Making a Multiboot USB Drive (All-In-One).

by Mjtrinihobby

188K53146

Intro: Making a Multiboot USB Drive (All-In-One).

I always wanted an All-in-One USB boot drive to do the following:

1. Perform a fresh install of Windows.

2. Use Macrium Reflect to backup and restore my PCs.

3. Have all my necessary program installers, hardware drivers, Macrium Reflect backup images, personal files etc.

Read on for how I did this!

STEP 1: The Hardware

Any USB drive will do but I prefer the 3.0 type for faster access. The 3.1 type is rare right now but in the future I will get a few. There are flash drives with a write protect switch and I highly recommend these as an all-in-one rescue USB drive (you don't want viruses crossing over). The capacity can be as large as financially reasonable (I use a 32Gb).

STEP 2: The Software.

WinSetupFromUSB! This neat freeware program allows for multiple boot platforms to be put onto one physical USB drive. The download is available at their website:

http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/downloads/

It is a zip file that once expanded allows you to select the 32 or 64bit versions.

STEP 3: Using WinSetupFromUSB

First plug the target USB drive into the PC and open the exe for WinSetupFromUSB. Next tick the checkbox 'Auto format it with FBinst'.

I don't use UEFI in my bios boot options so I format the drive using NTFS. This allows me to copy large files (>4Gb) to the USB drive. If you plan to use this on a UEFI boot system then format to FAT32 (but you lose the ability to copy large files).

Next, in my case since I use Macrium Reflect and Windows8.1, tick the Windows Vista/7/8/10... checkbox. Click the three dots and browse for the image file. A warning will appear concerning the NTFS file system, just click OK and continue to browse for the iso image file. Once selected, click the GO button.

4 message boxes will appear in succession: click YES YES YES OK. The process will start for the first boot application to be written. When it is completed, simply click OK add any others you want to include by ticking the appropriate checkbox. Luckily after the first boot application is written, the Autoformat checkbox is un-ticked.

Once the boot applications are written you can copy across any folders containing installers, personal files, PC backup images etc. I prefer to have just one folder on the USB root drive to dump my personal stuff into (you can have as many sub-folders in there as you desire).

STEP 4: Using the New MultiBoot USB Drive!

Make the target PC boot from USB drive. The blue background menu will show up listing all the options. The first two will take you to the multiple boot applications. The last option will boot from the internal (main) drive of the PC.

Now you have a multiple boot capable USB complete with application files and personal data! No more walking around with a bunch of drives to repair a PC!

Please note that you can add as many Bootable images to this usb drive. Just make sure the drive's storage capacity can accommodate all you need. Have fun folks!

39 Comments

rcochran5 5 years ago

Thanks to this post, I learned EVERYTHING I could possibly ever lear about uEFI, Boot Loaders and Boot Code, Linux, Windows, and various other Implimentations of these,... and after you mess around with it for a bit its a whole lot of fun, granted you dont accidentally brick something lol. But, there are always ways out of "BrickMode" so just make sure to test your setup on a PC. Make an Ubunto 64bit Boot Disk from a USB drive, and use the ( $ sudo dd if=/dev/sdX 'where X is your Internal Disks Location' of=/diretorytoLargeStorageDevice/filename.img bs=4M conv=noerror status=progress ) ... now wait till its done dumping your disk to a Large External Drive as a RAW Image and feel free to mess around... also NEVER delete the EFI or RECOVERY partitions unless you absolutelly know what you are doing... I modified my MAC PRO and it now runs Win98, winXP, Win10, Ubuntu, Zorin64PRO, Android via RemixOS (dead site but still works and I have the files so Message me if you cant find them) and Phoenix... Its a Beast. so You Can have a LOT of fun with other Operationg Systems and if you really dig there are actually a TON of Completely NON UNIX, LINUX, or MS-DOS based Operating Systems u can have fun with... Great post tho. Thanks.

TomS365 6 years ago

Where do you find the various image files?

S200 7 years ago

If you use that WinSetup tool, can you also boot linux from that USB later??

Ah-che 7 years ago

Is there a UEFI boot in this ? :)

Mjtrinihobby 7 years ago

you can but format the usb drive in FAT32.

SherylinRM 7 years ago

I am guessing that this will also work with Nlite?

Great tutorial.

Thanks for this :)

Mjtrinihobby 7 years ago

Nlite will make a custom windows OS image. That image you can put onto the multiboot USB drive. So basically any valid bootable image you can bundle onto a big enough USB drive.

Thanks for the thumbs up!

Yuhoo1 7 years ago

How do you include or add hardware or device drivers in the OS?

Mjtrinihobby 7 years ago

It can't be included in the OS image using this method. You can use Winreducer for Windows images. This method only includes the driver files on the same USB drive.

SteveSi 7 years ago

OK. But once you have made the E2B drive, you just copy over any number of linux ISOs or Wiindows Install ISOs to the USB drive - can't see what is 'harsh' in that? But it's your choice. WinSetupFromUSB is v good.

Mjtrinihobby 7 years ago

E2B is far more powerful that winsetupfromusb. Good software you got there.

rcochran5 7 years ago

Thank You! I was looking for a good "NEW" way to do this with a uEFI system, I have a Dell Tablet that still gives me issues tho, and I'm worried that if I format the Internal eMMC tha it will brick or be unusable, I'm still not good with uEFI, if Anybody wants to teach me I'll send them some bitcoin or tip them with my PayPal. It's important to me that I learn how to install on a uEFI computer, especially x86_64 Tablets, so ANY help from an experianced person will be GREATLY appreciated and rewarded! :) feel free to e-mail me or message me so we can swap contact info's if you can help me... Now that everything is uEFI, I have to learn how to fix the "Root" of the systems. And I'm actually afraid of bricking because these new computers are Very Expensive... I'd rather learn on my own PC. Thanks Again tho I like the Tutorial a Lot!

Mjtrinihobby 7 years ago

E2B is a bit harsh to use for me. It does appear quite powerful but the not easy as winsetupfromusb.

Mjtrinihobby 7 years ago

Use macrium reflect to make an image of the system and also restore it. You can install a fresh version of Windows onto your dell (just download all the necessary drivers before the installation). If you are going to use uefi then format the usb drive with fat32.
More Comments