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Creating Bootable Windows Flash Drive Installers

dandragonrage said:
Just use legacy boot.
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I was just reading the HardOCP review on the MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming and they had an issue not being able to boot from a DVD drive and it didn't have a legacy mode. Not sure if that's the same issue, or if that's still the case.
 
UrielDagda said:
I was just reading the HardOCP review on the MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming and they had an issue not being able to boot from a DVD drive and it didn't have a legacy mode. Not sure if that's the same issue, or if that's still the case.
Click to expand...

I have a Z87 board, too - an Asus Maximus VI Hero. I can boot from DVD on the Intel controller, but not the Asmedia controller. Actually, the Asmedia controller is useless - I cannot boot into Windows (including the installer after the first reset) if I have any kind of drive on it. I can boot into Linux and use it, but Windows will just stay at the logo-on-black-screen stuff forever if ANY drive is on the ASMedia controller.

Dunno if that was their issue.

Legacy boot from DVD (on Intel controller) works. Legacy boot from USB works. I don't involve myself with UEFI as it just adds complexity (and no, you may not store information that should be in NVRAM on one of my hard drives) and provides no real benefits in my setup (or, given that you're not booting to a >2TB partition, you).
 
dandragonrage said:
WTF would you put a dozen OSes on different flash drives for? Are you insane?
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I have a whole load of OSs available because I'm a techie. One day I might be working on a Windows 7 box, the next an XP box, the day after a Server 2008 box, the day after that a WSE 2012 box. Etc. That's why they're all on optical disks, collected in a nice convenient wallet.
 
dandragonrage said:
I have a Z87 board, too - an Asus Maximus VI Hero. I can boot from DVD on the Intel controller, but not the Asmedia controller. Actually, the Asmedia controller is useless - I cannot boot into Windows (including the installer after the first reset) if I have any kind of drive on it. I can boot into Linux and use it, but Windows will just stay at the logo-on-black-screen stuff forever if ANY drive is on the ASMedia controller.

Dunno if that was their issue.

Legacy boot from DVD (on Intel controller) works. Legacy boot from USB works. I don't involve myself with UEFI as it just adds complexity (and no, you may not store information that should be in NVRAM on one of my hard drives) and provides no real benefits in my setup (or, given that you're not booting to a >2TB partition, you).
Click to expand...

Well for me, I never use an optical drive for anything.. So this build I just decided not to use one.. So I have to install from the flash drive.. If it's best for me to reformat it with FAT32 I can just do that and re-copy the Windows 7 DVD to it using my laptop, I just didn't know if I had to do that, or if having it bootable NTFS was fine.

I guess I don't fully understand the ramifications of using NTFS vs. FAT 32 other than one just might result in not being able to install.. I don't want to mess up and not have some features work because I chose the wrong one.

I just want to be sure I understand beforehand so I can deal with issues if they arise. I don't want to resort to weird, complicated multi-boot programs and iso ripping/copying if I can avoid it just for a simple single OS installation on a new PC.
 
Quartz-1 said:
I have a whole load of OSs available because I'm a techie. One day I might be working on a Windows 7 box, the next an XP box, the day after a Server 2008 box, the day after that a WSE 2012 box. Etc. That's why they're all on optical disks, collected in a nice convenient wallet.
Click to expand...

You've missed the point completely. You seem to have skipped every post I've made in here.

Use YUMI and you can put all of those things on ONE flash drive. It uses Syslinux to create a bootable menu system where you simply boot to it and select what you want from the menu.

I gave a list of some of the things I use on ONE flash drive with YUMI on the first page of this thread. YUMI is also easier to use than several of the other recommendations.

For the record, I have absolutely nothing to do with the development of YUMI, and I used to use other software, but then YUMI improved beyond the other stuff I used to use.
 
I still remember using floppies to boot DOS to install a local copy of DOS. People have it easy these days.
 
UrielDagda said:
Well for me, I never use an optical drive for anything.. So this build I just decided not to use one.. So I have to install from the flash drive.. If it's best for me to reformat it with FAT32 I can just do that and re-copy the Windows 7 DVD to it using my laptop, I just didn't know if I had to do that, or if having it bootable NTFS was fine.

I guess I don't fully understand the ramifications of using NTFS vs. FAT 32 other than one just might result in not being able to install.. I don't want to mess up and not have some features work because I chose the wrong one.

I just want to be sure I understand beforehand so I can deal with issues if they arise. I don't want to resort to weird, complicated multi-boot programs and iso ripping/copying if I can avoid it just for a simple single OS installation on a new PC.
Click to expand...

Do you avoid UBCD in favor of using each utility it provides on a separate disc/flash drive? Don't be silly :p YUMI is actually the most reliable I've found yet, much better than the MS tool and the HP tool. In older versions, it advertised Win7 support but it didn't work for me, so I used to use Xboot. But YUMI fixed the issue quite a while ago and I haven't run into any issues since.

As for NTFS vs FAT32, use legacy boot and it's not a big deal.

P.S. unetbootin (I know you didn't mention this, but someone else did and I just thought to add this) seemed to have (this was a few months ago) actually killed a flash drive of mine. Not visible from BIOS, Linux, Windows (even in device manager - I'm not just checking for the volume itself). Fortunately it was just some old, slow 8GB flash drive.

If you really want to just do Win7 only from a flash drive, the instructions are here as well.

Now I really have nothing more to add, so I'm going to duck out of this thread, much to the relief of everyone else.
 
@dandragonrage

With YUMI I can put dban, UBCD, Parted Magic, Windows XP Professional with SP3 x86, Windows 7 Professional with SP1 x64 (in fact, not just one version but several different X1#-###### part number versions), Windows 7 Enterprise with SP1 x64, Windows 8 Professional x64, and other bootable ISOs as bootable options? All on one flash drive (that in itself would be bootable & usable as regular flash drive for misc file storage like DriverPacks, drivers for model-specific laptops, drivers for printers, software installers used by Company, installation files for Office 2010 Standard, etcetera)?
 
(Forgot to include memtest86+ latest version, memtest86+ old version, UBCD old version + new version, and dban old + new versions)
 
Cerulean said:
@dandragonrage

With YUMI I can put dban, UBCD, Parted Magic, Windows XP Professional with SP3 x86, Windows 7 Professional with SP1 x64 (in fact, not just one version but several different X1#-###### part number versions), Windows 7 Enterprise with SP1 x64, Windows 8 Professional x64, and other bootable ISOs as bootable options? All on one flash drive (that in itself would be bootable & usable as regular flash drive for misc file storage like DriverPacks, drivers for model-specific laptops, drivers for printers, software installers used by Company, installation files for Office 2010 Standard, etcetera)?
Click to expand...

I'm fairly sure you can do all of that, yes. The only problems that might occur are multiple editions of the same version of Windows. By might, I mean that I haven't tried, so I don't know if that'll work. I HAVE tried it with several different Windows versions, including Server, and have had no issues.

I also use DISM-customized images of Win7 with it.
 
MrGuvernment said:
checking out that YUMI, never heard of it and same company..lol
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Would be interested to hear your opinion. Visually they look extremely similar, and I assume functionally they are also extremely similar.

YUMI is missing that "persistent file size" slider, but that slider appears to be 100% useless to me.
 
they are similar but Universal USB installer only installs one OS to the drive but it offers persistance.
 
Zion Halcyon said:
Pfft.

I'd rather find an easy way to make an OS bootable from USB instead. Now THAT would be helpful.
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Yeah, I did this years ago with one of the Linux distros, it was shit, it took so fucking long to boot from the USB stick and anything that didn't get loaded in to RAM was painfully slow (and it wasn't a terrible USB stick for the day, Patriot XT from memory).
 
The thing I like about Mac - no media necessary, just an internet connection.
 
shade91 said:
The thing I like about Mac - no media necessary, just an internet connection.
Click to expand...
Which is awesome until you can't connect to the internet because of a driver issue or simple lack of internet.
 
Anyone found anything pleasant for fully loading a Windows7/8 installer with all the windows updates? I've done tons of methods over the years, they always are annoying. Wish microsoft would do a monthly or quarterly ISO with all the updates to date.
 
todlerix said:
Anyone found anything pleasant for fully loading a Windows7/8 installer with all the windows updates? I've done tons of methods over the years, they always are annoying. Wish microsoft would do a monthly or quarterly ISO with all the updates to date.
Click to expand...

If this is for home, grab yourself a copy of WHS 2011 and install WSUS on it.
 
I saw the future and bought an external DVD drive over 4 years ago. Paid for by not buying a new one with every PC I build.
 
Just an installer?! I have portable Linux MInt OS that boots off any machine via USB 3.0 card reader and SDHC UHS flash drive, runs very fast, great when traveling. Can Windows do that?
 
All I want to do is install Windows 7 64 bit on to a 256GB SSD using the flash drive.
Click to expand...

Even when I was using Windows 7 I was in EFI not using any sort of the Compatible Support Module. It was not due to me being able to do anything in EFI pre-boot either. I wanted to drop legacy, and had the ability. I also wanted to make sure that I learned the proper way for GPT and EFI installs, not some form of format this, open that, and do a little of dis-it never is anymore.

When doing a Windows USB install boot drive with EFI it is better to use FAT32 so the option is there when needed. If you have a greater than 2TB drive (Or you want more than four logical partitions) to boot this is important, obviously. There is also Windows 8 Secure Boot, etc.

However, if the drive is to be used as a storage with Windows then it will be NTFS. If it is going to be for another OS it will be the appropriate file system for that too.
 
shade91 said:
The thing I like about Mac - no media necessary, just an internet connection.
Click to expand...

cant wait until your HD dies and you have no OS to connect to the net...Oh, maybe that is why even Apple sells OS's on a USB stick....
 
MrGuvernment said:
cant wait until your HD dies and you have no OS to connect to the net...Oh, maybe that is why even Apple sells OS's on a USB stick....
Click to expand...
you don't need an OS on a macbook to connect to the net and download OS X.
 
Tudz said:
Which is awesome until you can't connect to the internet because of a driver issue
Click to expand...
what kind of "driver issue" would there be on a macbook connecting to Apple servers?
 
dandragonrage said:
lol... no.

Disregard this article 100% and use YUMI instead.
Click to expand...

One person's preferred solution may not be the only "right" way to do something. :( I think it's nice to allow others to feel the thing they do that works fine for whatever their needs might be are equally valid. Except for people that don't own fantail goldfish...those people are evil and sinister for even considering another breed.
 
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