Skip to main content

command line - Bootable USB flash drive from iso using windows CMD (I can't find the tutorial...)


In the begining of last year or the end of 2014 I learnt how to make a bootable flash drive from an .iso from a youtube video. I tried to find the video but I can't and it's not in my history.


The video was very simple; first it taught how to format the flash drive using DISKPART and that part I remember, what I don't remember is the last part. I remember it used the xcopy command with some options and the source and destination, the latest being the flash drive. As for the source I don't remember if it is the .iso file itself with some options that cause the files to be extracted the same way CD Burning software does or if it was something else. I don't remember what the options were neither, but I remember one of them was /f


I know the tutorial works because I tried it. The tutorial was very simple and quick and only used the cmd, no other software.


To sum up:



  1. Format the flashdrive to FAT32, assign it a letter...


  2. xcopy _some "options i don't remember" .iso_file flashdrive


    or




  3. xcopy "some options i don't remember" "something else?" flashdrive (I think it is the first option though)




I saw on some other tutorials that the .iso is mounted and then the files are copied using xcopy; I don't think that was what was in that tutorial. I may be mistaken, but I think that it used only xcopy to extract the files. Maybe there is some option for extracting the files of an .iso like that (if by "extracting the files of an .iso" I sound confusing, what I mean is that when you burn an iso to a cd or flashdrive what you see when you open that cd or flashdrive is several files and not the .iso file your burnt).


Can anyone help me?



Answer



You have two options available to you – in this case both are installing Windows onto a USB key and/or a USB hard drive ...


Format & create a bootable USB key using the CMD prompt & a .iso – from Windows 8.x or 10


I've emphasised the commands by using capitals.


USB KEY



  1. insert the USB key

  2. Open CMD         - as an Admin

  3. DISKPART

  4. LIST DISK         - Will display the disks available

  5. SELECT DISK *       - Will select the disk   ** Ensure you select the right disk **

  6. CLEAN

  7. CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

  8. SELECT PARTITION *    - The Nº of the partition that you wish to make primary

  9. ACTIVE           - Makes the selected partition active

  10. FORMAT FS=NTFS      - This will take approx. 10 minutes

  11. ASSIGN          - This will assign a drive letter (we'll believe that it is U:\)

  12. EXIT           - To leave "DiskPart"


Find your .iso and right-click to mount it as a virtual drive (we'll use V:\)



  1. XCOPY V:\*.* /s /e /f U:\ - Again it will take approx 10 minutes

  2. EXIT         - Once the copying has finished .. this will EXIT the CMD prompt window


The USB key is now bootable


USB Harddrive



  1. insert the USB key

  2. Open CMD         - as an Admin

  3. DISKPART

  4. LIST DISK         - Will display the disks available

  5. SELECT DISK *       - Will select the disk   ** Ensure you select the right disk **

  6. CLEAN

  7. CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

  8. SELECT PARTITION *    - The Nº of the partition that you want to be primary

  9. ACTIVE           - Makes the selected partition active

  10. FORMAT FS=NTFS      - This will take approx. 10 minutes

  11. ASSIGN          - This will assign a drive letter (again we'll say that it's U:\)

  12. EXIT           - To leave "DiskPart"


Find your .iso and right-click to mount it as a virtual drive (we'll use V:\)



  1. V:

  2. CD BOOT

  3. BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 U:

  4. XCOPY V:\*.* U:\ /E /F /H  - To copy the installation files


Once finished you will be able to boot from the external USB HD .. don't forget the boot options (F2 / F12, etc.)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

How do I transmit a single hexadecimal value serial data in PuTTY using an Alt code?

I am trying to sent a specific hexadecimal value across a serial COM port using PuTTY. Specifically, I want to send the hex codes 9C, B6, FC, and 8B. I have looked up the Alt codes for these and they are 156, 182, 252, and 139 respectively. However, whenever I input the Alt codes, a preceding hex value of C2 is sent before 9C, B6, and 8B so the values that are sent are C2 9C, C2 B6, and C2 8B. The value for FC is changed to C3 FC. Why are these values being placed before the hex value and why is FC being changed altogether? To me, it seems like there is a problem internally converting the Alt code to hex. Is there a way to directly input hex values without using Alt codes in PuTTY? Answer What you're seeing is just ordinary text character set conversion. As far as PuTTY is concerned, you are typing (and reading) text , not raw binary data, therefore it has to convert the text to bytes in whatever configured character set before sending it over the wire. In other words, when y...
Post a Comment
Read more

linux - Extract/save a mail attachment using bash

Using normal bash tools (ie, built-ins or commonly-available command-line tools), is it possible, and how to extract/save attachments on emails? For example, say I have a nightly report which arrives via email but is a zip archive of several log files. I want to save all those zips into a backup directory. How would I accomplish that? Answer If you're aiming for portability, beware that there are several different versions of mail(1) and mailx(1) . There's a POSIX mailx command, but with very few requirements. And none of the implementations I have seem to parse attachments anyway. You might have the mpack package . Its munpack command saves all parts of a MIME message into separate files, then all you have to do is save the interesting parts and clean up the rest. There's also metamail . An equivalent of munpack is metamail -wy .
Post a Comment
Read more

ubuntu - Why does my USB hdd returns SG_IO: bad/missing sense data?

I am able to boot and run commands from external USB hdd; the message in question appears for about 45 seconds then booting continues. GRUB2 is installed on internal HDD. When choosing to boot directly to /dev/sdb the message doesn't appear, however boot time is about the same as booting to internal HDD. /dev/sdb: Timing cached reads: 1018 MB in 2.00 seconds = 508.97 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 80 MB in 3.03 seconds = 26.37 MB/sec pfeiffep@de:~$ sudo hdparm -i /dev/sdb /dev/sdb: SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed: Invalid argument Gparted correctly identifies the drive as SAMSUNG MP0402H. Any ideas how to remedy the HDIO & SG_IO messages?
Post a Comment
Read more

Desktop reboots itself on sleep or hibernate

I have been using an ASUS M2NPV-VM motherboard for main home desktop workstation, operating Windows Vista x64. This computer has right from day one not been able to enter hibernate or standby; after Windows performs its final actions and brings the machine down, it would automatically revive itself for a reboot. Updating to the second latest BIOS (1201)has not helped (the latest BIOS revision would induce video refresh problems rendering it unusable). I have been reading related discussions on incidents similar to mine to no avail of a true workable solution. They appear to be more speculative guesses rather than actual knowledge on the inner workings of motherboard hardware. Does anybody have any electronic engineering experience on PC energy-saving standards to provide a more informed opinion how to go about getting this to work? More stories: this motherboard could not even reboot properly the first thing i used it. It was due to refresh rate of the onboard GPU, which had no influe...
Post a Comment
Read more