Michael Y from forum has reminded me about booting computer using USB flash drive. I’ve heard about that long ago and I know it’s possible but then I’ve never tried it myself. That’s because so far I’ve been fixing computers that has a working CD/DVD-Rom. Even IF there is a non functional CD/DVD-ROM, I can dismantle a working CD/DVD-ROM from another computer. However, I figured that it’s good to learn and know how to make your USB flash drive bootable. You can boot up Hiren’s BootCD from USB flash drive, install Windows using USB flash drive and even resetting Windows account password using Windows Key. See how useful it is to know how to make your USB flash drive bootable?
We all know that we can use floppy drive and CD/DVD to boot up your computer. There are also ISO files that contains boot image that when you burn it with Nero, the media disc will be bootable.
Here are some question that I ask myself before starting to do research on how to make a USB flash drive bootable.
1. Is it possible to copy floppy boot image to USB flash drive?
2. Is it possible to copy CD/DVD boot image to USB flash drive?
3. Is it possible to extract boot image from ISO files and write it to USB flash drive?
4. How to configure BIOS to boot with USB flash drive?
5. Can all USB flash drive be made bootable?
I am glad to have found all the answers to the question above.
1. Is it possible to copy floppy boot image to USB flash drive?
It is possible possible to copy floppy boot image to a USB flash drive by using BootDisk2BootStick. Just select the source (floppy) and destination (USB flash drive) and click the Start button.
2. Is it possible to copy CD/DVD boot image to USB flash drive?
It is possible but not with BootDisk2BootStick because it doesn’t support CD/DVD. You need to extract the boot image from the CD/DVD first, and then write the boot image that you’ve extracted to the USB flash drive.
- Extract boot image from CD/DVD using BBIE by Bart Lagerweij
Command to extract CD/DVD boot image using BBIE is “bbie D:” without the quotes and assuming D: is your CD/DVD drive.
[ Download BBIE ]
- Write the extracted boot image from CD/DVD to USB flash drive using MKBT by Bart Lagerweij
Command to write boot image file to USB flash drive is “MKBT -x image1.bin e:” without the quotes. image1.bin is the filename of the boot image and e: is the drive letter of your USB flash drive.
[ Download MKBT ]
3. Is it possible to extract boot image from ISO files and write it to USB flash drive?
Yes it is possible. The steps to extract boot image from ISO file is very similar to the answer on question number 2.
Use BBIE to extract boot image from ISO with the command “bbie filename.iso“. Then write the boot image to USB flash drive using MKBT with the command “mkbt -x image1.bin e:“
4. How to configure BIOS to boot with USB flash drive?
Different BIOS has different way to setting your USB flash drive as a boot device. If your system can’t support it, try checking for BIOS update. Also, not all computers can get in to BIOS by pressing the “Del” key. Some are F2 and some are F10. If you’re unsure, it will be displayed on the screen during the initial boot of a computer. If it’s too fast, you can hit the Pause/Break key.
For computer that uses AMI BIOS.
Option 1;
Go to “Feature Setup” and enable these options: “USB Function Support”, “USB Function For DOS” and “ThumbDrive for DOS”.
Go to “Advanced Setup” and set the “1st Boot Device” to “USB RMD-FDD”.
Reboot the PC and it now should boot from the USB flash drive.
Option 2;
Go to “USB Mass Storage Device Configuration”, select “Emulation Type” and set it to “Harddisk”.
Go to the “Boot Menu” and set the “1st boot device” to “USB-Stick”.
No you can exit the BIOS, saving the changes. If this does not seem to work, then you can try (it sometimes seems to work) setting the “Emulation Type” value to “Floppy” or “Forced FDD”.
For computer that uses PHOENIX/AWARD BIOS.
Go to “Advanced BIOS Features”, then to the “1st Boot device” and set it to “USB-ZIP”.
Some newer motherboard supports Boot Order by pressing the F8 (keys might vary). I have a MSI 945P Platinum board and it is using Phoenix BIOS, Revision 6. At first I wasn’t able to boot up my USB flash drive but later I found out that I need to go to the Boot Order screen and select “Hard Disk” and hit enter. It will then give me a list of Hard Drives. My Kingston USB flash drive is listed as USB-HDD0.
For computer that uses Generic BIOS.
If your BIOS is not in the list above, or the settings do not seem to work with your PC, then you can try this:
- Go into the BIOS
- Go to the page that determines the boot order (usually called “Advanced Setup”, “Boot options”, or “Feature Setup”)
- Try all USB drive variants. Start with “USB ZIP”, then “USB FDD”, “USB HDD “, etc.
5. Can all USB flash drive be made bootable?
I don’t have a 100% sure answer for this question but I’ve tested it on 3 different types of USB flash drives and all can be made bootable. The brands are Kingston, PenDrive and Corsair. In my opinion, you should be more concern about whether your motherboard supports booting from USB flash drive rather than having a USB flash drive that can boot.
You can test your USB flash drive whether it is bootable or not by using a memory testing tool called USBTest created by PenDriveLinux. Just download, extract the files to your USB flash drive and run makeboot.bat. Configure your BIOS to boot up with the USB flash drive. If you see a white background with a USB connector picture and some text that says “The installed program can be used to check your system memory for problems…”, that means your USB flash drive is bootable and your system is capable of booting from a USB flash drive.
This concludes my research on making USB flash drive bootable. Michael Y’s question was he wanted to reset Windows password using DreamPack_PL but his CD/DVD drive is not working. I’ve tried to extract DreamPack_PL boot image and write it to my USB flash drive but it couldn’t be booted up while I have no problems with other ISO. There might be something wrong or different with DreamPack_PL’s boot image that is causing BBIE not to extract the boot image properly. A better tool to reset Windows user account password is Windows Key. You can also load additional drivers to unlock SCSI/RAID/SATA hard drive which DreamPack_PL can’t do.
Windows Key Enterprise cost US$295 and I wonder who actually buys them? But Team ARN has already released a retail version and serial number (LostPassword.Passware.Kit.Enterprise.v8.1.2670.Retail-ARN) for Passware Kit which contains Windows Key Enterprise.
how to make or how to refile name the usb flash drive to window 7 ?
am what if my computer is not really capable of booting Flash disk….i mean in the Bios booting option Flash disk is really not included?
will it still be possible to make my computer to boot first my Flash Disk?
looking forward for your answer
To all the people having problems: You should try reading and UNDERSTANDING what the article says, maybe twice, before starting and then again if you run into problems. You should also get a clue about how to run a command line program before posting your absurd comments.
I’m back as I promise
I am having the same problem as pistonhonda:
I can use windows cmd to extract image with bbie fine but when i try to make my flash drive bootable with mkbt I get the following message:
“Drive E: not supported, only floppy drives are supported”
any help as to what I am doing wrong?
Thanks for this tip, My DVD Drive not working and it was great headache for me before read your post. but you solved my problem, thanks again.
wot a lot of shite – useless info
i used mkbt with my pendrive and it killed my usb. so windows says that my pendrive has´nt format at all. can you help me?.
same problem as the ppl above me…i downloaded BBIE but when i double click it, it quickly flashes and disappears….when i try typing that in from a regular command prompt i get a message saying it is not recognized as an internal blah blah etc…. any help here?
wen i run bbie in cmd it displays as bbie is not recognised as an internal or external command,operable program or batch file……co doould u help me sir wat
when im running bbie in cmd it comes as bbie is not recognised as internal or external comand,opareble program or batch file…can u help me wat to do sir
Thanks for a ver good page!
estoy intentando bootear una iso desde mi pendrive pero cada ves q hago lo de la pregunta dos dice q mi pendrive pierde formato….no se q hacer….ayuda…!!!!
thanks to much and the information is so helpful and full so what i say?
thanks again and i wish you good luck and to read more article from you and to be helpful
thanks
I downloaded bbbi.exe But when i double click it appears and then closes in matter of second i try running cmd from run but its running pls help me how to get this solve as both of those softwares are not running
i use kingston flash Drive, When i start to boot on my PC it says: “Boot Failure” what will i do.
How about to install and boot full windows XP from USB STICK or USB HDD?
I have made one, and works fine, just the STICK version is a little slowly, but hey, what to espect from a stick?
Sorry for the moment work on english version of the page, check back sun, regards.
same errors try another prog
raymond,how to make a bootable USB flash drive?
thanks mate. helped me alot.
cheers.
All of \”copy CD/DVD boot image to USB flash drive\” don\’t works fine, only get a mesange \”usb drive not formatted\”
I have the same question that was posted a few times before – can I remove that boot sector from my usb without reformatting and erasing all the info on it?
While Use BBIE to extract boot image from ISO with the command “bbie filename.iso“. As per command given by by (c:\bbie d: ) D: drive is my CD\DVD drive but it is automatically it take floppy drive. i have tried with Bootable CD as well as ISO image both have same problem. Please see the below error code
1:\mode “Floppy Drive emulation 1.44 MV”. Sector is 40 Writing 720 Block to “image.bin”
While command as suggested mkbt -x image.bin j:
( J: is my Pen drive)received same error as below mentioned.
Exper mode (-X)
Opening “Image.bin (fir read) falled Tried 5 tunes)
Error code 0×2. The system connot find the file specified
HERE IS A BETTER PROGRAM QUICK AND EASY
datafilehost.com/download-288440e0.html
mkbt doens’t work say format needed. I think it corrupted the usb and no one in here ever got it to work in the first place…….
Hi , does it works with NTFS files too ?
is there any utility that i can use to boot from usb harddisk or usb keydrive
and from there i chose an iso file which represent a bootable cd or live cd.
this is very good utility if it work in bootable dos and windows at same time.
regards
hassan abass
Useful – thanks.
Older BIOS cannot boot from USB but only from floppy diskette.
Is there a way of making a floppy diskette which boots from floppy drive and then continues to boot from USB?
Can I use these step to make my external HDD bootable?
I mean, i want my external HDD is bootable, how to do it?
Thank you Raymond
I WANT TO MAKE MY PASSWORD PROTECTED PEN DRIVE.MEANS AFTER ATTACHED THE PEN DRIVE WITH PC ITS SHOWS PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD QUICKLY.PLEASE HELP ME SEND ANY INFORAMTION ON Y EAMIL ADDRESS PRADEEPSONI2020@GMAIL.COM
when i try to extract from an ISO and then make my jump drive bootable with mkbt.
i get “Drive E: not supported, only floppy drives are supported”
???
Hi.
My pendrive is named G:. The filesystem is FAT32.
This is what I get from the mkbt -x ….
Reading source boot sector from \”image1.bin\”
Checking Boot sector information
Reading target boot sector from \”\\\\.\\G:\”
Warning different filesystem ID
Writing boot sector back to \”\\\\.\\G:\”
I configured first boot device as USB-ZIP. After that, I tried to boot up the USB, but nothing happened, just Windows Xp started. I also tried pressing F8 and choosing USB_ZIP, but I got the same.
Any idea??
Is there already a sollution for this problem?
“>< It’s not working i keep getting a format request after using the mkbt to place the .bin on to the usb drive… please help me =(”
I have the same problem. Slipstreamed raid drivers in the xp installation with sp2 in it, made an iso from it with nlite and after that I try to make a bin file with bbie and put it on the flash drive with mkbt.
I’m using win xp x64′s cmd to execute the mkbt and bbie, also tried a xp 32 bit.
Tried putting the bbie files and mkbt files on the flash drive and tried with those files on my hardrive. In subdirectories and on the root of my c:.
Nothing of this all works.
My flash drive is bootable, tested that with the usb test.
I just want a win xp x64 cd with sp2 slisptreamed in it and my raid drivers, this should be able to work right?
after creating a image i got a message “mkbt is not recognized as internal and external command”
please any one help me
that was gr8 but now i want to know that what is the name of the xp service pack 2 installation file and where is it located in the xp cd and how can i copy it to other drive so that it works…
how to installed win xp /2000 suporat usb drivers.
Я просто охуеваю от перевода. На таком русском языке даже в притонах Гонконга не говорят…
Same here, format request, don’t know what to do since i followed all the steps…
>< It’s not working i keep getting a format request after using the mkbt to place the .bin on to the usb drive… please help me =(
okay….lemme put it this way.
I installed windows xp sp2, then later upgraded to sp3.
I did this by editing the drivers in the image and then inslling that on to the external hdd of western digital that i have.
everything went smooth through the installation but once it tries to come up in normal mode, the pagefile doesnt get created.
I know that USB doesnt support the pagefile.sys on external hdd, but that is something that i am trying to crack.
As part of my research, there is no internal hdd.
Lemme know if anyone comes up with anything.
You can find me at sandeepcheema1983
@hotmail.com
My bios will only only me to choose between 1DE 0, IDE 1, !DE 2, !DE 3, SCSI, ATAPI ZIP and CD ROM. Which would be the option to boot from a USB Drive? Thanks!
dear sir,
pls provide me the method to mount usb pen drive on red hat linux 8.
thanks & regards
durgesh mishra
pcs technology limited
I too have a Kingston flash drive and am having a “Disk not formated” error, any work-a-rounds or suggestions?
ya , reynolds is the best in the wold ! yup !
hey raymond, ineed ur help in cracking an account. can we commnicate through email. to sum it up, my mate , i feel is having affairs outside of our relationship, i am a new mom. i thought about getting a p.i. but why spend the dough when i can start my own investigation. his job sends him in and out of town, he is always online!?
Well I was able to burn the image on the flash driver; however, when i try to boot from the flash drive, I got “non-system disk or disk error.” what am i doing wrong?
Prince, make sure that MKBT is at the right location when you run it in command prompt.
when I use the MKBT command i got an error stating “MKBT is not recognised as a interanal or external command, operable program or batch file.”
hi,i also have the same problem as blurry and bryan. I extracted from winxp mce using the bbie command and got the image1.bin file. but after writing that to my kingston flash drive using the mkbt command the flash drive becomes un-formatted. any ideas? btw ur blog is totally cool and it has just the kind of information i want about computers.keep it up.
Hey, I have had the same problem with making a bootable jump drive as
blurry. Any ideas on what to fix it with? i want to install F8 off of it but i cant get it to boot because it wont format.
woopss…can`t make my kingston usb pen drive bootable. donno wats the problem. pendrive or me? ehe…
dis is wat i`ve done…
1st..extract my winxp iso image using bbie…
2nd…write image1.bin to my pen drive using mkbt…
but after dat…when i try to open my usb pen drive…windows said dat my usb drive not formatted?
wat shud i do?
@David Dionne
try qemu it works with usb stick, floppy, cd and hd images.
Qemu is for linux and windoz, it is very light and it doesn’t mess your winz registry.
Cheers
Stirner
I want to take a bootable dvd and load the image from it to a USB Flash Drive and boot off the flash drive. Is that possible?
really, how to remove that boot image? or maybe it is possibe to turn it off when you do not need it, and turn on etc.
Is it possible to transfer the floppy disk info created by the XP automated system recovery backup to the USB flash drive and use this instead of the floppy when performing an automated system recovery?
Thanks JW
hi raymond. i was just wondering how u can make your usb flash drive nonbootable or remove the boot from it. is there any way to get rid of it or remove the iso image that i burned to it?
Second question…
Does anyone know if there exists an aplication that can test the bootability of a usb key? I ask because it just takes SOOOO long to run through the bios to see if it boots.
For the last 2 or so months I have been trying to create a bootable RedHat Enterprise 5 USB Install key. The iso is about 3.4G and I’ve copied that to a 4GB USB key and I”ve tried the following without success:
1. FAT32, Syslinux
2. FAT32, GRUB
3. EXT2, Extlinux
4. EXT3, Extlinux
5. EXT2, GRUB
6. EXT3, GRUB
The DVD installer uses Isolinux to boot and I am pulling my hair out….I KNOW, KNOW!!! and I will just try mkbt on the ISO file, but I WANT TO GET THIS DAMN THING BOOTING ON MY OWN WITH GRUB OR SOME DERIVITIVE OF SYSLINUX ALSO.
I thought that VMServer would be a great way to test the bootability of USB devices but VMServer’s Guest’s BIOS do not appear to support USB booting (grrrrrrr)
EXCELLENT WORK!!
Does anyone know if the source to BBIE and MKBT are available and if so, where it might reside? If not, does anyone know if they have been ported to linux?
yea i got the bbie and mkbt working just as you showed in your example. what im doing is i am using both of your articles, this one with the bootable flash drive and also “Recover Windows Login password within minutes.” what i am doing is trying to instead of using a cd drive (or floppy drive as you show in your example), i am trying to boot from my flash drive on my school computer that i will use to recover the admin login passwords with (just for fun :p). so far i have writen the boot image to my flash drive. now i just have to wait till tomorrow to go to school and figure out how to configure the bios to boot from my flash drive. do you think if i can get it to boot from my flash drive that it will work and i will get the upload.txt on my flash drive and from that i can send to the website to decrypt the passwords?
Alex, you need to run Command Prompt first. Then from there you run bbie.exe
nvm i got it working.
i am having a problem running the bbie. i downloaded it and extracted both the files on there and ran the bbie.exe then a cmd looking thing flickers on my screen once and disappears. then i go into cmd and type in bbie and it says that it is not a recognizable command.
any help?
Toms Hardware provides how to boot the tiny version of windows using PEbuilder…
tomshardware.com/2005/09/09/windows_in_your_pocket/
I have INTEL D102GGC MDB, can i am able to boot computer using USB….
I want to knoe which BOIS does intel D10GGC comes with or to know it……….
i was so looking for this .thanks
Another way to extract any boot loader is by dd :
dd if=device of=file bs=ASinFormat count = 1 //By only one sector.
i heard that there is a limition to supported size of the USB (cant be too big and cant be too small)
Is this true?
it actually happened a few times well ,i needed or needed to know something really bad and just by typing Raymond.cc in my browser my answer was their. truly im on your site everyday and i mean everyday from your blogs which i read on a daily basis just keeps me coming back everyday which is great because i love your site its user friendly everything about it is awesome also i think you are the best blogger their is… :)
What a coincidence Nash ;)
After you’ve tried it, please let me know if it works for you.
thanx ray you wouldn’t believe i was trying to do this today…
thanx a lot.