Graphic arts

Formatting a flash drive after booting. How to make a regular flash drive from a bootable one

You can install Windows 10 from any media that has an installation Windows program. The storage medium can be a USB flash drive that meets the parameters described below in the article. You can turn a regular flash drive into an installation drive using third-party programs or official application from Microsoft.

Preparation and characteristics of the flash drive

The flash drive you use must be completely empty and work in a certain format; we will achieve this by formatting it. The minimum size to create a bootable flash drive is 4 GB. You can use the created installation media as many times as you like, that is, you can install Windows 10 on several computers from one flash drive. Of course, you will need a separate license key for each of them.

Preparing a flash drive

The flash drive you choose must be formatted before you begin placing the installation software on it:

Second formatting method

There is another way to format a flash drive - through command line. Expand the command prompt using administrator rights, and then run the following commands:

Enter one by one: diskpart and list disk to see all the disks available on the PC.
To select a disk, write: select disk No., where No. is the disk number specified in the list.
clean.
create partition primary.
select partition 1.
active.
format fs=FAT32 QUICK.
assign.
exit.

Obtaining an ISO image of the operating system

There are several ways to create installation media, some of which will require an ISO image of the system. You can download the hacked build at your own risk from one of the sites that distribute Windows 10 for free, or get the official version of the OS from the Microsoft website:

https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10).
Select OS language, version and bit depth. You should choose the version based on your needs. If you are an average user who does not work with Windows at a professional or corporate level, then install the home version; there is no point in taking more sophisticated options. The bit depth is set to the one supported by your processor. If it is dual-core, then choose the 64x format; if it is single-core, then choose 32x.
When prompted to select media, check the ISO file option.
Specify where to save the system image. Done, the flash drive is prepared, the image is created, you can start creating the installation media.

Creating installation media from a USB flash drive

The easiest way can be used if your computer supports UEFI mode- more new version BIOS. Typically, if the BIOS opens as a menu, then it supports UEFI. You can also find out whether your motherboard supports this mode or not on the website of the company that made it.

Insert the USB flash drive into the computer and only then start rebooting it.
As soon as the computer turns off and the startup process begins, you need to enter the BIOS. Most often, the Delete key is used for this, but other options are possible, depending on the model of motherboard installed on your PC. When the time comes to enter the BIOS, a prompt with hot keys will appear at the bottom of the screen.
Change the boot order: By default, the computer starts with hard drive, if the OS is found on it, but you must install your UEFI:USB signed flash drive in the first place. If the flash drive is displayed, but there is no UEFI signature, then this mode is not supported by your computer and this installation method is not suitable.
Save the changes you made to the BIOS and start your computer. If everything is done correctly, the OS installation process will begin.

If it turns out that your board is not suitable for installation via UEFI mode, then use one of the methods below to create universal installation media.

Media Creation Tool

Using the official Media utility Creation Tool You can also create Windows installation media.

Go to official page Windows 10 and download from it installation program from Microsoft (https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10).
Run the downloaded program, read and agree to the standard license agreement.
Select the option to create installation media.
As described earlier, select the OS language, version and bit depth.
When prompted to select media, indicate that you want to use a USB device.
If several flash drives are connected to your computer, select the one you prepared in advance.
Wait until the program is in automatic mode will create installation media from your flash drive. After this, you will need to change the boot method in the BIOS (put first place in the “Boot” section installation flash drive) and proceed to install the OS.

Using unofficial programs

There are many third-party programs that create installation media. They all work according to the same scenario: they write a Windows image that you created in advance onto a flash drive so that it turns into bootable media. Let's look at the most popular, free and convenient applications.

Rufus

Rufus- demon paid program to create bootable USB drives. It runs on Windows operating systems starting with Windows XP SP2.

Download and install the program from the developer’s official website: http://rufus.akeo.ie/?locale.
All program functions fit in one window. Specify the device to which the image will be written.
In line " File system"(File system) specify the FAT32 format, since this is what we formatted the flash drive in.
In type system interface install the option for computers with BIOS and UEFI if you are sure that your computer does not support UEFI mode.
Specify the location of the pre-built system image and select a standard Windows installation.
Click on the “Start” button to start the installation media creation process. Done, after completing the procedure, change the boot method in the BIOS (in the “Boot” section you need to put the flash card in first place) and proceed to install the OS.

Ultra ISO

UltraISO is a very multifunctional program that allows you to create and work with images.

Buy or download trial version, which is quite enough to complete our task, from the official website of the developer: https://ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/.
While in the main menu of the program, expand the “File” menu.
Select “Open” and specify the location of the pre-created image.
Select "Burn Hard Disk Image".
Specify which flash drive you want to use.
Leave the recording method as USB-HDD.
Click on the “Record” button and wait for the process to complete. After completing the procedure, change the boot method in the BIOS (put the installation flash drive in the first place in the “Boot” section) and proceed to installing the OS.

WinSetupFromUSB

WinSetupFromUSB is a utility for creating a bootable USB flash drive with the ability to install Windows, starting with version XP.

Is it possible to use MicroSD instead of a USB flash drive?

The answer is yes, you can. The process of creating an installation MicroSD is no different from the same process with a USB flash drive. The only thing is that you must make sure that your computer has a suitable MicroSD port. To create this type of installation media, it is better to use third party programs, described above in the article, and not the official utility from Microsoft, as it may not recognize MicroSD.

Errors during creation of the installation flash drive

The installation media creation process may be interrupted for the following reasons:

There is not enough memory on the drive - less than 4 GB. Find a flash drive with more memory and try again,
The flash drive is not formatted or formatted in the wrong format. Go through the formatting process again, carefully following the instructions above,
The Windows image recorded on the USB flash drive is damaged. Download another image, it is best to take it from the official Microsoft website,
if one of the methods described above does not work in your case, then use another option. If none of them work, then the problem is with the flash drive and should be replaced.

Video: creating an installation flash drive with Windows 10

Creating installation media is an easy process and is mostly done automatically. If you use a working flash drive, a high-quality system image and use the instructions correctly, then everything will work out, and after rebooting the computer you can start Windows installation 10. If after completing the installation you want to save the installation flash drive, then do not move any files to it, then you can use it again.

It happens that our beloved friend, the computer, breaks down. Got viruses? Poor quality installation of programs, or just want to change the operating system? And then the attack on the Internet begins, in search of useful information: how to do bootable USB flash drive? In fact, there is more than one way to create it. In this article we will look at the main and most accessible ones. So, let's begin.

How to make a bootable USB flash drive using the command line

The next method is for those who do not want to use additional programs and utilities. Here only the resources of your own computer are used.

First of all, we insert a flash drive with a capacity of at least 4 gigabytes into the USB port of a desktop computer, or laptop, or maybe a netbook. Next we need to get to the command line. To access the command line, you must press the “Run” key in the Start menu.

If you are familiar with the keyboard shortcut, then of course you know that just press “Win + R”, the “Run” window will appear. We enter “cmd” into the empty field and then the command line “menu” will appear, which is what we need. In what follows, we will work exclusively with the command line.

In the command line window, enter the value “ diskpart"- command enterprise, it will allow you to manage disks, press the “enter” key. Enter all values without quotes.

After the information has loaded, enter “ list disk", This command will display a list of all devices and disk drives that are connected to your device. Next, press the “Enter” key again.

We are looking for our flash drive, which can have any number. Depending on the number of this digit, we will enter the next value. If your flash drive is number 2, then enter the command “ Select disk 2", 1- " Select disk 1", 5 - " Select disk 5", and so on . You need to accurately determine the number of the flash drive if you do not want to format the volume of your hard drive.

So, let's enter the command " select disk", and the number that marks our flash drive. Next, press “Enter” again.

Once the flash drive is selected, we can continue further, but first we need to completely delete the files from it and prepare it for further recording. To do this, enter the command “ clean". Press the “Enter” key.

After disk cleanup is completed, enter the command “ Create partition primary". This will create primary partition. Press "Enter".

Now, we need to format our flash drive and transfer it to an NTFS partition, since the flash drive is initially in FAT32 format. Let's enter the command " format fs=NTFS" and press the “Enter” key. Let's wait for the formatting to finish. If you're in a hurry and don't have time to wait, you can perform a quick format instead of " Fformat fs=NTFS", you must enter " Format fs=NTFS QUICK". But it is not necessary to resort to this, since formatting does not take long.

After the flash drive is formatted, you can enter the command assign letter= and assign a letter to our flash drive. If you enter the command assign, the letter of the flash drive is assigned automatically.

After this, our flash drive appears. Exit the program by entering the command Exit .

Bootable USB flash drive is ready!

The bootable flash drive is made, and now you need to transfer all the files of the selected operating system.

Important: Files must be transferred only in unpacked form. If you put a disk image, nothing will happen and will not work.

After everything is ready to reinstall the operating system, it is necessary in the system BIOS, select primary device removable media. In order for the computer to boot from the bootable flash drive you created... To do this, press one of the keys. Usually this is Delet, F2, or Esc. We set the boot priority to removable media. That's all. Now you can install a new operating system and enjoy the knowledge that you did everything yourself!

How to make a bootable USB flash drive using UltraISO

This is a method for those who are not afraid to use different programs. Program Ultra ISO It’s quite easy to use, and you can easily turn a flash drive into a boot disk. So, let's begin.

First, download the program and install it on your computer. After that, click on the icon right click mouse and select “Run as administrator”.

The program window has opened, and we go to the “file” menu and click “Open.” For those who use the keyboard shortcut, press Ctrl+O. Select the system image you need, select it and click open.

Go to the “Boot” menu and click on the “Burn hard disk image” option. Select a flash drive that will become the boot disk. It is desirable that it be at least 4 gigabytes in size.

In the pop-up window, you need to select the recording method “USB-HDD+”, check that the removable media – flash drive, file – image is specified correctly. Click the “record” button.

A pop-up window will appear saying that all information from the flash drive will be erased! We are not afraid, we confirm that we agree and press the “yes” button.

The recording of information to the flash drive will begin. It may take some time. You can spend it on calling a close friend, or just have some tea.

The message “Recording complete?” appears. Great. The operating system image is recorded. You can exit the program by clicking the “Back” button. The program can now be closed.

The bootable USB flash drive is ready to go!

Also in the BIOS we set the boot priority from removable storage so that the computer loads the flash drive you created. After everything is ready to reinstall the operating system, it is necessary in the system BIOS, select removable media as the primary device. So that the computer boots from the bootable USB flash drive you created. To do this, press one of the “ ” keys to enter the Bios. Typically these are the keys Delete, F2, or Esc. We set the boot priority to removable media.

How to make a bootable USB flash drive dos (dos)

Another option for creating boot disk flash drive. There are several options for how to make a bootable USB flash drive. Let's start with the simplest thing.

How to make a bootable dos flash drive (DOS) using Rufus

First, let's download a program that will allow us to make such a flash drive from the official website. This program does not require installation and is immediately ready for use. Let's launch Rufus.

Select the Device field, and in it the flash drive that needs to be made the boot disk. Attention: All files from the flash drive will be deleted, so if there is any important information, move it to another place.

In the File System field, specify the format of the flash drive FAT 32.

Opposite the “create a bootable disk using” item, select MS-DOS or FreeDOS, it depends on which version of DOS you want to run from the flash drive. There's not much difference. Click “Start”.

That's all. The recording process will not take much time.

Bootable USB flash drive Dos - ready!

How to downloadfull flash drive dos (DOS) using the WinToFlash program

Actually, there is nothing complicated here either. Download the program to your computer from the official website. Let's launch the program. In the window that appears, select the “Advanced Mode” tab.

After that, in the “Task” field, select “create a drive with MS-DOS” and click the “Create” button.

The Dos bootable flash drive is ready to go.

Again in the BIOS we set the boot priority from the removable drive so that the computer loads the flash drive you created. After everything is ready to reinstall the operating system, you need to BIOS system, select removable media as the primary device. In order for the computer to boot from the bootable flash drive you created... To do this, press one of the keys. Typically these are the keys, Delet, F2, or Esc. We set the boot priority to removable media.

How to make a bootable USB flash drive for ubuntu (Ubuntu)

The first method is suitable for those who use the operating room ubuntu system, or can boot from LiveCD. This operating system has the necessary utility for this. With the help of it we will make a bootable USB flash drive. Its name is “usb-creator-gtk.” You can call it by pressing ALT+F2 and entering the name of the utility. Or go to the applications menu, find the “Create a boot disk” item.

In the program, you need to select the drive device (physical media or image), and then the flash drive device.

Another way to the delight of those who want to make a bootable ubuntu flash drive directly from Windows.

First, you need to have the UNetbootin program in order to use it to create a bootable flash drive. It is also important to format the flash drive in the fat32 file system before working. We launch the program, specify the path to the image of the downloaded Ubuntu program. Select the flash drive you want to use and press the “ok” button. All. You don't need to do anything else. Everything will be done without our help and guidance.

And again we put it in Bios priority booting from a flash drive.

And the last way we'll look at is...

How to make a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7 USB/DWD Download Tool

Again, download the program from the official website (so as not to pick up viruses). Let's install it on your Personal Computer. Let's launch the program from a shortcut on the desktop, with administrator rights.

Program for English language(there were no people willing to Russify it), but it is not complicated and quite easy to understand.

Click the “Browse” button and select the image file of the “OS” that we want to install. The image is selected, click Next. Now you need to select the media type. We have removable media, and therefore select “USB device”.

In the window that appears, select the flash drive and click the “Begin copying” button.

Thus, let's start formatting the flash drive.

After some time, when formatting is completed, data recording to the flash drive will begin.

We are waiting for the formatting to complete; when everything is ready, we will receive a ready-made bootable USB flash drive.

And again we visit Bios, set the boot priority from the flash drive.

Now, without any difficulties, you can create bootable flash drives for yourself, or just help your friends. No visit service centers and endless cries for help, you will do it yourself.

I will show you 4 ways to help you make a bootable USB flash drive. It is usually needed to install Windows OS or for a program if it runs before the system boots.

There are many programs to solve this problem, but sometimes you can get by using the system. I will provide instructions that will help you make a bootable USB flash drive with any version of Windows or program. 4 methods, 2 universal and 2 for specific OS.

But before that you need to prepare. You will need:

Flash drive with a capacity of 4 GB or more.
Image ( iso) operating system or program for which a bootable USB flash drive will be created.

Before creating a bootable USB flash drive, be sure to format it to avoid errors.

Bootable USB flash drive in Windows OS

You can do without third-party programs and do everything in Windows. To do this you will have to use a number of commands. I will demonstrate only the most necessary ones.

First clear your device of all files. To do this, go to the execution line ( Win+R) from the Start menu >> Run, and then enter the command diskpart as in the image below.

In the window that appears, enter list disk to see all devices for further work with them.

In my example, there were 2 devices:

0 - hard drive.
1 - flash drive.

Distinguish a flash drive from hard drives very simple in size. Select it with the command select disk 1.

Be careful, there may be another number instead of 1.

After this, you need to create a primary partition. To do this, enter create partition primary.

Select a section by entering select partition 1 and activate it with the command active.

Then set the letter to the carrier ( automatically) by entering assign and finish the job Exit.

Now be sure to download the files to the USB flash drive unpacked. If you just copy the iso file, nothing will work.

If you don’t understand something, you can watch a video on how to do it using a real example.

Bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Download and install the USB/DVD Download Tool. It is made specifically for working with Windows 7 files and is absolutely free. Most likely it won't work with others. Total 4 simple steps for creating.

Please note that if you use an image not from the official Microsoft website, problems or errors may occur.

Provide the path to the iso file and proceed to the next step.

Then select “USB device” for a flash drive or “DVD” for a disk.

Select a flash drive and start copying. It must have at least 4 GB of free space.

Then wait until it is written to the device and you will receive a ready-made bootable USB flash drive.

The instructions are also available in video format.

Bootable USB flash drive for all images in UltraIso

This is a paid program with a free trial period. Download it from the official website and install. It is multifunctional and in Russian. Suitable for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10.

You can watch an example of installing Windows XP in the video. With other versions of systems, everything is done similarly.

Once launched, select a trial period.

Then open the image in the program.

Now in the “Bootboot” tab, select the image entry as shown in the example below.

Settings are set here.

Disk drive- flash drive.
Image file— here check whether the path is specified correctly.
Recording method- be sure to use USB-HDD+. Otherwise, in some cases it will not work.

After checking all the settings, start recording.

Wait for it to finish. Time to finish is shown on the right.

Under no circumstances remove the flash drive until the process is completed.

If completed successfully, you will see a completion message. After this, the bootable USB flash drive will be ready. Just close the window and enjoy.

Additional method for Windows XP

Download free utility DirectGrub and unpack the archive. No installation required. Select the iso file, flash drive and click “Start” as in the image below.

Wait while the files are copied. After successful completion, a window will appear.

I hope you don’t have any questions and everything turned out well.

What did you use to create a bootable USB flash drive?

Formatting is the process by which a data storage area is marked up. This area is called file system, and is a table.

Each square of such a table is called a cluster. And when a file is copied to a flash drive, the clusters are filled with data one by one until the file is completely moved.

If information is often rewritten to the device, the clusters begin to fill unevenly, since some of them contain remnants previous files. And new recorded files can occupy clusters at different ends of the “table”, which slows down the operation of the flash drive.

Formatting resets all parameters and re-marks. This has a positive effect on the speed of the device, because the file system is reset. That is, the “table” is cleared.

Why do you need to format

To quickly destroy all recorded information
To “kill” all viruses and traces of their activity
To resolve errors that occur when opening and writing files
To speed up the device
When creating a bootable USB flash drive

Formatting erases all data that was written to the flash drive! Therefore, before you run it, be sure to transfer everything important files to another location (for example, to a hard drive).

How to quickly format a flash drive

This can be done standard means systems. They are available in any version of Windows (XP, 7, 8, 10).

1 . Insert the flash drive into your computer.

Most likely, an autorun window will open in a second or two. Let's close it.

2. Open Start - Computer.

3. Right-click on the flash drive icon and select “Format...”.

4 . Select parameters or leave everything as is.

File system. You are asked to choose one of three. The default is usually Fat32. It is good if small files will be written to the device, as it interacts with them faster. But if you need to write a file larger than 4 GB, then problems will arise - Fat32 does not support working with such large files.

NTFS is another matter. This system is capable of working with very large files, even more than 1TB. But with small ones it works a little slower than Fat32.

There is also exFAT. This is an upgraded Fat 32 that can handle files larger than 4GB. However, on this moment it is only supported in Windows system 7 and higher, and other devices (such as TVs) and computers running older versions of Windows cannot work with it.

There are more advanced file systems, for example, ext4, but Windows does not yet support anything better than NTFS and exFAT.

So, if you plan to write small files to a flash drive, then you can leave the default file system (Fat32), and if you need to copy to it separate files more than 4 GB (for example, a movie), then select NTFS.

Cluster size. Minimum data size. It is better not to change anything in this field.

Volume label. The name of the device that will be shown during boot. For example, I want the flash drive to appear as "Neumeka". This means that I erase from this field what is suggested and print the name I need. As a result, it will appear like this:

Formatting Methods. Initially, this item is checked for “Quick (cleaning table of contents)”. This method will overwrite the file system, which is usually quite enough.

If you uncheck the box, a full format will be done, which means that the computer will first check the physical surface of the flash drive and if it finds damage, it will fix it. In fact, they will simply disguise themselves and then it will not be possible to write information there. And only after all this will the file system be written.

5 . Click “Start”.

The system will warn us that it will destroy all information from the device. We agree and wait for the end of the process.

When it finishes, we will see the following window. Click “OK” and close the formatting window.

All! The device is ready for use.

If it didn't work out

Despite the fact that a flash drive is more reliable than a CD and DVD disc However, she also faces problems. For example, it may simply not be displayed in “Computer”.

This happens for several reasons:

File system is damaged
The device was not formatted by the manufacturer
The letter of the flash drive matches the letter of the drive already in use by Windows

To eliminate these reasons, go to Start - Control Panel.

Go to “System and Security” and/or “Administration”.

Open "Computer Management".

Click on “Disk Management” on the left side.

The window takes on the following appearance.

Right-click on the flash drive and select “Format...”.

Formatting using the command line

Another formatting method. But in order to use it, you need to know exactly the letter of the flash drive. Otherwise, you may accidentally delete data from another, desired drive.

1 . Press the keyboard shortcut Win + R.

2. In the Run window, enter cmd and click OK.

3. In the window that appears, enter format G: /FS:NTFS /Q /V:flashka

format is a command to start formatting
G is the drive letter under which your computer recognizes the flash drive (do not confuse it!)
/FS:NTFS - file system in which you want to format the device. If you want fat32, then enter FS:FAT32
/Q - quick formatting. If you need the complete one, just don't use this command
/V:flashka - volume label (this name will be displayed when loading in “Computer”).

When everything is ready, a similar inscription will appear.

Low-level formatting or “flash drive treatment”

Use this method should only be done if all of the above did not help.

Download and install HDD program LLF Low Level Format Tool from the official website. During the installation process, select “Continue for free”.

Open the program, select your flash drive and click Continue.

A window with information about the device will appear. Go to the LOW-LEVEL FORMAT tab.

Click on the FORMAT THIS DEVICE button.

A warning appears that all data written to the media will be erased. Click “Yes”.

And we wait for the end of the process: when the window becomes something like this and 100% complete is written.

Let's close it and do it normal formatting, otherwise the flash drive will not open. To do this, follow the first instructions from this article (Start - Computer - right-click on the flash drive icon - Format...).

Formatting is the process by which a data storage area is marked up. This area is called file system, and is a table.

Each square of such a table is called a cluster. And when a file is copied to a flash drive, the clusters are filled with data one by one until the file is completely moved.

If information is frequently rewritten to the device, the clusters begin to fill unevenly, since some of them contain remnants of previous files. And new recorded files can occupy clusters at different ends of the “table”, which slows down the operation of the flash drive.

Formatting resets all parameters and re-marks. This has a positive effect on the speed of the device, because the file system is reset. That is, the “table” is cleared.

Why do you need to format

To quickly destroy all recorded information
To “kill” all viruses and traces of their activity
To resolve errors that occur when opening and writing files
To speed up the device
When creating a bootable USB flash drive

Formatting erases all data that was written to the flash drive! Therefore, before running it, be sure to transfer all important files to another location (for example, to your hard drive).

How to quickly format a flash drive

This can be done using standard system tools. They are available in any version of Windows (XP, 7, 8, 10).

1 . Insert the flash drive into your computer.

Most likely, an autorun window will open in a second or two. Let's close it.

2. Open Start - Computer.

3. Right-click on the flash drive icon and select “Format...”.

4 . Select parameters or leave everything as is.

File system. You are asked to choose one of three. The default is usually Fat32. It is good if small files will be written to the device, as it interacts with them faster. But if you need to write a file larger than 4 GB, then problems arise - Fat32 does not support working with such large files.

NTFS is another matter. This system is capable of working with very large files, even more than 1TB. But with small ones it works a little slower than Fat32.

There is also exFAT. This is an upgraded Fat 32 that can handle files larger than 4GB. However, it is currently only supported on Windows 7 and above, and other devices (such as TVs) and computers running older versions of Windows cannot work with it.

There are more advanced file systems, for example, ext4, but Windows does not yet support anything better than NTFS and exFAT.

So, if you plan to write small files to a flash drive, then you can leave the default file system (Fat32), and if you need to copy individual files larger than 4 GB (for example, a movie) to it, then choose NTFS.

Cluster size. Minimum data size. It is better not to change anything in this field.

Formatting methods. Initially, this item is checked for “Quick (cleaning table of contents)”. This method will overwrite the file system, which is usually quite enough.

5 . Click “Start”.

The system will warn us that it will destroy all information from the device. We agree and wait for the end of the process.

When it finishes, we will see the following window. Click “OK” and close the formatting window.

All! The device is ready for use.

If it didn't work out

Despite the fact that a flash drive is more reliable than a CD and DVD, it still suffers from problems. For example, it may simply not be displayed in “Computer”.

This happens for several reasons:

File system is damaged
The device was not formatted by the manufacturer
The letter of the flash drive matches the letter of the drive already in use by Windows

To eliminate these reasons, go to Start - Control Panel.

Go to “System and Security” and/or “Administration”.

Open "Computer Management".

Click on “Disk Management” on the left side.

The window takes on the following appearance.

Right-click on the flash drive and select “Format...”.

Formatting using the command line

Another formatting method. But in order to use it, you need to know exactly the letter of the flash drive. Otherwise, you may accidentally delete data from another, desired drive.

1 . Press the keyboard shortcut Win + R.

2. In the Run window, enter cmd and click OK.

3. In the window that appears, enter format G: /FS:NTFS /Q /V:flashka

format is a command to start formatting
G is the drive letter under which your computer recognizes the flash drive (do not confuse it!)
/FS:NTFS - file system in which you want to format the device. If you want fat32, then enter FS:FAT32
/Q - quick formatting. If you need the complete one, just don't use this command
/V:flashka - volume label (this name will be displayed when loading in “Computer”).

When everything is ready, a similar inscription will appear.

Low-level formatting or “flash drive treatment”

This method should be used only if all of the above did not help.

Download and install the HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool program from the official website. During the installation process, select “Continue for free”.

Open the program, select your flash drive and click Continue.

A window with information about the device will appear. Go to the LOW-LEVEL FORMAT tab.

Click on the FORMAT THIS DEVICE button.

A warning appears that all data written to the media will be erased. Click “Yes”.

And we wait for the end of the process: when the window becomes something like this and 100% complete is written.

We close it and do the usual formatting, otherwise the flash drive will not open. To do this, follow the first instructions from this article (Start - Computer - right-click on the flash drive icon - Format...).

Hello admin! I read on many sites that the boot UEFI flash drive With Windows 10 you can create simple copying Win 10 files to a flash drive pre-formatted in the FAT32 file system. And today I bought a new 32 GB flash drive, formatted it in FAT32 and copied it to it Windows files 10 and the flash drive turned out to be non-bootable. My computer won't boot from it. What can be wrong? Please explain in detail, since my level of computer knowledge is very basic. Best regards, Sergei.

Another way to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10

Hi all! A week ago, our reader Vladimir wrote about this, and today I will also comment. I honestly tried to explain everything as simply as possible.

One of my friends bought a flash drive, formatted it into the NTFS file system, then threw files from the Windows 10 ISO image onto it and went to someone to install the system on new laptop, but nothing could be installed, because modern computers and laptops, the regular BIOS is replaced by the UEFI interface, and this standard can only be booted from media formatted in the FAT32 file system. I explained everything to him over the phone, and the second time the flash drive was formatted in FAT32, then the Win 10 files were copied onto it, and finally I was able to install the system from it on a new laptop.

The next day, my friend again installed Windows 10 for someone from this flash drive, but on a simple one. desktop computer, and again nothing worked out for him. The question is why?

Friends, the thing is that the flash drive was new and there was no active partition on it. The peculiarity of the UEFI BIOS is that if there are Windows 10 files on a FAT32 flash drive (without an active partition), then it will still boot from this flash drive and you can install Win 10.

If the UEFI interface is disabled on your laptop or you want to install with such Windows flash drives 10 per computer with regular BIOS, then nothing will work for you for the reason stated above - there is no active partition on the flash drive. My friend needed to format the flash drive to the FAT32 file system from the very beginning, copy Win 10 files to the flash drive, and make the flash drive active in the command line using a couple of commands. Such a flash drive would be universal and you could install Win 10 from it on any computer or laptop, with or without UEFI. How to do it!

Note: If you have been using your flash drive for a long time, you probably made it bootable using WinSetupFromUSB, Rufus and the like, and installed operating systems from it, which means it already has an active partition (it cannot be deleted by simple formatting).

You can check if there is an active partition on the flash drive by running the program , in the top field select the flash drive, click on the button Bootice

Choose our flash drive

Click on the button Parts Manage

If under the item Act. there is a letter A, which means the flash drive is active.

In principle, it’s not even necessary to check whether your flash drive is active or not, just make it active in the command line and that’s it (the flash drive won’t get any worse).

For example, you have a new or not quite flash drive and you want to install Windows 10 from it on other computers.

You can install Windows 10 from any media that has the Windows installation program on it. The storage medium can be a USB flash drive that meets the parameters described below in the article. You can turn a regular flash drive into an installation drive using third-party programs or the official application from Microsoft.

Preparation and characteristics of the flash drive

Preparing a flash drive

The flash drive you choose must be formatted before you begin placing the installation software on it:

Second formatting method

There is another way to format a flash drive - through the command line. Expand the command prompt using administrator rights, and then run the following commands:

Enter one by one: diskpart and list disk to see all the disks available on the PC.
To select a disk, write: select disk No., where No. is the disk number specified in the list.
clean.
create partition primary.
select partition 1.
active.
format fs=FAT32 QUICK.
assign.
exit.

Obtaining an ISO image of the operating system

https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10).
Select OS language, version and bit depth. You should choose the version based on your needs. If you are an average user who does not work with Windows at a professional or corporate level, then install the home version; there is no point in taking more sophisticated options. The bit depth is set to the one supported by your processor. If it is dual-core, then choose the 64x format; if it is single-core, then choose 32x.
When prompted to select media, check the ISO file option.
Specify where to save the system image. Done, the flash drive is prepared, the image is created, you can start creating the installation media.

Creating installation media from a USB flash drive

The easiest method can be used if your computer supports UEFI mode - a newer BIOS version. Typically, if the BIOS opens as a menu, then it supports UEFI. You can also find out whether your motherboard supports this mode or not on the website of the company that made it.

Insert the USB flash drive into the computer and only then start rebooting it.
As soon as the computer turns off and the startup process begins, you need to enter the BIOS. Most often, the Delete key is used for this, but other options are possible, depending on the model of motherboard installed on your PC. When the time comes to enter the BIOS, a prompt with hot keys will appear at the bottom of the screen.
Change the boot order: by default, the computer starts from the hard drive if it finds the OS on it, but you must install your UEFI: USB flash drive first. If the flash drive is displayed, but there is no UEFI signature, then this mode is not supported by your computer and this installation method is not suitable.
Save the changes you made to the BIOS and start your computer. If everything is done correctly, the OS installation process will begin.

If it turns out that your board is not suitable for installation via UEFI mode, then use one of the methods below to create universal installation media.

Media Creation Tool

Using the official utility Media Creation Tool can also create Windows installation media.

Go to the official Windows page 10 and download the installation program from Microsoft from it (https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10).
Run the downloaded program, read and agree to the standard license agreement.
Select the option to create installation media.
As described earlier, select the OS language, version and bit depth.
When prompted to select media, indicate that you want to use a USB device.
If several flash drives are connected to your computer, select the one you prepared in advance.
Wait until the program automatically creates installation media from your flash drive. After this, you will need to change the boot method in the BIOS (put the installation flash drive in the first place in the “Boot” section) and proceed to install the OS.

Using unofficial programs

Rufus

Rufus is a free program for creating bootable USB drives. It runs on Windows operating systems starting with Windows XP SP2.

Download and install the program from the developer’s official website: http://rufus.akeo.ie/?locale.
All program functions fit in one window. Specify the device to which the image will be written.
In the “File system” line, specify the FAT32 format, since this is what we formatted the flash drive in.
In the system interface type, set the option for computers with BIOS and UEFI if you are sure that your computer does not support UEFI mode.
Specify the location of the pre-built system image and select a standard Windows installation.
Click on the “Start” button to start the installation media creation process. Done, after completing the procedure, change the boot method in the BIOS (in the “Boot” section you need to put the flash card in first place) and proceed to install the OS.

Ultra ISO

UltraISO is a very multifunctional program that allows you to create and work with images.

Buy or download a trial version, which is quite enough to complete our task, from the official website of the developer: https://ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/.
While in the main menu of the program, expand the “File” menu.
Select “Open” and specify the location of the pre-created image.
Select "Burn Hard Disk Image".
Specify which flash drive you want to use.
Leave the recording method as USB-HDD.
Click on the “Record” button and wait for the process to complete. After completing the procedure, change the boot method in the BIOS (put the installation flash drive in the first place in the “Boot” section) and proceed to installing the OS.

WinSetupFromUSB

WinSetupFromUSB is a utility for creating a bootable USB flash drive with the ability to install Windows, starting with version XP.

Is it possible to use MicroSD instead of a USB flash drive?

The answer is yes, you can. The process of creating an installation MicroSD is no different from the same process with a USB flash drive. The only thing is that you must make sure that your computer has a suitable MicroSD port. To create this type of installation media, it is better to use third-party programs described above in the article, rather than the official Microsoft utility, as it may not recognize MicroSD.

Errors during creation of the installation flash drive

The installation media creation process may be interrupted for the following reasons:

There is not enough memory on the drive - less than 4 GB. Find a flash drive with more memory and try again,
The flash drive is not formatted or formatted in the wrong format. Go through the formatting process again, carefully following the instructions above,
The Windows image recorded on the USB flash drive is damaged. Download another image, it is best to take it from the official Microsoft website,
if one of the methods described above does not work in your case, then use another option. If none of them work, then the problem is with the flash drive and should be replaced.

Video: creating an installation flash drive with Windows 10

Creating installation media is an easy process and is mostly done automatically. If you use a working flash drive, a high-quality system image and use the instructions correctly, then everything will work out, and after restarting the computer you can begin installing Windows 10. If after installation is complete you want to save the installation flash drive, then do not move any files to it, then can be used again.

Every year laptops become thinner, more compact and lighter. However, for the sake of convenience and beauty, most current models are not equipped DVD drive mi, but on a stationary computer it can simply break down.

We are used to downloading all the programs and movies we need from the Internet. But what to do if there are problems with the operating system? Indeed, in most cases, serious and critical problems can be solved only by reinstalling it. Or simply, many people love Windows 7 much more than Windows 8; this OS is now installed on all laptops by default.
Don’t buy an external DVD drive for a one-time task like reinstalling the system.

The solution to this problem is to create a bootable USB flash drive. Such a flash drive, unlike a boot disk, has its own advantages, such as protection from mechanical damage and small size.

In this article we will look at the three most common techniques for creating a bootable USB flash drive.

Before you turn a flash drive into a bootable one, you need to format it

For recording Windows versions 7, 8, 8.1, you need a flash drive with a minimum capacity of 4 GB and formatted in FAT32. You can format it in Explorer - “My Computer” by right-clicking on the flash drive and selecting “Format”. In the “File system” field, specify FAT32 (default).
Of course, you can choose the NTFS format, but there is a high probability that the motherboard BIOS simply will not see such a flash drive, for example, UEFI BIOS sees only FAT32. And don't worry about the fact that FAT32 doesn't support files larger than 4 GB, because Windows installer there is not a single file even close to this size.

Important! All files stored on the flash drive will be erased, so if there is anything important on it, it is better to make copies.

The UltraISO program is specialized for working with disk images; it allows you to both edit and create them from scratch. The program itself is paid, but there is a 30-day trial period, with a limit on the image file size of 300 MB.

In this example, we will try to make a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 8.1. In the same way, it will be possible to make flash drives with any other operating systems, for example Linux.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive in UltraISO

To ensure that the program has all the necessary rights and capabilities to work, run it with administrator rights by right-clicking on the program shortcut and context menu selecting "Run as administrator".

Program interface

In the program that opens top panel Click on “File”, in the drop-down context menu click on “Open...”. An explorer window will open where you will need to select the image of the operating system itself in ISO format. A bootable flash drive will be made from it.

Choice ISO image

In the upper right window of the program will appear ISO file the system image that we opened.

After the flash drive is inserted into USB port, in the UltraISO program on the top panel, click on “Bootboot”, in the drop-down context menu select “Burn Hard Disk Image...”

“Write Disk Image” will open. Check that you have selected the correct flash drive in the “Disk Drive” field. The “Recording method” field should be “USB-HDD+”, check the attached screenshot.

Click to enlarge

If you have formatted the flash drive in advance, then there is no point in clicking on the “Format” button; go straight to recording by clicking on the “Record” button.

The writing speed of a bootable flash drive will depend both on the speed of your computer and on the speed of the flash drive itself.

Bootable USB flash drive is ready!

That's it, now UltraISO program You can close it, we won’t return to it. After that, go to Explorer and check whether the image was written to the flash drive. By opening the flash drive, you can make sure that everything went perfectly.

How to make a bootable USB flash drive using Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Program interface

A utility officially presented by Microsoft for creating bootable disk images, the only drawback of which is the inability to burn a homemade Windows distribution. Despite the fact that only Windows 7 is listed in the program name, the program perfectly creates Windows images 8 and 8.1.

The whole process takes 4 steps:

It is better to format the flash drive first.
Open the program as “administrator” and click on the “Browse” button (here you need to select the system image that we want to turn into a bootable USB flash drive). Click on “Next”.
In the next window you need to select the media type - “USB device”.
Next, you need to select a flash drive for recording. And finally click on “Begin copying”.

If there are any files on the flash drive, the program will offer to clean it, but if not, then the process of formatting and copying all the necessary files will begin.

Important! If you formatted the flash drive in FAT32 format in advance, the program will in any case reformat it to NTFS. As stated above, such flash drives may not be visible to some BIOS versions.

The flash drive is ready

After such a message appears, it means the bootable flash drive is ready, you can check whether the files have been recorded in Explorer.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive using the Windows command line

This method may seem quite complicated, but I will try to analyze it in as much detail as possible. As in the previous two methods, first delete all information from the flash drive.

Press the “Win+R” keys on your keyboard simultaneously and enter the “CMD” command (without quotes) in the dialog box. The command line will launch.

I have highlighted all the commands that will need to be entered in bold, they are entered without quotes.

1. Immediately after the command prompt is launched, enter "diskpart" and press "Enter". An interpreter will appear that allows you to manage all disks, partitions and volumes.

Interpreter interface

2. To display a list of all devices, enter "list disk". Determining where our flash drive is is quite simple, firstly, all connected devices are shown at the end, secondly, we previously cleared it of all files and a zero will be shown in the “Free” column, thirdly, the size of my flash drive is approximately 8 GB, so we conclude that the flash drive from which we will make a bootable one is number 6.

3. Select our flash drive by entering the command "select disk 6", instead of “6” you enter the number of your flash drive.

4. Immediately enter the command "clean" so that the flash drive is 100% cleared.

Click to enlarge

6. Now let's format the disk again using the command "format fs=fat32" or "format fs=NTFS". To make formatting quick, add the word “quick” to the end of the command, for example, so it looks like this: "format fs=fat32 quick". After formatting is completed, the message “Diskpart successfully formatted the volume” will appear.

7. After this there won't be much left, enter "assign", to assign a drive letter. At this point we finish working with the command line and enter the last command - "Exit". That's it, you can safely close the command line.

Click to enlarge

The last step is to unzip the ISO disk image with the operating system onto a flash drive, for example with a program.

ISO image opened in WinRAR

How to boot from a bootable USB flash drive

So that the installation of the operating system starts from a bootable USB flash drive, in BIOS settings you should select boot priority from USB storage. Different motherboards have their own BIOS version, so see how to do this in the user manual.

For example, this is how it looks in the BIOS on motherboard ASUS:

Click to enlarge

Finally

As you can see, creating a bootable USB flash drive is quite simple. It will never be superfluous to have one in stock; no one is insured against breakdowns of the DVD drive and the disc itself, and a system image recorded on a flash drive can always come in handy.

tell friends