Previously, floppy disks and then optical disks were used to boot immediately before the start of the operating system, but now all sorts of USB devices in the form of ordinary flash drives and removable memory cards are becoming increasingly popular. This is due to the fact that such devices are less prone to physical impact and have much larger amounts of memory. However, it is far from always possible to simply copy files to a USB flash drive so that you can start from it. It needs to be made bootable. Which program to write a bootable USB flash drive to Windows is best used for, what it may be needed for, and how, in fact, to write the necessary information to the media, read on.
Why might I need a bootable flash drive?
To get started, let's figure out why you need to create bootable media. Some uninformed users mistakenly believe that the matter is limited to installing the operating system.
In extreme cases, using recovery tools with or without the use of installation distribution tools, which is available in any latest version of Windows. This opinion is erroneous. Quite often, in addition to actions specifically related to the OS, the programs for the bootable USB flash drive in Windows are also successfully used to create multi-bootable media that may contain several operating systems and third-party utilities necessary, for example, to work with hard disk partitions . You can also find recording on a medium of narrowly targeted programs. Especially popular are applications for checking the hard drive for errors with fixing failures in a recorded utility, and not in the operating system, which due to such problems may not start from the hard drive at all. A vivid example of this is the most powerful Victoria HDD program. All kinds of anti-virus utilities like Kaspersky Rescue Disk, which are really capable of detecting viruses even before Windows starts, are not uncommon, as it is often impossible to neutralize some threats in a running system.
Some nuances of using bootable media
With the used flash drives and the requirements for them, it is also not so simple. Here, the amount of memory and the file system used are of paramount importance. So, for example, when it comes to using the program to record a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP, Vista or Seven, four gigabytes will be enough. But for the latest modifications (the eighth and tenth) requires at least eight. Another condition is the file system. FAT32 is used for earlier versions, and NTFS is used for newer versions. This is due to the fact that outdated computers and laptops equipped with primary BIOS input / output systems do not recognize NTFS at startup. In turn, the latest UEFI systems do not always work correctly with FAT32.
The boot order after using the program for a bootable USB flash drive
As for the boot order, it seems that almost all users are aware that the USB flash drive device must be put first in the boot queue using the parameters of the primary systems (BIOS / UEFI). But sometimes it is possible to meet situations when carriers are not defined. Why? Yes, only because the USB flash drive must be connected to the appropriate USB port before turning on the computer and entering the BIOS settings. In addition, if there are two bootloaders on the flash drive (one in the form of MBR, and the second is EFI), two devices can be displayed in the primary system, and the first one to choose is the one that corresponds to the primary input / output system.
The first startup device can be installed in the boot section, whose name usually corresponds to something like Boot Priority, Boot Sequence, etc.
Best Windows Flash Drive Writer Software
Now we turn directly to the most popular applications, with which you can create bootable media. You can find quite a lot of such utilities today, however, according to most experts, the most interesting and simple are the following:
- UltraISO.
- Daemon Tools
- Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool.
- Rufus
- WinSetupFromUSB.
- WinNTSetup3.
Such programs for recording a bootable USB flash drive are good because they are almost completely automated regarding the choice of the media file system when formatting and creating the boot loaders themselves. In most cases, the user simply needs to indicate the location of the image file stored on the hard disk and confirm the recording operation. Thus, it becomes clear that any program for recording a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 10, the desired type of preferred file system, depending on the bootloader used, the type of which can be installed independently or left in the care of the application itself, will be selected independently.
Ultraiso
Before us is one of the most popular and well-known programs of our time, which allows you to create bootable media of any type in just a few minutes. Somewhat distracting from the topic, it should be noted that it is completely optional to activate this application with a constant request, but you can constantly agree to use the trial version. The performance of the program is not affected in any way. The user actions in this program to record a bootable USB flash drive or any other medium are extremely simple.
From the boot menu, just select the recording item of the disk image, indicate the location of the file, the media itself, and press the record button. In the process of transferring information to the medium, it will be necessary to confirm the formatting, which for all utilities of this rank and the correct use of the boot devices themselves is a prerequisite.
Note: note that almost all programs for a bootable USB flash drive usually record the image from the hard drive in USB-HDD + mode, which is installed by default. But in the case of using Linux distributions or when creating multi-boot devices, you may need to specify a different method with the choice of the GRUB bootloader. In addition, it is completely optional to use the image in the ISO format, which is considered the most common. Applications for the most part quite easily recognize other formats.
Daemon tools ultra
This utility is in many ways very similar to the previous application and, in a sense, is in direct competition with it. In this program, to write a bootable USB flash drive (and not only), the actions are just as simple.
A recordable image is selected in it, and, if we are talking about the operating system, its type can also be specified. Then you should choose your device, file system type and assign a volume label. The advantage of this utility is the ability to overwrite the MBR bootloader, but the main drawback is that absolutely all experts and users say that the application is shareware, and you can freely use this program only for twenty days of the trial period.
Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool
Now a few words about another program for recording a bootable USB flash drive from an ISO image. Despite its name, which clearly refers to the seventh modification of Windows, it can also be used to create bootable media of any other systems or test media.
It looks even easier than previous programs, and the user needs to go through only four main preparatory stages. By the way, despite the fact that this seems to be a standalone application, it uses the same algorithms that are embedded in the Windows operating systems themselves, corresponding to the application. The DISKPART and BOTSECT / nt60 tools with unpacking the image on removable media are essentially a kind of intermediate graphical interface for visualizing and simplifying work with the command line.
Rufus
This program for recording a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7, any other system or third-party tools, without a doubt, can be attributed to the simplest utilities of this class (and user reviews fully confirm this). And most experts for novice users who are not particularly versed in the processes of creating bootable media, recommend using it. The utility is available as a stationary and portable version.
The default settings usually do not need to be changed. Attention should be paid only to setting the correct type of bootloader if it is supposed to install the operating system on GPT hard disks, which necessarily require the primary UEFI system, not the BIOS.
WinSetupFromUSB
This program for recording a bootable USB flash drive, according to many experts, is one of the best, although far from as simple as it might seem at first glance. Indeed, the interface seems to be nothing complicated, all actions are almost completely similar to all the above operations.
However, if you look at the main application window, you can understand that the user will have to make independent choices, for example, when specifying an image (for each specific system, it should be selected in the corresponding field), such as the file system and bootloader. An indisputable advantage of this program is that it easily creates multi-boot distributions with ease, and when starting from removable media, the user can choose which operating system he needs to install (in this case, the primary boot menu is automatically generated at the recording stage).
WinNTSetup3
But this program for recording a bootable flash drive, many experts in their reviews and comments are called the top of excellence. There is nothing surprising in this, since the application is able to only perform all the above operations, but also timely signals about problems with the bootloader used for recording by the device.
Among other things, this utility can also be used as a powerful tool for creating virtual hard disks of the VHD format, for adding drivers necessary for installing to removable media, and even as a tweaker that allows you to disable or activate some functions of the Windows operating systems themselves, in the environment of which they are used.
Additional Bootice Utility
Finally, this application cannot be fully named a program for recording a bootable flash drive, however, paired with the WinNTSetup utility, which can signal possible problems by changing the colors of the three main indicators, it is a powerful automated error correction tool. It is also easy to use.
You just need to look at which component the problem was in the WinNTSetup application, and then in the Bootice utility, after selecting the same removable device as in the main program, you just need to click the corresponding patch button and set the desired parameter (although the options offered by the program can do not change).
Specialized applications for highly targeted software products
As for other applications that allow creating bootable media for narrowly targeted programs, the most striking example is the recording on a USB flash drive of its own Kaspersky Rescue Disk antivirus bootloader using a utility called KRD Maker, in which you just need to select a removable device, specify the antivirus image and click start button for the file transfer process. Everything else will be done automatically. For other software products, many developers also offer their own universal solutions, and their use often looks simpler than the above-described popular programs for working with images and flash drives.