Windows 7 remains the most demanded operating system in the world to this day. Many users, not accepting the new flat design of Windows, which appeared in the eighth version, remain faithful to the old, but still relevant operating system. And if you've decided to install Windows 7 on your computer yourself, the first thing you'll need is bootable media. That is why today the question will be devoted to how to create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7.
To create a bootable USB-drive with Windows 7, we will turn to the help of the most popular program for this purpose - UltraISO. This tool boasts rich functionality, allowing you to create and mount images, write files to disk, copy images from disks, create bootable media and much more. Creating a bootable Windows 7 USB stick with UltraISO will be very easy.
How to create a bootable Windows 7 USB stick in UltraISO?
Please note that this method is suitable for forming a bootable USB flash drive not only with Windows 7, but also for other versions of this operating system. Those. you can write any Windows to a USB flash drive through the UltraISO program
1. First of all, if you do not have UltraISO software, you will need to install it on your computer.
2. Launch the UltraISO program and connect the USB flash drive to which the operating system distribution kit will be recorded to the computer.
3. Click in the upper left corner on the button "File" and select item "Open" ... In the explorer that appears, specify the path to the image with the distribution of your operating system.
4. Go to the menu in the program "Boot" - "Burn hard disk image" .
Please note that after this you will need to grant access to administrator rights. If your account does not have access to administrator rights, then further actions will not be available to you.
5. Before starting the recording process, the removable media must be formatted, clearing all the old information. To do this, you need to click on the button "Format" .
6. When the formatting is complete, you can start the procedure for burning the image to a USB drive. To do this, click on the button "Burn" .
7. The process of forming a bootable USB-drive will begin, which will take several minutes. As soon as the recording process is complete, the screen will display the message "Recording completed" .
As you can see, the process of forming a bootable USB flash drive in UltraISO is outrageously simple. From this moment you can go directly to the installation of the operating system itself.
Hello, friends! Today we'll talk again about creating a bootable USB flash drive.
How do I create a bootable USB device? For what purposes to use it and what program to write?
A brief overview of the five most popular and free programs for creating a bootable USB drive.
Modern developments do not stand still, and yesterday's technologies are slowly but surely losing their relevance. So the once popular CD and DVD discs no longer seem to be such an unambiguous solution for storing, transferring information and working with it. High speed of data reading, versatility and reusability are just a small part of all the advantages of a USB flash drive as a bootable medium over disks. Already today almost all personal computers and laptops, if they are less than ten years old, support the ability to boot from USB devices. And in some cases (for example, a netbook), a USB flash drive may be the only boot device from an external drive.
By the way, the new Windows 10 operating system will be the first axis, the distribution of which will be officially distributed on a USB drive. And if you suddenly need to recover files from a USB flash drive, read about it. I also recommend that you pay attention to, which will help you escape from workdays and cheer you up.
With the help of additional software, the flash drive can be used not only as a boot device for installing, reinstalling and restoring the operating system, but also to create an emergency device (Multiboot). This is a kind of reanimator, a tool from which you can boot at any time and cure your computer from viruses, restore system files or save important data. How to create such a reanimator flash drive, I described in the article "Creating a bootable Live CD / DVD / USB device and using it". You can read this article.
Despite all the obvious advantages and the growing popularity of a USB flash drive as a boot device, there are not so many programs for creating it. Nevertheless, they are, and today I will introduce you to them in more detail, but first, a few words about the preparatory stage.
Preparing a flash drive
We need the flash drive itself, plus knowledge of some important aspects. First you need to make sure your computer supports booting from USB devices. There is a misconception that if there is no option to boot from usb in bios (boot partition) (only floppi, hdd and dvd-rom options are present), then booting from usb is not supported. This is not true!
More precisely, this is not always the case. The only correct solution is to refer to the manual (user manual) of your motherboard or using specialized software (as an option - AIDA64) to get a detailed report on the hardware used.
The second point is the size of the flash drive. Everything here will depend on what we write to it. For example, to create a Live-USB, Linux or Windows 7 installation disk, a 4 GB flash drive is enough. To create a bootable device with the latest versions of Windows, it is advisable to have a USB flash drive with at least 8 GB on hand.
The third point is transferring files from a flash drive. As a rule, the process of creating a bootable device involves formatting it completely. If there are important files on the flash drive, transfer them to another device in advance. To create a bootable USB flash drive and then work with it as a bootable device, use the USB-2.0 port (Windows 7 does not support USB 3.0).
How to create a bootable USB drive
Let's look at five different ways using five free Windows programs.
A small, but quite functional utility with the self-explanatory name WinSetupFromUSB. Equally well suited for recording bootable and / or multiboot flash drives (up to 10 operating systems) and creating Live devices. Official site .
Among the shortcomings is the lack of support for the Russian language. Among the advantages, as I said, is its versatility. The utility can work not only with the Windows distribution, but is also suitable for burning an installation disc with Linux.
The usual option for creating a bootable USB flash drive, for example, with a Windows distribution kit, provides for the choice in the corresponding columns of the flash drive itself, the option to automatically format the media and the ISO image of the operating system. The recording process starts after pressing the "Go" button. You can read more about the work of this program.
To create a multiboot flash drive (multiple OS), you need to specify the path to the ISO images of the operating systems. At the time of this writing, the Windows 10 selection item is absent by default, but in reality everything is written and works, you just need to select the appropriate column with the available versions - Vista, 7, 8.
2. Rufus
Probably the easiest solution to create bootable USB drives. Everything is simple and intuitive. Suitable for work on systems without an installed OS. Official site rufus.akeo.ie.
The main advantages are speed of work, simple interface, Russian language. An excellent solution if you need to create a bootable Windows 10 USB stick with UEFI support. By the way, I wrote in detail on how to do this in.
It is distributed in the format of a regular installer and a portable version. To create a bootable flash drive in the utility window, you must specify the path to the burned ISO image and click the "Start" button.
On newer systems that use UEFI instead of BIOS, set the Partition Scheme and System Interface Type menu to GPT for UEFI Computers.
Otherwise, the default settings will suffice. The option to format the flash drive is assigned by default.
3. Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool
This utility is an official application from Microsoft. The interface is minimalistic, simple and straightforward, and easy to work with. Download from the official site wudt.codeplex.com.
Perhaps the name of the utility (Windows 7 USB) will mislead many that with its help only the distribution kit of Windows 7 can be written to removable media. However, this is not so. In addition to the seventh version, you can write distributions of Windows 8.1 and 10 to a USB flash drive.
Of the minuses - the utility is not Russified, but a simple and intuitive interface is designed to neutralize this drawback.
All that is required of the user is to insert a USB drive in advance, select an ISO image with an operating system and specify the path to the media (flash drive) to which this image should be deployed.
The principle of operation of this program is based on the standard tools of the Windows operating system - these are "diskpart", "bootsect / nt60", unpacking ISO to a USB flash drive. The program acts only as a graphical interface.
UltraISO is one of the best and most functional disk imaging software. A universal "combine" that supports work with almost any known format. It is able to work in tandem with Nero Burning Rom and integrates with virtual emulators. It will help if the boot disk image is not in ISO format.
The program can convert other image formats to ISO files - NRG, MDF, MDS, IMG, CCD, etc. With UltraISO you can edit ISO files without unpacking them. UltraISO interface is translated into many languages, including Russian. For download, you can choose from several editions of UltraISO, adapted for individual versions of Windows, as well as a portable version of the program. Download link www.ezbsystems.com.
By and large, the program does not care what boot devices will be created with its help, with what operating system, what software and from what manufacturer. The burned ISO image must be opened in the program window either by using the "Open" command in the "File" menu, or by using the browse button on the toolbar. You can also do this using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + O.
Then, in the window that appears, if the program automatically selects the desired USB flash drive, you should press the "Write" button.
Daemon Tools Ultra is a professional imaging tool. The program itself is familiar to many users from the free Lite version, which allows you to mount virtual drives to read disk images. Its more functional version - Daemon Tools Ultra - offers, among other features, the creation of boot devices.
Of the shortcomings, it is worth noting that it is paid, but to create a bootable USB drive on the official website of the program, you can download a free 20-day trial version. The official website of the program.
Go to the official website and download the program. During installation (installation), you need to select a trial license type.
The program works with a huge number of disk image formats and can be used both to create a bootable device with the subsequent installation of the operating system, and to restore it (Live-disk).
To create a bootable USB flash drive in the main window of Daemon Tools Ultra, select the "Tools" menu item, and among its commands - "Write bootable image to USB". Or the hotkey combination Ctrl + B.
In the recording parameters window, specify the path to the image, make the MBR overwrite option active and click "Start".
When the flash drive is ready, all that remains is to boot from it. The easiest way is to use the boot menu keys. The table below shows an illustrative example of such keys.
Of course, this is not the whole list of programs designed to create bootable devices, but the vast majority of users will find the capabilities and functionality of the listed software sufficient.
For example, the Rufus program can be used as the simplest and fastest tool for creating a bootable USB disk with one Windows distribution or for flashing the BIOS from under DOS.
It is logical to install the x86 version if you have 1 GB or more RAM. These are the minimum requirements, if less, you should take a closer look at Windows XP SP3, it works productively on computers. Windows 7 x32 takes up less space and consumed resources, the system visually does not differ from the 64-bit version, if they are of the same edition, in our case it is Ultimatum, which is Maximum in translation. This is the last edition of Windows 7 and includes all the features and functions of all versions, services, components and widgets.
Screenshots:
Windows 10 is currently considered the last operating system in the Windows family, and Microsoft is insistently offering all users of the previous version to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. But users are in no hurry to update their system, as they consider Windows 7 32 bit the most stable and compatible with most software, which cannot be said about the Ten. If you mistakenly upgraded Windows 7 to Windows 10 and want to restore the system back, on our website you will find information on how to do it, simply and quickly.
How to properly install Windows 7 32 bit Maximum from a USB flash drive.
1
... Download the image using a torrent client. Add the file downloaded from our site to the torrent program, I recommend using the uTorrent free torrent program;
2
... Install the UltraISO app. It will create a bootable USB flash drive (or disk). It is more expedient to use a USB flash drive to install Windows 7 x32. Run UltraISO and open the downloaded Windows 7 32-bit ISO image, insert the USB flash drive and in the panel select "Boot" - "Burn disk image" - "Burn" after Windows 7 starts recording to the USB flash drive, wait for completion and restart the computer.
3
... You must first configure the BIOS to boot from the media. You can be guided by the capabilities of the BOOT Menu. In any case, we boot from the media.
4
... It remains in the standard mode to install the OS, performing elementary actions.
5
... After installation, it remains to install the missing drivers using the SDI or DPS package driver, these programs are on the site, you can also follow the links in the title.
6
... Activation of Windows 7 x32 Maximum has already been completed, but in case the activation fails, and this is possible after installing updates, I recommend downloading the activator for Windows 7 from our website in the left menu there are links to activators.
Here you can download the latest version of Windows 7 32 bit rus torrent from the link above, which is currently the most up-to-date with the latest updates and drivers for Lan and WiFi devices, as well as with activation. I note that the image of Windows 7 x32 can be downloaded via any torrent client, for example, I use uTorrent, it is popular among users of b2b networks with a convenient interface, by the way, you can turn off ads in it, how to do this, you can find out on our website. If you have any questions or difficulties with installing Windows 7 32 bit, write in the comments with pleasure I will help. Download Windows 7 32 bit Maximum torrent to a USB flash drive you can follow the direct link at the beginning of the description without registration and advertising only with us.
Creating a bootable USB stick in UltraISO is the easiest way to record a Windows installation. And, perhaps, the fastest. Just a couple of minutes - and you're done (of course, provided that you have a normal PC).
Before starting work, you need to install the program. You can download it from the official website (link).
How can you create a bootable USB flash drive using the UltraISO program?
You just need to execute the following instruction:
- Run the program (you need to run it as administrator).
- Next, you need to open the image of the Windows installation file that you want to burn. To do this, select the items File - Open (or you can press the Ctrl + O keys).
- Specify the folder in which the Windows image is located, select it and press the "Open" button.
- If you did everything correctly, it should look like this:
- Now we start recording. To do this, in the top menu, select the items: Boot - Burn hard disk image.
- Next, select your USB flash drive, leave the recording method the same - USB-HDD + and press the "Burn" button. IMPORTANT! This will erase all of your data on the USB stick. Therefore, before performing step 6, it is recommended to save all files (for example, to a computer).
- Actually, the program will warn you about this. If you have saved all the data (or you do not need them), agree and click the "Yes" button.
- The recording can go from a couple of minutes to an hour (or even more). It depends on the power of your PC or laptop.
- After the end of the recording, the program will inform you that the process has completed successfully.
If you do not have a Windows image, but you have a licensed installation DVD, then you can make a bootable USB flash drive using it
To do this, in the third paragraph, you need to specify the path to the drive where the DVD is located by selecting the items: File - Open DVD.
Creating a bootable USB drive from a folder with files
Finally, there is another way how you can create a bootable USB flash drive in UltraISO. It is suitable if the licensed digital copy is already saved on your computer in a folder.
To write the installation files to a USB stick, do the following:
After a while, the bootable USB drive will be ready.
P.S. If for some reason the creation of this bootable flash drive in UltraISO did not work (an error or something else appeared), try repeating the procedure, carefully following the instructions. As a last resort, you can always write it down with another program - there are plenty of them.
A large number of modern notebook models are manufactured without an optical drive. In such conditions, a bootable flash drive windows 7 becomes the main method and the most used tool for installing the operating system.
To create a bootable windows flash drive, you must have:
- ISO image of the operating system;
- Removable media from 4 GB;
- Motherboard with support for booting from a USB flash drive.
Important note: The drive should be connected via the USB 2.0 interface. Windows 7 does not support USB 3.0 (it is usually colored blue inside) during installation, and therefore, when trying to boot through this interface, the user will see an error message.
Programs for preparing a bootable flash drive for windows 7 can be distributed both for free and for a significant amount. The use of free software in this case is absolutely justified - the utility will cope with its functions perfectly, and you will solve all your problems without spending anything but time.
Let's take a closer look at how to make a bootable windows 7 USB flash drive using specially designed utilities.
Important note: Some programs require the user to have administrator rights to perform tasks. To get them, just right-click on the utility shortcut and select "Run as administrator"
UltraISO program
The program has a Russian interface, which is very important - you will not just consistently press the buttons, relying on your knowledge of English, but you can thoroughly figure out which process is started after the next action with the utility.
Any user can cope with creating a bootable windows 7 flash drive with ultraiso. You just need to follow the simple step-by-step instructions:
Run the program as administrator. Load the operating system image into the window that appears. It can be recorded in ISO, MDF or NRG format. Use the Open button or a similar item in the File menu to add it to the application workspace.
The next step in creating a bootable windows 7 flash drive is writing the image to disk. It is made by clicking on the appropriate item in the "Bootstrapping" menu.
The recording window will appear. Check that the Disk Drive line contains the name of your flash drive and its letter. The recording method should look like USB-HDD +. If all parameters are correct, click the "Save" button.
A warning will appear on the screen stating that all data on the removable media will be destroyed. Continue the process of writing a bootable USB flash drive windows 7, confirming your intention by clicking Yes.
UNetBootin program
The main window of the program looks rather austere. Here you need to select Disk Image, the letter that is assigned to the removable media. The ISO image address is specified manually. After adding the image, extracting and copying files to the USB flash drive begins.
Other programs for preparing a bootable flash drive for windows 7 work similarly, such as USB / DVD Download Tool, Rufus, the operation of which will be described below, etc.
Creating a bootable USB flash drive for windows 7 is not enough - the image recorded on it needs to be opened somehow. If the system continues to work, then this should not cause difficulties. However, if nothing already starts, you will have to go into the BIOS settings.
Important note: BIOS versions are different depending on the year of release. They also differ externally, but the names of the menu items remain practically unchanged.
Having opened the BIOS by pressing Del, F2 or another key specified in the boot start window, you must go to the Advanced BIOS Features tab. The devices are listed here in the order they were launched. Simply put, the system first, for example, loads the CDROM, then the hard disk, then the USB-HDD.
Since we made a bootable windows 7 USB flash drive, and now we want to start it, we must put the USB-HDD boot in the first place. To do this, press the Enter key on the first line to open a menu in which all connected devices are presented. Then select USB-HDD from the offered list. Put booting from a hard disk drive (HDD) in second place, while CDROM remains in third position.
Possible problems with loading media via BIOS:
- The motherboard simply does not support booting from external storage (if it was developed before 2003, this is a very real reason);
- Incorrect bootable windows 7 usb flash drive. It is possible that mistakes were made during its creation. To rule out this option, check the media on another computer where the motherboard accurately supports reading removable drives;
- The USB controller in the BIOS is disabled (Disabled).
If the system is installed on a computer, it is recommended to immediately connect the drive through the port located directly on the motherboard, bypassing the connectors on the front panel of the system unit.
If UEFI is installed
The traditional BIOS is replaced by UEFI - a new interface that better cope with modern hardware. Essentially, UEFI performs the same functions as the BIOS, providing a pre-boot environment for the OS.
However, creating a bootable windows 7 uefi USB stick is somewhat different from the usual procedure for preparing removable media.
There are two ways:
- Use of software;
- Manual drive configuration.
Let's consider each option in detail.
Rufus program
Why this particular utility? She has several advantages, among which are free, portability, high speed, user-friendly interface and support for the Russian language.
Note: The above steps are also valid for creating Windows 8 installation media.
The main program window looks like this:
As you can see, there is nothing complicated here. All fields are self-explanatory and are usually filled in automatically. But in order for the question of how to make a bootable windows 7 USB flash drive using this program be thoroughly studied, we will briefly go through the points presented in the main window:
- Device - your flash drive to which you plan to write an image of the operating system;
- Partition Scheme - Leave GPT with UEFI by default;
- The file system and cluster size are also set automatically. They should not be changed;
- The Create bootable disc field allows you to select the path to the ISO image.
After specifying and checking all the parameters, it remains only to press Start, starting the process of copying files. The writing speed is approximately comparable to the speed of normal copying information to removable media.
Considering that the program creates a bootable USB stick, a higher score is simply not possible.
Manual setting
If there is no desire to download Rufus or for some reason the creation of a bootable windows 7 flash drive does not occur or fails, the internal Windows tools will come to the rescue.
Important note: the described steps are valid for 64-bit versions of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. Users with 32-bit version are advised to use the software recording method above.
Run Command Prompt as Administrator. This can be done using the context menu invoked by right-clicking the command line shortcut in standard Windows programs.
Enter the following lines in the window that appears:
- diskpart;
- list disk.
A list of mapped drives will appear. Find your USB flash drive (you can do this by its size). Look at what number it was determined under - it will be needed for further work with the carrier. For example, let's take number 6 (you may have it different).
So, the order is as follows:
- Select disk 6 - selection of a specific disk, with which all further manipulations will be performed;
- Clean - the media is cleared of data written to it;
- Create partition primary - a partition is created;
- Format fs \u003d fat32 quick - the created partition is formatted to the FAT32 file system;
- Active - the section is marked as active;
- Assign - a name or connection point is assigned;
- List volume - check the correctness of your actions. Pay attention to the letter that is assigned to your media. Remember it;
- Exit - exit from Diskpart.
For clarity, look at the picture - there is nothing complicated here.
After preliminary preparation, it remains only to copy the contents of the image to the media.
Since we are making a bootable windows 7 USB flash drive, we will have to use additional software to open the image (in the eighth version of Windows, you can mount the image directly on the system). It's good if the Daemon Tools program is installed on your computer. With its help, you can mount an image into a virtual drive, go into it and copy all the contents to a USB flash drive.
If Daemon Tools is not available, you can use the functionality of WinRAR or 7Zip archivers. To do this, you need to open the ISO image through these programs, and then unpack it directly to a removable disk.
Conclusion
The process of writing an operating system image to a removable disk is not as complicated as it sometimes seems to novice users. The easiest option is to use Russified software that automatically performs all the preparatory activities. As a result, the ISO-image of the bootable USB flash drive windows 7 can only be written directly to an external drive.
Most users have problems already at the installation stage, when they have to configure the BIOS or solve some other issues with starting the installation removable media. However, if all the above steps are performed sequentially and correctly, then the installation of Windows 7 from a USB flash drive should be successful.
