How To Make Bootable USB
Posted May 30, 2009 – 1:21 pm in: Live DVD/USBHaving a bootable USB is very essential, especially if you are a Netbook user. Using bootable USB to install an operating system (OS) not only makes the installation faster, but also saves a DVD.
Creating or using an USB drive to install Windows operating systems is very easy if you follow the below mentioned steps.
If you are planning to use bootable USB to install Windows 7 or Vista please refer our guides:
Install Windows 7/Vista using bootable USB guide
And also, you can refer install Windows 7 on Acer Aspire One guide
Coming back to bootable USB guide, here we assume that you are using either Vista or Windows 7 to create a bootable USB.
1. Insert your USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as bootable.
2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.
3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:
DISKPART and hit enter.
LIST DISK and hit enter.
Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1.
4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do.
SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.
5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.
6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:
D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:
(Where “H” is your USB drive letter)
7. Copy Windows DVD contents to USB.
You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature).
Note that this bootable USB guide will not work if you are trying to make a bootable USB on XP computer.
Tags: Bootable USB, USB Bootable
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43 Comments
In my experience, we don’t need to do these complicated setup like yours.
What I do is simply use the ‘format’ option for the thumb drive in Windows Explorer (right-click menu), by using the default settings. Then, extract the files in the ISO image into the thumb or simply copy all the files from setup folder to drive, and then plug’n’boot. The command prompt and code are no needed.
I have tried this simple method many times and they all work on my 4 computers, because I heard that USB booting is originally supported in Windows Vista or higher.
PS XP is absolutely incompatible with this function
Sunny, because of retards like you I could not make a bootable USB stick till now. Everyone that was posting this type of tutorial did the mistake called “THINKING ON HIS OWN” and removed the “BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:” part, because “it worked for him”.
SO FUCK OFF.
And thanks for the tutorial.
And I also have unkind words for people who underexplain this process because I have been tearing my hair out for the last 3 days trying to get a bootable usb to put XP no my netbook without any luck. There is no reason this needs to be this hard.
So, to be clear when you say this ‘won’t work with XP’ do you mean:
a.) If you’re on a PC running Windows XP and you’re trying to make a USB Installation drive to install XP/Vista/7/whatever.
or do you mean
b.) If you’re trying to create a USB Installation drive to install XP.
Eh?
If you are using Windows XP, try
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT52 H:
How to insert windows dvd on optical drive while i’m using netbook?? did’t not have dvd drives
@arefiqrc
IF you are on netbook, get the image of Windows and then extract it.
This is a great tut man, thanks a lot !
that’s the way…………
after bootsect.exe/nt60 H:i get this
target volumes will be updated with boot mgr compatability boot code.
could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects: access is denied
Very good.. Worked straight up.. last line not needed for windows 7..
plz give me slids of make bootable usb pen drive
Yeah i have done this but i want to make my flahs brive a local disk so that I may install an os onto it.
Regards Tim
@ Hawksie
It’s not possible to install Windows 7 exactly on a USB flash drive. Here is the guide that help you carry Windows 7 on USB flash drive:
http://www.intowindows.com/install-windows-7-on-usb/
A po ma hani karin .
me bo mir po nuk po bon bre familjen ta cifsha
How to make my bootable USB to normal.
Please please any one give me instruction to make my bootable USB back to normal. Because my USB drive speed is toooooooo slow. Copying speed is below 1MB/s.
My e-mail address is “mehul.the.game88@gmail.com”
did you try this MEHUL?
FORMAT [f:] [/FS:file-system] [/Q]
F: the usb drive vlume label
format f: /fs:ntfs /q
“bootsect.exe” not found
Yep that’s what I got as well. “bootsect.exe” not found.
My USB stick is not showing up as a DISK. Tried with various sticks.
Whats the issue?
it’s work, only for windows vista & 7
works at teat
sorry treat
Well done, works exactly as described. I’ve been looking around for this type of information for a few hours. Found this and i’m happily installing 2k3, 2k8, 2k8R2 on servers by plugging in my usb.
Thank you!
Try unebootin.
Sorry but this is for linux.
Every distributions supported .
By.
worked like a charm. thanks dude
can i install xp without optical drive support?????????? means using usb with windows files??????
@Kaim
Of course, you can install XP from USB. But note that this guide is only for Vista and 7.
hey guys why to make usb disk bootable just install any version of windows in ur usb drive directly but it should be 8gb usb drive for win 7 and vista and it should be 4 gb for xp,98 and vista portable. my email address is kartikeyp1@gmail.com
Hi,
Can u let me know,how can i install xp from USB.Please suggest how can do it.
Thanks & Regards
Jitendra Kumar
Ya its working for windows 7
Can anyone say me how to make a cd bootable in a similar way
I found a utility called WinToFlash that works well. wintoflash.com/home/en/
How to create a bootable USB drive to install Windows xp
I followed this guide and it is not accurate. I have made some minor edits to help others who have the same issue as me after following this giude. aka. Boot mgr is missing error…
So here’s the REAL working guide.
Guide to making a bootable USB drive using Vista or Windows 7
(Note: this guide will not work on WinXP.)
1. Insert your USB stick into USB port (MUST be 4GB or higher).
(Note: Backup the data on your USB drive as we are going to format it.)
2. Open the Command Prompt: (follow steps listed below to do this)
Go to Start Menu >
All programs >
Accessories >
Right click on ‘Command Prompt’
Select ‘Run as Administrator’
3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:
DISKPART (hit enter)
LIST DISK (hit enter)
(Note: Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk numbers of all drives connected to your PC)
4. In this step, enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter:
SELECT DISK 1 (Replace “DISK 1″ with your USB drive’s disk number, For example: If your usb is 4GB,
and Disk 2 shows 4000mb disk size, type SELECT DISK 2, as that is your usb drive)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=FAT32 (Format process may take a few minutes, depending on the size of the USB drive)
ASSIGN
EXIT
(Note: Don’t close the command prompt as we need it for the next step. Just minimize it)
5. Insert your Windows DVD in the DVD drive.
Note the drive letter of the DVD Drive and USB Drive.
(Here I use “D” as my DVD drive letter and “F” as my USB drive letter)
NOTE: Drive letters can be assigned or changed. In the start menu right click “Computer”,
select “Manage”. A window will open. Select Disk Managment (Near the bottom of the list
on the left side panel), Right click a drive to assign, change or remove the drive letter).
6. Go back to command prompt window and execute the following commands:
D: CD BOOT (Where D: is your DVD drive letter) And hit Enter.
BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 F: (Where F: is your USB drive letter) And hit Enter.
XCOPY D:\*.* /S/E/F F:\ (Where D: is your DVD drive, and F: is your USB Drive) And hit Enter.
8. Wait for DVD contents to copy to USB.
You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer
that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature).
Alternatively, use this handy application that does it all for you, even makes XP bootable usb drive.
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/08/27/make-a-bootable-usb-installer-for-windows-xp-vista-7-with-wint/
Maybe this will help, no warranty that this info is accurate, but some of it is.
-bootsect.exe is on Vista disc, not on XP disc.
-XP uses NTLDR, Vista uses BOOTMGR (OS setup different between xp & vista)
-USB stick format must be what system BIOS can recognize as bootable — some older BIOS version only boot devices with FAT16, and there’s some other stuff that we are still learning about. So, this is why everyone may get different results. Computers are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get, and they melt in your hands if you’re not cool.
when i enter “LIST DISK” command, i see only HDD, not usb flash.
what can i do?
hi guys i would like my usb to be bootable so i could go and get my ghost image how do i do that please
hi guys i would like my usb to be bootable so i could go and get my ghost image how do i do that please email please m_cubaynes@yahoo.com
impressive
i use vista basic. i want to run xp in my usb. can any one help me?
Thanks man, It was perfect.