Often the Windows operating system fails. Often many people cannot even determine the cause of the failure. It could be a virus downloaded along with a useful program or the deletion of some vital file. Of course, this file can be restored, but what if you simply don’t have an installation disk at hand or you don’t know how to restore the system? The situation can be complicated by the fact that you need a computer or files from it (documents for studies or work, even the same photographs) here and now. What to do then? Option one is to have a bootable USB flash drive with you, and now we will figure out how to make it. A bootable flash drive is a way to load an operating system from removable media, that is, you will not be left without a computer. The disadvantages include limited functionality, but you will be able to copy all the necessary files and will not worry that anything will happen to them when you reinstall the OS.

Create bootable media using the command line

Even a person who knows nothing about computers can create a bootable flash drive; for this he will only need complete instructions. As a matter of fact, we wrote it precisely for you. Let's start with the most difficult thing - through the command line. On the plus side: You don’t have to download additional software for this, but you will have to tinker a little more. On the other hand, you will finally learn what the command line is and what it represents. So, let's begin:

If you would like to become more familiar with the commands presented in the fourth paragraph, this information will be useful to you:

In any case, it will not be superfluous.

Create a bootable USB flash drive using the UltraISO program

We are done with the most complex method, we suggest moving on to the simple one - for this you will have to use third-party software, namely the UltraISO program. From its name you can already understand that it works with disk images in .iso format. It is in this format that images of operating systems are most often distributed - from the old Windows XP to the modern “Ten”.

Through the program you can create, burn and mount disk images. Moreover, as you understand, it also copes well with another purpose - creating bootable flash drives, and quite quickly and without unnecessary movements on the part of the user:


As you can see, everything is much simpler here - you don’t need to enter any commands, just a few mouse clicks are enough. If this method does not suit you for one reason or another, you can always return to the first or go to the third - use the official utility from Microsoft, designed exclusively for creating external bootable media.

How to Make a Bootable USB Flash Drive Using Windows USB/DVD Download Tool

If you consider the first method too time-consuming and complicated, and you don’t trust the second because you are involved in creating a bootable flash drive from a third-party program, then the third is clearly created for you:

Now you understand that nothing is impossible in any of the above methods. Choose the one that appeals to you the most, create a bootable USB flash drive and, finally, don’t worry about being left without a computer when you need it so much. Remember that to boot from a flash drive, you must set the correct settings in the BIOS - they are set differently for each motherboard and laptop model.

To create a bootable flash drive, we will use programs from both a third-party manufacturer and the built-in Windows command interpreter. Each method is different and has its own specifics, but I think that a simple end user will be able to cope with creating a bootable flash drive using any of the proposed methods:

• how to make a bootable USB flash drive using the command line
• how to make a bootable USB flash drive using UltraISO
• how to make a bootable USB flash drive using Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool

If you are interested in information about creating a bootable USB flash drive for the Linux operating system family, then you can read the information at this link “bootable USB flash drive for Linux”.

So, I propose to start creating a bootable flash drive in order, as defined in the above list, accordingly we proceed to the first method.

BOOT FLASH DRIVE using the command line (method I)

Next, we will use only those commands that we need when creating a bootable flash drive. Therefore, the figure below shows the sequential entry of commands to create a bootable USB flash drive. And please pay attention to the fact that the commands you enter are indicated by a red underline!

Graphical representation of command input on the command line

Now let's describe the previously entered commands:

DISKPART- launch the program, a text-mode command interpreter that allows you to manage objects (disks, partitions or volumes) using scripts or directly entering commands from the command line.

list disk- display a list of disk drives connected to a personal computer.

select disk 1- select disk number “1”, since in our case it is a removable flash drive.

clean- clears all data from removable media - flash drive.

create partition primary- create a primary partition.

select partition 1- select the created section.

active- make the section active.

format fs=NTFS- format the flash drive in the NTFS file system.

assign letter=T- if necessary, you can assign a letter for the flash drive in this way.

Exit- exit the DISKPART program.

BOOTABLE FLASH DRIVE CREATED!

NOTE: Once you have created a bootable USB flash drive, you need to transfer the operating system files to this removable media. Files must be transferred in unpacked form, do not under any circumstances simply add an operating system image, for example one *.ISO file, it WILL NOT WORK!!!

You can see the complete list of Diskpart program commands in the following table:

Table of commands of the "DISKPART" program

TEAM	EXPLANATION
ACTIVE	- Mark the selected section as active.
ADD	- Adding a mirror to a simple volume.
ASSIGN	- Assign a name or mount point to the selected volume.
ATTRIBUTES	- Working with volume or disk attributes.
ATTACH	- Attaches a virtual disk file.
AUTOMOUNT	- Enable or disable automatic mounting of basic volumes.
BREAK	- Splitting the mirror set.
CLEAN	- Clear configuration information or all data on the disk.
COMPACT	- Attempts to reduce the physical size of the file.
CONVERT	- Convert disk formats.
CREATE	- Create a volume, partition or virtual disk.
DELETE	- Delete an object.
DETAIL	- View object parameters.
DETACH	- Detaches the virtual disk file.
EXIT	- Shutdown DiskPart.
EXTEND	- Expand volume.
EXPAND	- Increasing the maximum available space on the virtual disk.
FILESYSTEMS	- Displays the current and supported file systems for the volume.
FORMAT	- Formatting a given volume or partition.
GPT	- Assigning attributes to the selected GPT partition.
HELP	- Display a list of commands.
IMPORT	- Import a disk group.
INACTIVE	- Marking the selected section as inactive.
LIST	- Display a list of objects.
MERGE	- Merging a child disk with its parents.
ONLINE	- Transferring an object marked as "offline" to the "online" state.
OFFLINE	- Transferring an object marked as “online” to the “offline” state.
RECOVER	- Update the status of all disks of the selected package. Attempting to rebuild disks of the wrong package and resynchronizing mirrored and RAID5 volumes with outdated plex or parity data.
R.E.M.	- Does not perform any actions. Used to comment scripts.
REMOVE	- Deleting a drive name or mount point.
REPAIR	- Recovering a RAID-5 volume with a failed member.
RESCAN	- Search for disks and volumes on your computer.
RETAIN	- Placing a service partition on a simple volume.
SAN	- Display or set the SAN policy for the currently loaded OS.
SELECT	- Setting focus on an object.
SETID	- Changing the partition type.
SHRINK	- Reduce the size of the selected volume.
UNIQUEID	- Display or set the GUID Partition Table (GPT) code or Master Boot Record (MBR) signature of the disk.

BOOT FLASH DRIVE using the UltraISO program (II method)

The UltraISO program is designed for creating and editing disk images. When creating a bootable flash drive, we will use the built-in functions of this program.

Open the program with administrator rights, as shown in the figure:

Select the required operating system image to create a bootable USB flash drive, for example, the Windows Vista disk image is selected here:

A pop-up window appears where you need to make sure that the removable media, the image file to be recorded and the recording method are correctly specified (it must be set in USB-HDD+ mode) and click the “burn” button

After clicking the "Write" button, a "Hint" window will appear, prompting you to erase all information on the flash drive. Agree!

Then the data will be written to the flash drive...

And finally, after a certain time, the operating system image will be written to a newly created bootable USB flash drive for future installation.

BOOTABLE FLASH DRIVE IS MADE!

NOTE: Do not forget to set the BIOS input/output system to boot the primary device, that is, make sure that the computer boots from removable media - the bootable flash drive you created.

BOOT FLASH DRIVE using Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool (III method)

The Windows7 USB/DVD Download Tool program created by Microsoft for burning operating system disk images to optical and removable media. When creating a bootable flash drive, we will sequentially follow all the instructions of the program.

First, you need to download this program from the official Microsoft website. Then you need to install the program following the installer's instructions. After installing the program, a shortcut will appear on the desktop, as shown in the figure:

Run it with "Administrator rights", right-click on the shortcut and click on the line "Run as administrator". The program will start, click the "Browse" button and select the operating system image *.ISO

After you have selected the image of the system to be recorded, click “Next”, another window will appear where you will be asked to select the type of media - optical or removable. Since we have a removable storage device - a flash drive, select "USB device"

We select our removable media from the proposed list, i.e. flash drive and press the "Begin copying" button

After clicking the above button, the process of formatting the flash drive will begin...

After some time, the process of writing the disk image data to the flash drive will continue.

We wait some time for the image to be recorded, and eventually we will get 100%, and here we are The bootable flash drive is created!

NOTE: Do not forget to set the BIOS input/output system to boot the primary device, that is, make sure that the computer boots from removable media - the bootable flash drive you created.

Today, old USB drives, supplanted by the widespread adoption of high-speed Internet and cloud services, are no longer as popular as they used to be. Nevertheless, it is still too early to completely write them off as scrap. Here are 10 cases in which you will have to look in the depths of your desk for your old flash drive.

1. Try Linux

Free Linux-based operating systems attract many people, but not everyone is willing to spend the time and effort to fully install them on their main computer. Having a USB drive of sufficient capacity completely solves this problem.

Any user, even those with very little computer knowledge, will be able to download the distribution they are interested in and create a bootable USB flash drive based on it. After this, all that remains is to restart the computer and boot into the new system. If you like it, you can consider installing it as an operating system.

2. Use portable apps

If you often travel or have to use other people's computers, you can record your favorite applications on removable media and run them directly from there. There are special tools for this, the most famous of which is Portableapps.com.

The Portableapps.com platform provides convenient launching and organization of portable applications stored on a flash drive. You can connect your USB drive to almost any Windows computer and use all the programs and files you need.

3. Record your trip details

Yes, it is more convenient and safer to store many data in, but not in all cases. For example, you go on vacation to a place where network access is expensive or simply unavailable. The same goes for planes, trains, buses and cars.

The right decision would be to prepare for the trip in advance: record a sufficient number of films, music, books and other necessary files on a flash drive that will allow you to pass the time on the road and not depend on slow and expensive cellular communications.

4. Defeat viruses

If your computer has been infected with viruses, getting rid of them will not be so easy. Modern viruses are able to disguise themselves and block anti-virus software in such a way that it is simply impossible to deal with them in an active state.

In this case, special recovery utilities will come to the rescue, such as Anvi Rescue Disk, ClamWin Portable, Avira PC Cleaner or Emsisoft Emergency Kit, which are recorded on a removable drive and can scan the system directly from there. As a rule, they already contain the latest updates and are distributed completely free of charge.

5. Restore the system

Sometimes the computer simply refuses to boot. Therefore, it is better to prepare a life preserver in advance for this unpleasant case.

There is a special utility for this in the Windows 10 operating system. You can find it in the main menu of the operating system called “Recovery Disk”. You just need to connect, run the rescue disk creation tool, and then follow the instructions that appear on the screen.

6. Speed ​​up Windows

Almost all new computers are equipped with enough RAM for comfortable work. However, older cars can slow down desperately due to its lack.

Windows provides the ability to increase RAM using an external flash drive. Connect it to your computer, and then click on its icon in Explorer. Select Properties from the context menu and then go to the Ready Boost tab. If the drive is suitable, then here you can activate the Ready Boost feature to speed up Windows.

7. Secure passwords

Not all flash drives are suitable for this task, but only those that support FIDO U2F - a special technology for universal two-factor authentication. In this case, the drive acts as a USB token that stores keys and independently performs cryptographic operations.

After a simple setup process, you can use your USB drive to securely log into accounts including Google, Dropbox, Dashlane, LastPass. Today, this type of authentication is supported by many programs and online services.

8. Showcase your portfolio

When applying for a job, people now look not so much at education and work experience, but at real examples of completed projects. If your activity is related to digital technologies, then it is most convenient to record your portfolio on removable media before the interview in order to show it to a potential employer. It may include a resume, video, slide show, presentation.

9. Surf safely

We are talking about installing a special version of a browser based on TOR technology on a removable storage device, which provides a completely private mode for browsing web pages. After the session ends and the flash drive is disconnected, there is no evidence left on the user’s computer by which one could trace the browsing history and downloaded data.

10. Record your favorite music

The era of tape cassettes, on which fans carefully stored albums of their favorite bands, is irrevocably a thing of the past. However, today their place may well be taken by USB drives.

Record selections of your favorite music so that you always have it with you. Your computer may burn out, the Internet may break down, or the cloud music service may go bankrupt, but this will not in any way affect the list of tracks in your music player.

To make a bootable USB flash drive, you need to find and download a ready-made image, then format the flash drive and burn the image using the UltraISO program.

Where to download the boot image

A few words about what an image is. This is, as it were, an archive with all the files, only without compression. It is much more convenient and faster to write such a single file than thousands of small files. In addition, the image also stores service records that help make the flash drive bootable.

The program has a free trial period. This is quite enough for recording a self-booting flash drive.

We must install and run the program as an administrator. To do this, right-click on the shortcut and select:

If a request arises for permission to make changes on this computer, we agree. Now click "". The words “hard drive” should not worry you, now your flash drive will become, like, a hard drive.

In the window, be sure to select your flash drive from the list and the recording method “USB-HDD+”

While recording the image, all data will be erased, so don’t be afraid to format the disk, and this will also increase the likelihood of loading. Click “Format” and in the window select a disk the size of your flash drive, but usually it’s the only one there and is already selected by default.

What to pay attention to:

1. File system FAT. If only NTFS is selected, then format it the first time to NTFS, then again, but this time to FAT32. If you still can’t choose, then leave it as is.
2. Allocation unit size (cluster size): default or 4096 bytes.
3. The “Quick (cleaning table of contents)” checkbox should be checked.

Click “Start”. Formatting is quick, but if it writes an error that the device is busy, then simply close the files and folders opened from the flash drive. It may simply issue a request for formatting permission, because... The disk is being used by some program. If the “Bad volume label” error occurs, then in the “Volume label” field, leave only letters and numbers, or delete everything from there altogether. After the process is complete, close the formatting window and click “Record”.

What to do if you have two logical drives

This occurs when a large disk is divided into two logical partitions. Those. The system has two disks: the first is small, the second is large. In this case, it may be problematic to copy all the information to another location before formatting.

What to do? The actions depend solely on the image and its boot files, so I cannot give universal recommendations. But, the description on torrent trackers often has everything.

Let me explain why you need to do everything using the UltraISO program and select “USB-HDD+” in the recording method. The fact is that in this way the flash drive becomes, as it were, a hard drive in the eyes of the BIOS, and this is necessary because otherwise nothing will be loaded. Therefore, you need to transfer the data somewhere and format/rewrite everything. Or read the description for a specific hand, there are simple options.

You can also try to first write down the files according to the recommendations from the distribution, for good luck. Suddenly, someone had already used a flash drive as a boot drive before and formatted it as needed.

How to boot a computer from a bootable flash drive

I am dedicated to this issue. In short, after turning on the computer, you need to quickly press the F12 or F9 or F10 button. In general, it depends on the model. Thus, a menu should appear in which you need to select your flash drive.

You can also press F2(+Fn), F1, Esc, Enter and other buttons to get into the BIOS. There you can select a boot device according to the description from the article at the link. Attention should be paid to the “UEFI/Legacy Boot” option. Here you need to select “Both” or “Legacy Only”, in general, anything except “UEFI Only”. Otherwise, it will not boot from the flash drive if the image was not UEFI-compatible, which is usually the case. Also set the “CSM Support” option to “Yes”, this is useful if your hard drive is divided into GPT partitions.

Why you might need a bootable USB flash drive

Yes, for almost any reason when diagnosing and restoring a computer, laptop or Windows 7/8/10 operating system. For example:

• To recover 100% from viruses
• Check your hard drive for errors
• Make a system backup or restore it
• Fix Windows Errors
• Delete undeletable
• Windows 7/10

I also boot from a flash drive when something goes wrong to prevent equipment failure, when I see that everything from the flash drive works as it should.

Well, why can’t you do all this from your working Windows? The thing is that Windows blocks access to many system files. And that’s why it happens that you can’t delete a file or folder and nothing helps. Also with a backup copy, because... You cannot even copy system files such as the registry and its user branches. True, there is shadow copying for this case, but still.

On an infected system, treating a virus can be a thankless task. Because a virus that is already in memory will block the operation of the antivirus and appear again and again.

It is also impossible to reliably check the disk for errors when the operating system is working with the disk, but it always does this, even when you are not doing anything.

As a rule, the bootable flash drive contains a portable version of Windows XP/7/8/10, i.e. the same Windows on which you can run programs from the same flash drive. And the set of programs includes all the necessary, working, time-tested and time-tested :)

Also, there are utilities for backup/restore, diagnostics and treatment that work without starting Windows.

Initially I thought of writing instructions, but in fact it turned out that it was a review of the use of the device. I did not correct it, because I think this option will also be useful to our dear readers.

How to make a homemade external HDD from a hard drive

Some time ago I got a 500GB laptop hard drive. But due to the lack of my own laptop, there was nowhere to install it, and just throwing such a volume “until better times” was a toad. And since the hard drive from a laptop is a box a little more than 5 centimeters wide and ~6-7 mm thick, a strong-willed decision was made, spending a minimum amount of money and time, to turn this drive into a kind of flash drive with a capacity of 500GB, putting it in special device called " External HDD pocket«.

To solve this problem, a pocket for a 2.5″ HDD was ordered from the online store SunBright (ME-945Q-TI) from a little-known Taiwanese company Welland priced at just 15 evergreen dollars.

Here are its characteristics:

• Supported HDD types: 2.5″ SATA I/II HDD
• Connecting to a computer: USB 2.0 at speeds up to 480 Mbps
• System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 or MAC OS 9.0 or higher
• One Touch Backup: For Windows in USB mode
• Power supply: via USB cable
• Size: 129 x 77 x 12 mm (L x W x H)
• Material of manufacture: Aluminum

For a little thing that costs “three kopecks” you don’t need more.