If you have a bootable optical disk (CD/DVD) or have a backup of a bootable disk on your hard drive you can easily make a bootable USB from it. Just follow these simple steps and you will be booting your system in no time.
Step 1
First of all quick format your USB drive using NTFS (if you are planning to use it for Windows Vista, Windows 7) or FAT 32 for old systems like Windows XP. Don’t forget to backup data from your USB before formatting.
NOTE: You USB drive capacity should be more than the size of the software you want to make bootable.
Step 2
Insert the CD/DVD in you ROM. If you have image of the disk in ISO or any other format load it to your virtual drive. If you have the backup on your drive locate its path. All of these can work!
Step 3
Open command prompt. If you care using Windows Vista or 7 run it as administrator. You can search it by typing “command” without quotes in the Start Search area of the start menu. When you see the Command Prompt shortcut right click and click “Run as Administrator”
Step 4
In the command prompt issue the following command:
xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\
“d” is the drive containing the backup of the software. If the backup in in sub folder and not in root of d: then you will have to type the full path.
“e” is the destination USB drive that you want to make bootable.
After you press enter files will be automatically copied to your USB drive making it bootable!
Step 5
Restart you system. You will be provided an option to booth from USB. Enjoy!
I have tested the above procedure of following operating systems and is working flawlessly:
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
- Windows 7
- Windows 8
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 10
- Notron Ghost 12
Theoretically the process should work for all bootable software.
NOTE: If you are unable to see the option to boot from USB drive then you may need to check two things. Make sure “Boot from USB” is enabled in your BIOS setup. Also check your boot priority, USB should have higher boot priority than your disk drive.