A collection of programs for creating a bootable flash drive. Program for burning a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP. We create a distribution kit. Utilities for burning a bootable ISO disk to a USB flash drive

Hello everyone, I continue the series of articles about bootable USB media. In the last episode I told and showed in four different ways.

There will be a lot of interesting things, so read the article to the end, repeat all the simple steps and you will have your own multi-boot usb device. At the end of the article I recorded and posted a detailed video lesson on this topic.

Perhaps some of you will think that the information is very chewed up, but not all people understand computers, and even more so in matters of creating such portable USB devices.

In today's review:

• Preparations
• Creating a bootable USB flash drive
• Adding Windows XP and Windows 7
• Copying files and utilities
• Adding required programs
• Kaspersky Rescue Disk
• Doctor Web Live CD
• Working with a graphical boot list
• Changing and creating a background image

The last point is optional, since the image will already be by default.

Preparations

The entire process will take a different amount of time for each person. If all the program distributions and images are already at your fingertips, then you will need much less of it. If you are making a bootable or multiboot flash drive for the first time, it can take a lot of time. So get ready and be patient, we'll need it today.

The first question that may arise in your mind is: What kind of flash drive should I buy? To create a regular multiboot flash drive with a minimum set of programs, 1 Gigabyte should be enough.

If you want to add operating system distributions, hard disk programs, boot shells, utilities for changing passwords and programs for treating your computer from viruses. It is advisable to have a USB drive with a capacity of 8 GB or more on hand.

In the examples, I will have an 8 GB flash drive, you may have a different size, or even a portable USB hard drive.

If you have any data on your usb device, then save it somewhere else as we will be formatting our usb storage device.

Create a bootable USB flash drive

To create a multiboot flash drive we will need additional software. There are many programs for creating multiboot devices, but unfortunately most of them are in English.

I decided to use the MultiBoot USB program, which is in Russian. It’s more pleasant to work with; anyone who gets confused or doesn’t understand something can use the instructions for use.

To unpack this archive you will need the 7Zip program. Perhaps your archiver programs will not be able to open some of the archives presented in this review, then I recommend using 7Zip.

After downloading the program, install it on your computer. A “MultiBoot USB” shortcut should appear on your desktop.

We go into it and a small menu opens in front of us with a characteristic welcome sound like on Windows, with 7 seven tabs.

Formatting a flash drive

We connect the pre-prepared flash drive to the computer and format it. Go to the first menu item HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.

The formatting utility starts, under the word Device we indicate our flash drive. I have this Chipsbnk UDisk, volume (7800 MB), you may have a different designation and size.

Select a file system. If you have a flash drive with a capacity of up to 4 gigabytes, you can install , if the flash drive is more than 4 GB, then I recommend using the file system . I have 8 GB, so I chose the second option.

In the Format options, check the box next to Quick Format, thereby indicating quick formatting and click Start.

We are asked, do you really want to start the formatting process, we answer Yes. This process shouldn't take much time.

After the program formats the flash drive, the following HPUSBFW window will appear, in which we click OK.

If an error appears - the device is being used by another program, use normal formatting.

You can also format a portable USB device using Windows. Go to My Computer >>> right-click on the flash drive >>> Format >>> Quick (cleaning table of contents) >>> Start.

Warning window - click OK.

The following window may appear - This disk is being used by another program or process. Click Yes to format it.

This message may appear after the flash drive is already bootable. In the first steps of creating a multiboot USB device, such a window should not appear.

Installing the bootloader

The Grub4Dos Installer 1.1 window appears. In the top Disk Name tab, put a dot next to Disk, indicate the usb device and click Install.

I have two disks on my computer, this is the main 2 terabyte hard drive and an 8 GB flash drive, we select the second one. This program will install the bootloader on our device.

When choosing a disk, be sure to select your flash drive; if you make a mistake and select the main hard drive on which the operating system is installed, Windows will not start the next time you turn on your computer.

When the operation is complete, the The MBR/BS has been successfully installed window should appear. To continue please click .

Adding operating system distributions

Let's move on to the fourth point WinSetup From USB.

I will add two operating systems Windows XP and Windows 7 to the flash drive. You can add others by clicking on the appropriate items.

Windows XP

If you do not have a disk image with the operating system distribution, you can find it yourself on the Internet. I can suggest downloading the licensed product Windows XP Prof SP3.

Then we mount the operating system disk image into a virtual drive, I will use the Daemon Tools program, you may have a different one.

We mount Windows XP Home, you can use Windows XP Professional.

Click on WinSetup From USB, which will help us copy the distribution files of the required operating systems.

In the window that appears, select the desired portable usb device and check the box next to Windows 2000/XP/2003 Setup.

Click the browse button (three dots) and select a disk image prepared in advance and already mounted in the virtual drive. Mine is a BD-rom drive (H:), yours may be different.

We are waiting for completion, at the end a small window should appear with the inscription Job done - the work is done.

This process took me about 20 minutes.

Windows 7

If you do not have a disk or image of the seven, then you can download Windows 7 from the link below:

In order to add Windows 7 or Windows 8 to our flash drive, you need to do almost the same as for Windows XP, only when you select Add to USB disk: you need to check the box next to Vista / 7 / Server - 2008 Setup / PE / Recovery ISO .

Select the mounted disk image, start the process and wait for it to complete.

Making a multiboot flash drive

We return to MultiBoot USB and go to the fifth point: Copying files and utilities.

The multiboot flash drive window opens, click the browse button.

Select our portable USB device and click OK.

Then click the Extract button to begin the file copying process.

A small file replacement confirmation window appears, replace the existing usbdrive.tag file, click Yes for all.

We perform the same action for all subsequent files that we are asked to replace.

If you want to see what came out of this, then go to the fourth item WinSetup From USB, click the button , check the box next to and press .

This is what your boot menu should look like.

There are points here that need to be edited a little, and some that need to be removed altogether.

Adding the necessary program images

I decided to remove Symantec Ghost and Windows XPE - full version, since I do not need them, but we will return to this later.

First of all, let's add images of the following programs that are on the list, namely Acronis, Windows XPE - mini version and Windows 7PE - mini version. You can download images of these three programs from the links below:

Now you have downloaded all three images, now we need to replace the empty files with working images. To do this, go to the multiboot flash drive, to the folder , delete the image files where it says 0 KB and insert the three image files that you downloaded earlier.

Alternatively, you can not delete them, but simply replace them with working images, but to do this, the downloaded file Acronis Disk Director 11 Acronis Home 2011 - LiveUSB must be renamed Acronis.iso.

I put these three images in a separate folder in advance, so that later I could copy and paste them on a flash drive in a folder .

You can also check the box below - Do this for the next two conflicts, thereby all three image files will be replaced with working ones.

ERD Commander

Now I propose to add a useful program, ERD Commander, to a multiboot USB device for changing passwords in operating systems of the Windows family.

Why does she need it you ask me? I'll answer you. ERD Commander can be used if you forget the password for your Windows account. Boot with this utility, select the desired operating system and change the password.

Especially for you, I found on the Internet a set of ERD Commander programs that work in Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8.

After downloading the program image, copy it and paste it onto the flash drive in the folder .

Boot disk from Doctor Web

Surely each of you or someone you know has encountered the problem of viruses, various banners and similar hacker things. So, if your operating system does not boot or you cannot log into Windows, then I recommend using a boot disk from Doctor Web.

With it, you can boot and scan your computer for viruses, even if you cannot log into Windows normally.

To do this, we need to go to the official website of the Web (I call it Doctor MOM), go to the Download section >>> Treatment utilities >>> Dr.Web Live CD and download the image to your computer. Anti-virus databases are updated daily.

We downloaded the image, okay, now we need to rename it from V .

Then we also copy the renamed image to the flash drive in the folder .

Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10

Everyone has heard that there is Kaspersky anti-virus, some of you have used it or are still using it. I like and am quite satisfied with this antivirus, so I have been using it for more than 5 years.

Kaspersky also has a Windows emergency recovery disk, just like Doctor Web. It is called Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10, its anti-virus databases are updated regularly, so Kaspersky can help you if viruses appear on your computer and logging into the system is not possible.

Download the image, rename it from V .

We go to the root of the flash drive, create a new folder in it and call it .

Then copy the renamed image to the created folder .

That's not all. We return to the root of our portable usb device and create a new text document in it.

Rename<Новый текстовый документ.txt>V .

Removing the extension<.txt>and press enter.

We are warned that after changing the extension the file may not be accessible, click<Да>.

Working with the graphical boot menu

Now we have finally added all the necessary programs and file images to our bootable USB flash drive. Now we need to edit the graphical boot menu that will appear when selecting our distributions, programs and utilities.

Go to the flash drive, go to the root, find the file , open it using Notepad, WordPad or , whichever is more convenient for you.

Just in case, I’ll show you how to open the menu sheet using Notepad if you don’t have Notepad++. Right click on the file , select Open.

The window The file could not be opened appears. We put a point near<Выбор программы из списка установленных программ>and press .

If it is not there, then you need to double-click on Other programs or on the right on the small downward pointer.

In the list that appears, find Notepad or WordPad, select it and click OK.

I'm used to working through convenient , so I will carry out all editing work in it.

A list of all items appears in front of us, which is displayed in the graphical menu of our bootable USB device.

First of all, I propose to remove (delete) the unnecessary and unnecessary items mentioned earlier, Symantec Ghost and Windows XPE - full version.

The unnecessary stuff has been removed, now I propose to edit our list in accordance with the contents of our flash drive. Depending on the names of the images on the usb device, you need to rename these names in the menu sheet, that is, make them the same for everything to work.

I will write the names of my images, you may have others, but remember one thing, if you make a mistake in even one letter, the required distribution or program will not start.

Previously, we added distributions of the Windows XP and Windows 7 operating systems through the WinSetup From USB utility. We find the corresponding items in our menu and change their names to new ones.

Windows 7 all

In my case I clean and enter .

Windows XP Home

Then we will rename the name of the Windows XP boot loader. Currently in the menu sheet<Установка Microsoft Windows XP SP3 x86 — Русская версия>.

In order to see the name of your image, just go to the folder on the flash drive .

There will be a disk image and its name, which we wrote above in the list menu.

ERD Commander

We also inserted an image of the ERD Commander program; we need to add an entry about it to our download list.

To do this, copy the entry from Acronis, change the name to ERD Commander and two paths of the image file to .

Doctor Web

With Doctor Web everything will be a little more complicated. Paste the following text into the sheet menu:

title Dr.Web LiveCD - anti-virus utility
partnew (%@root:~1.3%,3) 0x00 /Boot/drweb.iso
map /Boot/drweb.iso (0xff)
map --hook
cat --skip=85 (0xff)/boot/config | set ID=
kernel (0xff)/boot/vmlinuz %ID% root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc init_opts=4 quiet vga=791 splash=silent,theme:drweb CONSOLE=/dev/tty1 BOOT_LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
initrd (0xff)/boot/initrd

And place it in any place convenient for you on our download list.

Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10

In order for the Kaspersky utility to work, you also need to insert special text, which I posted below:

title Download Kav Rescue 10 – Disaster Recovery Utility
map (hd0,0)/rescue/rescue.iso (hd32) || map --mem (hd0,0)/rescue/rescue.iso (hd32)
map --hook
root (hd32)
chainloader (hd32)

We also place it in any place we like on the menu list.

So we edited the file , according to the added programs and images to our multiboot flash drive.

If you want to change the name of the items to your own, then in the line