How to record "Windu" on a USB flash drive? The program for writing Windows to a USB flash drive

Probably, any computer user has repeatedly faced the problem of reinstalling software and the operating system. Despite the fact that the development of technology has given us devices such as laptops, netbooks and tablets - reinstalling Windows still remains relevant and takes on new features.

Features of modern computers

On devices of new models, simply no drive is available, and the user is faced with a difficult task: he not only needs a program to write Windows to a USB flash drive, but also knowledge on how to do this. Today, the way to install the operating system from a flash drive is becoming increasingly popular. To do this, just find a roomy flash drive (for Windows XP it will take about 2.5 GB of disk space, and for Windows 7 - about 7 GB), burn the Windows image to the USB flash drive using special software, make it bootable and follow the installation instructions.

How to get the Windows operating system?

Before you begin to understand the question of how to write "Windu" to a USB flash drive, each user, first of all, must choose the drive of the required size and the corresponding release of the operating system.

You can become a Windows owner in several ways:

1. Buy a software disc at a point of sale or a computer hardware store that has permission to ship Windows operating systems. All of them are necessarily marked, and their owner is given a special sticker with a serial number, which must be placed on the system unit of the computer or the back panel of any device: laptop, netbook or tablet.
2. Download software from one of the many torrents on the Internet. However, this method is unlawful, and the owner of the computer on which the pirated copy of Windows is installed can be held liable at the first check of his computer.

How to record "Windu" on a USB flash drive? Ways

After you have acquired your own copy of the Windows operating system, you will need a reliable way to save its image and write it to a flash drive. In addition, this flash drive will definitely need to be made bootable. Otherwise, all the manipulations can be considered meaningless, because you need to install the operating system, and not just transfer files from the computer to another storage medium.

Popular programs to create a bootable flash drive

To create a full bootable USB flash drive, which will be visible during the reboot of your computer’s operating system, and installing Windows from it, you must use one of the following programs:

• DirectGRUB.
• GRUB4DOS.
• UltraISO.

With their help, you can record the image of "Windows" on a USB flash drive and properly prepare it for installation. Working with each of these programs differs in some nuances, which we will discuss later. However, each of them allows you to create a complete boot device that easily fits in your pocket and is able to install a new operating system in minutes.

DirectGrub: alternate Windows entry

How to write "Windu" to a USB flash drive using DirectGRUB? This process is quite simple and does not require specialized knowledge and skills in information technology. Any person can cope with this task. To do this, he just needs to follow the following instructions:

1. Download the DirectGrub program.
2. Download or create a Windows image from an existing drive.
3. Burn Windu to a USB flash drive. To do this, select the image in the program and click the "start" button to start the process. The program will automatically create a bootable USB flash drive and place on it all the data necessary for installing the operating system.
4. To start the installation, you need to go to the boot menu of the computer and select the priority of the boot from the flash drive.
5. After the download starts, a special Grub-menu will appear on the screen, where you will need to select the very first line and start the installation.
6. Important! After the text phase of the installation of the operating system ends and the computer requires a reboot, you should boot from the flash drive again and select the same item. After that, do not press any keys until the computer boots up.

Recording with GRUB4DOS

For this method, we need several software products, namely: HPUSBFW, with which it will be formatted, and the GRUB4DOS bootloader, which will help in installing the operating system. How to write "Windu" to a USB flash drive if all the necessary applications are already installed? Once you have found the necessary software, you need to follow the following instructions:

1. We format the flash drive in the required format: FAT32 for WinXP and NTSF for future versions.
2. We start GRUB4DOS, select our flash drive as the device in it and click the “Eject” button. After that, the program will create the C: / Program Files / WINGRUB / section, install into it and create its own shortcut on the desktop. In addition, it will add all the bootloader files to our flash drive. After that, the program will start automatically.
3. In the launched GRUB4DOS we find the line Disk and select our drive as the target for installation. You should carefully select the drive, focusing on its size, since for some reason the program does not write the drive letter.
4. A console window will open in which you need to press the Enter button, after which you will only have to configure the bootloader correctly.
5. To set it up correctly, we will trick our computer a bit by making it believe that our drive is a floppy disk. The boot disk image can usually be found in the same place as the Windows image.
6. After that, just copy all the necessary images to our flash drive, restart the computer and install any version of Windows.

UltraISO Software

How to write "Windu" to a USB flash drive using this program? UltraISO is an excellent application with which you can write an image to a USB drive and make it bootable. Despite the fact that this program is paid, its free features are quite enough for our needs. To create a bootable USB flash drive and install the operating system from it, you will need to perform the following steps:

1. First, open the previously created image in the UltraISO program.
2. We select the menu item "Self-loading" and in it the sub-item "Burn image".
3. In this subclause, it is necessary to carefully check all recording parameters, namely: a USB flash drive and an image.
4. We select the method of recording the USB-HDD image, but do not check the Create Boot Partition checkbox.
5. Click the "Record" button.

Now you just need to wait until the process of transferring data and placing it on a flash drive is over. After that, you can restart the computer, select the boot from the USB flash drive in the boot menu and install the latest version of the operating system.

Advantages and disadvantages of installing Windows with USB

Now we know how to write Windows to a USB flash drive and can consider all the advantages of installing an operating system in a similar way:

1. Very fast installation process. All modern flash drives have high rates of reading and writing information, which reduces the time of the entire process by several times.
2. High reliability. Unlike a traditional CD, which can be mechanically damaged very simply, the flash drive is not afraid of scratches and scuffs. In addition, it simply cannot break inside the drive.
3. Very comfortably. The flash drive is small and has a rectangular shape, it is easy to hide it in your pocket, unlike a bulky CD.
4. Compatibility. Unfortunately, on very old computers, the method of installing the operating system from a USB flash drive will not work, but they are most often equipped with optical drives. However, such a device may not be available on netbooks, and a flash drive will not only help with installing the software, but also save money on buying a drive.