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Last edited by Ponmayilal; 15 Oct 2010 at 07:54.
Have been using memory sticks for this type of thing for some time now.
Found this very good app from Corsair, makes it very easy.
Liberkey has a lot of non-bootable apps, with the Corsair app you can add any ISO, edit the menu and you can have hundreds of bootable apps on one memory stick.
Mine has over 300 on it now.
It's quick and easy to do, you can add many helpful apps to the bootable memory stick.
The Seven forums tuts are good.
MS-DOS Bootable Flash Drive - Create
Install Windows 7 from USB Pen Drive Using Grub4Dos
Using the same source and Grub method mentioned above, the Corsair site has a nice version: How to Create the Ultimate Bootable USB Flash Drive.
After the bootable USB memory stick is prepared just add the program ISO file and do a quick edit of the menu, you'll have a menu list to choose from when you boot from it.Select the utility you wish to use and it will be loaded. The versatility of this tool is apparent once you begin to use it. The two default utilities, Memtest86+ and FreeDOS, are invaluable during system builds and trouble shooting.
Your flash drive can become a virtual toolbox of utilities that you can carry in your pocket as opposed to carrying archaic floppy disks or bulky CDs and DVDs. You also have the option of far greater storage capacity when using a USB flash drive. Your USB flash drive will still be fully functional as a removable storage drive. This is a great tool for testing memory or running programs from a DOS prompt such as firmware or BIOS updaters. The only real limits are the drive size and your creativity.
I added LiberKey (listed in FREE Great Programs for Windows 7) to mine, it has a lot of good support apps (305 applications) and a nice interface, not bootable but very nice selection of support programs.
You can add ISO files, edit the menu so they are listed.
Add any files/folders and still use you USB memory stick as you would normally.
If you want to write an ISO to a pen drive. Do a search for "Universal-USB-Installer". It writes ISO"s to a pen drive makeing it bootable. I found a version at Ubuntu 10.10 site.
I think it depends completely of what you want to do with the .iso. If, e.g., you want to install it on a virtual machine, it is usually better to keep the .iso in the system and load it directly from there. However, if you need a data recovery option because your system is on the blink, a bootable CD of a Linux distro may be handy. The same for programs like Partition Wizard.
Thanks to Dave76 for his valuable inputs, I completed my trials with Multiboot pendrive today.
I used Multiboot ISOs-USB-Creator 2.1.3.5 from here . The advantage is that the menu includes Boot First Hard Drive (HDD), Restart and Shutdown options apart from the Custom Multiboot entries.
The screenshots:
And thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.
I personally use the grub4dos method after creating a custom ISO with a driver folder added for just about every windows 7 install to older machines and custom builds.. It has saved me hundreds of hours in the past few months, and the process has gotten much quicker as I go.. and all it cost me was $52 for the retail version of poweriso and an 8GB flash drive.
Bless you both, Ponmayilal and Dave76!! I have been looking for easy solutions for both bootable Pendrives and ISO's from HDD for a long time. In particular I want extremely flexible options for adding bootable ISO's to both places without a lot of command line annoyance.
As for booting ISO's without burning them to CD or even writing to USB, this is extremely handy and I don't know why everyone is not talking about it. With this option you basically have limitless OS options without having to install anything, and without extra partitions! I can simply treat any bootable ISO as another OS. (Great for defragmenting or virus scanning... and especially for telling Win7 who's boss.)
Having an easily customizable boot menu for the huge USB sticks that are available now (including your phone's micro SD card!) is a God-send. So tired of needing to reformat my USB drive for every new set of tools. Why can't I have them all in one, portable place? Now I can!
Thank you both very much. I'll report back what works best.
Your welcome, glad you found the information useful.
It is a very useful way to use ISO's. Took some searching and trials to find a couple of easy to use options.
Hopefully some easier ones will be found soon
Glad that you found the answers to all your queries here in this thread and thanks for your appreciation.
This thread meandered through various stages before culminating in the multiboot ISO pendrive with inputs and comments from many heads here.
First, it was booting from ISOs stored in the HDD using EasyBCD.
Bill2 then provoked me for good ...*chuckles*
It then went on to writing a bootable ISO into a pendrive using UltraISO.
Out came the comment that there are only cases that can hold a maximum of six pendrives. :) (hmmm... each bootable ISO will require a pendrive)
Then came the multiboot ISO pendrive that can boot from as many ISOs as you can put or fit into the pendrive. The "breakthrough" here came from Dave76. I wonder whether even Dave76 knows what it was. Here it is.
Yes, though I had this program on my comp for over six months, the noob I was or still am, I had assumed that it will work only with the ISOs listed by the software author.*chuckles again*
That one line and a great leap for me. ( I thankfully remember Neil Armstrong. )
So then, here you have all that you need ( a three-in-one) as per your convenience and need, to boot from ISOs without writing them to any optical media.
Last edited by Ponmayilal; 31 Dec 2010 at 13:19.