Usb windows 7 creating a bootable USB stick. Five programs for creating a bootable USB drive

Windows operating system from Microsoft is the most common system for installation on computers and laptops, both home users and users of large and small businesses. Windows is not perfect, and after some time after its operation - installing many programs, surfing the Internet and much more, it clogs up and the PC starts to work incorrectly and slow down. And sooner or later the user is faced with a problem reinstall Windows and in search engines ah you can find many requests on this topic - How to install Windows? How do I reinstall Windows? Installing Windows on a laptop and others. We will try to help you with this issue and create an installation guide operating system... But first, let's look at another issue that can also be often found in search engine queries - How to create a bootable USB flash drive? and in this article we will explain in detail how to do this.

And so, let's get started. There are several ways to create a bootable USB flash drive, we will tell you about the four most common, all of them are free and produced from the operating room Windows systems:

For work, we need an image of the operating system itself and a flash drive of at least 4 GB in size.

Method number 1

Creating a bootable Windows 7 USB stick using WinSetupFromUSB

Program WinSetupFromUSB is universal and can be used to make a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP / 7/8.

First, we need to download and install the program, for this we go to the official website of the program and download WinSetupFromUSB 1.5.exe or WinSetupFromUSB 1.5.7z


Then we extract the files from the archive and run the program

In the main window of the WinSetupFromUSB program, you will see the name of the connected USB flash drive. Here we tick Auto format it with FBinst and select NTFS

Find Windows ISO Image 7 64-bit select it and click Open


After selecting the system, we proceed to create a bootable flash drive by pressing GO


After that, the process of creating a flash drive directly begins

At the end of which we are notified by a message with which we agree by clicking Ok

Ready. Bootable Windows 7 USB stick created!

If you want to create a bootable UEFI flash drive with Windows 7 or Windows 8, then you will need to format it in file system FAT32 by selecting FAT32 instead of NTFS in the main program window

Method number 2

How to create a bootable Windows 7 USB stick using UltraISO

Program UltraISO is paid, but it has a trial period, and since we only need to create one USB flash drive, it will be enough for us. Go to the official site of the UltraISO program and download the program by choosing Free Trial.


Install the program and run it as administrator

Choose a trial period by clicking on the button


In the main UltraISO window, go to the File menu, click on it with the mouse and select the Open item. Also, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + O


Open the folder where the Windows image is located, select it and click on the Open button



In this window, select the USB flash drive to which we will write the Windows image and click Write



At the end of which you will see the line in the window "The recording is complete!"


Bootable Windows 7 USB stick ready to use

Method number 3

Create Bootable Windows 7 USB Drive Using Windows USB / DVD Download Tool

Program Windows USB / DVD Download Tool- this is official utility to create bootable USB drives and Windows disks from Microsoft and can be downloaded from the Microsoft website.

This method creating a bootable USB drive is the easiest and is done in just 4 steps.

Run the program, click Browse and select the Windows 7 image


When the image has been selected, click the Next button


Now we choose the method of creation, in our case it is a USB device


Select our flash drive and click Begin copying


After that, a window will appear warning that the data on the USB flash drive will be destroyed, confirm this and click Yes. Then the process will begin Windows entries to a USB flash drive


When the recording bandwidth reaches 100%, the bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7 is ready.

Method number 4

Creating a bootable Windows flash drive using the command line (CMD)

This method is intended for users who are not looking for simple ways, who often experiment with installing various Windows versions, since creating a bootable USB flash drive in this way makes it universal. It becomes bootable for any Windows operating system, be it XP, 7 or 8, you just need to unpack and copy the system image to it

So, let's begin. The creation of a bootable USB flash drive is carried out directly from the Windows 7 operating system itself, using command line... To do this, connect our USB flash drive and run Command line... Open the START menu in the field "Find programs and files" introduce cmd command and press Enter

Also use the keyboard shortcut Win + R, in the window that appears, enter the cmd command and click OK.


In the window that appears, enter the command that allows you to manage disks


We display a list of all devices with the command


Before us are all the disks connected to the computer. Find your USB flash drive, we have it marked as Disc 3, you may have a different number, take this very seriously, because if you select the wrong drive, you can format the local volume of your hard disk.


We enter the following command with the number of our flash drive


I no longer remember the last time I used the installation disk Windows or Ubuntu on a PC. Each time creating bootable USB drive, or installation, as it is convenient for anyone, I use the same method, which I want to talk about in this post, giving step by step instructions with screenshots.

I have to install Windows from a flash drive quite often! I always use the same flash drive. I can't tell the exact number of computers on which you had to install Windows from a flash drive, there were about a little more than 20 of them, that's for sure!

During all this time, installing Windows from a USB flash drive, I have not encountered any problem even once, which is what I wish for you !!!

I use a completely simple USB flash drive. And the flash drive itself is already old, God only knows how old it is.

In general, the simplest and most common 4 gig flash drive.

Flash card preparation.

Flash card preparation consists of one simple thing. It needs to be formatted in the file system NTFS... This can be done without any problems. by standard means Windows. Go to my computer and RMB on the flash drive icon, from context menu choose "Format ..."

In chapter " File system" you are taking NTFS and click the "Start" button in the warning window, agree by clicking the "ok" button.

This completes the preparation of the flash card, now it remains to prepare the image with windows.

Preparing a Windows disk image.

Preparing windows will consist in the fact that you need to unpack all files from " ISO"Windows image. It can be done this way.

1 - Unpack the usual archiver "Win RARom" to do this, open the iso image file using "Win RAR"

And unzip all files in the previously created folder, for example "win7".

2- Using the "Ultra ISO" program, the principle of operation is the same.

Open the image, select all the files and drag them to the "win 7" folder Or whatever you called it there!

The windows files are unpacked and that's all, you can start creating a bootable USB flash drive.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows.

The flash drive is ready, the Windows files are extracted from the "ISO" image, there is still a little left and the bootable USB flash drive will be ready to work.

Download the program "WinSetupFromUSB" (Link at the bottom of this post). And we launch.

In the main window of the program, click the " Bootice»

In the next window, make sure that the USB flash drive you need is selected in the drop-down list and click the " PerformFormat»

Here you need to choose " USBHDDmode (SinglePartiton) "And press the button" NextStep»

In the next window, select the NTFS file system and click the "ok" button

After clicking ok, answer all warnings received positively. Then close all windows and go to the main program window.

Check the box next to “ Vista / 7/ Server 2008…… "And select the same" win7 "folder where you previously unpacked the Windows files from the iso image.

It remains to press the "GO" button and wait about 10 minutes for the program to finish its work.

It is worth noting that the program may not respond and simply freeze; in this case, you do not need to turn it off. In fact, it works, you just need to wait. After some time, the program wakes up and you can observe the progress of the work.

A Windows bootable USB stick is very easy to make. The article will describe three simple quick ways creating a bootable USB flash drive from a ready-made ISO image. All methods are free and popular, although there are simpler and more complex options among them, using different software. Also, all utilities are fully functional in Windows XP.

If you have a new laptop or computer, with BIOS UEFI, a HDD which uses GPT style placement of tables, then on such a computer you can also install Windows 7 using a different algorithm. Also, if the device, computer, laptop, netbook, etc. has a USB 2.0 port and USB 3, and you decide to install from a bootable USB flash drive to such Windows device 7 then undoubtedly you should connect the flash drive to USB 2.0 port because Windows 7 itself does not support USB port type 3, which are usually marked in blue.


If a bootable flash drive is connected via USB 3, then the attempt to install Windows 7 will end with the following error:
“A required optical drive driver was not found. If you have a flash drive, floppy disk, DVD or CD with such driver, please insert this media. "

Creating a bootable USB drive

Now the first thing you will definitely need is an ISO image of the operating system. The second is the need to take care of the flash drive itself. Since this medium will undergo formatting, the data from the flash drive must be moved to a safe, secure place. It is also important to note that the volume of the flash drive must be strictly at least 4 gigabytes.

It is imperative to check and make sure that the specific motherboard accurately supports downloading such a plan (from a flash device).

  • Creating a bootable USB flash drive by means (it is recommended in the last turn, since the method is not very effective);
  • Creation through;
  • Utility;
The easiest way to create a bootable USB drive is to use the UNetBootin program or the simple USB / DVD Download Tool. It is preferable to choose the second option, but both options are quite simple to understand.

Creating a bootable USB stick with UNetBootin

You need to download the program and run it (the program is portable, works without installation).


It is necessary to check the item called ISO-image, and then select the letter of the USB drive.


The location of a specific image must be specified manually.


Next, click open.


Now just click OK.


There is a short process of copying system files to a USB flash drive.


After a short extraction of the necessary files, our bootable USB stick is completely ready.

Creating a bootable USB drive with UltraISO

A slightly tricky solution, in contrast to the above, is to use the program UltraISO... However, you can quickly understand the program by following the instructions. The functionality of the program is made in plain Russian, and the trial period of use under the license is completely functional and suitable for our purposes.


Next, you need to select the Russian language and download the program, which is very simple. Run as administrator, then select the trial period of use.


Before us is the usual program window.


The next step is to find our ISO image on your hard drive, which contains the operating system. It is worth recalling that such an image can be created by any other program, and then specified here. In the main UltraISO window, right-click on the file, and in the menu that opens, select the open option.


Next, we indicate our image with the system, in our case this is the Windows 8.1 image, which is located in the installation folder. Find the image for yourself and click open.


Also now you can put a USB flash drive into the socket of a netbook or laptop. It is necessary to select the Bootstrapping menu in the main window of our program and click on the record of the hard disk image. The inserted USB flash drive should be present in this window.


Then we press to write down.


A hint will appear that your flash drive will be erased, we agree.


Next, we wait for the recording process to end.


Now you can carry our operating system in your pocket.

Given the fact that modern computers are increasingly used without DVD drives, but you need to install Windows now, then a bootable USB flash drive Windows 7 will come in handy.

Flash - USB stick, has long since replaced the floppy drive. A USB flash drive as a storage medium has its advantages as a replacement for both CDs and DVDs. A USB drive is generally larger in capacity than disc media and, since it is more expensive, cannot (yet) be used as a replacement.

Still there are reasons to choose USB device rather than a DVD disc. Not only is it faster to copy data such as setup files from USB disk, but also during use, the access time is also significantly faster. Thus, installing Windows 7 will be much faster from a USB stick than from a DVD, and of course, it is especially useful for a PC with no drive.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive Windows 7 - officially

We will show you how to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7. You will need a USB flash drive of at least 4 GB of free space, and a copy of the installation Windows disk 7. See: How to download ISO image Windows 7

To turn a USB flash drive into a bootable one, use the program offered by Microsoft - Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool. Download the installer from Microsoft.com following the basic steps to create a bootable Windows 7 USB flash drive. Once the tool is installed, run.

  • Download Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool: https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=wudt

The second step, to create and get a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7, click on the Browse button and specify where the bootable USB flash drive will be written from. Next.

In the third step, make sure you are using the correct USB device. All files with USB stick, move to local disk before continuing. The tool will tell you about the detected data on the device.


Formatting will take place very quickly, while creating a bootable USB drive will take a little more (about 10 to 15 minutes).


After completing the process, you will receive a full-fledged bootable Windows 7 USB drive. Close the tool and use the USB flash drive to install Windows 7 as intended.

Make a bootable USB flash drive Windows 7 very simple. We will describe the four fastest, known and free ways creating a bootable USB flash drive from an ISO image, let's start with the simplest and end with the complex, applying different software... All utilities work fine in Windows 7, as well as in Windows XP, checked. Separately, I want to say about the fourth way to create a bootable USB flash drive, we will create it with you in Windows 7, using only the own means of this operating system, without resorting to using third-party utilities.

Friends, if you have new computer or laptop with UEFI BIOS and hard disk style of placing GPT partition tables, then set to such Windows computer 7 is also possible, read our other article .

Also, do not forget that if your computer, laptop or netbook with USB 2.0 ports, as well as USB 3.0 and you decide to install Windows 7 on it from a bootable USB flash drive, then you need to know that you need to connect the USB flash drive to the USB 2.0 port, since Windows 7 does not support USB 3.0 (ports are usually painted over in blue).

If you insert a bootable USB stick into a USB 3.0 port, then Windows installation 7 will end up with this error.

"The required driver for the optical disc drive was not found. If you have a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with this driver, please insert this media."

Make a bootable USB flash drive Windows 7

At the very end of the article, we will look at the very process of installing the Windows 7 operating system.
The first thing we need now is the original distribution itself, I hope you have it.
Second, we will take care of your flash drive, since it will be formatted, all data from it must be transferred to a safe place.
Third, the flash drive itself is needed with a volume of at least 4 GB.

Fourth - if you do not know how to boot your computer or laptop from a USB flash drive, then read this article - "", this article describes in detail how to change the boot priority on a laptop, netbook, stationary computer in the BIOS or using a special menu for selecting a boot device ...

Content of our article: Friends, the article was written by us almost a year ago, readers' reviews showed that the first program UNetBootin works very rarely for you, but Microsoft's Utility - Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool 100% and last way, Windows tools 7 also works 100%.

  • Create a bootable USB stick using UNetBootin (Friends, use this method last)
  • Creating a bootable USB drive with with UltraISO
  • Utility from Microsoft Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool
  • Creating a bootable USB flash drive using Windows 7
  • (the most reliable and easy way, a separate article has been written, if interested, follow the link and read).
  • (a separate article has also been written).

The simplest solution, how to make a bootable USB flash drive Windows 7, is to use the UNetBootin program or Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool (preferable), it couldn't be easier, unless we come to you and do everything for you.
UNetBootin program, download from the link http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net select Download for Windows and run the program, it works without installation.

In the main window of the program, mark the item ISO-image and select the letter of the USB-drive

manually indicate the location of our image,

Click open

and that's it, click "OK".

Short checkout and copy Windows files 7 to a USB flash drive

Bootable USB drive ready

The solution is a little more complicated, use UltraISO program, it is in Russian and has a completely functional trial period, site http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso, choose Free Tria l

and before us is the window of our program,

then we are looking for an iso image with the Windows 7 operating system on our hard disk, I remind you that you can create your own image with any other program and specify it. In the main UltraISO window, right-click on the file button and in the menu that opens, select open,

by the way, now you can insert your USB flash drive into a laptop or netbook.
In the main window of the program, select the Boot menu and Burn an image of the hard disk, our flash drive is already present in this window.

Click on format.

Choosing the type of file system

Write down

You need to wait for the end of the recording process

That's it, now we can carry the Windows 7 64bit operating system in our pocket.

Now information for those who are not looking for simple paths, we create a bootable USB flash drive directly from the Windows 7 operating system itself, using the command line, my favorite method.

We insert our worn-out USB flash drive into a laptop or netbook, or maybe into stationary computer, then launch the Command Line.

Start menu, Run, enter the cmd command

Command Prompt Window

We need to enter the command diskpart command interpreter, which allows you to manage disks, press Enter

We display a list of all devices using the list disk command, press Enter

Look carefully, my 4 GB flash drive is labeled Disk 3, you may have a different number, depending on the number there will be the following command, in my case it is select disk 3 if you do not want to format the local volume of your hard disk instead of your flash drive, define it accurately and compose the command correctly, if your flash drive is defined as Disk 2, then the command for you will be select disk 2