with mouse support. Unlike BIOS, where control is carried out only from the keyboard, in UEFI you can also control the mouse, as in the Magic Partition application, which worked with hard disk partitions. UEFI has a more modern graphical shell, vaguely reminiscent of the first versions of Android. So, the Asus company is promoting its modification of the Asus EFI program, which looks more impressive than the BIOS.

The purpose of UEFI is the low-level interaction of operating systems with the hardware itself, as in the BIOS. Without the settings of this program, "sewn" into the motherboard of a PC or laptop / tablet, your computer device will not start.

Many Windows / Android tablets are equipped with UEFI firmware, which makes it possible to either replace Android with Windows and vice versa, or use both OS alternately on the same gadget.

How to set UEFI to boot a PC from a USB flash drive

This is accomplished in two ways: by a simple drag and drop using the UEFI media pointer and by using advanced settings.

Shuffling disks in UEFI

Do the following:

When exiting, the UEFI program will ask you to confirm whether you want to save its settings if anything has changed.

Via the submenu for advanced UEFI settings

Do the following:

Video: two ways to boot a PC using a flash drive

Writing a Windows 10 installation flash drive using standard Windows tools

The developers met the wishes of users and built the Media Creation Tool into Windows 10. Before that, you could only use third-party applications, for example, UltraISO or WinSetupFromUSB, as well as the "Command Line". However, all programs created to solve this problem continue to evolve.

Using the Windows Media Creation Tool

Using the Media Creation Tool, writing a Windows 10 image to a USB flash drive is greatly simplified. Do the following:

1. Download the MCT app from Microsoft.
   Download the Media Creation Tool app
2. Launch the Media Creation Tool application and select write the installation copy of Windows 10 to a USB flash drive.
   Choose to create installation media
3. Select the installation language, version of Windows 10 and the bitness (bitness) of your PC.
   Select your PC architecture, installer language, and Windows 10 version
4. Select the type of media (only a flash drive or an extended choice with the ability to burn the image to DVD). If you choose the second option, you will have the opportunity to specify a USB flash drive or memory card when recording.
   DVD is encouraged to create for those who have a drive and blank DVD-R discs
5. Determine the USB flash drive for recording the Windows 10 image, if there are several of them.
   All data will be deleted from the drive you select
6. The Installation Media Builder will proceed to download the Windows 10 image from Microsoft. Wait for the ISO image download to finish. To download quickly, you need the fastest possible Internet access, otherwise the download will take up to several days, because the image itself weighs at least 3 GB.
   Do not turn off the Internet while downloading a Windows image to a USB flash drive
7. After downloading the ISO file from Windows 10, click Next to start capturing the image.

Video: recording Windows 10 to a USB flash drive using the Media Creation Tool

Writing an installation flash drive using the "Command Line" Windows

This method is loved by professionals who operate by entering commands. But the third-party applications discussed above do the same - clearly and automatically.

Preparing a USB flash drive using the Windows command line

Do the following:

Writing Windows 10 to a USB flash drive through the "Command Line"

To write a copy of Windows to a USB flash drive, you need the Boot Sector Registration Tool (bootsect.exe program). Do the following:

Video: recording Windows 10 to a USB flash drive via DiskPart

Burn Windows 10 USB stick using third-party apps

In the "combine" of the Media Creation Tool, there was no need to puzzle over UEFI: everything superfluous was removed, even a small child can write Windows 10 to a USB flash drive, and such a flash drive will be detected by any gadget or PC "flashed" for UEFI. In third-party applications - Rufus, UltraISO (try to use the latest versions) - UEFI support is optional.

Writing Windows 10 to a USB flash drive using Rufus

Rufus will bring the BIOS / UEFI setting to the fore. You don't need to look for it in additional settings. Do the following:

You can now log into UEFI by restarting your tablet or computer and start installing Windows.

Video: recording Windows 10 to a USB flash drive in Rufus

Creating a Windows 7/8/10 Multiboot USB Drive in UltraISO Application

For "multi-system" Windows flash drives, you need corresponding images that take up more than a dozen gigabytes. You are unlikely to be able to write such a USB flash drive if it does not reach at least 16 GB.

As an example - recording using the UltraISO application and building Windows 7/8/10 from a certain Startsoft. Do the following:

When you're done recording, you can use the USB stick to (re) install Windows. The installer will prompt you to select any version of Windows, including 10.

Of course, you can also create USB sticks with one version of Windows. And not only in the UltraISO program. Everything is decided by the image file (single or multi-assembly Windows, "packed" into an ISO file).

Video: recording Windows 7/8/10 to a USB flash drive using UltraISO

Writing Windows 10 to a USB flash drive using WinSetupFromUSB

The WinSetupFromUSB program is distributed through the winsetupfromusb site. Do the following:

1. Download, unzip and run the application. It doesn't require installation.
2. Select the USB flash drive to copy Windows. In the formatting settings, you can specify both the FAT32 and NTFS file systems. Do not confuse the desired flash drive with others, if they are connected
3. Select the ISO file that contains your copy of Windows.
   Select the Windows system image, not the contents of the disk in the image
4. Press the button to start recording the Windows image to the USB flash drive. Pressing "GO" will start recording
5. The WinSetupFromUSB program, like any modern application, warns about clearing existing data from the media. Confirm your request. Cleaning the flash drive is done for reliability
6. The second request to delete data and partitions must also be confirmed.
   Confirm the request to delete data and partitions
7. Start creating a copy of the Windows image. At the end of the process, the program will notify you that the copy of Windows was successfully written to the media. Click "OK"

Before writing a copy of Windows, the WinSetupFromUSB application will delete the partitions (if any) on the flash drive and recreate the only partition that takes up all the memory on it, then clears all the data by quick formatting. This is a mandatory procedure for reliability - the Windows image takes up at least 3 GB, and you need free space to copy it. If the flash drive is partitioned and full, then it can cause a write failure, and you wasted time. For this, preliminary clearing of the media memory is needed.

After recording a copy of Windows, the unallocated space can be used by creating a separate folder and uploading the drivers and application programs that you used (if there is enough space) without breaking the structure of the Windows distribution on the USB flash drive. It is not recommended to store valuable files on it in a single copy - be sure to store their backups on other media.

Video: recording Windows 7/8/10 to a USB flash drive using WinSetupFromUSB

Create bootable SD cards with Windows

In theory, creating bootable memory cards - (mini / micro) SD, MMC (MemoryStick) and many others - is possible. Required:

• the presence of a USB card reader that supports all of the above types of memory cards;
• a memory card, regardless of its type, must have a capacity of at least 4 GB;
• support by all devices of the standard not lower than USB 2.0.

But it's not that simple. If a laptop or tablet has a slot for an SD card or a built-in mini-card reader connected directly to the main / motherboard of the device or PC, it is not always possible to assign a boot from the BIOS. And although there is a Bootable Add-In Cards item in the boot device menu, for example, in the Award BIOS, these are by no means flash drives or even a built-in card reader.

Boot from embedded expansion cards in Award BIOS cannot be used to boot Windows from USB

Using an adapter with an SD memory card as a flash drive

The most affordable option is a USB-microSD adapter: a microSD memory card will work like a USB flash drive. There are different adapters - from the simplest, miniature, designed for one SD-card, to universal, with several slots for cards and other adapters of different formats.

With its help, the memory card works no worse than a standard flash drive.

In this case, the above recording methods for a regular Windows flash drive work with SD memory cards - you only need to support USB 2.0 speed (up to 35 MB / s) from both the USB port and the adapter and the SD card itself. Use any of them.

Errors when writing a Windows installation flash drive

Below are the most critical errors with tips on how to fix them.

The flash drive is not readable, not detected by the application

The most common mistake is that the Media Creation Tool (or another) does not see the USB flash drive. Causes:

• the flash drive is damaged - manufacturer's defect or any mechanical failure;
• the flash drive has exhausted its resource - it was often formatted, wear of the storage chip;
• frequent "hot" shutdowns when writing / erasing data that "killed" the flash drive;
• the flash drive worked at extreme temperatures, often overheated, moisture condensed on it, which led to the premature destruction of the materials from which the electronic medium itself, its printed circuit board and contacts are made;
• the USB port is faulty - there is not enough power, the USB bus controller is out of order, the contacts are worn out, the USB port socket is loose;
• an additional device is faulty (USB-Hub or USB-card reader when using an SD card instead of a flash drive), or its external power is not turned on if it is powered by a separate adapter;
• you recently serviced the computer yourself and did not reconnect the USB port controller to the motherboard of your PC or laptop, if the port has a detachable ribbon cable;
• failure of the microUSB port of the tablet if you are using a tablet;
• unreliable connection - the USB connector and / or plug is dirty;
• viruses received over the network or from other infected drives that damaged data and the boot sector (boot record, media partition table);
• from active and long-term use, “broken” or weakened sectors have formed on the flash drive - “remaping” or software repair of the flash drive is required;
• outdated version of the program with which you tried to write Windows files to a USB flash drive.

For various reasons, the flash drive may fail.

The last point requires clarification. For example, the first versions of WinSetupFromUSB do not support Windows 10 - they were created when Windows 8.1 and 10 did not exist yet.

An error occurred while writing the installation flash drive

It happens that writing a Windows distribution to a USB flash drive is interrupted or goes slowly and badly. Causes:

• the outdated version of the program did not warn that the flash drive is too "small" to write a copy of Windows to it;
• sudden power outage or data interruption due to unreliable connection of the flash drive to the USB port;
• an error in the ISO image file - the ISO archive is damaged or has an invalid format, taken from an unverified source, infected with a virus, the developer / collector made a mistake;
• the flash drive and / or port support the outdated USB 1.2 speed, and the recording slowed down a lot, stretching out to several hours;
• unexpected wear of the flash drive - appears at the preformatting stage or in the process of writing "broken" sectors.

The last point involves checking the flash drive using Victoria or HDD Scan / Regenerator programs, followed by software repair (remap / restore weakened and "broken" sectors). However, such a flash drive must be thrown away - it is not suitable for such important tasks as reinstalling operating systems, prebooting the OS (LiveUSB technology, often used to recover data from a single C partition in the event of an OS crash) and launching other utilities without and / or bypassing the OS on the PC or gadget.

Installing a Windows USB stick is a hassle, but worth it. Use the tips from the article to create it, and then in case of problems with loading the system, you can easily cope with them.

Almost any user can do it, regardless of their knowledge and experience. You just need to download the ISO image and burn it to CD or DVD. But if we want to make a bootable USB flash drive, then the procedure has its own nuances, depending on the operating system.

If we copy the ISO image or the files it contains to a USB drive, we will get nothing good. We need to turn the USB flash drive into a bootable partition. Typically, this process deletes all information from the USB stick or SD card.

How to create Linux installation media with only Windows

For those who want to make a bootable Ubuntu USB stick from under Windows, it is recommended to use the Universal USB Installer. It allows you to work with almost any Linux distribution. An alternative option is UNetbootin.

To create a bootable Linux flash drive, download the ISO image of the selected distribution from the Internet. Launch one of the programs mentioned above, point it to the location of the .ISO file, and then select the USB drive you want to make bootable. Everything else will be done without your direct involvement.

Under Linux, you can use programs with similar functions. For example, Ubuntu has a Startup Disk Creator that can create USB sticks with this operating system. There is also UNetbootin running on Linux. Therefore, you can use this utility.

What if we have an IMG file?

Distributions of some operating systems are distributed as an IMG file rather than an ISO. IMG is an image designed to be written not to an optical disc, but directly to a USB flash drive.

Use Win32 Disk Imager to transfer it to USB or SD card. You just need to download the IMG file, point this tool where it is located, and select the desired flash drive. All files on the media are destroyed when the IMG is written to it. Using this tool, you can also create IMG images based on a bootable USB flash drive or SD card.

More advanced Linux users can use the dd command to write the IMG image to any removable media. Insert your removable media and run the following command (on Ubuntu):

Sudo dd if = / home / user / file.img of = / dev / sdX bs = 1M

Replace /home/user/file.img with the path to the IMG file, and replace / dev / sdX with the path to your SD card or flash drive. Be careful when specifying the path to removable media. If instead of it you specify a disk with a system or data, then you will erase them completely.

How to create a bootable Windows 7 USB stick from an ISO file

You can use Microsoft's tool to download a Windows 7 image and create a bootable disk or USB flash drive. To run this tool, you need a Windows 7 ISO installation file. Hope you have a license key to install this operating system?

Bootable USB flash drive Windows 8 or 8.1

If you have a license key or 8.1, you can download the operating system image from the Microsoft website and immediately create an installation flash drive. First, you need to download the appropriate tool from the Windows update page. Naturally, you need a license key for this. Run the tool, enter the key, and choose to create an installation USB media.

Please note that Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 have different keys. Therefore, if you want to create an installation USB flash drive for Windows 8.1, having a key for Windows 8, you will have to go in a roundabout way. The easiest way is to install Windows 8 first and then upgrade to Windows 8.1 for free. This is not difficult.

Burning the Windows 8 installation flash drive from the ISO file

If you already have an ISO file with Windows 8 or 8.1, then you can use the tool that I mentioned in the paragraph about Windows 7. This eliminates the need to download a large file.

Just feed him an ISO image with Windows 8 or 8.1.

DOS

If you need to boot your computer from good old DOS (for example, sometimes this is the only way to update the BIOS or use special low-level utilities), you can use Rufus to create bootable media.

This tool will write to the USB stick FreeDOS - a free open source analogue of MS DOS. It can run all programs created for DOS.

Mac OS X

To create a bootable USB flash drive in Mac OS X, first update your operating system to the latest version. To do this, use the App Store on your computer. Next, run Apple's "createinstallmedia" utility or the third-party DiskMaker X.

Removable media with an OS X image can be used to "clean" install the operating system on a computer or update other machines, without downloading files to them from the Internet.

Making a bootable Windows USB flash drive on Mac

If you plan to install Windows on your Mac, then use Boot Camp to burn the installation media. This program walks you through the process of creating a USB stick for installing Windows with drivers for Apple computers and integrated Boot Camp utilities.

This USB stick will allow you to install Windows on Mac computers, but do not try to use it with computers that do not have a bitten apple.

In this article, I have mentioned only the most popular solutions. But there are other ways to create a bootable USB flash drive for a particular operating system.