Creating A Bootable USB MultiTool
Those of us in IT may find ourselves carrying around ten different USB keys at any given time. This tutorial covers one way to make a USB key with multiple bootable tools embedded. This also covers a way to package your key into an image that can be deployed to multiple USB keys. Note that this method does not currently work for Live Linux distributions. Systems only supporting UEFI boot cannot boot this image, because the Windows BCD does not allow non-Microsoft products on the UEFI-enabled boot menu. These instructions were written for EasyBCD version 2.3.Step 1: Prepare The Necessary Software
- Download and install the free version of EasyBCD
- Download any ISO (optical) or IMG (floppy) images that you wish to include
Step 2: Clean a USB Key
- Acquire a USB key that can be erased
- Open command prompt as administrator
- Run
diskpart
-
Type
list disk
and identify which disk is your USB key
In this example, the USB key is the smaller drive (disk 1).DISKPART> list disk Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ------------- ------- ------- --- --- Disk 0 Online 223 GB 0 B Disk 1 Online 7441 MB 0 B
- Select the disk by typing
select disk 1
substituting the disk number with the one for your USB key - Type
clean
to destroy all data on the disk - Type
create partition primary
to generate a new partition - Type
format fs=fat32 quick
to perform a quick format of the entire partition using 32-bit FAT (file allocation table)
We only use FAT32 for the initial image! Clones of this image should be placed on NTFS. - Type
active
to make the partition appear bootable
Step 3: Deploy the Windows BCD
- Run EasyBCD as Administrator
- Select
BCD Deployment
- Next to "Partition:" choose the USB key
- Select "Install BCD" to prepare the drive now
Step 4: Preparing Your Images
- Create a folder on the USB key called
Images
- Copy all of your ISO and IMG images to the
Images
folder -
Choose your USB key in EasyBCD by going to File -> Select BCD Store, and locate the file named BCD inside of the hidden Boot folder. You may need to enter the full path into the address bar of the file browser.
Example:E:\Boot\BCD
- Select
Add New Entry
and chooseISO
orfloppy
(IMG) - Name this entry descriptively. Example: "Windows Pre-installation Environment 10 x64"
- Under
Path:
, browse for the location of the ISO or IMG file on your USB key, and selectAdd Entry
. A log window will appear, do not close it. - Repeat actions 4 through 6 for all of your image files
Step 5: Finalization
- In EasyBCD, choose
Edit Boot Menu
- Disable
Use Metro Bootloader
to avoid the tacky Windows 8 boot UI - Select
Wait for user selection
so the boot menu will not automatically choose for you - Select
Save Settings
and close EasyBCD - Safely eject the USB drive and test the boot process on another machine
Step 6: Image Capture
- Navigate to Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> File Explorer Options
- Under the View tab, select "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files"
- Select all files on the USB key except "System Volume Information"
- Right click on the selected files, choose 7-zip, and "Add to archive..."
- Save the archive anywhere except onto the USB key
Step 7: Image Replication
- Starting with the drive you created earlier or any other drive, clean and format the drive the same way we did in Step 2, except change
fs=fat23
tofs=ntfs
, which will select the more robust new-technology file system.
Note that NTFS cannot be used for the initial image because permissions will cause image capture to fail. - Using the 7-zip file manager, locate the 7z file containing the files you backed up earlier
- Right click on the file and select 7-zip -> "Extract files...", and extract to the USB key you just prepared
- Safely eject the disk and test booting on another system
Written By: Erik W. Greif
Published: 04/24/2016 16:07PST
Modified: N/A
Article Title: Creating A Bootable USB MultiTool
Article URL: http://www.bitfracture.com/pages/techarticles/usb-bootable-multitool
Website Title: Bit Fracture Online
Website URL: http://bitfracture.com
Media Type: Blog Post/Technical Article
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Article URL: http://www.bitfracture.com/pages/techarticles/usb-bootable-multitool
Website Title: Bit Fracture Online
Website URL: http://bitfracture.com
Media Type: Blog Post/Technical Article