If you have a USB Flash/Pen drive and you are using the Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP operating system you can easily create a bootable USB flash drive by following the simple (how to) steps listed below.
Why need a bootable USB drive?
There was a time when floppy drives were the only devices for booting into the system. Today it has been replaced by optical drives. However in case of a non-functional drive the last resort is to use the USB boot feature and enter into the system by connecting a USB bootable device.
Pen Drives are smaller in size and can be easily carried around. Flash/Pen drives are also less prone to damages; moreover optical drives are soon becoming thing of the past so it does make sense to have a USB bootable option ready.
For creating a USB bootable drive you need a pen drive of the capacity 4GB and higher and a free tool called WinToFlash ( You can download WinToFlash here ) and your original Windows operating system DVD.
Steps on How to create a bootable USB pen drive
- Connect your USB Flash/Pen device to the computer and make sure there is no important data on the UB device as all the information will be lost during the format process.
- Run WinToFlash tool, go through the wizard and depending on your operating system browse to Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows XP DVD files.
- Cross check if the USB drive letter is correct. Click the create button, wait for some time and you are done.
- Try booting from your newly created USB pen drive to make sure it works.
Congratulations now you need not worry about misplaced original media disc or damaged (scratched) disk.
