Guide | How To How to install any version of Windows from one USB flash drive

[BoraMurdar]

With the advent of USB drives, our activities with CD/DVDs are also decreasing considerably. The same has happened to the process of installation of Windows. Earlier Windows setup mostly had a CD/DVD involved, but with the time we have moved to USB drives. Installing a Windows from a USB is okay, but have you ever considered installing multiple versions of Windows, like say, Windows 10, Windows 8,1 and Windows 7, from the same USB drive. Well, this tutorial is here to guide you on installing any version of Windows from one USB flash drive using a tool called WinSetupFromUSB.

Install any version of Windows from one USB flash drive
Things you’ll need:

• A USB drive
• ISO files for Windows
• WinSetupFromUSB
• A working Windows PC

Step 1: Download WinSetupFromUSB from here. Extract the downloaded file and run WinSetupFromUSB as per the architecture of your system (x64 or x86).

Step 2: Plug in your USB drive and ensure that there is enough free space or you can directly format the USB drive using WinSetupFromUSB. FAT32 file system is recommended for installing Windows from USB. Choose your USB drive according to the number of setups you want to add to the USB drive. For more than two setups it is recommended to have a USB drive of 16 GBs or more.

Step 3: Open WinSetupFromUSB and head to Advanced Options, and enable Custom menu names for Vista/7/8/Server Source. This option will let you add your own custom names to Windows 7/8/10 menus.

Step 4: Select your USB drive in WinSetupFromUSB and then select the versions of Windows that you want to add to the USB drive. You can add Windows ranging from Windows 2000/XP/2003 to Windows Vista/7/8/10.

Step 5: Locate the ISO files and hit the ‘Go’ button. The entire process will take a bit of time and will display a ‘Job Done’ message at the end.

Install multiple Windows versions using WinSetupFromUSB
To add more setups, repeat the process for more ISO files. For instance, I’ve added Windows 10 and Windows 7 to the USB drive. Since it cannot be done in one go, I added Windows 10 first and then added Windows 7 after the first job was complete.

Step 6: Now remove the USB drive and plug it into the computer where you want to install Windows. Go to the boot settings of the computer and boot from your USB drive and then select the desirable option from the list and you are good to go.

That is all you need to do!

In addition to Windows, you can also add Linux Distros to the same USB drive and do a lot more with WinSetupFromUSB.

Thanks to TheWindowsClub

 

[Deleted member 178]

Good catch , i was looking for a Rufus substitute.

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

Thank you, @BoraMurdar. I'm going to try it!!

Good catch , i was looking for a Rufus substitute.

Hi Umbra, I've started reading about Rufus after your mention of it above. I've not installed via USB Flash drive before, & wonder if you'd also recommend "Rufus" as another quality alternative?

 

[King Alpha]

@Cats-4_Owners-2 Rufus is a great program and it's very handy. I highly recommend it.

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

Thank you, @King Mellow!

Isn't it wonderful when a single thread grants us two noteworthy software?

 

[BoraMurdar]

Good catch , i was looking for a Rufus substitute.

Actually I still use Rufus if I want to make bootable USB with a single ISO on it. But if I want to create a multiboot USB , YUMI and WinSetupFromUSB are one of the best choices

 

[Deleted member 2913]

Can this guide be used to create multiple recovery tools like Win10 recovery, imaging software WinPE recovery, etc in one USB?

OR

Any good guide/software for the above mentioned purpose?

 

[BoraMurdar]

Can this guide be used to create multiple recovery tools like Windows 10 recovery, imaging software WinPE recovery, etc in one USB?

OR

Any good guide/software for the above mentioned purpose?

I use Yumi for those

 

[Deleted member 2913]

I use Yumi for those

I will look into it And if any query will post here.

 

[ant_gamal]

I use Yumi for those

So with that program can I add antivirus rescue or hairns cd or any like this

Also which better cd like hairns now available in web to search for

 

[BoraMurdar]

So with that program can I add antivirus rescue or hairns cd or any like this

Also which better cd like hairns now available in web to search for

Follow this topic
How-to Guide - BoraMurdar's Fix Tools

 

[Deleted member 2913]

Follow this topic
How-to Guide - BoraMurdar's Fix Tools

I checked the guide & successfully created EaseUS Todo Backup & FlashBack Recovery in a USB. I used "Try Unlisted ISO (GRUB)"
And successfully booted into both the above mentioned software recovery.

In the guide, you mention - "What if ISO image I want to boot, is not listed in YUMI falling window? Well, you can use last 3 options from a falling window

. That way, ISO will not be extracted on your USB, but YUMI will give a command that ISO you want to boot will be booted into memory [RAM] and extracted there. Note : example, if your system has 2GB of RAM, you cannot boot ISO image using this method that is larger than 2GB. You'll get an error "not enough memory for operation". I recommend you to use option "Try Unlisted ISO (GRUB)"

In your screenshot above, there are 3 options. Now there is a new option "Try Unlisted ISO (GRUB Partition 4)"
You still recommend "Try Unlisted ISO (GRUB)"?

 

[BoraMurdar]

In your screenshot above, there are 3 options. Now there is a new option "Try Unlisted ISO (GRUB Partition 4)"
You still recommend "Try Unlisted ISO (GRUB)"?

Yes, partition 4 will create a separate partition on your flash drive where some distros needs to collect boot information, I never encountered the need to use it. And correction, in a few latest builds, YUMI can handle ISO's bigger than 4GB therefore you can format your USB flash drive to NTFS (using a third party program, or Windows build in format tool), as FAT32 is limited to files no bigger than 4GB, Of course if someone has compatibility problems booting from NTFS so he/she needs to format in FAT32 in order for boot to work, YUMI will try to separate ISO's bigger than 4GB in two (or more) parts.

 

[Deleted member 2913]

BoraMurdar,

Is there Win 10 Recovery Only Download available i.e users can create "recovery drive" on USB on Win 10 BUT I mean ISO image of Win 10 Recovery Only?

 

[BoraMurdar]

BoraMurdar,

Is there Windows 10 Recovery Only Download available i.e users can create "recovery drive" on USB on Windows 10 BUT I mean ISO image of Windows 10 Recovery Only?

No, you can try to open the disc creation tool, press the Windows key, type recdisc, and press Enter, insert blank CD or DVD and burn it (I think UltraISO or PowerISO can emulate burning process in order to create the actual ISO file). If no, then burn it to a blank CD and create ISO from that CD which you can use for recovery later on.

 

[Deleted member 2913]

No, you can try to open the disc creation tool, press the Windows key, type recdisc, and press Enter, insert blank CD or DVD and burn it (I think UltraISO or PowerISO can emulate burning process in order to create the actual ISO file). If no, then burn it to a blank CD and create ISO from that CD which you can use for recovery later on.

I created "recovery drive" on USB on Win 10 And with CDBurnerXP I converted it to ISO And tried with YUMI with the options -
Try Unlisted ISO (GRUB) - Creation successful But on boot mentioned wrong format.
Multi OS 10/7..... - During creation error bootwim or something read only...
Multi OS 10/7....boot manager - During creation many errors.

 

[BoraMurdar]

I created "recovery drive" on USB on Windows 10 And with CDBurnerXP I converted it to ISO And tried with YUMI with the options -
Try Unlisted ISO (GRUB) - Creation successful But on boot mentioned wrong format.
Multi OS 10/7..... - During creation error bootwim or something read only...
Multi OS 10/7....boot manager - During creation many errors.

Creation of bootable ISO from a bootable USB is very difficult as :

When making a bootable ISO, you need to add the boot code separately (which is kept in a different location to the files). So you cannot just convert a bootable disk image into a bootable ISO without knowing what the bootloader code is and specifying the data that needs to go into the special position within the iso for the boot code. The boot code on a CD/DVD needs to load in the OS by reading sectors from a CD/DVD type of device, the boot code in your USB drives needs to read in sectors from a disk type device. CD 'sectors' are in 2048 byte chunks, most mass storage devices use 512 byte sectors (at least at the BIOS level). Some boot loaders will cope with either type of boot device, but the code still has to be added to the ISO file in the correct position which is a different position from where it would be in a disk image.


So it's better to burn recovery on CD and then make ISO from it, as it will keep the bootloader data on the same position. Or just use the whole Windows 10 Installation ISO to do a recovery process you need

 

[Deleted member 2913]

So it's better to burn recovery on CD and then make ISO from it, as it will keep the bootloader data on the same position.

I will try the above & update here...