Make a bootable Pen drive & boot Computer

Make a bootable Pen drive & boot Computer

Boot-able Pen drive

Hello friends, today I shall tell you how to make a bootable USB flash drive. It is very essential to know to make a bootable USB flash drive (Pen drive, External hard disk etc.). Because sometimes it may be your DVD/CD RW drive does not work, or you are using mini laptop and you have no DVD/CD RW drive. In this situation if you want to change or reinstall your operating system, you should to know how to make a bootable USB flash drive. For this you require image file of an operating system, an USB flash drive and 'Power ISO' or 'Novicorp Win To Flash' software.



Using Power ISO Software

1. First install Power ISO software.
2. Keep the image file of an operating system into your hard disk or anywhere.
3. Connect an USB flash drive (Pen Drive).
4. Open Power ISO and go to tools and click on Create Bootable USB Drive.
5. Select the Image file as Source Image File. Set your USB flash drive (pen drive) as Destination USB Drive and click on Start button. It will take a few minutes.

Power ISO software : Download

Using Novicorp Win To Flash

You required installation CD/DVD or .iso image file of operating system, a flash drive (pen drive), Novicorp Win To Flash software.

If you use installation CD/DVD :

• Open 'Novicorp Win To Flash' folder and click on Win To Flash application software.
• Now click on Task and select Task type.

• Transfer Windows  XP/2003 setup to USB drive

• Transfer Windows Vista/2008/7 setup to USB drive

• Select File system to FAT16 LAB. (Note: This will make your pen drive memory half. You could recover it again.)

• Click on Run. Select Windows files source path (CD/DVD source path whereinstallation CD/DVD insert) and USB drive (Pen drive or other USB flash drive path). Now click on Run.

If you use .iso Image file

• You would have to install Power ISO or Daemon tools to make a virtual CD drive.
• After install the software, mount the .iso image file.
• Now follow the above steps (using installation CD/DVD) and at last step selectWindows file source path as virtual CD drive.

Novicorp Win To Flash software : Download

Now you can use your USB flash drive as like as an optical hard disk drive (CD/DVD).

If you use USB flash drive instead of optical hard disk drive (CD/DVD) you need to change Boot Option from BIOS Setup Utility. From Boot Order option set USB Hard Disk as your 1st choice.

1st Choice USB Hard Disk

Using Command Prount

1. 1
   Plug-in your Flash Drive . First plug-in your USB stick to your USB port and copy all the content to a safe location in your hard drive .
2. 2
   Run Command Prompt as an administrator . For opening Command prompt
   • Go to start menu and type cmd in the search box . Right click on it and select run as Administrator to use it with admin-rights .
3. 3
   Using the Diskpart utility find the drive number of your Flash Drive . To do so, type in the following commands in the Command Prompt :

   DISKPART
   
   

   • Running DISKPART will display the version of DISKPART you are running, name of your PC . Run the following command .

   list disk
   
   

   • Your Disk Number will be listed and note it down as you'll need this in the next step .
   • Let us assume that the USB Drive is Disk 1 but if it was listed as Disk 2 use Disk 2 instead .
4. 4
   Format the drive by executing the following commands one by one . Make sure you replace Disk 1 with proper Disk number .
   select disk 1
   clean
   create partition primary
   select partition 1
   active
   format fs=NTFS QUICK
   assign
   exit
   • When its done and if everything goes well , you should have a formatted USB drive .
5. 5
   Make the Flash Drive bootable by using the bootsect utility that is shipped with Windows 7/Vista .For doing so
   • First insert the Windows 7/Vista DVD and note down the drive letter of the DVD drive . Let us assume it as D: and that of the USB as G .
   • Navigate to the directory where bootsect is found .

   D:
   cd d:\boot
   
   

   • Use the bootsect to make the USB Drive Bootable (ie Updating the drive with BOOTMGR compatible code) and for preparing it to boot Windows 7/Vista . Here, replace G: with the name of your USB Drive .

   BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 G:
   
   

   • Close the Command Prompt windows .
6. 6
   Copy all files from the Windows 7/DVD DVD to the formatted USB stick . The safest and the fastest way would be to use the Windows Explorer.
7. 7
   Change the boot priority at the BIOS to USB.

8. Warnings

   • Make sure you motherboard is capable of booting USB drive ,if not your computer won't be able to make use of this bootable device .
   • There is no bootsect

   in XP and therefore this might not work in XP .
   

   • You can, from within 64-bit Windows, create a bootable USB drive of your 32-bit or 64-bit Windows disc. In Windows 32-bit you can only create bootable USB drive of 32-bit Windows disc.