Almost any user can make, regardless of his knowledge and experience. You just need to download the ISO image and burn it to a CD or DVD. But if we want to make a loading flash drive, then the procedure has its own nuances, depending on operating system.
If you copy the ISO image to the USB media or files contained in it, I will not get anything good. We need to turn the flash drive to the boot section. As a rule, this process removes all information from a USB drive or SD card.
How to create an installation media with Linux, having only Windows
For those who want to make a bootable USB flash drive with Ubuntu from under Windows, it is recommended to use Universal USB Installer. It allows you to work with almost any Linux distribution. An alternative option is UnetBootin.
to create a Linux bootable flash drive, download the image of the selected distribution in ISO format from the Internet. Run one of the programs mentioned above, specify the location of the file.iso file, and then select the USB drive to be done bootable. Everything else will be done without your direct participation.
Under Linux, you can use programs with similar features. For example, Ubuntu has Startup Disk Creator, which can create flash drives with this operating system. There is also an UnetBootin running on Linux. Therefore, you can use this utility.
And if we have an IMG file?
Distributions of some operating systems are distributed as an IMG file, not ISO. IMG is an image designed to record not on an optical disk, but directly on the USB flash drive.
To transfer it to a USB media or SD card, use the Win32 Disk Imager program. It is only necessary to download the IMG file, specify this toolwhere it is located, and choose the desired USB flash drive. All files on the media, when writing to it img, are destroyed. With the help of this tool, you can also create img images by taking a bootable flash drive or an SD card as a basis.
More experienced Linux users can use the DD command to write an img image to any removable media. Insert the removable media and execute the following command (in Ubuntu):
Sudo dd if \u003d / home / user / file.img of \u003d / dev / sdx bs \u003d 1m
Instead /home/user/file.img, specify the path to the IMG file, and instead / dev / sdx - the path to the SD card or flash drive. Be careful with the path to the removable media. If you write a disk with a system or data instead, then erase them completely.
Create a bootable USB flash drive from Windows 7 from the ISO file
You can use the Microsoft tool, allowing you to download. image of Windows. 7 and create boot disk or flash drive. To start this tool, you will need an installation ISO file with Windows 7. I hope you have license key To install this operating system?
Windows 8 or 8.1 boot flash drive
If you have a license key or 8.1, you can download the image of the operating system from the Microsoft website and immediately create an adjustment flash drive. First you need to download the appropriate tool from the page windows updates. Naturally, you will need a license key. Run the tool, enter the key, and select the creation of an installation USB media.
Please note that Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 have different keys. Therefore, if you want to create an installation flash drive of Windows 8.1, having a key for Windows 8, you will have to go through with the root paths. The easiest way to install Windows 8 first, and then update it for free to Windows 8.1. There is nothing complicated in this.
Record the installation USB flash drive 8 from the ISO file
If you already have an ISO file with Windows 8 or 8.1, then for you can use the tool that I mentioned in paragraph about Windows 7. This disappears the need for downloading a large file.
Just "Speed" to him ISO-image with Windows 8 or 8.1.
DOS.
If you need to download a computer with an old-good DOS (for example, sometimes it is possible to update the BIOS or use special low-level utilities), You can use RUFUS to create boot media.
This tool will record Freedos flash drive - free analog MS DOS with open source code. It can run all programs created for DOS.
Mac OS X.
To create a bootable flash drive in Mac OS X first update the operating system to latest version. To do this, use App Store. on the computer. Next, run the "CreateInstallMedia" utility from Apple or party program Diskmaker X.
The removable carrier of the OS X image can be used to "clean" installation of the operating system to a computer or update other machines, without downloading files from the Internet.
We make a bootable USB flash drive on Mac
If you plan to install Windows to your Mac, use Boot Camp to record installation media. This program will guide you through the process of creating a flash drive for windows installations With Drivers for Apple Computer and Integrated Boot Camp utilities.
With such a USB media, you can install Windows on computers MAC.But do not try to use it with computers on which there is no screwdriver.
In this article, I mentioned only the most popular solutions. But there are other ways to create boot flash drive For a particular operating system.
Introduction
Now in the gadget market there are many cheap Chinese production devices built on the basis of allwinner chips running Android OS. Despite the numerousness of the manufacturers, under the brand of which these devices are sold, combine their one: the complete absence of technical support from the manufacturer. OS for them is compiled by Chinese, which are not in a hurry to update to newer versions at all, although, based on the information on Allwinner, these chips support work up to Android 4.2.2. Something tells me that it is not going to update according to them at all.
One of these devices is RoverPad W74L - I bought in DNS for experiments with Android. This is the Allwinner A13 tablet. I would say that this is a very good tablet for all kinds of Internet - seats, reading books, etc. The lack of technical support did not surprise me, for I already have a tablet from another "Russian" manufacturer - 3Q, which, if you open The upper cover, poorly fitted with a true manufacturer, is "Pegatron Lucid". Technical support from "Russian" companies is made exclusively on the forum by users themselves. And there is another 4pda, where people in the measure of their capabilities help each other to solve technical issues that would be nice to solve official technical support.
Part of my research in the field of firmware for such devices, I decided to state in several articles, because it would be somewhat impolite with pictures on the forum.
What is this cycle
So what will be speech. During my acquaintance with internal device The tablet found out several not very comfortable things. First, the filling of the firmware is performed via LiveSuit. The program, just say, is not a fountain, and not even a crime ... In addition, if you work with a tablet via ADB, having gaining drivers from Google, to install your LiveSuit driver, therefore, the firmware will not work. As an option to exit this situation, you can use VMWare, which can trailer to the guest OS uSB devicesor, sew on another computer (I used a netbook for this purpose). Secondly, when modifying the firmware, it is very often to be praised into the device, which is very long and unproductive. Moreover, before this it needs to be re-assembled, so that, solid inconvenience. This is about solving this part of the question and will be discussed further, namely, how from the image for LiveSuit make a loading microSD card with which you can download the tablet without using the built-in flash memory. Thus, changes in the firmware are reduced to changes to the files on MicroSD, and, it is worth pulling it out of the slot, and the tablet will boot from its memory. No matter what happened. Next, after making changes, I will show how from this SD card to make the image of LiveSuit, which can already be pouring into the inner flash of the device and use.
Preparation of workplace
I'll start with the fact that the tools are for what we are going to do can be completely different, on this, I will briefly describe the items all the process.
- first, you need to smash the image of the firmware to the components. This is done with the help of the kitchen, which will be stated below, in Windows;
- further work with the resulting images will occur in Linux, because there will be a need to work with symbolic links file System Ext4, which Windows does not support. And here there is a lot of options. You can install Linux (I used Ubuntu Server x64) for another physical computer. The decision "in the forehead", but has the right to life. Can be used virtual MachineAnd here again there is a choice with your "for" and "against". To mount an SD card to a guest system, you need to use the virtualization tool to work with USB, and everything is not so good. VirtualBox from Sun (or from Oracle, to someone as) when mounting USB devices has one serious drawback (clarified on a personal bitter experience). USB driver From VirtualBox does not allow to correctly initialize the USB controller of some manufacturers when starting the OS. Result - After restarting USB, the host does not work until you reinstall it manually. WMVare Workstation - Works very well with USB, there were no problems at any stage (except, sometimes SD is not immediately mounted in the guest OS, this sometimes there is a need to disable it from the guest and then connect it again). But the Hyper-V from Microsoft USB is not able to give a guest who is associated with the notorious security considerations, because of this, when working with data, you will have to first create a RAW image of an SD card and work with it, and then sectors write it on Card. Of the three above-mentioned option for me is VMware Workstation. from installed Ubuntu. Server x64. Although, I did the same on VirtualBox and Gentoo, the principle is the same. Ubuntu faster Deployed, and because all the operations with images are made in the console, so as not to spend the resources on the GUI, I chose the server option.
- next, the SD card is mounted in Ubuntu, divided into partitions, sections are formatted, and data from the firmware images are retrieved. Then the bootloader and initialization scripts are recorded to work with an SD card. After that, you can use the card to load the tablet.
- then with firmware files are made by all sorts of manipulations, the results of which can be visually observed by downloading the tablet from it. At this stage, it is often necessary to carry files from the guest OS to host and back. I used WinSCP for this, very convenient.
- and, in conclusion, changed images of sections with an SD card are created, the initialization scripts in them right back and is going to a new image of the LiveSuit, which is poured into the tablet.
Instruments:
- Linux Ubuntu 13.04 x64 - torrent file for download http://releases.ubuntu.com/13.04/ubuntu-13.04-server-amd64.iso.torrent (I used version 12.10, but it does not matter);
- WMVare Workstation. - https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/evalcenter?p\u003dVMware-WorkStation9 Here you can download a trial version;
- Putty - http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/peutty/lateest/x86/peutty.zip SSH client. Very convenient for the organization of a multi-digital terminal;
- Winscp. - http://winscp.net/download/winscp515setup.exe tool for transferring files to the guest OS and back;
This is a general list of tools. It will be replenished in the process of presentation, but everything is in order.
Begin
This work is based on enough large quantities Sources, but two articles were the foundation who served as the beginning began:
- https://www.miniand.com/wiki/allwinner/unpacking+And +Building+Livesuit+Images An article about disassembling and assembling images for LiveSuit. The technique described here, I used. Unfortunately, and maybe, fortunately, the article is written for another device, it is suitable for disassembly, but it will have to work with the kitchen files more thoroughly;
- http://linux-sunxi.org/boot_android_from_sdcard And here it is just described how to make a bootable SD card with Android, however, again, for another device, I used both articles for another device.
I will mention other sources in the course of the text in those places where information from them is actually applied.
Immediately after installation, perform the following commands:
$ sudo Su.
# APT-Get Update
# APT-GET UPGRADE
# APT-Get Install SSHD - If you have not selected SSH server at the end
# APT-Get Install MC - it will install Midnight Commander - two-page file manager With which you can work in the terminal Putty.
If you have installed the Russian version of Ubuntu, then in the settings of the PUTTY session in the Appearance section, be sure to install the UTF-8 encoding, otherwise the symbols of Cyrillic will be displayed quite peculiar.
The preparatory stage is completed, proceeding.
You can make a boot disk almost any user, regardless of your knowledge and experience. You just need to download the ISO image and burn it to a CD or DVD. But if we want to make a loading flash drive, the procedure for actions has their own nuances, depending on the operating system.
If you copy the ISO image to the USB media or files contained in it, I will not get anything good. We need to turn the flash drive to the boot section. As a rule, this process removes all information from a USB drive or SD card.
How to create an installation media with Linux, having only Windows
For those who want to make a bootable USB flash drive with Ubuntu from under Windows, it is recommended to use Universal USB Installer. It allows you to work with almost any Linux distribution. An alternative option is UnetBootin.
To create a Linux bootable USB flash drive, download the image of the selected distribution in ISO format from the Internet. Run one of the programs mentioned above, specify the location of the file.iso file, and then select the USB drive to be done bootable. Everything else will be done without your direct participation.
Under Linux, you can use programs with similar features. For example, Ubuntu has Startup Disk Creator, which can create flash drives with this operating system. There is also an UnetBootin running on Linux. Therefore, you can use this utility.
And if we have an IMG file?
Distributions of some operating systems are distributed as an IMG file, not ISO. IMG is an image designed to record not on an optical disk, but directly on the USB flash drive.
To transfer it to a USB media or SD card, use the Win32 Disk Imager program. It is only necessary to download the IMG file, specify this tool where it is located and select the desired USB flash drive. All files on the media, when writing to it img, are destroyed. With the help of this tool, you can also create img images by taking a bootable flash drive or an SD card as a basis.
More experienced Linux users can use the DD command to write an img image to any removable media. Insert the removable media and execute the following command (in Ubuntu):
Sudo dd if \u003d / home / user / file.img of \u003d / dev / sdx bs \u003d 1m
Instead /home/user/file.img, specify the path to the IMG file, and instead / dev / sdx - the path to the SD card or flash drive. Be careful with the path to the removable media. If you write a disk with a system or data instead, then erase them completely.
Create a bootable USB flash drive from Windows 7 from the ISO file
You can use the Microsoft tool, which allows you to download the image of Windows 7 and create a boot disk or flash drive. To start this tool, you will need an installation ISO file with Windows 7. I hope you have a license key to install this operating system? 
Windows 8 or 8.1 boot flash drive
If you have a licensed windows key 8 or 8.1, you can download the image of the operating system from the Microsoft website and immediately create an installation flash drive. First you need to download the appropriate tool from the Windows Update Page. Naturally, you will need a license key. Run the tool, enter the key, and select the creation of an installation USB media. 
Please note that Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 have different keys. Therefore, if you want to create an installation flash drive of Windows 8.1, having a key for Windows 8, you will have to go through with the root paths. The easiest way to install Windows 8 first, and then update it for free to Windows 8.1. There is nothing complicated in this.
Record the installation USB flash drive 8 from the ISO file
If you already have an ISO file with Windows 8 or 8.1, you can use the tool that I mentioned in the Windows 7 item. This disappears the need for downloading a large file.
Just "Spell" to him ISO-image with Windows 8 or 8.1.
DOS.
If you need to download a computer with an old-kind DOS (for example, sometimes you can update the BIOS or use special low-level utilities), you can use RUFUS to create a bootable media.
This tool will record the Freedos flash drive - free analogue of MS DOS with open source. It can run all programs created for DOS.
Mac OS X.
To create a bootable USB flash drive in Mac OS X, you first update the operating system to the latest version. To do this, use the App Store on your computer. Next, run the "CreateInstallMedia" utility from Apple or third-party program Diskmaker X.
The removable carrier with the image of the OS X can be used to "clean" installation of the operating system to a computer or updating other machines, without downloading files from the Internet.
We make a bootable USB flash drive on Mac
If you plan to install Windows to your Mac, use the Boot Camp to record the setting media. This program will guide you through the process of creating a flash drive flash drive to install Windows drivers for Apple computers and integrated Boot Camp utilities. 
With such a USB media, you can install Windows on Mac computers, but do not attempt to use it with computers on which there is no screwdrived apple.
In this article, I mentioned only the most popular solutions. But there are other ways to create a bootable flash drive for a particular operating system.
If you need an ISO image to create boot discs and an empty disk, then with USB drives not everything is so simple ... you can simply copy files from ISO to a USB flash drive and it will start loaded, you need to be used to be loaded. In today's article, consider the options for creating boot USB drives and SD cards:
Linux ISO.
To create boot USB Linux from Windows - it is recommended to use a universal USB intaller. It can be used to create boot USB from different Linux distributions. If you need an alternative then use
Download ISO Image distribution LinuxYou want to use to create a boot USB. Run USB Installer \u003d\u003e Select the desired distribution \u003d\u003e Select ISO \u003d\u003e and select Your USB drive \u003d\u003e Further after clicking on the Create, the program will make all the necessary operations, and after completing you will have a bootable USB
You can use similar tools on Linux. For example, Ubuntu includes a tool for creating a boot USB called Startup Disk.
You can also use UnetBootin, it also works on Linux
From the IMG file
Some operating systems are not as an ISO image, but as an IMG image file. File Image can be recorded only on the drive.
To record IMG files to USB drive and SD cards - use. Run the program, select the downloaded IMG file - immediately starts the recording on your drive, swaying everything that was on the drive.
If you want from Linux to write the contents of IMG to USB - insert the drive and execute the command on Ubuntu:
sudo DD If \u003d Work / My / File.img of \u003d / Dev / SDX BS \u003d 1M
Where /work/my/file.img path to your iMG file, Replace it and indicate where the file is located. / Dev / SDX - Indicates the drive to which record will occur, carefully with the choice of this parameter! If you do not correctly specify the path to the drive (pointing the system disk instead of it) - then the entry will occur along the path of the destination, swaying all the old data.
With Windows 7, 8 and 10 ISO
You can use Windows USB / DVD Download Tool to create a loading flash drive. You need an ISO image of a Windows and the key, as you probably understood yourself - if you find somewhere not licensed Windows, then using this utility you will not be able to make a boot drive. It is best to use RUFUS, this utility Universal for different versions of Windows And do not pick up which ISO we want to record on the drive.
But if you have a licensed Windows disc, then use standard utility Windows USB / DVD Download Too
Windows 8 or 8.1
Here, too, everything is simple, if you have a product key, you download from the Mayrosoft utility that the image itself downloads and creates a boot drive. All you need is to upload the tool, run, enter the key and specify the drive that needs to be done boot
If you have an ISO image and product key - you can use Windows USB / DVD Download Too to write, or if ISO has no key - then RUFUS.
If you need to boot with DOS and use various tools to restore the system, then you will be useful to RUFUS. As I said universal utility, you can use the boot drive (disk, memory card, etc.). The utility itself allows you to run any DOS programs, you can write a designer to restore the system, correcting errors, loading Live CD, etc.
To create a boot drive on MAC You can use diskmaker X.
Let's summarize: utilities for creating boot drives a lot, but the most universal and suitable for many systems is RUFUS. With RUFUS, you can create various boot drives, quickly and efficiently :). I hope you find an option for yourself and create a bootable drive! If something does not go out, or you know the ways easier - write comments. Good luck to you!
On our site there are many instructions, how to make from a regular flash drive boot (for example, to install Windows). But what if you need to return the flash drive for the previous condition? We will try to answer this question today.
The first thing to be noted - banal formatting will not be enough. The fact is that during the transformation of the flash drive into the bootable, a special service file is written to the inaccessible to the user, which cannot be erased by conventional methods. This file Forces the system to recognize not the actual volume of the flash drive, but a manner engaged in the system: for example, only 4 GB (image of Windows 7) from, admit, 16 GB (actual capacity). As a consequence, only these 4 gigabytes can be formatted, which, of course, does not fit.
There are several solutions for this task. The first is to use a specialized software designed to work with the storage markup. Second - use the built-in windows tools. Each option is good in its own way, so let's consider them.
Note! Each of the following methods involves formatting a flash drive, which will cause the removal of all data available on it!
Method 1: HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
Despite its bulky, this method is good almost one hundred percent warranty positive result In most cases.
The methods described above are most convenient for the end user. If you are known alternatives - please, share them in the comments.
OS
