I have long wanted to have a portable hard drive with a boot partition and a second partition for other information. And today I will explain how to do it on my own experience. As a result, we will have portable USB HDD with a separate multiboot section. We will look at how to add our components to disk and create a menu for it.

The section will be able to:

1) Install Windows XP SP3 Zver + autoinstall + WPI

2) Installing Windows 7 ALL Version

3) Live CD - Alkid

4) Acronis Utilities

To get started, we need an empty external hard drive, I have a Seagate for 250 Gigabytes lying around.

On the forum OSZone.net there is a theme called "MultiBoot USB - Multiboot USB & Windows XPE / 7PE" created by Jekson07 in which you can download a package of utilities in one shell, 17.5 mb in size.

Screenshot:

1. Format the hard drive.

All information from the hard disk will be deleted!

Run the utility HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, v.2.2.3.

In point Device select your external hard drive (determined by the volume letter and size).

File System it is desirable to choose NTFS.

We choose Quick Format and press Start.

Formatting starts.

2. Install the GRUB bootloader.

Run the utility Grub4Dos Installer 1.1.

IN Device Name choose Disk, in the window we find our disk (we look carefully at the size, in theory it should be the last).

We don't touch anything else, just press Install.

At the end, a message will appear The MBR / BS has been successfully installedmeaning that everything went as intended.

3. Divide the disk.

We run the program for partitioning the disk, for example, Acronis Disk Director.

Find your portable disk, select it and select "split".

Let's leave for the first disk, for example, 30 GB.

The second will have about 200 GB.

Click on the finish checkbox to apply the changes.

4. Zver DVD.

Downloading ZverDVDwhich can be easily found through.

We mount it in the program Daemon Tools Lite any version.

Run the utility WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 b7.

In the upper window, select our portable disk, on which you want to save the installation disk of the beast.

We put a tick next to Windows 2000 / XP and select our Daemon Tools virtual disk into which our installation disk is mounted ZverDVD and press GO.

In order to be able to install ZverDVD in automatic mode, you need

a) open the file from our portable drive j: \\ WINSETUP \\ XPpSP3.ISO in the UltraISO program. And add the SETUPLD1.BIN file in the image, to the I386 folder, which can be taken here j: \\ WINSETUP \\ XPpSP3 \\ I386 \\ SETUPLD1.BIN.

b) edit menu.lst, consider below

For WPI to work and normal installation of drivers, you need to copy the OEMDRV and WPI folders, as well as the WIN51 file (marker) from the j: \\ WINSETUP \\ XPpSP3 \\ folder to the root of the j: \\ drive.

5. Windows 7.

I tried with the 18 in 1 assembly found on the Internet, which includes all modifications of the seven for x86 and x64.

Also using WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 b7 put a tick Vista \\ 7 \\ Server and select the virtual disk where the Win7 assembly was mounted. And press GO.

When finished, a message will appear.

6. Alkid CD.

I downloaded version 2011.05 in the image of which I had to change the name of the folder from A386 to I386 (using the UltraISO utility) so that I could upload it to our portable disk using the same utility WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 b7.

Having launched it, now you need to select the third item UBCD4WIN / WinBuilder / BartPE, select the virtual disk into which you mounted the modified Alkid CD image.

Click GO.

The minint and programs folders will appear on our disk.

7. Required files.

Run the utility downloaded from OSZone.net and select the item

5) "Copying files and utilities".

8. Acronis.

It is easy to install, if you have an image with Acronis utilities, then we replace it with a dummy file j: /boot/Acronis.iso

9. Ubuntu.

Download the image from the developers site, and upload the image ubuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso to folder j: / linux /.

From this image, you need to extract two files initrd.lz and vmlinuz, which are located in the casper folder of the image.

And put them in a folder j: / linux /.

Edit the menu.lst file (at the bottom of the article).

10. Windows Kolhoz Edition

Now on the Internet there are Windows assemblies that work from removable drives.

After downloading the distribution kit, you can install it on our portable disk like a regular system.

11. Disc menu.

Open the file on the j: /menu.lst portable drive in notepad.

I attach my skin HDDSkin for the menu that needs to be copied to the j: \\ boot \\ folder is shown in the screenshot:

Timeout 30 // time allotted for a simple menu, i.e. after 30 seconds, the default item will start. gfxmenu / boot / Hddskin // menu skin, I have already substituted my skin. default 0 // default item number. // Continue booting the computer title Booting from hard drive find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd / bootmgr || find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd / ntldr map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader (hd0) +1 // Boot Windows Kolhoz Edition title Running Windows USB HDD rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader (hd0,0) / ntldr // Autoinstall ZVER DVD title Installing Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Zver Edition Auto root (hd0,0) map --mem /WINSETUP/XPpSP3.ISO ( 0xff) map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook root (0xff) chainloader /I386/SETUPLD1.BIN // Manual installation of ZVER DVD title Installing Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Zver Edition root (hd0,0 ) map --mem /WINSETUP/XPpSP3.ISO (0xff) map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook root (0xff) chainloader /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN // Install Windows 7 title Install Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 18 in 1 map --unmap \u003d 0: 0xff map --unhook root (hd0,0) chainloader / bootmgr // Ubuntu title Ubuntu 11.04 (LiveCD) kernel / linux / vmlinuz iso-scan / filename \u003d / linux /ubuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso boot \u003d casper initrd \u003d / casper / initrd.lz locale \u003d ru_RU splash - - initrd /linux/initrd.lz // Alkid Live title Launch Alkid Live CD map --unmap \u003d 0: 0xff map --unhook root (hd0,0) chainloader /minint/setupldr.bin title Launch Alkid Live CD (no drivers ) map --unmap \u003d 0: 0xff map --unhook root (hd0,0) chainloader /minint/Setuplns.bin // Call the additional menu title Additional utilities \u003e\u003e\u003e configfile /boot/menu_2.lst title Download Plop Boot Manager ls /usbdrive.tag || find --set-root --ignore-cd /usbdrive.tag kernel /plpbt.bin title Boot from CD / DVD-ROM cdrom --init map --hook chainloader (cd0) title Boot from floppy rootnoverify (fd0) chainloader ( fd0) +1 title Computer restart reboot title Computer shutdown halt

As if installing the OS is not something difficult, and my opinion is that it is enough to be friends with the computer and have two more hands in addition to the head - one right and the other left. To install the OS on your computer, you need or.

But what if there is neither one nor the other, the optical drive does not work, or you have a netbook? After a little reflection, I remembered that I have an external usb pocket for HDD and I also have a free old HDD 2.5ʺ. In general, if you have a pocket hard drive, you can make it bootable accordingly.

For this purpose, there are utilities that can be used to do this, but I decided to use the standard Windows tools.

There are a lot of descriptions and videos on the network, but, unfortunately, there is one problematic point, which the authors for some reason omit. Well, okay, I'll start in order.

Preparing an external HDD

Before working with a disc, be sure to transfer and save the necessary information from this disc to another medium.

All settings will be carried out using standard Windows 8.1 tools. There may be some differences from previous Windows releases, but if there are, they are not significant.

First of all, I want to note that making an external HDD bootable is much more convenient. I divided the disk into two partitions, one is the Windows distribution, the other is for my needs.

1. We plug in the usb pocket and go to Disk management.

Attention! All data on the disk will be destroyed!

If you have Windows 8 installed on your PC, 1 right-click: Start / Disk Management;

If Windows is earlier versions, open the Computer Management console: Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Expand Storage Devices / Left Click Disk Management.

See screenshot:

2. Choose an external HDD. Be extremely careful, if you choose another disk by mistake, all information will be destroyed.

In my case, this is Disk 1. As you can see in the screenshot, the disk is divided into two volumes (partitions):

3. Delete disk partitions:

4. Create new disk partitions. One for the distribution kit, the second will remain for your needs:

Right-click on a free disk space, select the command in the context menu Create simple volume:

5. In the window that appears, the Simple Volume Creation Wizard, press the button Further:

Specify the volume size of 4404 megabytes and click Next. Please note that the size is indicated in megabytes. And since 1 gigabyte is equal to 1024 megabytes, then 1024 × 4.3 \u003d 4403.2 megabytes we get for the distribution section (my weight is 4.18 GB, for example);

In this dialog, you need to format a new partition (FAT 32), press Further then Done:

6. After that, you need to make the created section active (don't forget, because the computer will boot from this section), for this:

Right click with the mouse, select the command in the context menu Make a section active.

To a confirmation request, we answer YES.

The external HDD looks like this:

7. In the same order, we format the second partition on the disk, preferably in NTFS, but do not make it active.

Copy Windows to the active partition of the external HDD

Copying a Windows distribution to a bootable external HDD is pretty straightforward and easy.

From a bootable DVD:

Open the installation DVD in Explorer, select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of the external HDD;

From ISO image:

By and large, an ISO image is a kind of archive. So you can open it with any archiver. You can also open an ISO image through Total Commander or Daemon Tools. Well, if you have Windows 8 or 8.1 installed on your PC, then open with Explorer. Select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of the external HDD;

That's it, your external HDD can act as bootable media. It is enough to reboot and set the USB HDD as the boot priority in the BIOS (depending on BIOS type).

• When you turn on the laptop, press F2to;
• Go to the tab Boot;
• IN Boot Priority order install USB HDD;
• We press F10, and then OK.

If it didn't work, then see the article.

Save your changes and get started.

As you can see from the text, preparing an external HDD for installing Windows is quite simple. And my description will not be complete if I do not talk about one problem, which for some reason is rarely written on the net.

Making the hard disk partition active

When I divided the hard disk into two volumes, for a reason unknown to me, none of the disk partitions could be made active. This function was not available in the context menu.

The active partition is the partition from which the computer boots.

There are two ways to make a section active:

1. Using the Computer Management console. We have already considered this method, but, unfortunately, for a number of reasons, the Make section active command is not available. The solution to this problem is also not difficult. Remember how to prepare a bootable USB flash drive from the Command Prompt.
2. Using the Command Line, via the utility diskpart... The second method is a little more complicated, but more efficient. You just need to do all the operations carefully and slowly.

Installing the active partition using the command line

1. Connect an external USB HDD;

2. Click on Start / All programs / Accessories / Command line... Right-click and select Run as administrator.

3. In the window that opens, write the command diskpart and press the button Enter... A prompt will appear for working with the utility - DISKPART\u003e;

4. Enter the command list disk and press the button Enter... You will see all disks installed on your computer;

5. We select the disk with which we will work. To do this, enter the command select disk 0, where "0" is the disk number in the list, ie. for my external drive there will be a command select disk 1... Click the button Enter, the message Selected disk 1 appears;

Among the many software that allows you to create a bootable flash drive, one unpleasant feature was discovered, many of these programs work very well with images of Linux of similar operating systems, but have their own pitfalls when working with installation images of Windows. Moreover, some incorrect aspects of the work of such "creators" can only be found at the time of installation. After going through a bunch of multiboot software, the following were sent to the trash heap:

• ZXBFM_1.3 - does not work with ISO images larger than 4 GB. For example, if you have a Windows 7 installation ISO image that you have added the latest updates to. Or you downloaded an All-In-One style image that will often be larger than 4GB.
• YUMI - understands large ISO images, but when installing Windows 7,8,10 you will receive the error "The required driver for the optical disc drive ..." was not found. It makes no sense to dig the Internet in search of a solution to this problem.
• XBoot - similar problems as the first two

All these problems come from one source, namely the bootloader that is used in the listed programs. This is usually GRUB4DOS. It's good for everyone, but it's not a bootloader from Microsoft. Therefore, I will tell you about an excellent program WinSetupFromUSBwhich is combined. It uses the Bootmgr boot loader for Windows images, and GRUB4DOS for linux images.

So let's get started.

We insert a flash drive into the computer!

Next, go to the site http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/downloads/ and download the latest version of the program. At the time of writing, the available version is 1.7-V9. Downloading a self-extracting archive WinSetupFromUSB-1-7.exe and run. In the unpacked folder, you will find the following content:

The program does not require installation, so just run it. If you have a 64-bit operating system, then run WinSetupFromUSB_1-7_x64.exe, if not, then WinSetupFromUSB_1-7.exe... After launch, a window opens

In which in the field "USB disk selection ..."
(1) your connected flash drive is displayed. If you started the program before connecting the flash drive, then press the button "Refresh" (2) and then select the desired flash drive in the list.

Next, turn on the checkbox "Auto format it with FB", additional parameters are opened, in which we set the type of the NTFS file system.

Then we need to add the required Windows installation image. To add Windows Vista, 7,8,10, server 2008, server 2012, click the checkbox "Windows Vista / 7/8/10 ..." and click on the button with three dots

This will open a warning window in which you will be warned that to support UEFI 64-bit versions of Windows, the flash drive must be in the FAT32 file system format. Since now it's not about UEFI, just press OK.

Next, a standard file selection window opens, in which we specify the Windows installation image you need. In this case, I will choose Windows 7 x86 SP1.

As a result of all actions, the program window will look like this

Everyone, push the big button "GO" and the process started. In this case, the program will give you several warning windows stating that all your data from the flash drive will be DESTROYED!!!


Once again check that you have selected the REQUIRED USB stick and press the buttons "YES".

The recording process depends on the speed of your flash drive and can be very long. Don't be alarmed, everything is going fine!

As a result of all the actions, you will receive a bootable flash drive, which will contain one bootable image. In my case Windows 7 x86 SP1. Now you can close the program, or write the next image, it does not wipe the previous images are simply added to the list.

Add the following image. Check that the checkbox "Auto format it with FB"
NOT WORTH !!! Otherwise, you will overwrite all previous work. Since the next image that I will add will be Windows 10, then I select the checkbox in the paragraph "Windows Vista / 7/8/10 ..." and again I click on the file selection button (button with three dots).

A file selection window opens, in which I specify the ISO file I need.

As a result of the selection, the window looks like this

Everything, I press "GO" and the recording process started.

After finishing, you will have two installation images on the flash drive.

Finally, I want to add a Windows XP installation image to my bootable flash drive. There is a peculiarity here, instead of an ISO image, I need an unpacked installation image. If you have Windows XP as an ISO file, then simply mount it with a program like Daemon Tools, or unpack it with the 7-zip archiver to any folder on your local disk.

Again we repeat the process of choosing an image, only now we select a checkmark in the paragraph Windows 2000 / XP / 2003 and press the select button (button with three dots).

In the opened standard file selection window, just select the folder into which the ISO image or the letter of the virtual DVD-ROM was unpacked, if you used programs like DAEMON Tools.

After selection, the user agreement window opens, in which we press the button "I accept"

As a result of all the actions, we get about the following window, in which we press the button "GO".

The end of the process is indicated by the window

This is how we get a bootable USB flash drive with three Windows installation images.

Removing and editing the list of installed images

How to add images is clear, but what if you need to delete an added image? It's not all that complicated.

Done! Now you need to install the bootloader on the USB flash drive using grub4dos.Run the program grubinst_gui.exefrom the archive, select our USB flash drive in it and click “ Install”

if after clicking on the Install button you see such a window, then everything went well:

Let's move on. Now there is nothing on your flash drive, it is absolutely empty, in order for it to become bootable, you need to copy the bootloader files and the boot menu itself to it. They are located at the root of the archive.

grldr- bootloader

menu.lst - menu setting file

Open the copied file menu.lstin a notebook. As you can see, it is completely empty. We will now set it up together with you.

First, add a line like this:

title Shutdown PC halt

At this stage, we have a bootable USB flash drive ready, but it does not know how to do anything except turn off the computer (we added this command). Now let's check if the flash drive works. To do this, you do not need to restart your computer at all, just copy the file MobaLiveUSB_0.2.exe to the root of the flash drive and launch it, press the button “ Non”

An emulator window will open, in which you will see everything the same as if you booted your computer from a bootable USB flash drive.

As you can see, the screen displays "krakozyabry" instead of Russian letters

We will fix this matter by connecting one of the templates to the bootloader (in my case, winlin.gz). Copy the file to the root of the flash drive winlin.gz and write the following lines in menu.lst at the very beginning

gfxmenu /winlin.gz

gfxmenu / winlin. gz

Now start the emulator again and see what your bootloader screen looks like. If done correctly, you will see the following screen:

As you can see now the inscription "Turn off the PC" is displayed normally. Great, now let's move on.

Add Windows 7 SP1 x86-x64 Installer

Now let's add the Windows 7 SP1 x86-x64 installer to be able to install windows from your multiboot flash drive.

To do this, download the windows 7 image you like, and extract all the files to the root of the flash drive.

After extracting the files, add the following lines to the menu.lst file:

This version of Microsoft itself was distributed, and therefore no claims were made to it as to some kind of defective product. Moreover, it was this “distro” that became the basis for a wide variety of portable homemade products. In order to expand WinPE to the limits determined by the developer - that is, to include drivers in the LiveCD that are not Windows components or external programs in WinPE, it was proposed to use special software, like the BartPE utility and others.

BartPE, which has not been developed for a long time, will not be suitable for illustrative purposes. Moreover, we intend to deal not with XP, but with the seventh version. The modern alternative to BartPE is the WinBuilder program, which we now turn to.

LiveUSB with WinBuilder

Win7PE will serve as the source material for building a Windows 7 mobile distribution, but for now we will tell you where to get WinBilder itself. You can download it from your home page on the Internet: http://winbuilder.net/.

Digging into the depths of the site, you can find any information on the practical use of this program, but you will not need it, because we will describe the process of working with it in sufficient detail. Before starting work, you need to do the following:

Next, we need the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) package. You can get this almost 2GB image from here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang\u003den&id\u003d5753. Then run the installer of the package under the name StartCD.exe. We don't need this whole product. We only need its separate files from the \\ Windows AIK \\ Tools \\ x86 \\ folder. Here is a list of these files:

• bcdboot.exe
• imagex.exe
• wimgapi.dll
• wimmount.inf
• wimmount.sys
• wimserv.exe

All these files must be copied to the WinBuilder subdirectory (in our case, to the C: \\ WB \\ Projects \\ Tools \\ Win7PE_SE \\ x86 \\ folder). Copy the bcdedit.exe file from the \\ Windows \\ System32 folder there. Drivers for the future system must be downloaded from this address: http://driverpacks.net/driverpacks/latest.

Additionally, we install VirtualBox - we will need this virtual machine to test the assembly. This completes the preparatory procedures, and you can start generating the system.

Generating a portable version of the "seven"

Details of further actions:

As a result, we will get a "bare" axis with the most truncated functionality and the complete absence of "spillikins" like "Aero".

You can fill the assembly with content using the recommendations of the next paragraph of our story.

Assembly modification

The large number of nodes in the tree on the left allows for very flexible customization of the resulting product. You can change almost everything, from the default screen resolution, the theme of the bootloader, to the inclusion of plugins in the explorer of the future Windows.

To add documents and media content, you can use the interface of the "Additional files" node, however, it will not be possible to include it in the distribution kit of the user program. Aero, wallpaper and gadget panel can be connected in the Tweeks node.

Enabling applications is possible, but more time consuming. To facilitate this task, the developers have released a variety of scripts to embed a variety of programs into the assembly. You can download these scripts at the following address: http://reboot.pro/forum/65/. The finished script is placed in the C: \\ WB \\ Projects \\ Win7PE_SE \\ Apps folder or in any of its subdirectories.

If a ready-made script was not found on the site, you can make it yourself using the MakeScript tool located on the site http://reboot.pro/508/. You should not slip installers into this program, it is better to give it a portable version of the software to eat:

Otherwise, an unimaginable amount of garbage will be generated in the registry. The MakeScript program has quite flexible settings. Check them out in the documentation or search the internet for descriptions.

In the simplest case, it all comes down to specifying the exe-file of the portable version of the desired program, specifying its name and clicking on the big "Make It" button on the left of the screen.

We transfer everything to USB

So far, we haven’t said anything yet about how to transfer all of this to a USB flash drive. In general, the program generates a ready-made ISO-image of the system directly in the C: \\ WB folder.

We already know how to transfer such images to a USB drive. For this, the knowledge gained in the first paragraphs of our story will be useful to us.

So, the circle has closed, and there is essentially nothing more to discuss.

The method is simple, convenient, but it has some limitations and is not the most convenient: to write each image, you need to resort to the utility again, just copying the ISO to a USB flash drive is not enough. But what if we could just copy ISO images to a bootable USB flash drive with any systems, LiveCDs and utilities and they were automatically available for download? - it can be the Easy2Boot utility, and the drive can be in the NTFS file system and boot in both UEFI and Legacy systems.

This manual details how to use Easy2Boot (not to be confused with the paid EasyBoot program from the creators of UltraISO) in conjunction with RMPrepUSB (and without this utility). To some, the method may seem complicated, but in fact, it is even simpler than some, just follow the instructions and you will be pleased with this opportunity to create multiboot USB drives. See also: ,

The instructions further describe the basic steps for writing a bootable drive using Easy2Boot, in fact, there are many nuances in using the utility, which are scattered on the official website and sometimes you have to thoroughly read what's what. But for most applications, the steps below will suffice.

Preparing images for UEFI booting with Easy2Boot and the boot process

By default, we can boot from a flash drive only in Legacy mode. The following mechanism is proposed for booting into UEFI:

The boot itself in EFI mode (disabling Secure Boot in BIOS may or may not be required, depending on the image itself and the presence of the rEFInd bootloader, which is not written by default) looks like this:

How does it even work? After "Changing the E2B partition" in the first step, your imgPTN image is mounted on the USB flash drive, as a result, as if nothing else is on it - i.e. we boot as if "directly" into the image. Accordingly, the flash drive ceases to be multiboot (although all the data on it remains).

To restore the drive to its original state, open the e2b folder on the USB flash drive and run the RestoreE2B.cmd file as administrator.

Additional Information

Some additional information, which I will try to update as new information becomes available, and, as I mentioned, the program has a lot of nuances:

• If in the folder with the image file (the format is not important) you place a file with the same name, but with the extension .txt and the contents in one line title MENU ITEM NAME, then your name will be displayed in the menu for this file.
• There is a file in the _ISO folder on the flash drive E2B_Editor to edit background, colors, and other boot menu options.
• Through \\ _ISO \\ SUB_MENU_Maker.cmd you can add your own sections in the Easy2Boot main menu.
• The MPI Tool Pack includes the Split WinISO utility for splitting Windows image files into several files for placing large images on a FAT32 flash drive.
• If you are using an external hard drive or a USB flash drive, which is defined in the system as a local drive, and not a removable drive, then when installing Windows 10, 8.1 and Windows 7, you may be informed that there are no drivers. The imgPTN imaging method solves this, but can potentially cause data loss on the drive.

Easy2Boot video instruction

Everything below was written to use the previous version of Easy2Boot, and as far as I can tell, this method should still work, so I'm not removing it from the instructions. Also, if you have your own findings on using the utility, I will be glad to comment.

Easy2Boot early drive creation method (continues to work)

The files below were checked by VirusTotal, everything is clean, except for a couple of threats (which are not) in Easy2Boot, which are related to the implementation of work with the installation ISO images of Windows.

We need RMPrepUSB, we take here https://www.rmprepusb.com/documents/rmprepusb-beta-versions (the site is sometimes poorly accessible), download links are closer to the end of the page, I took the RMPrepUSB_Portable file, that is, not an installation one. Everything works.

You will also need an archive with Easy2Boot files. You can download it here: http://www.easy2boot.com/download/

The process of preparing a multi-boot Easy2Boot flash drive

Unpack (if portable) or install RMPrepUSB and run it. Easy2Boot does not need to be unpacked. The flash drive, I hope, is already connected.

1. In RMPrepUSB, check the box "No User Prompts"
2. Size (Partition Size) - MAX, volume label - any
3. Filesystem and Overrides - FAT32 + Boot as HDD or NTFS + Boot as HDD. FAT32 is supported by a large number of operating systems, but does not work with files larger than 4 GB.
4. Check the item “Copy OS files from here”, specify the path to the unpacked archive with Easy2Boot, answer “No” to the request that appears.

Do not leave RMPrepUSB, you will still need the program (if you did, it's okay). Open the contents of the flash drive in Explorer (or another file manager) and go to the _ISO folder, there you will see the following folder structure:

Note: in the folderdocs you will find documentation in English for menu editing, styling and other features.

The next step for creating a multiboot flash drive is to transfer all the necessary ISO images to the necessary folders (you can use several images for one OS), for example:

• Windows 10 - in _ISO \\ WINDOWS \\ WIN10
• Windows 8 and 8.1 - in _ISO \\ WINDOWS \\ WIN8
• Antivirus ISO - in _ISO \\ Antivirus

After all the necessary images have been transferred to the flash drive, in RMPrepUSB press Ctrl + F2 or select Drive - Make All Files on Drive Contiguous from the menu. When the operation completes, the flash drive is ready and you can either boot from it or press F11 to test it in QEMU.

Fixing media driver error when booting from USB HDD or Easy2Boot flash drive

This addition to the instructions was prepared by the reader under the nickname Tiger333 (his other tips can be found in the comments below), for which many thanks to him.

When installing Windows images using Easy2Boot, the installer often displays an error about the missing media driver. Below is how to fix it.

You will need:

1. A flash drive of any size (you need a flash drive).
2. RMPrepUSB_Portable.
3. Your USB-HDD or USB stick with installed (working) Easy2Boot.

To create the Easy2Boot virtual drive driver, we prepare the USB flash drive in much the same way as when installing Easy2Boot.

1. In the RMPrepUSB program, check the "No User Prompts"
2. Size (Partition Size) - MAX, volume label - HELPER
3. Bootloader Options - Win PE v2
4. Filesystem and Overrides - FAT32 + Boot as HDD
5. Click the "Prepare disk" button (all data from the flash drive will be deleted) and wait.
6. Click the Install grub4dos button, answer No to the PBR or MBR request.
7. Go to your USB-HDD or Easy2Boot flash drive, go to \\ _ISO \\ docs \\ USB FLASH DRIVE HELPER FILES. Copy everything from this folder to the prepared USB flash drive.

Your virtual drive is ready. Now you need to "introduce" the virtual drive and Easy2Boot.

Remove the USB flash drive from the computer (insert the USB-HDD or Easy2Boot flash drive, if removed). Run RMPrepUSB (if closed) and click "run from under QEMU (F11)". During Easy2Boot boot, insert your USB flash drive into your computer and wait for the menu to load.

Close the QEMU window, go to your USB-HDD or Easy2Boot stick and look at the AutoUnattend.xml and Unattend.xml files. They should be 100KB each, if this is not so, repeat the dating procedure (I did it only the third time). They are now ready to work together and the missing driver problems will be gone.

How to properly use a USB stick with a drive? I'll make a reservation right away that this flash drive will only work with a USB-HDD or an Easy2Boot flash drive. Using a USB stick with a drive is quite simple:

1. During Easy2Boot boot, insert your USB flash drive into your computer and wait for the menu to load.
2. Select the Windows image, and at the Easy2Boot prompt “how to install” - select the .ISO item, then follow the instructions for installing the OS.

Problems that may arise:

1. Windows again gives a missing media driver error. Reason: You may have inserted a USB-HDD or flash drive into USB 3.0. How To Fix: Move Them To USB 2.0
2. The counter 1 2 3 started on the screen and keeps repeating, Easy2Boot does not load. Reason: You may have inserted a USB flash drive too early or immediately from a USB-HDD or Easy2Boot flash drive. How to fix: turn on the USB stick with the drive as soon as Easy2Boot starts downloading (the first boot words appear).

Notes on using and changing a multiboot flash drive

• If some ISOs do not load correctly, change their extension to .isoask, in this case, when you launch this ISO from the boot menu of the flash drive, you can select various options for launching it and find a suitable one.
• At any time you can add new or delete old images from the flash drive. After that do not forget to use Ctrl + F2 (Make All Files on Drive Contiguous) in RMPrepUSB.
• When installing Windows 7, Windows 8, or 8.1, you will be asked which key to use: you can enter it yourself, use a trial key from Microsoft, or install without entering the key (activation will still be required afterwards). I am writing this note to the fact that you should not be surprised at the appearance of a menu that did not exist before when installing Windows, it has little effect.

For some special hardware configurations, it is best to go to the developer's official website and read about how to solve possible problems - there is enough material there. You can also ask questions in the comments, I will try to answer.

Very often, "to cure" the computer, to reinstall the operating system and in many other cases - the user needs to use the boot disk. It would seem that there is nothing easier - such a disc can be bought or borrowed from friends (in general, this is not a problem). But there are situations when the optical drive does not work, there is no bootable USB stick at hand, or you need to boot a netbook. The problem is fixable if you have an external hard drive. But in order to make it bootable, you need to take care in advance, without waiting for the moment when you need it.

Some experts recommend using special software to make the hard drive bootable. But we will go the simpler way and will use the standard tools of the operating system itself. We will consider all operations using the example of Windows 8.1. At the same time, keep in mind that the process of creating a bootable disk based on an external hard disk using earlier versions of Windows is, in principle, the same (the differences are not too global). So, everything is in order.

Preparing an external hard drive

Before you start working with a hard drive, you need to transfer all important information from this device to another medium. After that, it is recommended to divide the used hard disk into 2 partitions. We will use one for our personal needs, and in the second we will create a boot disk.

1. First, we connect the external media to the computer and go to the section of the control panel - "Computer management".

Attention! Remember - all data written to the external hard drive will be deleted as a result of your actions!

If you are working with Windows 8.1, then right-click on the manipulator to select Start / Disk Management.

As for previous versions of the system, you should use the control panel in them: Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Storage Devices / Disk Management.

2. Now, from the list presented, you need to select your external hard drive, from which you plan to make a bootable one. Be careful when choosing a device, because all data on it will be deleted!

In our case, the external disk is disk 1, already divided into 2 partitions (volumes).

3. We delete the partitions on the disk. To do this, right-click on each section and select the "Delete volume" item in the menu that opens.

Note: if your external drive has only one partition, then this drive just needs to be formatted.

4. Create 2 partitions on the external disk - one for the boot disk, the second for various data for our own use. To do this, on the free space that is displayed by the disk, right-click and select the "Create a simple volume" item.

5. The wizard for creating volumes will open in front of you, in which you must specify the size of the new volume. For us, a volume of 4404 megabytes (4.18 GB) is suitable. Click "Next".

We designate the disk with a letter:

We need to format the new section. Select the FAT 32 file system, click Next and then Finish.

6. Now we need to activate the created section (this is a prerequisite and if it is not met, the computer will not be able to boot from this section). To do this, in the context menu of the section, select the command "Make section active" and confirm by selecting the word "Yes".

Our external drive will look like this:

7. In the same sequence, format the additional partition, choosing the NFTS file system for it. Note that it should not be made active.

How to make an external drive bootable - the final step

Creating a system distribution kit on an external hard drive after preparing the latter does not seem so difficult.

Create a distribution from a bootable DVD:

To do this, open the contents of the installation DVD in Explorer and copy all the files to the activated partition created on the external media.

Create a distribution from an ISO image:

What is an ISO disc image? This is nothing more than a special archive. And if it is an archive, it means that you can always open it. Programs such as Daemon Tools or Total Commander will help you with this. If you have Windows 8 (8.1) installed on your PC, you can even open the archive using Explorer.

You need to copy all unzipped files to an external hard drive (to its active partition).

On this, perhaps, everything. You now know how to make an external hard drive bootable. In order for the computer to boot from this disk, you just need to enter the BIOS and set the boot priority for the USB HDD.