Creating bootable USB sticks for OS install in Windows

For one reason and another, I’ve been doing a lot of clean OS installs recently. This entailed writing disk images to bootable USB drives from my Windows 7 machine with a motley crew of different tools. Before I forget it all, here’s a summary of which tools worked for each OS.

Win32 ImageWriter:  https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer

I’ve used this successfully for…

•  Hexxeh Chrome OS Vanilla Builds http://chromeos.hexxeh.net

The Chrome OS image creates several partitions on your USB drive which then confuses Windows next time you use the USB drive for something else. This can be resolved by using (with a sensible level of caution) the Windows DISKPART utility from a command prompt to clean the partition table from the USB disk.

Linux Live USB Creator: http://www.linuxliveusb.com/

I’ve used this successfully for these images, but it supports loads of others as well…

I couldn’t boot from the resulting USB drive when using this with:

• Darik’s Boot and Nuke - http://www.dban.org/  -  I ended up using the version on UBCD below.

Ultimate Boot CD: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Includes a batch file for creating a bootable USB version: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/customize.html#usb

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool:   http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

I’ve used this successfully for…

• Windows 8 Developer Preview Builds - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516
• Windows 7