ISO to USB flash drive, what software

Shootist said:

........ISO is perfectly clean. Used REAL XP, Win 7 CD/DVD. Used the MS tool to load both Win 7 on this same thumb drive and Win 7+SP1 Slipstreamed on another thumb drive. Both booted and loaded files just fine. Don't remember the errors. I'll still use it to make utility thumb.

The latest version of YUMI (Your Universal Multiboot Installer) is 0.0.1.1 dated 14 April 2011. Please have a look at the known issues. An extract below:

* When installing Windows 7 or Vista from USB, you must unplug the USB device before the first restart, otherwise you will receive an error stating:
"windows setup could not configure windows to run on this computer's hardware"

As I had stated in a related post earlier, this program is being constantly updated. Anyone using it is well advised to go through the known issues and workaround suggested, if any. Also I have not tested it for all the ISOs in its list. Definitely I will do a Win 7 install and report when I get back to India.( I do not want to experiment it on my new Dell lappie here.:))

IMO, any issues may get resolved in future updates. I have also noted that the new version offers to FAT32 format the pendrive, if you so choose.

Night Hawk said:

.....It was intended for Linux to be able to load various distros or installers for various programs. Windows installers on the other hand are a bit more fussy and tend to be stabd alone type installers to start with.

And one other thing to add is that when giving this a look here with several iso images not one is visible browsing to the folder locations for both Linux and a slipstreamed 7 iso. When GParted was selected I went to a folder holding several releases and none were seen. Not a reliable tool it seems.( see attached)

The only mention of Windows is the XP, Vista, and 7 is requirement to use Windows to create a multi distro stick not to multiply Windows installers. The "other OSs" references refers to the various distros and other UNIX based OSs.

It also depends on what you are going to be using the flash drive for which was only for Win PE. If your flash has already been made bootable another option is simply placing the contents onto the flash drive and boot live from it.

For a fast write of an iso and seeing the drive made bootable in one shot UltraISO has been working fine for a variety of projects so far.

a) The recent updated version puts the bootable ISOs in the list under six categories. 1.Linux Distributions 2. Netbook distributions 3. Antivirus tools 4. System Tools 5. Other OS/Tools (in which Windows Vista/7 Installation is listed) and 6. Bootable ISOs (in which Try an unlisted ISO and Try an Unlisted ISO (from memory) are listed)

So your perception (as I have understood or misunderstood :) ) that it is only for Linux distributions and not for any other bootable ISO is not correct. Neither do "Other OS" refer to various distros or other UNIX based OSs only.

b) The program itself does not carry the listed ISOs in its belly. If you do not have it already, and in all cases where the ISO can be downloaded from the web, when you select one from the list and check "Download the ISO", it will take you to the link from which you have to download it. Then show its path for it to create the bootable pendrive. Before penning this, I selected GParted from the list, downloaded it from the link, showed its path and created a new Bootable pendrive. I also booted from the pendrive, ran Gparted and had a look at my lappie's four partitions. Gparted is a Linux program and you will only see a Gparted folder with the program contents on the mutiboot pendrive with the ISO remaining wherever you downloaded it.

Please do try any unlisted bootable ISO (non-linux) yourself and confirm whether it works or not. It does not take more than half an hour.(mostly the ISO download time )

My Multiboot pendrive (created way back with earlier version) has two versions of ShadowProtect WinPE recovery CD ISOs, two versions of Paragon WinPE based recovery CD ISOs, one WinPE based Acronis True Image 11 Recovery CD ISO and Parted Magic ISO and I had run all of them successfully from that one pendrive.

c) I do have the licensed UltraISO but to my knowledge each bootable ISO will require one pendrive. Please do correct me if I am wrong and tell me how to create a multiboot pendrive. I do not want suggestions but tried-out solutions.

If you run through my thread Say "No" to burning bootable CDs, DVDs from ISOs each of the three methods enumerated therein (including the one using UltraISO) were tried out and confirmed to be successful for whatever it is worth.

Shootist said:

Only problem is you can only have one version of "Windows" on any one thumb.

That's not any surprize. I was mentioning before the Windows installer is more of a stand alone act for each version.

Have you tried writing the Win PE iso with UltraISO yet to see if that will work? The other option seen in Bootable is the ability to create bootable images from optical media.

That will be quite a bit smaller in size then the integrated 64bit 7 iso for example and shouldn't see any problem.

This is the simple and direct way of getting the ISO to boot from USB.
This project is best down with a USB Stick of max 2G.

I make no guarantees as to what could happen if you do things incorrectly, not limited to, blowing away your OS and Data.

Download the following,,,,,

Grub4DOS - Get grub4dos-0.4.4.zip
Grubinst 1.0.1 - Get grubinst_1.0.1_bin_win.zip


Format the USB Drive as FAT32
You can try NTFS and see if it works. It should. And you will be able to use a larger drive.

From a Command prompt type the following
MAKE SURE YOU GET THE DRIVE LETTER RIGHT

Code:

format <drive letter>: /FS:FAT32

ex. format H: /FS:FAT32



To install GRUB4DOS:
Download latest Grub4DOS and Grubinst package and extract contents to separate temporary/permanent locations.
Go to those directories

Run grubinst_gui.exe

Be sure to select the right disk (in my case it is hd2, it will probably be different
on other system setups), otherwise you might damage your system or other disk’s boot sector!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

You should be able to right click Computer / Manage / Disk Management
Find your disk and it should be Disk 1 or 2 or something. That should equal hd1 and hd2.
hd0 should be the C: drive.

There is no need to check any boxes or do anything else with this tool.
Press install and then quit (the install is very quick)

Find the contents of grub4dos where you extracted them to
and copy only the files grldr and menu.lst into the root directory of the USB drive.

Put your WinPE.ISO in a folder called images on the root of the USB drive.

Add/Modify the following lines to menu.lst:

Code:

title WinPE
find --set-root /images/winpe.iso
map /images/winpe.iso (hd32)
map --hook
root (hd32)
chainloader (hd32)

Reboot and select your USB Device. It should boot into WinPE.